(File Photo of the AAA East Central Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) If you would like to travel for Labor Day of 2025, according to AAA booking data, Seattle, Orlando, and New York are the three most popular cities to travel to over Labor Day weekend*. Car rentals, flights and hotels are less expensive for the 2025 Labor Day Weekend compared to the 2024 Labor Day Weekend. In 2025, domestic roundtrip flights are cheaper by 6% compared to 2024, with a ticket price average of $720. AAA booking data also confirms that rates for hotels are lower by 11% and car rental costs are cheaper by 3% compared to last Labor Day. According to AAA car rental partner Hertz, the top destinations based on advanced bookings are Orlando, Denver, Boston, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, with the busiest day to pick up rental cars expected to be Friday, August 29th. Summer gas prices have matched the averages in 2021 as they have remained low. On Labor Day of 2024, the national average for a gallon of regular gas was $3.33. Hotel are cheaper by 2% and airfare is more expensive by 8% for the cost to travel internationally for the Labor Day weekend of 2025. The number one spot on the top international destinations from AAA is Vancouver, with most of the cities on that list being European cities.

*According to that same release from AAA East Central, AAA looked at booking data for Thursday, August 28th through Monday, September 1st, and compared those numbers with booking data for that same five-day period in 2024.

According to a release from AAA East Central, here are the top Labor Day Weekend destinations domesticcaly and internationally:

AAA’s Top Labor Day Weekend Destinations

Best and Worst Times to Travel by Car over Labor Day Weekend

According to INRIX, a provider of transportation data and insights, the best times to drive over Labor Day weekend are before lunchtime, and for those hitting the road on Saturday, a better time is earlier. As the day progresses, traffic congestion worsens. Early evening and in the afternoon typically the worst times to drive over the holiday weekend. An extra busy time is expected to be Saturday because of a good amount of drivers going out of town or taking trips during the day.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Heather Honey, a conservative election researcher, leaves the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, an organizational chart on its website shows.

The political appointment, first reported by Democracy Docket, shows how self-styled election investigators who have thrown themselves into election conspiracy theories since 2020 are now being celebrated by a presidential administration that indulges their false claims.

Her new role, which didn’t exist under President Joe Biden, also comes as Trump has used election integrity concerns as a pretext to try to give his administration power over how elections are run in the U.S.

The president has ordered sweeping changes to election processes and vowed to do away with mail ballots and voting machines to promote “honesty” in the 2026 midterms, despite a lack of constitutional authority to do so. Trump’s Department of Justice also has demanded complete state voter lists, raising concerns about voter privacy and questions about how the federal government plans to use the sensitive data.

Neither Honey nor DHS immediately responded to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Honey runs an investigations and auditing consulting firm called Haystack Investigations, according to contact information provided on her LinkedIn profile. Since 2020, she also has led a variety of election research groups whose flawed analyses of election data have fueled right-wing attacks on voting procedures, including in battleground states Pennsylvania and Arizona.

In 2020, her election research misrepresented incomplete state voter data to falsely claim that Pennsylvania had more votes reported than voters. Trump echoed the falsehood during his speech to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, saying Pennsylvania “had 205,000 more votes than you had voters.” Shortly after, his supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Biden from becoming president.

In 2021, Honey was involved in the Arizona Senate’s partisan audit of election results in Maricopa County, she confirmed in a podcast interview with a GOP lawyer. That review in the state’s most populous county, which spent six months searching for evidence of fraud, was described by experts as riddled with errors, bias and flawed methodology. Still, it came up with a vote tally that would not have altered the outcome, finding that Biden actually won by more votes than the official results certified in 2020.

In 2022, Honey’s organization Verity Vote issued a report claiming that Pennsylvania had sent some 250,000 “unverified” mail ballots to voters who provided invalid identification or no identification at all.

Officials in Pennsylvania said the claim flagrantly misrepresented the way the state classified applications for mail-in and absentee ballots. The “not verified” designation did not mean the voter didn’t provide accurate identification information, nor did it mean their ID wasn’t later verified.

Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he received dozens of public records requests related to elections from Honey during his time in office, which took up “scores of hours of staff time.” He said he was surprised to hear she had been elevated to a position of such “authority and responsibility.”

From what he saw, Richer said, she’s “not a serious auditor.”

Honey’s hiring at the Department of Homeland Security comes amid reports that Trump’s administration has met with several other election conspiracy theorists in recent months. Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and one of the most prominent election conspiracy theorists, said in an email to supporters in June that he had met with the president twice in the previous eight weeks. In June, a federal jury in Colorado found that Lindell had defamed a former worker for a company that makes election equipment by making false claims related to the 2020 election.

Seth Keshel, an election modeler whose work on the 2020 election prompted challenges that were later dismissed, presented his research to White House personnel in May, he said on his Substack account.

David Becker, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, said DHS used to have real credibility in its advisory role on elections. Its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had collaborated with states to shore up their elections from foreign attacks and disinformation, he said.

Now, the agency has fired its “real experts” on elections, he said. Trump’s administration also has done away with much of its work tracking foreign influence campaigns targeting voters, both at CISA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“What I’m concerned about is that it seems like DHS is being poised to use the vast power and megaphone of the federal government to spread disinformation rather than combat it,” Becker said. “It’s going to really harm DHS’s credibility overall.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Election workers recount ballots from the recent Pennsylvania Senate race at the Allegheny County Election Division warehouse on the Northside of Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that it is unconstitutional for the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania to throw out mail-in ballots simply because the voter didn’t write an accurate date on the return envelope.

The unanimous decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Pennsylvania to stop throwing out such ballots and upheld the decision earlier this year by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

In its 55-page opinion, the three-judge panel said it had to weigh the state’s interest in throwing out the ballots against the constitutional right to vote.

The panel wrote that it was “unable to justify” the practice of discarding such ballots “that has resulted in the disqualification of thousands of presumably proper ballots.”

Under Pennsylvania law, voters are required to write the date on the return envelope for their mail ballot. However, thousands of voters, confused by the request to write the date, might skip it or write another date, such as their birth date.

Tuesday’s decision marks the latest instance in more than a half-dozen cases where a court has instructed election officials in Pennsylvania to count such ballots.

However, higher courts have always reinstated the requirement in the heavily litigated matter that has pitted Democrats and their allies in trying to get rid of the requirement against Republicans who defend it. For Tuesday’s ruling to be reversed, the U.S. Supreme Court would need to take up the issue.

Asked whether they might appeal, the state and national Republican parties said in a joint statement that they were considering their next steps in the case.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania supported the lawsuit against the provision and, in a statement Tuesday, said it is “disenfranchisement and unconstitutional” to throw out a voter’s ballot over the handwritten date. His administration’s lawyers had argued that “meaningless errors shouldn’t cost you your right to vote in Pennsylvania,” he said.

Democrats typically cast more mail-in ballots than Republicans, perhaps a result of President Donald Trump’s demonization of mail-in voting and baseless allegations that it is rife with fraud. As recently as last week, Trump claimed there is “MASSIVE FRAUD” due to mail voting, when in fact voting fraud in the U.S. is rare.

The decision affects a small percentage of votes typically cast in the state. However, it also results in thousands of mail-in ballots being thrown out in every election and, in the politically divided state, every vote truly counts in statewide races. Last fall’s U.S. Senate race came down to about 15,000 votes.

Tuesday’s decision was a victory for the groups that sued, including the American Federation of Teachers of Pennsylvania. They were supported by the Black Political Empowerment Project, Common Cause Pennsylvania, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP, among others.

In a statement, AFT Pennsylvania’s president, Wendy Coleman, called the decision a “victory for Pennsylvania voters and our democracy.”

The campaign arms of Democrats in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate accused Republicans of trying to disenfranchise voters across the country ahead of 2026’s elections and vowed to be “united in the fight to ensure every legal vote is counted.”

The Republican parties said that the groups fighting to overturn the state law “are essentially fighting to count illegal ballots. That’s unacceptable.”

Republicans contend that the date requirement is a matter of election security and have pushed for the strictest possible interpretation of state law to disqualify ballots. Still, election officials have told courts that the requirement to write a date on the return envelope has no practical use and no effect on how they determine whether the ballot is valid or received on time.

In its opinion, the appeals court panel said accepting ballots whose envelope has a missing or incorrect date “will have no effect on fraud detection.”

“Discarding thousands of ballots every election is not a reasonable trade-off in view of the date requirement’s extremely limited and unlikely capacity to detect and deter fraud,” the appeals court panel wrote.

On top of that, it said, the requirement “seems to hamper rather than facilitate election efficiency.”

The state Supreme Court announced earlier this year that it will consider the issue. That was after the court put off ruling on a pending case before last year’s presidential election and dismissed another last fall on a technicality.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store logo in Pearl, Miss., is photographed, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

(AP) Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.

In a post on its website, Cracker Barrel said it will retain its old logo, which features an older man in overalls sitting next to a barrel and the words “Old Country Store.”

“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel,” the company said in a statement. “Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.”

The tempest over the logo began last week, when the company announced plans for a simplified design featuring only the company’s name. Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel, which has 660 restaurants in 43 states, made the change as part of a wider plan to modernize its restaurants and appeal to younger customers.

The chain’s sales have been slipping as it faces growing competition from breakfast chains and others. In its 2024 fiscal year, Cracker Barrel’s same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, dropped 0.1% despite a 4.9% increase in menu prices. Same-store retail sales at its shops fell 5.5%.

But many protested the change. On Monday, Cracker Barrel put out an apologetic statement, saying it “could have done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”

At that point, Cracker Barrel didn’t say it would change the logo, but said it would listen to its customers and keep many of the things they have come to love about the restaurant, like the rocking chairs on its front porches. The company said it would continue to honor Uncle Herschel — the older man in its logo, who represents the uncle of Cracker Barrel’s founder — on its menu and on items sold in its stores.

But the controversy continued. On Tuesday morning, Trump said via Truth Social that Cracker Barrel “should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before.” Cracker Barrel’s shares rose after more than a week of declines.

By Tuesday evening, Cracker Barrel had made its decision and scrapped the new logo.

“At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been – and always will be – about serving up delicious food, warm welcomes, and the kind of country hospitality that feels like family,” the company said. “As a proud American institution, our 70,000 hardworking employees look forward to welcoming you to our table soon.”

Trump was among those celebrating the move.

“Good luck into the future. Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again!” Trump said via Truth Social.

(File Photo of a School Bus Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Bridgeville, PA) Students in all grades from the Chartiers Valley School District will have remote classes today because of a water main break that occurred on Thoms Run Road in Bridgeville. Thoms Run Road had a water line that broke yesterday, which was the second day of school for students in the Chartiers Valley School District. Students from Chartiers Valley School District were dismissed at 12:30 p.m. yesterday. Service was briefly restored by Pennsylvania Water; however, according to Chartiers Valley School District Superintendent Dr. Daniel Castagna, the water line on Thoms Run Road broke again late last night. Crews will continue to work on the water main break.

(File Photo of the PennDOT logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) On Thursday, August 28th, 2025, a public job fair will be held by PennDOT District 11 to learn about positions that are available that they offer for their Allegheny County winter maintenance program. PennDOT’s Allegheny County Maintenance Building in Pittsburgh will host this event on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Recruitment staff from Pennsylvania will be there to talk about these job openings for winter maintenance in Allegheny County. You need your ID to apply for all positions as well as your driver’s license and your certificate for your current medical examiner to apply for Commerical Driver’s License positions that are being offered. Application completion on-site, interviews that are on-the-spot and job offers that are conditional will also occur during this job fair. According to a release from PennDOT District 11, here the available positions in Allegheny County for their public job fair that they are holding in Pittsburgh on Thursday, August 28th, 2025:

• Seasonal (Temp-to-Permanent) Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Operators 

• Full-time permanent Diesel Mechanics 

• Full-time permanent and seasonal Tunnel Maintainers 

• Seasonal Winter Dispatchers 

• Seasonal Tradesman Helpers 

• Seasonal Semi-skilled Laborers 

(Photo Courtesy of the Allegheny County Jail)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Moon Township, PA) Anthony Quesen pleaded guilty, but mentally ill yesterday to third degree-murder, specifically, for stabbing and killing a liquor enforcement officer from the Pennsylvania State Police on the Montour Trail in Moon Township on October 21st, 2024. According to a news release on October 21st, 2024 from the Allegheny County Police Department, officers were called to the Montour Trail near the 1900 block of Hassam Road around 3 p.m. for reports of an injured man. Forty-four-year-old Benjamin Brallier of Coraopolis was the victim of that stabbing on October 21st, 2024 when he went for a run on the Montour Trail that day. Brallier also got taken to a hospital and was then pronounced dead there on the same day. Brallier had served for twenty-one years in his position as a Liquor Enforcement Officer with the Pennsylvania State Police. Court paperwork confirms that Brallier was stabbed in his back, front and torso multiple times. Police also note that Brallier and Quesen did not know each other. According to a criminal complaint, police located Quesen about a third of a mile from the scene with cuts to his hands and blood stains on his clothes. Quesen allegedly told police Brallier took his bag and that he was stabbed by Brallier. Investigators confirm that a blood trail was seen from where Brallier was found to a bike that was on the Montour Trail at the time after Brallier got stabbed. A bag near that bike on the Montour Trail was where the ID of Quesen was also located. Quesen also got accused in June of 2024 of evading arrest and robbery with force at Point State Park, located in Downtown Pittsburgh. According to court documents, they told police their name was Antonia Kaseim, but later provided the last name of Quesen. Quesen also got called a “person of interest” in the case of seventy-six-year-old Daniel Frament getting attacked and killed in Menands, New York on the Empire State Trail. Quesen, who uses that name of Antonia Kaseim, will be sentenced for the murder of Brallier in November of 2025.

(File Photo of the Pennsylvania Lottery Logo and a Television Broadcast from a Pennsylvania Lottery drawing)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) An unidentified person recently won $400,000 in a ticket for Friday’s drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery Cash 5 with Quick Cash, which was sold in Allegheny County. This ticket that won was bought at Donut Connection in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh and matched all five numbers, which were 4, 9, 11, 14 and 22. The Donut Connection in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh will receive a bonus of $500 after selling the ticket of the person that bought it. Over 15,000 other Pennsylvania Lottery Cash 5 with Quick Cash tickets were winning tickets of prizes in that same drawing that happened on Friday in addition to that $400,000 ticket was sold at Donut Connection in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

(File Photo of the Visit Beaver County Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Rochester, PA) The 2025 Big Knob Grange Fair starts tonight at the Big Knob Grange in Rochester and will go through Saturday, August 30th. Buildings for exhibits will open on weekdays at 4 p.m. and those buildings will open at noon on Saturday, August 30th. The fair has food, live music and much more. At 6 p.m. tonight, a parade including the Freedom Big Red Marching Band will take place at the Big Knob Grange. The midway of the Big Knob Grange Fair will open at 6 p.m. each day with bingo starting each evening at 7 p.m. The midway of the Big Knob Grange Fair will also have a Matinee Special on Saturday, August 30th from 12 noon to 4 p.m. and a Bull Riding Mania rodeo will be held at the track of the fairgounds on Saturday, August 30th at 7 p.m. The full schedule for the 2025 Big Knob Grange Fair can be found at the link below:

Click here for the link for the schedule of the Big Knob Grange Fair