PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates avoided arbitration with All-Star closer David Bednar and All-Star pitcher Mitch Keller by agreeing to one-year deals Thursday ahead of the exchange of proposed salaries.

Bednar, an All-Star in each of the last two seasons, will get $4.51 million. He went 3-3 with 39 saves and a 2.00 ERA last season.

Keller, an All-Star in 2023 while going 13-9 with a 4.21 ERA, will earn $5.442,500.

Pittsburgh also reached agreements with first baseman Connor Joe at $2,125,000 and outfielder Edward Olivares at $1.35 million. Olivares was acquired in a trade with Kansas City last month.

On Wednesday, the Pirates came to terms with right-handed pitcher JT Brubaker on a one-year deal worth $2,275,000. Brubaker, Pittsburgh’s opening-day starter in 2022, Brubaker missed all of last season after Tommy John surgery last April.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

A 20-year-old New Castle woman is being charged with criminal homicide and additional charges in the death of her one-year-old Daughter last June.

The charges against Aleisia Owens were filed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry on Thursday following an investigation led by the New Castle Police Department, which concluded that the death of Owens’ daughter was a homicide following an autopsy by the Medical examiner.

Owens is additionally charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, and other offenses. She was denied bail due to the homicide charge.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A commission reviewing how Pennsylvania distributes money to public schools narrowly approved a report Thursday that suggests the state is underfunding districts by more than $5 billion and should begin immediately to close that gap.

The vote on the report by the Basic Education Funding Commission was backed by Democrats and members of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration. Republicans and one Democrat on the commission opposed it, resulting in an 8-7 vote.

A key recommendation in the report said the state should immediately begin to close a school funding gap of more than $5 billion, phasing in the increased aid over seven years.

The report differs somewhat from what school districts that won a landmark court case want from the state. The districts’ lawyers proposed a $6.2 billion increase in state aid to be phased in over five years.

A separate Republican report was defeated on party lines during the meeting in a Capitol hearing room.

The Democrats’ report contains only recommendations and does not require Shapiro or Pennsylvania’s politically divided Legislature to act.

But Democrats hope it at least provides a blueprint for this year’s budget, and for budgets every year after that, to respond to last year’s court decision that found Pennsylvania’s system of funding public schools violates the constitutional rights of students in poorer districts.

“This is the end of the beginning,” commission co-chair Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, said at the meeting. “There’s still a whole lot of work to do.”

Teacher unions and lawyers for the districts that won last year’s court case cheered the Democrats’ report.

House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, criticized the report as containing a “simply spend more money” solution to fix inadequacies in Pennsylvania’s system of school funding.

The Republican report said districts should define the instructional changes needed to boost student achievement and did not put a dollar figure on how much more, if anything, should be spent on K-12 education.

Underfunded districts are more likely to have larger class sizes, less-qualified faculty and outdated buildings, textbooks, technology and curriculum, school officials say. Many underfunded districts are fast-growing, disproportionately poor or have student bodies that are heavily minority.

The next step may arrive Feb. 6, when Shapiro must deliver his second annual budget proposal to lawmakers.

Shapiro has sounded a note of caution about how the state will pay for billions in new school funding, and made no commitment Thursday to what exactly he will propose.

Lawyers for the school districts that sued called $5 billion “transformational,” although less than they sought and rolled out on a slower timetable.

Still, it means thousands more teachers, counselors and librarians in schools, said Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of the Public Interest Law Center, one of the nonprofit legal organizations that represented the districts in court.

“And it also is a commitment to do what the commonwealth never does: which is actually come up with a figure, a reasonable, evidence-based figure for what every school district needs to educate their children,” Urevick-Acklesberg said.

The commission was required by law to meet to provide recommendations to lawmakers on how to update a formula that is supposed to guide how roughly $8 billion in state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts.

However, Republicans and Democrats on the commission disagreed over what recommendations the commission should provide in response to the court decision.

The Democrats’ report calculated a dollar target for what each school district should receive to provide a constitutionally adequate and equitable education to students.

Current funding falls short by $5.4 billion, the report said, or about 18% of what districts spend. Of that amount, $5.1 billion is the state’s responsibility and $291 million is the responsibility of low-tax school districts, the report said.

The recommendations also say the state should resume spending at least $300 million a year to support the upkeep of school facilities and send an additional $955 million in total to school districts that have disproportionately high taxes, in theory to provide tax cuts in those districts.

The report wraps up months of hearings by the commission, which was composed of 12 lawmakers and three members of Shapiro’s administration.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Elias Pettersson scored on a breakaway in overtime and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Thursday night.

Pettersson took a lead pass from Filip Hronek and beat Tristan Jarry for his 22nd goal of the season and second of the game. Pettersson is the third player in NHL history — and first since Daniel Alfredsson in 2007 — to score a game-winning goal in four straight games.

“I tried to get lost in the play and cheat a little bit, I guess for the offense,” Pettersson said. “It bounced right for me.”

Pettersson also had two assists and now has seven goals and 12 points in his last four games. His 12 points in four games is tied for the third-most points during a four-game span in team history.

Brock Boeser also scored twice for the Canucks, while J.T. Miller added three assists and now has eight points in his last four games. The Canucks are 31-1-1 in the 33 games Boeser and Pettersson have scored a goal.

Thatcher Demko made 31 saves for the Canucks, who won their fourth straight game and are now 4-1 on their seven-game road trip. They’ve scored at least four goals in four of the five games played so far. Vancouver has points in 14 of its last 16 games overall.

“Pretty resilient group,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “There are moments, obviously, we have to clean up. But I thought that when the pressure’s on us, guys aren’t getting rattled.”

Sidney Crosby scored twice for Pittsburgh, including the tying goal with 28.2 seconds left to force overtime. Crosby has 24 goals this season and 574 in his career, surpassing Hall of Famer Mike Bossy for 22nd-place on the NHL’s career goals list.

“I didn’t think the start was good,” Crosby said. “In the second and third we were better. It’s hard when you fall behind against a team like that. I thought we did a good job of staying with it.”

Marcus Pettersson scored his first of the season for Pittsburgh, which has lost three of five following a six-game point streak. The Penguins also lost their fourth straight overtime game, matching a team record.

Alex Nedeljkovic started for Pittsburgh, but allowed three goals on nine first-period shots. Jarry stopped 19 shots in relief.

“We made the decision to switch goalies mainly because we were trying to create a spark,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We didn’t think our team had the energy that it needed. I thought Jarry played real well.”

Boeser scored twice for the Canucks in the first 6:31 of the game.

Elias Pettersson sent a pass through the slot to Boeser, who tapped it in from the backdoor post to open the scoring at 5:44 of the first period. Boeser scored a power-play goal 47 seconds later when he deflected Miller’s point shot behind Nedeljkovic from the slot. Since Jan. 4,

Marcus Pettersson scored for Pittsburgh at 16:20 of the first period, but Elias Pettersson helped Vancouver regain its two-goal lead when he tipped Hronek’s point shot past Nedeljkovic.

Crosby cut the deficit to a goal, 3-2, at 6:05 of the second period when he beat Demko with a glove-side wrist shot.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Could a hole in the roof of the State Capitol in Harrisburg create a hole in future legislation for the Commonwealth?

On Thursday, State Representative Josh Kail of Beaver County made an appearance on “Rappin’ With The Reps” with Eddy Crow and started the show by talking about an odd situation occurring in the State House of Representatives, which occurred shortly after a resignation on December 15 that forced a 101-101 divide between Republicans and Democrats.

“The Speaker of the House, instead of bringing us back and getting stuff done in a bipartisan fashion because it would have been tied 101-101, announced that we can’t go back to Harrisburg until the middle of March,” Kail explained, “and she said it’s because there’s because there’s a leaky roof.”

Kail says that there has been a “cursory” investigation that seems to contradict the Speaker’s claim, and furthermore compared the situation to the recently played National Championship in college football, where the game continued on despite a leak in the roof of NRG Stadium in Houston.

“It is a real shame, because there is work that needs to be done in Harrisburg,” Kail added.

The full interview with Rep. Kail can be seen by clicking on the Facebook feed below, or by watching the video on our YouTube channel.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published January 11, 2024 9:36 P.M.

(Chippewa Township, Pa) The Blackhawk School Board met Thursday evening for their first meeting of the month. The district announced they will be participating in the Global Scholars Program, which will recognize students who are enrolled in world language classes and fulfil certain criteria within their 4 years of high school. Blackhawk will be one of only a handful of schools in the state participating in the program.

During the public comment on agenda items, one parent raised concerns over transparency of when buses will run late. The woman stated that the district often “double buses” with one bus handling more than one route, resulting in the buses running 15 to 20 minutes late. She would like there to be some type of notification system in place so that children aren’t waiting in the outdoor conditions.

During the visitor comment section of the meeting, the Board was questioned about the resource material review, in which a committee is reviewing books that could potentially be deemed inappropriate for school libraries. The board was asked whether or not the committee will have to read all of the books. The Board responded that only 2 members of the committee are required to fully read the books.

The Blackhawk School Board will meet again on January 25th at 6:30pm in the high school library.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio with contributions by Keith Walsh. Published January 11, 2024 8:14 P.M. UPDATED: Press release issued and details added 8:48 P.M.

(Beaver Falls, Pa) A woman’s body was found along a walking trail behind Geveva College in Beaver Falls Thursday. Numerous agencies and emergency crews worked through the day and evening at the scene.

Sources tell Beaver County Radio that the woman was believed to be middle aged and had potentially went on the trail with a man a few days ago and hadn’t been seen since. The family of the victim was on scene.

A source told Beaver County Radio that there were a lot of evidence markers at the crime scene. The coroner was present and the body was eventually removed around 5:25pm.

A Beaver Falls Police officer ititially told Beaver County Radio that the Police Chief would make a statement at the scene when able, although the Chief never appeared to be on scene.

The Conway Fire Department was present at the scene all day and was the only official source to make a comment at the scene. Conway Assistant Fire Chief Bill Giska told Beaver County Radio “we didn’t hear much of anything” and “we also respected and stayed away from it”. He added, “We bring the equipment, if they want to talk or anything that’s fine, if not we stay out of their way”.

The City of Beaver Falls Police Chief David Johnson and District Attorney Nate Bible issued a press release Thursday evening that a female was reported missing on January 9th and was last seen January 7th. According to the release, the body recovered matched the missing persons report. The release also stated that the cause or manner of death have not yet been determined. The City of Beaver Falls Police Department added that they do not “believe there is a danger to residents or the community”.

We do not have any information in regards to suspects or any people of interest at this time. We will continue to work to gather additional details as they become available in this ongoing story.

Photos from the scene:

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Photos by Keith Walsh. Published January 11, 2024 3:25 P.M.

(Beaver Falls, Pa) An investigation is underway in Beaver Falls at the walking trail behind Geneva College. The coroner arrived at the scene around 2:30pm. We have heard unconfirmed reports that a deceased woman’s body was found along the trail. We have no further information at this time. Numerous departments are on scene.
Photos from the scene:

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A police officer in Pennsylvania was shot and critically wounded early Thursday as he helped investigate two other shootings, authorities said.

The shooting in Scranton occurred around 4:30 a.m. and also left a suspect wounded, state police said. Both were treated at a hospital and were listed in critical but stable condition, but further information about their injuries was not disclosed.

The wounded officer was among several Scranton officers who were investigating two other shootings that had occurred in the city earlier in the evening, state police Maj. Mike Carroll said. When the officers encountered a suspect, gunfire was exchanged, Carroll said, but he declined to provide further details.

Neither the name of the officer nor the wounded suspect was released. No other injuries were reported.

The officer-involved shooting and the earlier shootings are all believed to be connected to gang-related activity in Scranton and its surrounding areas and were not random, Carroll said. He did not provide details on the earlier shootings but said no victims had been found as of Thursday afternoon.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

It was less than ninety days ago that the shovels were placed in the ground at the site of what would become the new Educational Discovery Center at Brady’s Run Park, a state-of-the-art facility that would showcase the ways that Beaver County excels in environmental efficiency and recycling practices.

However, as was made the focal point of the latest Commissioners’ work session, the progress of the Educational Discovery Center is at a standstill due to several major factors. The discussion about the feasibility of the EDC’s construction laid heavily on the fact that the project will require nearly double the initial cost expected, jumping from roughly $4 million to over $8 million.

Waste Management director Becca Naber, who is overseeing the project following former director Holly Vogt’s departure, faced a flurry of questions from the Commissioners and Row Officers regarding the project, which she stated was dealing with a floodplain issue at the site located along Park Road.

One person at the meeting who disclosed her concern about the cost was controller Maria Longo, who felt that taxpayers would not want to front that bill.

“The fact we’re still considering eight-and-a-half million for an Environmental Center without considering how much man power the County’s going to have to pay for…and all the other stuff…I’m a taxpayer, I still can’t believe we’re considering this,” Longo stated. She added that the aftermath of reassessment and an increase in bills would lead taxpayers to develop a similar sourness.

Naber countered by stating that the adjusted cost estimates for the project have inflation considered into the final numbers, noting that grant funding–if acheived–could help reduce any or all of the brunt that taxpaying citizens would have to deal with.

Commissioner Tony Amadio said that the best way to approach the current situation is to proceed cautiously, considering that costs may inflate even higher.