FILE – The logo of the Samsung Electronics Co. is seen at its office in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung is recalling more than 1.12 million electric ranges used for stovetops after reports of 250 fires and dozens of injuries.

According to a Thursday notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, these slide-in ranges have front-mounted knobs that can be activated by accident if humans or pets unintentionally contact or bump into them. That poses a fire hazard.

To date, Samsung has received more than 300 reports of the knobs activating unintentionally since 2013, the CPSC noted, and the now-recalled ranges have been involved in about 250 fires. At least 18 of those fires caused extensive property damage and seven involved pet deaths, according to the Commission.

In addition, the CPSC added, about 40 injuries have been reported, including eight that required medical attention.

Consumers can identify whether their slide-in electric range is included in this recall by looking at the model number printed on the product. Both Samsung and the CPSC have published a list of affected models online.

The recalled ranges were sold between May 2013 and August 2024 online at Samsung.com as well as in retailers nationwide — including Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Consumers in possession of a recalled range are urged to contact New Jersey-based Samsung Electronics America for a free set of knob locks or covers compatible for installation with their model. In the meantime, those impacted should take extra caution to keep children and pets away from the knobs, and check their range before leaving the house or going to bed to make sure it’s off, the CPSC said.

As part of general stovetop and oven safety, the Commission added that consumers should “never place, leave, or store anything on the top of your range” when not in use — as such items can ignite if it’s accidentally activated.

To receive a set of free knob locks or covers, depending on their model, customers can visit https://www.samsung.com/us/support/range-knob-kit/, contact Samsung toll-free at 1-833-775-0120 from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or by email at rangesupport@sea.samsung.com.

FILE – Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the New York State Capitol, May 14, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A legal challenge filed Thursday seeks to have third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kept off Pennsylvania’s fall ballot, an effort with ramifications for the hotly contested swing-state battle between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

The petition argues the nominating papers filed by Kennedy and his running mate “demonstrate, at best, a fundamental disregard” of state law and the process by which signatures are gathered.

It claims Kennedy’s paperwork includes “numerous ineligible signatures and defects” and that documents are torn, taped over and contain “handwriting patterns and corrections suggestive that the indicated voters did not sign those sheets.”

Kennedy faces legal challenges over ballot access in several states.

Kennedy campaign lawyer Larry Otter said he was confident his client will end up on the Pennsylvania ballot.

The lawyer who filed the legal action, Otter said, “makes specious allegations and is obviously not familiar with the process of amending a circulator’s affidavit, which seems to be the gist of his complaint.”

It is unclear how Kennedy’s independent candidacy might affect the presidential race. He is a member of a renowned Democratic family and has drawn support from conservatives who agree with his positions against vaccination.

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes and closely divided electorate put it at the center of the Nov. 5 presidential contest, now three months away. In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and four years later President Joe Biden beat Trump by 81,000 votes.

Two separate challenges were also filed in Pennsylvania on Thursday to the nominating papers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz, and an effort was filed seeking to have Constitution Party presidential candidate James N. Clymer kept of the state’s ballot as well.

One challenge to De la Cruz, her running mate and her party’s electors asks Commonwealth Court to invalidate the nomination papers, arguing that there are seven electors who “failed to disaffiliate” from the Democratic Party, a flaw in the paperwork the objectors say should make them ineligible.

A second challenge also raised that argument as well as claims there are ineligible signatures and other defects that make the nomination papers “fatally defective” and that the party did not submit a sufficient number of qualifying signatures.

Del la Cruz campaign Pennsylvania chairperson Stephanie Pavlick said in an emailed statement that hundreds of people spent months collecting nomination signatures, and the campaign “will be defending the validity of everything we submitted.”

Pavlick said Democrats “are afraid of competing with a socialist campaign that isn’t afraid to call for radical solutions to the dire crises facing working people.”

The challenge to Clymer potentially appearing on the ballot claims he and his running mate should be disqualified because of an alleged failure to include required candidate affidavits. Messages seeking comment were left Thursday for party chairman Bob Goodrich.

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing a lane restriction in the outbound (westbound) Fort Pitt Tunnel (I-376) in the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, will occur Sunday and Monday night, August 11-12 weather permitting.

A single-lane restriction will occur in the outbound Fort Pitt Tunnel from 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday and Monday night as crews stage equipment for paving operations.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published August 9, 2024 3:18 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) The Aliquippa Police helped reunite a non-verbal child to his mom. A seven year-old non-verbal boy was found in the 1700 block of Main Street alone around 10am Thursday morning. According to Aliquippa Police, the mom was found in about an hour and a half, and the child was returned to her.

MONACA, Pa. — A new articulation agreement between Penn State Beaver and Community College of Beaver County will make it easier for students who have earned their associates degree to continue to complete a bachelor’s degree.

 

“Transfer is always a challenge, not just because of different curriculum but because of how credits transfer in,” Debra Seidenstricker, admissions counselor for adults and transfer students, said. “This articulation will ensure if students are in (specific) programs that at least 60 credits will transfer as an equivalent. Students typically need 120 credits for their bachelor’s degree.”

 

The agreement applies to other Penn State Commonwealth campuses so if, for example, Penn State Greater Allegheny has a degree program not offered at Beaver, CCBC students can transfer to that campus under the articulation agreement.

 

“Community College of Beaver County and Penn State Beaver have joined together to create local, affordable, quality educational pathways in areas such as cybersecurity, criminal justice, and business,” said Katie Thomas, dean of the School of Professions and Transfer Studies at CCBC. “We’re excited for the future of this partnership and higher education in Beaver County.”

 

Students transferring from a community college to a Penn State Commonwealth campus can apply for the RaiseMe transfer scholarship as well. Eligible students can earn up to $7,000 over two years to complete their bachelor’s degree.

 

There will be an agreement signing at 1 p.m. Aug. 22 at CCBC.

Story by Noah Haswell – Beaver County Radio. Published August 9, 2024 11:56 A.M.

(Chippewa Township, Pa) An 11-year old Beaver County native, Aubrey Bogacki was discharged from the hospital Thursday after being the only survivor of a crash that killed both her father, Nathan, her 13-year-old brother Grant and her 17-year-old sister Emma. She was said to have numerous broken bones and a collapsed lung. She passed her required tests to be discharged Wednesday, nearly 3 weeks since the crash. The community welcomed Aubrey home on Blackhawk Road and fundraisers are in the works, including a GoFundMe for Aubrey and her mother.

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published August 9, 2024 11:53 A.M.

(Ambridge, Pa) The Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter has announced that their Anniversary Mass scheduled to take place this evening will be moving indoors to the Good Samaritan Church, 725 Glenwood Ave, Ambridge 15005, instead of outdoors in Ambridge Park. The mass starts at 6pm.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — For the first time in roughly 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency used its emergency authority to halt the sale of a weed-killing pesticide that harms the development of unborn babies.

Officials took the rare step because the pesticide DCPA, or Dacthal, could cause irreversible damage to fetuses, including impaired brain development and low birthweight. The agency struggled to obtain vital health data from the pesticide’s manufacturer on time and decided it was not safe to allow continued sale, EPA said in an announcement Tuesday.

“In this case, pregnant women who may never know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

DCPA is mostly used on broccoli, cabbage and certain other crops and about 84,000 pounds were used on average in 2018 and 2020, officials said.

In 2023, the EPA assessed the pesticide’s risks and found it was dangerous even if a worker wore personal protective equipment. The manufacturer had instructed people to stay off fields where the pesticide had been applied for 12 hours, but agency officials said it could linger at dangerous levels for more than 25 days.

The pesticide is made by AMVAC Chemical Corp. The company did not immediately return a request for comment late Wednesday. In comments to the EPA earlier this year, the company said new protocols could help keep people safe. It proposed longer waiting periods before workers enter fields where the pesticide was applied and limits on how much of the chemical could be handled.

Federal officials said the company’s proposed changes weren’t enough. The emergency order was necessary because the normal review process would take too long and leave people at risk, according to the agency’s statement.

The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion has filed a more than $50 million lawsuit, saying the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster and accusing the sub’s operator of gross negligence.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet was among five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded during a voyage to the famed Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. No one survived the trip aboard the experimental submersible owned by OceanGate, a company in Washington state that has since suspended operations.

Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, according to the lawsuit. He was regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck. Attorneys for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability.

According to the lawsuit, the Titan “dropped weights” about 90 minutes into its dive, indicating the team had aborted or attempted to abort the dive.

“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit states. “Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”

The lawsuit goes on to say: “The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”

A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in King County, Washington. The defendants must respond to the complaint in the coming weeks, court papers state. The lawsuit describes Nargeolet as an employee of OceanGate and a crew member on the Titan.

The suit also criticizes Titan’s “hip, contemporary, wireless electronics system, and states that none of the controller, controls or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal.”

Though OceanGate designated Nargeolet as a member of the crew, “many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed,” the attorneys, the Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, said in their statement.

Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys on the case, said one of the suit’s goals is to “get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen.”

Concerns were raised in the aftermath of the disaster about whether the Titan was doomed due to its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to independent checks that are standard in the industry. Its implosion also raised questions about the viability and future of private deep-sea exploration.

The U.S. Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation, which is ongoing. A key public hearing that is part of the investigation is scheduled to take place in September.

The Titan made its last dive on June 18, 2023, a Sunday morning, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. After a search and rescue mission that drew attention around the world, the wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 984 feet (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

OceanGate CEO and cofounder Stockton Rush was operating the Titan when it imploded. The lawsuit describes Rush as “an eccentric and self-styled ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry” and names his estate as one of the defendants.

In addition to Rush and Nargeolet, the implosion killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.

The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is in the midst of its first voyage to the wreckage site in years. Last month, RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based firm, launched its first expedition to the site since 2010 from Providence, Rhode Island.

Nargeolet was director of underwater research for RMS Titanic. He was part of an expedition to visit the Titanic site in 1987, shortly after its location was discovered, and had supervised the salvage of innumerable Titanic artifacts, the lawsuit states. His estate’s attorneys described him as a seasoned veteran of underwater exploration who would not have participated in the Titan expedition if the company had been more transparent.

The lawsuit blames the implosion on the “persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence” of Oceangate, Rush and others.

“Decedent Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful,” the lawsuit states.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — What should have been a quick trip to the International Space Station may turn into an eight-month stay for two NASA astronauts if they have to switch from Boeing to SpaceX for a ride home.

There’s lingering uncertainty over the safety of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, NASA officials said Wednesday, and the space agency is split over the risk. As a result, chances are increasing that test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may have to watch from the space station as their Starliner is cut loose to return to Earth empty.

If that happens, NASA would leave behind two of four astronauts from the next SpaceX taxi flight in late September, with the vacant seats set aside for Wilmore and Williams on the return trip next February. The pair expected to be gone just a week or two when they launched June 5 as Starliner’s first crew.

NASA is bringing in additional experts to analyze the thruster failures experienced by Starliner before it docked. At the same time, NASA is looking more closely at SpaceX as a backup,

At this point, “we could take either path,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief.

During a recent meeting, “We heard from a lot of folks that had concern, and the decision was not clear,” he said. A final decision is expected by mid-August.

Boeing issued a brief statement following NASA’s news update, repeating its position that the capsule could still safely bring the astronauts home.

“We still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale.” the company said.

Boeing will need to modify the capsule’s software in case Starliner ends up returning without a crew.

No serious consideration was given to launching a separate SpaceX flight just to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, according to commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

Tests on the ground have replicated the thrust problems, pointing to seals as one culprit. But it’s still not understood how or why those seals swell when overheated and then shrink back to the proper size, Stich noted. All but one of the Starliner’s five failed thrusters have since been reactivated in orbit.

These thrusters are essential for allowing Starliner to back away from the space station following undocking, and for keeping the capsule in the proper position for the deorbit.

At the same time, engineers are grappling over helium leaks in Starliner’s propulsion system, crucial for maneuvering. The first leak occurred before liftoff, but was deemed isolated and stable. Then more cropped up in flight.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, after the shuttles retired in 2011. SpaceX flew its first crew in 2020. Boeing stumbled on its first test flight without a crew and then fell further behind after a repeat demo.

Officials repeated their desire for a backup taxi service on Wednesday, A situation like this one could happen again, and “that’s why we want multiple vehicles,” Bowersox said.

The next crew flight will be SpaceX’s 10th for NASA. On Tuesday, it was delayed for a month until late September to allow for extra time to figure out how best to handle Starliner’s return. Three NASA astronauts and one Russian are assigned to the flight, and managers on Wednesday declined to say who might be bumped.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.