FILE – Dickey Betts, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, exits the funeral of Gregg Allman at Snow’s Memorial Chapel, June 3, 2017, in Macon, Ga. Guitar legend Betts, who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” died Thursday, April 18, 2024. He was 80. (Jason Vorhees/The Macon Telegraph via AP, File)

Dickey Betts, who died Thursday at age 80, really was born a ramblin’ man.

He left home at 16 to join the circus and became a renowned guitarist touring the world with the Allman Brothers Band. He wrote the group’s biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” and remained on the road until he reached the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Betts died at his home in Osprey, Florida, his manager of 20 years, David Spero, said by phone. He had been battling cancer for more than a year and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Spero said.

“He was surrounded by his whole family and he passed peacefully. They didn’t think he was in any pain,” he said.

Betts shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman in the original Allman Brothers Band to help give the group its unique sound and create a new genre, Southern rock. The band blended blues, country, R&B and jazz with ’60s rock to produce a distinct sound that influenced a host of major acts, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Phish, Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton, among many others.

“My first concert was Dickey Betts at Coleman’s in Rome, New York in 1983,” blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa said in an Instagram post Thursday, crediting Betts with inspiring his favorite electric guitar model. “Blew my mind and made me want a Les Paul.”

Other tributes came from members of the Allman Brothers Band’s extended family.

Guitarist Derek Trucks and his wife and bandmate, Susan Tedeschi, posted on their Instagram account that Betts was “one of best to ever do it.”

Trucks joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1999. His uncle Butch Trucks was one of the band’s two founding drummers.

Bassist Berry Duane Oakley, son of Allman Brothers founding bassist Berry Oakley, honored his “Uncle Dickey” on Facebook, saying: “If not for him, I don’t think I would be a touring musician. The cat in the hat will never be forgotten, and will always be honored not only for the wonderful life he lived, but the wonderful music he has left behind for all of us to share and remember.”

Founded in 1969, the Allmans were a pioneering jam band, trampling the traditional formula of three-minute pop songs by performing lengthy compositions in concert and on record. The band was also notable as a biracial group from the Deep South.

Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, and Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle crash the following year. That left Betts and Allman’s younger brother, Gregg, as the band’s leaders, but they frequently clashed, and substance abuse caused further dysfunction. The band broke up at least twice before reforming, and has had more than a dozen lineups.

The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and earned a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2012. Betts left the group for good in 2000. He also played solo and with his own band Great Southern, which included his son, guitarist Duane Betts.

Forrest Richard Betts was born Dec. 12, 1943, and raised in the Bradenton, Florida, area, near the highway 41 he sang about in “Ramblin’ Man.” His family had lived in area since the mid-19th century.

A descendant of Canadian fiddlers, Betts was listening to string bands before he even started school. He developed a fondness for country, bluegrass and Western swing, and played the ukulele and banjo before focusing on the electric guitar because it impressed girls. But he usually did his songwriting on an acoustic guitar.

Betts changed schools often because his father worked construction, and those memories later inspired him to write “Ramblin’ Man.” His first big road trip came when he joined the circus to play in a band.

He returned home, and with Oakley joined a group that became the Jacksonville, Florida-based band Second Coming. One night in 1969, Betts and Oakley jammed with Duane Allman, already a successful session musician, and his younger brother. Together they formed the Allman Brothers Band.

Betts “excelled at anything that caught his attention,” according to a statement posted Thursday on the Allman Brothers Band’s official website. “He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing.”

The group moved to Macon, Georgia, and released a self-titled debut album in 1969. A year later came the album “Idlewild South,” highlighted by Betts’ instrumental composition “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which soon became a concert favorite.

The 1971 double album “At Fillmore East,” now considered among the greatest live albums of the classic rock era, was the Allmans’ commercial breakthrough and cemented their performing reputation by showcasing the unique guitar interplay between Allman and Betts. Their styles contrasted, with Allman playing bluesy slide guitar, while Betts’ solos and singing tugged the band toward country. When layered in harmony, their playing was especially distinctive.

The group also had two drummers — Butch Trucks and John Lee “Jaimoe” Johanson, a Black musician from Mississippi who helped integrate Southern rock.

Duane Allman died four days after “Fillmore” was certified as a gold record, but the band carried on and crowds continued to grow. The 1973 album “Brothers and Sisters” rose to No. 1 on the charts and featured “Ramblin’ Man,” with Betts singing the lead and bringing twang to the Top 40. The song’s intro suggested a fiddle tune, while the coda was inspired by Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” an earlier hit that had featured Duane Allman.

“Ramblin’ Man” reached No. 2 on the singles charts and was kept out of the No. 1 spot by “Half Breed” by Cher, who later married Gregg Allman. Betts’ composition became a classic-rock standard, with his soaring guitar reverberating in neighborhood bars around the country for decades.

“Ramblin’ Man” was the Allmans’ only Top Ten hit, but Betts’ catchy 7 ½-minute instrumental composition “Jessica,” recorded in 1972, also showed his knack for melodic hooks and became an FM radio staple. Painstaking in his approach to songwriting, Betts spent two months composing “Jessica,” which was inspired by the music of jazz guitar great Django Reinhardt.

Betts also wrote or co-wrote some of the Allmans’ other best-loved songs, including “Blue Sky” and “Southbound.”

Dormant for most of the 1980s, the Allman Brothers Band launched a comeback in 1990 with Warren Haynes joining Betts on guitar.

Betts recorded three more studio albums and toured with the band over the next decade, but he had an acrimonious split from the Allman Brothers in 2000. His bandmates suspended the guitarist from their summer tour and issued a statement blaming “creative differences.”

Betts said Gregg Allman and the other members delivered the news in a fax implying he needed treatment for substance abuse. Betts took legal action and settled with the band in arbitration. The breakup was permanent. Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks died in 2017.

After leaving the Allmans for good, Betts continued to play with his own group and lived in the Bradenton area with his wife, Donna.

Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings during jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024 in New York.(Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A juror in Donald Trump’s hush money trial was dismissed Thursday after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair and impartial, and the status of a second New Yorker picked for the panel was in limbo amid concerns that some of his answers in court may not been accurate.

The setbacks in the selection process emerged during a frenetic morning in which prosecutors also asked for Trump to held in contempt and fined over a series of social media posts this week, while the judge in the case barred reporters from identifying jurors’ employers.

The seating of the full jury — whenever it comes — will be a seminal moment in the case, setting the stage for a trial that will place the former president’s legal jeopardy at the heart of the campaign against Democrat Joe Biden. The trial will also feature potentially unflattering testimony about Trump’s private life in the years before he became president.

The jury selection process picked up momentum Tuesday with the selection of seven jurors. But on Thursday, Judge Juan Merchan revealed in court that one of the seven, a cancer nurse, had “conveyed that after sleeping on it overnight she had concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case.” And though jurors’ names are being kept confidential, the woman said her family members and friends questioned her about being a juror.

Prosecutors also raised questions about a second juror, a man who works in information technology, saying they had located an article from the 1990s about a man with the same name as the juror being arrested for tearing down political advertisements in suburban Westchester County. The posters were on the political right, prosecutors said.

The man said under questioning this week that he had not been convicted of a crime. Merchan asked the juror to come to court Thursday morning for additional questioning.

Twelve jurors and six alternates must be seated to hear the trial. Merchan said Tuesday that opening statements could begin as soon as Monday.

The process of picking a jury is a critical phase of any criminal trial but especially so when the defendant is a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee. Prospective jurors have been grilled on their social media posts, personal lives and political views as the lawyers and judge search for biases that would prevent them from being impartial.

Inside the court, there’s broad acknowledgment of the futility in trying to find jurors without knowledge of Trump. A prosecutor this week said that lawyers were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.”

But Thursday’s events laid bare the inherent challenges of selecting a jury for such a landmark, high-publicity case. After dismissing the nurse from the jury, Merchan ordered journalists in court not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.

He said that “as evidenced by what’s happened already, it’s become a problem.” The answers also will be redacted from court transcripts.

Prosecutors had asked that the employer inquiries be axed from the jury questionnaire. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche responded that “depriving us of the information because of what the press is doing isn’t the answer.”

The district attorney’s office on Monday sought a $3,000 fine for Trump for three Truth Social posts they said violated the order. Since then, though, prosecutors say he’s made seven additional posts that they believe violate the order.

Several of the posts involved an article that referred to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as a “serial perjurer,” and one from Wednesday repeated a claim by a Fox News host that liberal activists were lying to get on the jury, said prosecutor Christopher Conroy.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove said Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and Trump was just replying.

The judge had already scheduled a hearing for next week on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Trump’s posts.

The trial centers on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, made shortly before the 2016 election to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the race’s final days.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He could get up to four years in prison if convicted, though it’s not clear that the judge would opt to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.

The hush money case is one of four criminal prosecutions involving Trump as he vies to reclaim the White House, but it’s possible that it will be the sole case to reach trial before November’s presidential election.

Appeals and other legal wrangling have caused delays in cases charging Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and with illegally hoarding classified documents.

President Joe Biden waves as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, after returning from a trip to Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will accept endorsements from at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop Thursday in Philadelphia as he aims to undermine Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, niece of former President John F. Kennedy and sister of the current presidential candidate, will deliver the endorsements of Biden, according to the Biden campaign.

The decision to highlight the Kennedy family’s support more than six months from Election Day is an indication of how seriously Biden’s team is taking the threat of a long shot candidate using his last name’s lingering Democratic magic to siphon support from the incumbent.

Given Kennedy Jr.’s quixotic political positions and the expectation this year’s campaign will be decided by thin margins, both Democrats and Republicans worry that he could play the role of spoiler.

Biden planned to use Thursday’s event, which caps a three-day campaign swing in a battleground state critical to his reelection effort, to also sustain the pressure on Trump, the former Republican president.

“I can only imagine how Donald Trump’s outrageous lies and behavior would have horrified my father, Robert F. Kennedy, who proudly served as attorney general of the United States, and honored his pledge to uphold the law and protect the country,” according to Kerry Kennedy’s prepared remarks. “Daddy stood for equal justice, human rights and freedom from want and fear. Just as President Biden does today.”

The endorsement was hardly a surprise. Members of the prominent Democratic family have been vocal that they don’t see eye to eye politically with Kennedy Jr., who started as a protest primary challenger to Biden in the Democratic Party and now is running as an independent. Biden last month hosted more than 30 members of Kennedy’s extended family at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day, when family members posed with the president in the Rose Garden and Oval Office.

After the formal endorsement, Biden and members of the Kennedy family were to meet with supporters at a campaign event, and members of the Kennedy clan were planning to make calls to voters and knock on doors on Biden’s behalf.

Several notable members of the family were not endorsing, including Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, and nonprofit leader Maria Shriver, which the Biden campaign said was due to their nonpolitical professional roles.

Shriver, however, has been a conspicuous White House guest recently, attending the State of the Union and speaking at a women’s history month reception last month.

Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University, an expert on third parties, said it was unclear whether Kennedy Jr. would pull more votes from Democrats or Republicans.

“He is pro-science when it comes to the environment, but a conspiracy theorist when it comes to vaccines,” Tamas said.

Kennedy Jr.’s lack of a clear political lane limits his potential impact on the election, Tamas said, but Democrats appear to be more concerned because his last name could lead some voters to believe that he is carrying on his family’s political legacy.

Other than that, Tamas said, “I don’t know what else he has to attract progressive voters.”

Kennedy Jr. has spoken publicly in the past about disagreeing with his family on many issues, but maintains it can be done in “friendly” ways. After a super political action committee supporting his campaign produced a TV ad during the Super Bowl that relied heavily on imagery from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential run, Kennedy Jr. apologized to his relatives on the X social media platform, saying he was sorry if the spot “caused anyone in my family pain.”

The Democratic National Committee has hired a communications team to combat the appeal of third-party candidates, Kennedy Jr. first among them. The DNC also filed a recent Federal Election Commission complaint against Kennedy Jr.’s campaign, charging that it coordinated too closely with an affiliated super PAC to get his name on the presidential ballot in some states.

Kennedy Jr. is also viewed warily by the Trump campaign. While Trump has released a recent video saying, “If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden,” he has sometimes criticized Kennedy Jr. as being more “radical left” than Biden.

The Kennedy family endorsement is a capstone on three days of campaigning in Pennsylvania.

Biden’s travels were an opportunity to reconnect with his roots, starting on Tuesday in Scranton, where he lived until he was 10 years old. He swung by his childhood home, a three-story colonial that his family rented, and reminisced about attending Mass at St. Paul’s.

He seemed reluctant to leave town the next day, stopping for coffee before heading to the airport. “It’s good to be back in Scranton,” the president said when a customer welcomed him.

Biden’s next stop was Pittsburgh, where he called for higher tariffs on steel and aluminum from China to protect U.S. industry from what he called unfair competition.

But even that event involved some nostalgia, as Biden recalled an endorsement from the steelworkers when he was “a 29-year-old kid” from Delaware running for U.S. Senate.

“It changed everything,” he said.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published April 18, 2024 11:01 A.M.
Photo of Heinz Field Courtesy of AD Dr. Jennifer J. Damico.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Quipettes, majorettes and color guard positions will have tryouts Monday through Wednesday April 22-24, 2024 from 4-6pm. Anyone going into 7th grade through 12th grade must sign up by Saturday, April 20, 2024. Students must  have a 2.5 GPA, wear athletic clothing , and bring a 2 minute tryout routine. Cissy Walker Anderson asks that any students with questions to see her at the Junior Senior High School.

On Monday, April 22, McDonald’s will debut the Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy sandwich at participating restaurants across the tri-state area.

The audacious new taste is inspired by soul food flavors of the South, with a bold, creamy and spicy Cajun ranch sauce, applewood smoked bacon and crisp crinkle cut pickles, all served on a warm toasted potato roll.

“Our new Cajun ranch sauce is sure to take your tastebuds to the next level. Combined with the other premium toppings, this sandwich is truly a mouthwatering medley,” said local McDonald’s Owner/Operator Toni Hower.

Available for a limited time only, the Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy will also be available in a deluxe version with lettuce and tomato. The two join McDonald’s three permanent McCrispys: Classic, Deluxe and Spicy.

McDonald’s app members around here can celebrate the new addition to the McCrispy line up with a special deal:  $2.50 McCrispy every Wednesday.  To unlock the digital deal and find more information, download the McDonald’s app.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published April 18, 2024 10:56 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) The event is being held in the gym from  8 a.m. to noon on May 8, 2024. The district is seeking the participation of local businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs, those that are willing to engage, inspire, and educate students on what it takes to enter your profession.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published April 18, 2024 10:52 A.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) The Aliquippa School Board met Wednesday night. Darian Reynolds resignation was approved effective June 30, 2024. The district will advertise the position. Head boys basketball coach Nick Lackovich’s contract, and head girls basketball coach Dwight Lindsey’s contracts were approved at Wednesday night’s meeting. The board’s May meeting is scheduled for  Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 6 p.m. in the Black Box Theater at the Junior Senior High School.

LEWISBERRY, Pa. (AP) — Three construction workers on a maintenance project along a Pennsylvania interstate were struck and killed by a truck early Wednesday, state police said.

Investigators said a 24-year-old man was driving a large box truck at about 3:25 a.m. when it struck a construction vehicle in a work zone, then hit the three workers on the shoulder.

The fatal crash occurred in the southbound portion of Interstate 83, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) south of Harrisburg.

State police have not disclosed the victims’ names, but Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Thompson said they worked for an agency contractor.

“Right now we’re just gathering information,” Thompson said. “We’re obviously very shaken by this event.”

The crew was sealing highway cracks at the time, Thompson said.

A Transportation Department news release issued a week ago said the overnight work involved lane closures and was being performed by CriLon Corp. of Somerset. A phone message seeking comment was left early Wednesday at CriLon offices.

The York County Coroner’s Office confirmed the location of the deaths but offered no other details.

FILE – Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory, March 24, 2023, in West Reading, Pa. Pennsylvania utility regulators must turn over inspection records to the National Transportation Safety Board as part of the federal agency’s probe into a fatal explosion at a chocolate factory last year, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Jeff Doelp/Reading Eagle via AP, File)

Pennsylvania utility regulators must turn over inspection records to the National Transportation Safety Board as part of the federal agency’s probe into a fatal explosion at a chocolate factory last year, a federal judge ruled this week.

U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner sided Tuesday with the federal safety board in its dispute with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which had refused to produce inspection and investigation reports for UGI Utilities Inc.

UGI is a natural gas utility at the center of the probe into the March 24, 2023, blast at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading. The powerful natural gas explosion leveled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people. Investigators have previously said they are looking at a pair of gas leaks as a possible cause of or contributor to the blast.

State utility regulators had spurned the federal agency’s request for five years’ worth of UGI inspection records, citing a state law that protects “confidential security information” about key utility infrastructure from public disclosure, even to other government agencies.

The utility commission offered federal investigators a chance to inspect the reports at its Harrisburg office or to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but the safety board refused and then issued a subpoena.

The safety board said the records are vital to its investigation because they include state utility regulators’ assessment of the condition of UGI’s pipelines, as well as leak or odor complaint investigation records for the gas utility. The agency argued that federal regulations entitled it to the state investigation records.

“These reports are also vital to determine whether the commission conducted oversight of UGI’s pipeline system in compliance with federal regulations,” federal prosecutors, representing the safety board, wrote in their March 29 petition asking the court to enforce the subpoena.

In its response, the state agency pointed out that federal investigators had already obtained some of the requested records from UGI itself, and argued in a legal filing that federal law does not automatically preempt conflicting state laws.

Conner gave utility regulators seven days to produce the subpoenaed documents, but said they could do it in a way that complies with state law.

“From the beginning, the PUC has underscored a commitment to assist the NTSB with this investigation — while also complying with the Commission’s legal obligation to safeguard confidential security information,” said Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, a spokesperson for the utility commission.

He said the judge’s decision was made as a result of discussions between the two agencies.

An NSTB spokesperson declined comment. The federal investigation into the blast is ongoing.

About 70 Palmer production workers and 35 office staff were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the blast. Employees in both buildings told federal investigators they could smell gas before the explosion. Workers at the plant have accused Palmer of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant, in a small town 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, should have been evacuated.

Palmer was fined more than $44,000 by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to evacuate. Palmer denied it violated any workplace safety standards and contested the OSHA citations.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro and his top human services official said Wednesday that the administration has a plan to end a waiting list of thousands of families who are considered to be in dire need of help for an intellectually disabled adult relative.

Shapiro and Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh said it is vitally important to the plan for lawmakers to approve a funding increase for state-subsidized services, such as in private homes or group homes.

Shapiro’s administration considers the funding increase a first step that is intended to boost the salaries of employees who, through nonprofit service agencies, work with the intellectually disabled.

“Over the next several years, if this budget passes, there will be a plan in place to finally end that waiting list,” Arkoosh told a discussion group at BARC Developmental Services in Warminster. “It’s a big deal.”

Pennsylvania has maintained a growing waiting list of people seeking such services for decades, as have the vast majority of states.

Roughly 500,000 people with developmental or intellectual disabilities are waiting for services in 38 states, according to a 2023 survey by KFF, a health policy research group. Most people on those lists live in states that don’t screen for eligibility before adding them to a list.

Federal law doesn’t require states to provide home and community-based services, and what states cover varies. In Pennsylvania, the state uses its own dollars, plus federal matching dollars, to cover home and community-based services for intellectually disabled adults.

However, the state’s money hasn’t met the demand, and in Pennsylvania, roughly 4,500 families with an intellectually disabled adult relative are on what’s called an emergency waiting list for help, the state Department of Human Services said.

“These are the critical of the critical,” said Sherri Landis, executive director of The Arc of Pennsylvania, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In many cases, parents on the emergency waiting list have grown old waiting for help for their adult child whom they are increasingly struggling to look after.

One major problem is the difficulty in finding and hiring people to take jobs as care workers. That problem has grown significantly as the COVID-19 pandemic increased stress across the spectrum of workers in health care and direct care disciplines.

Shapiro’s budget proposal includes an extra $216 million in state aid, or 12% more, to boost worker salaries and help agencies fill open positions. Federal matching dollars brings the total to about $480 million.

The funding request is part of a $48.3 billion budget that Shapiro is proposing to lawmakers for the 2024-25 fiscal year beginning July 1.

BARC’s executive director, Mary Sautter, told Shapiro that her agency has a worker vacancy rate of 48%, forcing current employees to work overtime or extra shifts.

“There is a way to fix that and we’ve known that there’s been a way to fix that for a long time, which is to pay people more and be able to hire more people and be able to fill more slots with people who need support and assistance,” Shapiro told the discussion group at BARC.

Shapiro’s administration envisions several years of increased funding that will eventually lead to expanding the number of people who can be served and eliminate the emergency waiting list.

Shapiro’s 2024-25 proposal is about half the amount that advocates say is needed to fix a system beset by staffing shortages and low pay. But they also say this year’s funding proposal, plus a multiyear commitment to eliminate the waiting list, would be an unprecedented injection of money into the system.

“This is the entire boat coming to rescue a system that is really struggling,” Landis said. “And people deserve services.”