(File Photo of the City of Aliquippa Police Department)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Aliquippa, PA) According to a Facebook Post from the City of Aliquippa Police Department, police were called to the 100 block of Moreland Street in Plan 6 for shots fired after a theft attempt of a motor vehicle last week. On Sunday, December 15th at 2:20 a.m., the person who called the police told them that three black men tried to steal his vehicle. The men were all dressed in black, and one of them tried to shoot the owner of the vehicle. The Hopewell Township Police Department, the City of Pennsylvania State Police, and the Aliquippa Police Department have not found the suspects yet. If you have any video from Plan 6 or have any information about the suspects, please call the Aliquippa Police Department at 724-775-0880.

(Photo from Beaver Falls Police Department Facebook Page)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver Falls, PA) Sixteen-year-old Eric Anthony Krassman, Jr. is now in jail. He accused  killing sixteen-year-old Darrell Love, Jr. in Beaver Falls last Wednesday. According to a Facebook post from the City of Beaver Falls Police Department, Krassman was taken in custody early Monday morning. Krassman is facing a charge of homicide. According to court dockets, Krassman had his preliminary arraignment around 12 a.m. Monday and is expected back in court on December 31st. That is all the details we have at this time, and we will have updates as soon as they are available.

(File Photo of Pennsylvania State Trooper Badge)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Chippewa Township, PA) According to a Facebook post from the Chippewa Township Volunteer Fire Department a tractor-trailer hit the Chippewa interchange toll booth just before 7 p.m. on I-376 on Thursday. Heavy damage was done to the toll booth and the truck. Following an investigation by state troopers and turnpike workers. The driver was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. There was no other information reported.

(File Photo of Congressman Chris Deluzio speaking at the United States House of Representatives)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington) According to a release from Congressman Chris Deluzio’s office on Thursday, Deluzio introduced the Shipbuilding Innovation Act. This would help the United States to improve their shipbuilding industry, because China is currently making ships almost a hundred times more than the rate of the United States. The bill would also keep watch on certain ships around the country and work on propulsion and non-traditional power systems.  

(File Photo of children playing, Caption for Photo: Diverse children enjoying playing with toys)

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) As President-elect Donald Trump takes office, federal safety-net programs such as Medicaid, CHIP and SNAP, which support eighty million low-income Americans, may face cuts to reduce inflation and debt. Forty percent of the child population is covered through Medicaid in Pennsylvania. Carolyn Myers with Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children says Medicaid has been instrumental in reducing the child uninsured rate. Cuts to the program will threaten coverage and benefits to the one point two million children currently enrolled in Pennsylvania. Myers emphasizes that Medicaid enrollment is open year-round, allowing families to access essential health care. For support, visit the Compass website or call 1-877-385-8930. She highlights that health-care coverage has significantly improved children’s health and graduation rates, and cutting funding could jeopardize these vital benefits.

(Photo Provided with Release)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Bedford, PA) The Pennsylvania Beef Council announced on Tuesday that one-hundred and seventeen Pennsylvania school districts to date are participating in the PA Beef to PA Schools Program. During the 2024-2025 school year, locally sourced and fresh beef will be given to students to incorporate more of this kind of beef into school lunches. Cattle producers will work with schools and food service professionals to deliver over 132,000 pounds of beef to Pennsylvania students from over twenty-six farms. The beef industry will also help students to get closer to their community and agriculture in support of this initiative.

(File Photo of the Aliquippa City Building)

(Reported by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano)

(Aliquippa, PA) The Aliquippa City Council adopted their 2025 budget on Wednesday night. City Manager Sam Gill told Beaver County Radio that the total budget of $6,933.437.00 represents a 1.5% increase for the coming year. Taxes on land remain at 14.88 mills and taxes for buildings will increase to 3.18 mills.

(File Photo of Congressman Chris Deluzio)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Deluzio (D-PA-17) and Congressman Mike Rulli (R-OH-06) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin raising major concerns over the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to receive approval to incinerate polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at a plant in East Liverpool, OH. Represented by Congressman Rulli, East Liverpool is a community in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District along the Ohio River and is just a few miles upwind of Allegheny and Beaver County communities in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, represented by Congressman Deluzio.

Also known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS is a type of manufactured chemical that breaks down very slowly and is frequently found in defense-related materials like firefighting foam. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes, PFAS “can build up in people, animals, and the environment over time.” Research is still ongoing to understand the comprehensive impacts that these types of long-lasting chemicals can have on human health and the environment, but PFAS have already been linked to several adverse health impacts, including cancer and birth defects. In 2022, Congress passed a law prohibiting the DOD from incinerating PFAS until they could issue guidance in line with the EPA’s disposal advice.

And yet, as the Congressmembers write in their letter, “The DOD is looking to resume the incineration process in East Liverpool, Ohio, that can contaminate the surrounding soil, seep into nearby water sources, and pollute the air.”

The Congressmen continue, “The DOD has cited improved, cleaner incineration techniques as their reasoning for this renewed appeal. The EPA, however, disagrees, and just earlier this year admitted that ‘uncertainties remain’ regarding the effectiveness and safety of PFAS incineration. You should not carry out any operations in our communities without being certain of its safety.”  

In the letter Congressmen Deluzio and Rulli ask several questions of Secretary Austin and his Department, including:  

• “What is this new process that the DOD claims is ‘cleaner?’” 

• “What will you do to ensure these communities are kept safe and that nothing will leach into our soil, water, and air?” 

The Congressmen conclude, “There must be acceptable answers to these questions before something happens that could put our constituents at risk. We urge you to end any PFAS incineration and block any efforts to resume this in East Liverpool until the DOD and EPA can prove there is no risk to our communities’ health and safety. We also implore you to work closely with local leaders of the affected communities so that they are aware of your plans and can best advocate for their interests.” 

A full copy of the letter is available here.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is escorted by police Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was whisked back to New York by plane and helicopter Thursday to face new federal charges of stalking and murder, which could bring the death penalty if he’s convicted.

Luigi Mangione was held without bail following a Manhattan federal court appearance, capping a whirlwind day that began in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week in the Dec. 4 attack on Brian Thompson.

The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate had been expected to be arraigned Thursday on a state murder indictment in a killing that at once rattled the business community and galvanized some health insurance critics, but the federal charges preempted that appearance. The cases will now proceed on parallel tracks, prosecutors said, with the state charges expected to go to trial first.

Mangione, shackled at the ankles and wearing dress clothes, said little during the 15-minute proceeding as he sat between his lawyers in a packed federal courtroom.

He nodded as a magistrate judge informed him of his rights and the charges against him, occasionally leaning forward to a microphone to tell her he understood.

After the hearing, a federal marshal handed Mangione’s lawyers a bag containing his belongings, including the orange prison jumpsuit he had worn to court in Pennsylvania.

Mangione had been held in Pennsylvania since his Dec. 9 arrest while eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, about 233 miles (37 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

At a hearing there Thursday morning, Mangione agreed to be returned to New York and was immediately turned over to at least a dozen New York Police Department officers who took him to an airport and a plane bound for Long Island.

He then was flown to a Manhattan heliport, where he was walked slowly up a pier by a throng of officers with assault rifles — a contingent that included New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The federal complaint filed Thursday charges Mangione with two counts of stalking and one count each of murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense. Murder by firearm carries the possibility of the death penalty, though federal prosecutors will determine whether to pursue that path in coming months.

In a state court indictment announced earlier this week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office charged Mangione with murder as an act of terrorism, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole. New York does not have the death penalty.

Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said it’s a “highly unusual situation” for a defendant to face simultaneous state and federal cases.

“Frankly I’ve never seen anything like what is happening here,” said Friedman Agnifilo, a former top deputy in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

She reserved the right to seek bail at a later point and declined to comment as she left the courthouse.

Mangione, of Towson, Maryland, is accused of ambushing the 50-year-old Thompson as the executive arrived to a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition investigators found at the scene, echoing a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.

The gunman then pedaled a bicycle through Central Park, took a taxicab to a bus station and then rode the subway to a train station before fleeing to Pennsylvania, authorities said.

There, a McDonald’s customer noticed that Mangione looked like the person in surveillance photos police were circulating of the gunman, prosecutors said.

When he was arrested, they say, Mangione had the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport, fake IDs and about $10,000.

According to the federal complaint, Mangione also had a spiral notebook that included several handwritten pages expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives. UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the U.S., though the insurer said Mangione was never a client.

An August entry said that “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box,” according to the filing. An entry in October “describes an intent to ‘wack’ the CEO of one of the insurance companies at its investor conference,” the document said.

Mangione initially fought attempts to return him to New York. In addition to waiving extradition Thursday, he waived a preliminary hearing on forgery and firearms charges in Pennsylvania.

The killing unleashed an outpouring of stories about resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies while also shaking corporate America after some social media users called the shooting payback.

Mangione, a computer science graduate from a prominent Maryland family, repeatedly posted on social media about how spinal surgery last year had eased his chronic back pain, encouraging people with similar conditions to speak up for themselves if told they just had to live with it.

In a Reddit post in late April, he advised someone with a back problem to seek additional opinions from surgeons and, if necessary, say the pain made it impossible to work.

“We live in a capitalist society,” Mangione wrote. “I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.”

He apparently cut himself off from family and close friends in recent months. His family reported him missing in San Francisco in November.

Thompson, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, was trained as an accountant. A married father of two high-schoolers, he had worked at UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.