FILE – A drawn portrait of Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021, hangs on rails outside of the White House during a demonstration organized by his family, July 15, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
(File photo of Aliquippa Jr. and Sr. High School Logo)
(Reported by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano)
(Aliquippa, PA) The Aliquippa Junior and Senior High School will have an oratorical contest on Saturday, February 22nd from 1-4 p.m. The Eugene Karmazyn Black Box Theater will host a Dr. Martin Luther King Oratorical Contest for students. According to a release from the Aliquippa Junior and Senior High School, donations will be accepted.
(File Photo: Caption for Photo: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) N95 face mask)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) UPMC has announced that visitors, staff, and patients must wear masks in their facilities after COVID-19 and flu cases are rising. On Wednesday, the mandate will return for the first time since December of 2023, which was taken into effect because of respiratory illnesses increasing. In May of 2023, UPMC took away the requirement of people wearing masks even though masks were worn during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: A customer holds a credit card at the pay-at-the-pump gasoline pump in Rolling Meadow, Ill., Thursday, June 30, 2022. The U.S. economy shrank from April through June for a second straight quarter, contracting at a 0.9% annual pace and raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession. The decline that the Commerce Department reported Thursday, July 28, in the gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of the economy — followed a 1.6% annual drop from January through March. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Beaver County, PA) Gas prices are three cents higher in Western Pennsylvania this week at around $3.53 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s gas price report. The report states at that week last year, the average price for gas was around $3.44. The report also notes that the average price that you can expect for a gallon of unleaded gas here in Beaver County is about $3.55.
According to AAA East Central’s gas price report, here are the prices of unleaded self-serve gasoline in some Pennsylvania areas:
$3.564 Altoona
$3.548 Beaver
$3.574 Bradford
$3.363 Brookville
$3.588 Butler
$3.465 Clarion
$3.519 DuBois
$3.561 Erie
$3.547 Greensburg
$3.589 Indiana
$3.573 Jeannette
$3.533 Kittanning
$3.556 Latrobe
$3.585 Meadville
$3.581 Mercer
$3.387 New Castle
$3.502 New Kensington
$3.599 Oil City
$3.540 Pittsburgh
$3.374 Sharon
$3.589 Uniontown
$3.599 Warren
$3.535 Washington
(File Photo of Open Sign on Door)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(East Rochester, PA) Big Lots is closing stores around the United States. However, one local store will continue operations. According to filings from bankruptcy courts, Variety Wholesalers will run more than two-hundred Big Lots stores, which includes the East Rochester location on Ohio River Boulevard. The locations for Big Lots in both Hopewell and Moon Townships are closed.
(File Photo of a Center Township Police Department Car)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Center Township, PA) A drunk driver crashed into the porch of a Center Township home on Monday. The incident occurred at around 4:30 p.m. when an unidentified male driver went off of Center Grange Road and into a porch. The woman that lives in that house is now doing well. According to police, the man had over twice the legal limit for his blood alcohol level. Police confirm that the man was driving under the influence and his charges will be filed on Tuesday.
(File Photo of Police Lights)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Center Township, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver report that criminal charges will be filed after an Aliquippa man caused a two-vehicle crash on I-376 East on Sunday. At 7:48 p.m., a thirty-nine-year-old unidentified male driver from Aliquippa caused a crash and was discovered to be under the influence. That is all the details that we have at this time.
(File Photo of Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Badge)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Koppel Borough, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver are still investigating a fight that took place at McDowell’s Bar in Koppel Borough on Friday. At 12:03 a.m., a person left the scene after troopers arrived. The same person went back to speak with troopers and Medic Rescue transported that person after the incident and an injury evaluation. That is all the details we have at this time.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro arrives to deliver his budget address for the 2025-26 fiscal year to a joint session of the state House and Senate at the Capitol is seen, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is recommending the closure of Rockview state prison and the Quehanna boot camp, both in central Pennsylvania, amid longer-term national trends of shrinking prison populations.
The administration said on Monday it expects to save more than $100 million in future fiscal years, once the facilities are closed. Prison staff will be guaranteed a job offer at their existing pay and classification at a nearby correctional institution, the administration said.
It added that public comment will be accepted for three months before a final decision is made. The state’s 24 prisons are at about 82% capacity, according to Department of Corrections data.
Shapiro announced last week when he released his budget proposal that he would close two prisons amid steeply rising Medicaid costs.
The union that represents prison staff, the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, has said it will fight the closures and warned that closing two prisons will endanger officers and inmates. Violence in the prisons has dropped, in part, because the prison population is spread more evenly, the union said.
Still, half of all prisons were over 90% capacity last year and four were over 100% capacity, the union said.
Rockview, in Centre County, was built in 1915 and is the second-oldest state prison, the corrections department said. It has about 650 staff and houses about 2,100 inmates out of a capacity of more than 2,500, the department said.
Quehanna boot camp, in Clearfield County, is designed for lower-risk inmates and lacks traditional prison security measures, such as a fence. It has about 230 staff and houses about 350 inmates out of a capacity of about 600.
All told, state prisons hold just over 38,000 inmates, as of December. That figure has crept up in the past couple years, but is down from about 45,000 five years ago and 49,000 a decade ago, when many prisons were over capacity.
Shapiro’s predecessors closed three prisons over the past decade and opened one new one, Phoenix, in suburban Philadelphia. Shapiro’s administration also said it would close halfway houses, called community corrections centers, in Greene and Berks counties.
(File Photo of the New Brighton Area School District Logo)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(New Brighton, PA) New Brighton High School will present their 2025 musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The New Brighton high school auditorium will host the show which begins at 7 p.m. on February 20th, February 21st, and February 22nd. Reserved seat admission tickets cost $10. The website to purchase those tickets can be found below:
You can purchase tickets at https://cur8.com/15402/project/128757.