Beaver County Budget Director Ricardo Luckow reported at today’s weekly work session that the coroner’s office has reached its budget maximum for autopsies and indigent burials. According to Beaver County Radio’s Greg Benedetti, Commissioners Chairwoman Sandie Egley instructed Luckow to obtain money from departments under budget to continue the autopsies and indigent burials. Chief of Staff Joe Weidner says the county has received a grant from the department of environmental protection to spray to prevent the Zika virus. Penn State Beaver will handle the spraying.

PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale told local, state, and county officials  yesterday that audits by his office will be done in the Midland School District , PA Cyber School,  and Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School later this month. According to Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano, he told officials that Aliquippa School District had to borrow $2,000,000 because of the state; budget impasse at a high interest rate, and are facing  a $928,556 general fund deficit.  He said that the interest rate is lost money to the district. Aliquippa is one of the districts  where poverty is evident. Beaver County Chamber of Commerce president Jack Manning asked  what can be done to help the financially distressed districts .  DePasquale said “I am a staunch advocate of cooperation on the administrative level.” DePasquale  said in the department of education there is  a lack of a plan to help our struggling schools.” He added,” 561 schools, not districts in the state are financially challenged, and there is no plan for help.”

(Beaver County PA)  Special financial advice for single mothers will be a featured topic of conversation this week (September 10, 2016) during “God’s Grace For Single Mothers” on Beaver County radio, WBVP and WMBA.   According to show host, Tega Swann,  of Refreshing Springs Ministries in Aliquippa, specifically, the discussion will lean toward ways to relieve financial stress as it pertains to the unique scenarios experienced by single mothers.

“God’s Grace For Single Mothers’ airs on Saturdays from 10;30 until 11;00 A.M. on 1230 WBVP and 1460 WMBA.  Listeners can join the show by calling in on 724-843-1888 or 724-774-1888.

Despite efforts to get creative, police are frustrated in the fight against the growing bad habit of texting while driving . Police say they don’t seem to be making much headway. Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Eric Hermick tells Beaver County Radio newsman Pat Septak the problem is getting worse because such incidents are hard to prove. He says Pennsylvania’s laws don’t go far enough. He’s calling on state lawmakers to ban any phone use while driving that does not involve a hands-free unit.

Students in the Ambridge School District start classes today. Ambridge is the last of the districts in Beaver County to go back this year. According to Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano, the school board recently hired 2 school psychologists.They are Stacy Boal and Donald Dennison. Genna Risenbauer was hired as the district’s new speech therapist. Daniel Kornosky is the new Spanish teacher…and Sarah Bogan will teach Spanish and English. The board’s next meeting is Wednesday, September 21 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

A Superior Court panel is rejecting the appeal of a boy who was 11 when he was charged with killing his father’s pregnant fiancee in Lawrence County. The three-member panel ruled Thursday that it had found no error in how a county judge handled the case of Jordan Brown, now 18. A judge last year denied Brown’s request to dismiss the charges or grant a new juvenile court trial. Defense lawyers had challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and how the judge had considered it. Brown was charged as a juvenile and adjudicated delinquent in the 2009 shotgun slaying of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk, who was eight months pregnant. In June, the judge put Brown on probation in the custody of an uncle who lives in Ohio, just across the border from Lawrence County.