(File Photo of Senator Elder Vogel, Jr.)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) According to a release from Senator Elder Vogel, Jr.’s office, Vogel and Rep. Emily Kinkead will host a press conference on Wednesday, May 7th at 10 a.m. The Capitol Hunger Garden in Harrisburg will host the event. The conference will focus on the topic of how the community of Harrisburg gets benefits from the Hunger Garden and the produce that is grown in it. Vogel, Kinkead and four other speakers will have speeches at the event.

 

(File Photo of the Duquesne Light Company logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Crews from Duquesne Light Company are almost complete with fixing the power outages that affected customers from the storms that occurred in Western Pennsylvania last Tuesday. According to a Duquesne Light spokesperson Matt Neistein, about 600 crew members and other crews working on outages are almost finished and 98% of people in their area got power back. More than 500,000 people lost power in Western Pennsylvania from these recent storms.

(File Photo of PNC Park)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A Pittsburgh Pirates employee got suspended Sunday after fighting with a fan after the game the Pirates played against the San Diego Padres. Sources told KDKA that the employee started the fight because the fan and his friend allegedly started harassing a woman at a concession stand. The fight was caught on video, which includes both throwing punches. The Pirates are looking at the footage and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are part of the investigation.

 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: A fan is carted off the field at PNC Park after falling out of the stands during the seventh inning of a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The Pittsburgh Pirates fan who fell from the stands onto PNC Park during the Pirates’ game against the Chicago Cubs Wednesday started to walk again Monday. According to Jennifer Phillips, the organizer of a GoFundMe page for the man that fell, he broke his clavicle, back and neck. Pittsburgh Public Safety has called the fall an accident and the investigation continues into the cause of the fall. The man that fell got treated at Allegheny General Hospital.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A Rite Aid sign is displayed on the facade of a store in Pittsburgh, Jan. 23, 2023. Rite Aid has been banned from using facial recognition technology for five years over allegations that a surveillance system it used incorrectly identified potential shoplifters, especially Black, Latino, Asian or female shoppers. The deal announced late Tuesday, Dec. 19, settles Federal Trade Commission charges that the struggling drugstore chain didn’t do enough to prevent harm to its customers and implement “reasonable procedures,” the government agency said. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, file)

(AP) Rite Aid is again seeking bankruptcy protection as the struggling drugstore chain says it will try to sell substantially all of its assets.

The company said Monday that its stores will remain open as it returns to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

The company said it will work to ensure that customer prescriptions are transferred to other pharmacies as it goes through the sale process. The drugstore chain has lined up from some of its lenders $1.94 billion in new financing which help fund it through the sale and bankruptcy proceedings.

The company initially filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2023, with plans to sell parts of its business and restructure. The company ran more than 2,300 stores in 17 states before the filing.

Rite Aid said then that its initial voluntary Chapter 11 filing would allow it to slash debt and resolve litigation. The company sold its relatively small pharmacy benefits management business, Elixir Solutions, for around $576 million.

Rite Aid emerged from Chapter 11 nearly a year later as a private company. The drugstore chain said in a statement that it came out of the process stronger, “with a rightsized store footprint, more efficient operating model, significantly less debt and additional financial resources.”

Rite Aid’s creditors took ownership of the chain, which shrank to 1,245 stores in 15 states, according to its website.

A spokeswoman said in March that the company was “laser focused” on its retail pharmacies, including restocking its stores.

But in early May, empty white shelves dotted a store that sits a few miles from Rite Aid’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia. The only rolls of wrapping paper in the store were some Christmas-themed offerings that leaned next to empty shelf space beneath a sign advertising “Great Value!”

The location also had a limited selection of profitable beauty products and drugstore staples such as Qtips and cotton balls.

Retail analyst Neil Saunders said such a look encourages shoppers not to return.

“They’re actively pushing customers away,” said Saunders, managing director of the consulting and data analysis firm GlobalData.

Rite Aid was attempting to turn around its business in a tough environment for drugstores. Major chains and independent pharmacies have been closing stores and struggling with several challenges.

Prescription profitability has grown tight. The chains also are dealing with increased theft, court settlements over opioid prescriptions and shoppers who are drifting more to online shopping and discount retailers.

Walgreens, which has more than six times as many stores as Rite Aid, agreed in March to be acquired by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

Philadelphia-based Rite Aid was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as Thrif D Discount Center. The company had struggled with debt, posted annual losses for several years and was cutting costs and closing stores well before its initial bankruptcy filing.

Rite Aid also explored sale offers.

Walgreens attempted to buy it for about $9.4 billion a decade ago, when Rite Aid ran more than 4,600 stores. But the larger drugstore chain eventually scaled back its ambition and bought less than half that total to get the deal past antitrust regulators.

In 2018, Rite Aid called off a separate merger with the grocer Albertsons.

(File Photo of a Dollar Sign)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs will indefinitely idle three steel plants this summer, saying Friday that it is being buffeted by sluggish demand and pricing for some products, including high carbon steel sheets.

The company said the idling of two Pennsylvania plants, one in Steelton and one in Conshohocken, and one in Riverdale, Illinois, is due to “insufficient demand and pricing” and nothing to do with President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“These temporary, indefinite idles are a necessary response to insufficient demand and pricing for the products the affected facilities produce, including rail, specialty plate, and high-carbon sheet; all of which fall outside of Cliffs’ core business focus,” the company said.

The idlings will be indefinite, and start around June 30, at the end of a 60-day notice period required by federal law. About 950 workers will be out of work during the shutdowns, Cleveland Cliffs said.

It said its flat-rolled steel production levels will not be affected.

Cleveland Cliffs in recent weeks had announced that it will idle or partially idle two iron ore mines in Minnesota, affecting 630 workers. It also said in March that it will idle a steel plant in Dearborn, Michigan, affecting about 600 workers, citing “weak automotive production in the United States.”

“We believe that, once President Trump’s policies take full effect and automotive production is re-shored, we should be able to resume steel production at Dearborn,” it said.

Cleveland Cliffs did say, however, that it plans to resume operation at its blast furnace in Cleveland, which was idled last year.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – This Dec. 10, 1999 file photo shows Michelangelo’s fresco “La Creazione” (“The Creation”) on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cleaners and cooks. Doctors and nurses. Even drivers and elevator operators.

The support staff for the cardinals who will elect the successor to Pope Francis took an oath of secrecy Monday ahead of the conclave that’s starting on Wednesday.

The punishment for breaking the oath? Automatic excommunication.

The oaths of about 100 people were taken in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican for all those assigned to the conclave, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. They include clerics in support roles, among them confessors speaking various languages.

The cardinals will take their oaths in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, before they cast their first ballots.

An array of lay women and men are required to house and feed the cardinals. A conclave’s duration cannot be predicted — and it will only be known when white smoke rises out of the Sistine Chapel chimney to signal a winner.

All those people will be sequestered to be on hand for any medical needs, and maintain the majesty and ritual appropriate for the election of the next head of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Of the 133 cardinals expected to vote at the conclave, 108 were appointed by Francis.

The cardinals will be living in residences on Vatican grounds, and they can either walk the roughly 1 kilometer (less than a mile) to the Sistine Chapel or take a special bus that runs only within the sealed Vatican grounds — and for that, drivers are also needed.

Phones and secrecy

Bruni initially said Monday that cardinals would be asked to leave their mobile phones at their Vatican residence, Santa Marta, but that they wouldn’t be confiscated.

But hours later, at an evening briefing, he said that they would hand their phones over at Santa Marta and only get them back at the end of the conclave.

But, he added, the matter goes “beyond just technical questions,” but is a “process united also with prayer, with meditation, with thought about who the person could be whom the Lord has identified as the pope of Rome.”

The Vatican also plans to use signal jamming around the Sistine Chapel and the residences to prevent electronic surveillance or communication outside the conclave, with the Vatican gendarmes overseeing the security measures.

The oath

The provisions for the oath-taking are laid down in Vatican law.

St. John Paul II rewrote the regulations on papal elections in a 1996 document that remains largely in force, though Pope Benedict XVI amended it twice before he resigned in 2013. He tightened the oath of secrecy, making clear that anyone who reveals what went on inside the conclave faces automatic excommunication.

Under John Paul’s rules, excommunication was always a possibility, but Benedict made it explicit.

Those taking the oath now declare that they “promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly elected pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

“I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.

“I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will incur the penalty of automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand.”

A final appeal for victims

As the Vatican prepared for the conclave, its child protection advisory commission on Monday urged cardinals to prioritize the clergy sexual abuse issue, saying the Catholic Church’s very credibility depends on accountability, transparency and justice for victims.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a Vatican department created by Pope Francis to advise the church on best practices to fight abuse. Made up of clergy and lay experts, the commission issued a call to prayer to the cardinals who are meeting in Rome this week before entering into the conclave on Wednesday.

“Let no concern of scandal obscure the urgency of truth,” the text said. “Let no consideration for reputation impede our paramount responsibility to take action on behalf of those who have been abused.”

The abuse scandal has badly compromised the Catholic hierarchy’s credibility in many countries around the world, with revelations of decades of abuse and cover-up by bishops and religious superiors. Francis and before him Pope Benedict XVI took some steps to address the scandal, but a culture of impunity still reigns, there is no transparency from the Vatican about cases, and victims say the very process the church has put in place to deal with allegations is often retraumatizing.

The statement acknowledged the harm the scandal has done to the church’s reputation and said the cardinals bear a responsibility to victims. “The church’s credibility depends on real accountability, transparency, and action rooted in justice,” it said.

The commission’s president, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, is participating in the pre-conclave discussions but will not be voting in the election itself because he is over the age limit of 80.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Health department staff members enter the Andrews County Health Department measles clinic carrying doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Andrews, Texas. (AP Photo/Annie Rice)

(AP) One-fifth of states have active measles outbreaks as confirmed cases nationwide keep ticking up, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s confirmed measles case count is 935, more than triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The three-month outbreak in Texas accounts for the vast majority of cases, with 683 confirmed as of Friday. The outbreak has also spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness.

Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

North America has two other ongoing outbreaks. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,243 cases from mid-October through Tuesday. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 844 measles cases and one death as of Friday, according to data from the state health ministry. Health officials in Mexico and the U.S. say all three outbreaks are of the same measles strain.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

As the virus takes hold in U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear that spread could stretch on for a year. Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.

How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 20 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 683 across 29 counties — most of them in West Texas. Three counties recorded their first cases: Hardeman has one, Eastland has two and Upshur has five. The state also added two hospitalizations to its count Friday, for a total of 89 throughout the outbreak.

State health officials estimated about 1% of cases — fewer than 10 — are actively infectious.

Sixty percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 396 cases since late January — just over 1.5% of the county’s residents.

The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Local health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6.

New Mexico added one case Friday for 67 total cases. Seven people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Three are in Eddy County, two in Doña Ana County and one in Chaves County.

How many cases are there in Indiana?

Indiana confirmed two more cases April 21 in an outbreak that has sickened eight in Allen County in the northeast part of the state — five are unvaccinated minors and three are adults whose vaccination status is unknown.

The cases have no known link to other outbreaks, the Allen County Department of Health has said.

How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas added nine cases Wednesday for a total of 46 across eight counties in the southwest part of the state. Gray County is up to 15 cases. The state also reported its first hospitalization.

Kansas’ health department didn’t elaborate Wednesday about a discrepancy in the number of new cases at the state and county levels beyond noting that case counts are “fluid as the outbreak progresses.”

The state’s first reported case is linked to the Texas outbreak based on genetic testing.

How many cases are there in Michigan?

Montcalm County, near Grand Rapids in western Michigan, has an outbreak of four cases that state health officials say is tied to the Ontario outbreak. The state had nine confirmed measles cases as of Friday, but the remaining five are not part of the Montcalm County outbreak.

How many cases are there in Montana?

Montana state health officials announced five cases April 17 in unvaccinated children and adults who had traveled out of state, and later confirmed it was an outbreak. All five are isolating at home in Gallatin County in the southwest part of the state.

They were Montana’s first measles cases in 35 years. Health officials didn’t say whether the cases are linked to other outbreaks in North America.

How many cases are there in Ohio?

The state has two outbreaks. Ashtabula County near Cleveland has 16 cases. And Knox County in east-central Ohio has 20 — 14 among Ohio residents and the rest among visitors.

The Ohio Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 33 measles cases and one hospitalization. That count includes only Ohio residents. Defiance County in the northwestern part of the state has logged its first case.

Allen and Holmes counties have had one case each.

How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma had 13 confirmed and three probable cases as of Friday. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said. The department is not releasing which counties have cases, but Cleveland, Custer, Oklahoma and Sequoyah counties have had public exposures in the past couple of months.

How many cases are there in Pennsylvania?

There are eight measles cases in Erie County in far northwest Pennsylvania, officials said Friday. The county declared an outbreak in mid-April. The state has said it has 13 cases overall in 2025, including international travel-related cases in Montgomery County and one in Philadelphia.

How many cases are there in Tennessee?

Tennessee had six measles cases as of last week. Health department spokesman Bill Christian said all cases are the middle part of the state, and that “at least three of these cases are linked to each other” but declined to specify further. The state also did not say whether the cases were linked to other outbreaks or when Tennessee’s outbreak started.

The state health department announced the first measles case March 21, three more on April 1 and the last two on April 17, but none of the news releases declared an outbreak. However, Tennessee was on a list of outbreak states in a CDC report April 17.

Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

North Dakota health officials on Friday announced that state’s first measles case since 2011. Cases also have been reported in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.

What do you need to know about the MMR vaccine?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said.

People who have documentation that they had measles are immune and those born before 1957 generally don’t need the shots because most children back then had measles and now have “presumptive immunity.”

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.

(Photo Courtesy of Keystone Safari of Grove City)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Grove City, PA) The Keystone Safari in Grove City announced on Facebook on Sunday that a nineteen-year-old lion named Cash died of age-related causes that were natural. Cash was a male Barbary lion who was raised at Living Treasures since he was a cub. Those at the Keystone Safari also believe that Cash has become a figure in his local community and has put the safari on the Pennsylvania map.