Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pa., Friday, March 24, 2023. ( Ben Hasty /Reading Eagle via AP)

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — The governor Pennsylvania has ordered commonwealth flags flown at half-staff in honor of seven people whose bodies were recovered from the site of a powerful explosion at a chocolate factory. The announcement Monday came the morning after the remaining bodies were found at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading. Mayor Samantha Kaag called it “a devastating loss.” The Berks County coroner’s office on Monday identified two of the victims as 49-year-old Amy Sandoe of Ephrata and 60-year-old Domingo Cruz of Reading and said more tests are needed to positively identify the other five victims. The blast happened about 5 p.m. Friday. The cause remains under investigation.

Xfinity Comcast File Logo
Story by Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published March 27, 2023  

(Brighton Township, PA) Comcast customers in the area have been experiencing interruptions in their tv, phone and internet service since the weekend wind storms. Comcast is reporting ongoing outages affecting a large portion of Brighton Township and other surrounding areas.  Comcast reports that the outages are due to power outages, and customers can expect services to be restored when power is.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published March 27, 2023

(Beaver County, PA) Duquesne Light Company issued an update at  8:15 a.m. stating that 4,000 customers are still without power due to the high winds on Sunday, Aliquippa, Brighton Township, Conway, Freedom, and New Sewickley and Hopewell were the hardest hit areas with a total of 2,290 customers affected.

PITTSBURGH (Mar. 27, 2023) – Allegheny Health Network’s (AHN) Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) will kick off National Donate Life Month by hosting its annual flag raising ceremony on Monday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m. The event will feature powerful stories of survival and heroism.

WHO:

• Imran Qadeer, MD, President, AGH
• Susan Stuart, President & CEO for the Center for Organ Recovery & Education
• Candice Lee, MD, AHN Heart Transplant Surgeon
• Keith Lowry, AGH’s 500^th Heart Transplant Patient
• K. Sureshkumar, MD, Medical Director, AHN Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program
• Rashawn Parker, Kidney Transplant Waiting List

WHAT:
A flag raising ceremony to honor those who gave the gift of life and call attention to the significant need for more people to register as organ donors.

WHEN:
Monday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE:
AHN Allegheny General Hospital
320 East North Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

WHY:
According to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), more than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a transplant to save their lives. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 7,000 people are on the waiting list. National Donate Life Month, celebrated every April, encourages more Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and recognizes those who have saved lives through donation.

FILE – A Union Pacific train engine sits in a rail yard on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Commerce, Calif. Union Pacific said Saturday, March 25, 2023, that the company has backed away from the industry’s longstanding push to cut train crews down to one person as lawmakers and regulators increasingly focus on rail safety following last month’s fiery derailment in Ohio. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific has become the second major freight railroad in the past week to back away from the industry’s longstanding push to cut train crews down to one person as lawmakers and regulators increasingly focus on rail safety following last month’s fiery derailment in Ohio. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad said Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the union that represents conductors to drop its proposal to take those workers out of the cabs of locomotives. Norfolk Southern made a similar announcement several days earlier. The Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that forced the evacuation of roughly half the town of East Palestine, Ohio, is what sparked the renewed interest in rail safety.

(Indiana, PA file photo)

INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a dozen people were injured in the collapse of a second-story floor inside an apartment complex near a western Pennsylvania over the weekend. State police told the Tribune-Review that seven people were taken to hospitals and five others were treated at the scene after the 11:50 p.m. Saturday collapse at Elm by Traverse Commons about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Trooper Cliff Greenfield said the victims had injuries ranging from serious to minor. He said it’s unclear how many people were inside the three-story building and how many of the victims were students or their guests.

Emergency responders and heavy equipment are seen at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Saturday, March 25. (AP Photo/Michael Rubinkam)

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — All seven bodies have been recovered from the site of a powerful explosion at a chocolate factory in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania. West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said in a statement Sunday night that none of the victims will be named until officials are certain that all families have been contacted. Earlier Kaag confirmed to the Associated Press that the fifth body was found Sunday morning by first responders and confirmed dead by the Berks County Coroner’s Office. The coroner was unable to confirm the identity of that person, Kaag said. State and local fire investigators are continuing to examine the scene to try to determine the cause of the blast.

New Brighton Borough Sanitary Authority customers are reminded that they can easily access their accounts online by utilizing the online bill payment system provided by Diversified Technology Corp.  There is no fee for this service and payments are posted to the customer account immediately.

Other online payment providers that appear in internet searches, such as doxo.com, are not official partners of the New Brighton Borough Sanitary Authority and are charging customers a service fee and delaying the issuance of payments, often resulting in accumulating additional late payment fees.

To utilize the official bill payment system, simply visit www.NewBrightonPA.org and select the Citizen Action Center logo at the top right of the page.  Customers will need to have the utility account number, name on the account, and billing address zip code to register the account online.   Customers can also use a guest login to simply make a payment without creating an account.

Once registered, customers can manage multiple accounts, make payments online by echeck or credit card, view billing history, view payment history, access receipts, and receive email receipts. It’s fast, easy, convenient and secure.

Customers can also subscribe to E-Bill Enrollment and Autopay Enrollment or update their account information by emailing nbsa@newbrightonpa.org.

ALIQUIPPA  424
AMBRIDGE  20
BADEN 6
BEAVER 32
BEAVER FALLS 20
BELL ACRES 380
BRIGHTON TWP 465
CENTER 107
CONWAY 470
CORAOPOLIS 27
DAUGHERTY 86
ECONOMY TWP 493
FREEDOM 125
HOPEWELL TWP 223
INDUSTRY 19
MIDLAND 29
MONACA 12
MOON TWP 214
NEW BRIGHTON 5
NEW SEWICKLEY 255
ROCH TWP 57
SEWICKLEY 190
WEST MAYFIELD 38
ZELIENOPLE 86