(File Photo of Road Work Ahead Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) According to PennDOT officials, from tonight through Monday, July 14th, weather permitting, I-79 in Allegheny County will be reduced to a single lane of traffic for concrete roadway patching, which is part of a $14.97 million highway restoration project that started in April of 2024. Starting tonight at 7 p.m., through 6 a.m. on Monday, I-79 will get shifted onto its shoulders in Kennedy and Robinson Townships. The Interstate 376 Airport/Pittsburgh Exit 59 A/B and the Route 60 Moon Run/Crafton Exit 60 A/B interchanges will experience these changes. Other work besides patching on the concrete pavement, updates for highway lighting and signing, work involving drainage, marking for pavements, replacement of cable barriers and guide rails and other activities. Golden Triangle Construction Company, Inc. is the prime contractor for this work.

(File Photo of Raccoon Creek State Park)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County closedthe lake there because of higher levels of E. coli bacteriain the water. This announcement came on Thursday and according to a Facebook post from Raccoon Creek State Park, the beach there will be closed for swimming until further notice. Swimming is prohibited in the lake until the levels of E. coli bacteria go down. However, the beach area will still be open to visitors. Food concession at the park will close this weekend.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – The Ford logo is seen on the grill of a Ford Explorer on display at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show in Pittsburgh, on Feb. 15, 2024. Two fatal crashes involving Ford’s Blue Cruise partially automated driving system have drawn the attention of U.S. auto safety regulators. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Ford is recalling more than 850,000 of its cars across the U.S. because the low-pressure fuel pump inside the vehicles may fail — and potentially cause an engine stall while driving, increasing crash risks.

The recall covers a wide range of Ford and Lincoln-branded vehicles made in recent model years. That includes certain Ford Broncos, Explorers and F-150s, as well as Lincoln Aviators and Navigators, documents published this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration note.

Ford plans to send out notification letters to affected owners starting this Monday (July 14), to warn of safety risks related to potential fuel pump failure. But a remedy is still “under development,” the NHTSA’s recall report notes.

It wasn’t immediately clear if there was an estimate for when a fix would become available. But this week’s recall report noted that owners will receive an additional letter with instructions to take their car to an authorized dealer for that service when the time comes — and that there will be no charge.

The Associated Press reached out to Ford for further comments Thursday.

The Michigan-based automaker isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries related to this recall, this week’s report notes. But owners should look out for potential warnings. Prior to fuel pump failure, customers may encounter poor engine performance, for example, a check engine light or a decrease in engine power.

Fuel pump failure is “more likely to occur” during warm weather or if there’s low fuel in the tank, the recall report notes. And loss of fuel pressure and flow can be caused by internal contamination of a car’s jet pump, amid other factors. Ford also identified supplier changes during a review of the manufacturing process, the report adds.

Ford estimates that 10% of the 850,318 vehicles it’s recalling in the U.S. have this fuel pump risk. The recall covers certain Ford Broncos, Explorers and Lincoln Aviators between the 2021 and 2023 model years, in addition to 2021-2023 model year F-250 SD, F-350 SD, F-450 SD and F-550 SD vehicles. Select 2021-2022 Lincoln Navigators, Ford Mustangs and F-150s are also impacted, as well as some 2022 Expeditions.

(File Photo of a Hopewell Township Police Department Badge)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) The Hopewell Township Police Department has shut down comments from a Facebook post regarding three suspicious incidents in Beaver County involving Hispanic and Middle Eastern males. According to a letter from Hopewell Township Police Department Chief Donald Sedlacek, these recent incidents are as follows: a Middle Eastern man claimed that he was from Israel and was looking for a new mosque, proceeded to leave an electric bicycle battery at one of the pews at Ridge Point Church in Brighton Township and left by an electric bicycle, four males in hijabs were observed in a silver sedan driving by slowly with their phones up at New Bethlehem Church in Independence possibly taking pictures and a Middle Eastern/Hispanic man was caught off guard in a parking lot at Genesis Church in Hopewell in the parking lot by a member leaving service early, sat in his car for five minutes, then left in the area in a blue-gray Subaru Legacy with Ohio registration. Sedlacek also confirmed in this letter that close to the airbase at Pittsburgh International Airport is where apparent similar activity has also been going on recently. These incidents have gotten reported to police in the previous eight days before Tuesday. The Hopewell Police Department reminds residents to call 911 to report anything suspicious and to be aware of the surroundings you see in the local area.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Attendees sing during a vigil for flooding victims at Tivy Antler Stadium on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Several hundred people gathered for a worship ceremony at a high school stadium in Texas on Wednesday evening to remember the at least 120 people who died in the catastrophic flash floods over the July Fourth holiday, as well the many still missing.

“Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” Wyatt Wentrcek, a local youth minister, told the crowd in the bleachers of Tivy Antler Stadium in Kerrville. “Middle of the night.”

During a series of prayers for the victims and the more than 160 people still believed to be missing in hard-hit Kerr County, which includes Kerrville, people in the crowd clutched one another and brushed away tears.

Many attendees wore blue shirts with the school’s slogan, “Tivy Fight Never Die,” or green ribbons for Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in Kerr County where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said five campers and one counselor have still not been found.

Ricky Pruitt, with the Kerrville Church of Christ, told the crowd that they gathered intentionally at a place where they had celebrated victories and experienced losses on the field.

“Tonight is very different than all of those nights,” he said.

The event was held as search crews and volunteers continued to scour miles along the Guadalupe River for the people still missing.

In air boats, helicopters and on horseback, crews looked in trees and mounds below their feet, while search dogs sniffed for any sign of buried bodies. With almost no hope of finding anyone alive, searchers said they were focused on bringing the families of the missing people some closure.

The floods are now the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since 1976, when Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flooded, killing 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections.

Officials have been seeking more information about those who were in the Hill Country, a popular tourist destination, during the holiday weekend but did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area without many people knowing, Gov. Greg Abbott has said.

Public officials in the area have come under repeated criticism amid questions about the timeline of what happened and why widespread warnings were not sounded and more preparations were not made.

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha has said those questions will be answered, but the focus now is on recovering victims.

The governor called on state lawmakers to approve new flood warning systems and strengthen emergency communications in flood prone areas throughout the state when the Legislature meets in a special session that Abbott had already called to address other issues starting July 21. Abbott also called on lawmakers to provide financial relief for response and recovery efforts from the storms.

“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” Abbott said in a statement.

Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a flood warning system, but concerns about costs and noise led to missed opportunities to put up sirens.

President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover, and is planning to visit the state Friday.

Polls taken before the floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters.

Catastrophic flooding is a growing worry. On Tuesday, a deluge in New Mexico triggered flash floods that killed three people.

Although it’s difficult to attribute a single weather event to climate change, experts say a warming atmosphere and oceans make these type of storms more likely.

After the ceremony in Kerrville on Wednesday, children and families mingled on the field, and some students formed prayer circles. Licensed counselors and therapists were also on hand to meet with people.

Andrew Brown, who was at the vigil to honor a Tivy High School soccer coach who died in the flooding, said he believes a warning system with a siren would be helpful.

“I’m sure there are things that could have been different, and I’m sure there will be going forward,” he said.

David Garza said he drove an hour and a half to the stadium to provide support for loved ones affected by the floods.

“I’m from here, and I was here in the ’78 flood and the ’87 flood,” Garza said. “I just wanted to be a part of this.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Eternity C is seen in Split, Croatia, Jan. 30, 2023. (Sinisa Aljinovic via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Liberian-flagged cargo ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sank Wednesday in the Red Sea, and a European naval force in the Mideast said only six of the 25 people who were on board have been rescued.

The attack on the Eternity C, which also killed at least three of the crew, represents the most serious assault carried out by the Houthis in the crucial maritime trade route where $1 trillion in cargo once passed through annually.

From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones in a campaign the rebels describe as supporting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. The Iranian-backed rebels stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The attack on the Eternity C, as well as the sinking of the bulk carrier Magic Seas in another attack Sunday, raise new questions about the Red Sea’s safety as ships had slowly begun returning to its waters. Meanwhile, a new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war — as well as the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program — remain in the balance.

“We are now with grave concern seeing an escalation in the Red Sea with attacks on two commercial ships earlier this week by Ansar Allah, resulting in civilian loss of life and casualties as well as the potential for environmental damage,” warned United Nations special envoy Hans Grundberg, using another name for the rebels.

6 of 25 on board have been rescued

A statement from the European Union naval mission in the Red Sea said the crew of the ship included 22 sailors, among them 21 Filipinos and one Russian, as well as a three-member security team. Those rescued were five Filipinos and one Indian.

Three people also were killed during the hourslong attack on the ship, the EU force said, and their nationalities were not immediately known.

The armed rebels had attacked the ship with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, later using two drones and two drone boats carrying bombs to strike the vessel, the EU force said. The Eternity C sank at 7:50 a.m. Wednesday, it added.

The ship, flagged out of Liberia but owned by a Greek firm, likely had been targeted like the Magic Seas over its firm doing business with Israel. Neither vessel apparently requested an escort from the EU force.

The U.S. military has two aircraft carriers in the Mideast, the USS Nimitz and the USS Carl Vinson, but both likely are in the Arabian Sea, far from the site of the attacks. There are two American destroyers believed to be operating in the Red Sea. However, the ships attacked had no U.S. ties and a ceasefire between the Houthis and America announced after the bombing campaign earlier this year still appears to be holding.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack in a prerecorded message Wednesday night as the EU force acknowledged it was still searching for those onboard with private industry rescuers.

The Houthis later released footage of them launching missiles at the Eternity C. The bridge appeared heavily damaged by the attack and oil leaked from the vessel. The ship took on water from holes along its waterline before sinking beneath the waves, the rebels chanting: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The Houthis released a similar video after their attack on the tanker Sounion in August 2024 and on Tuesday from their attack on the Magic Seas.

Attacks draw condemnation and support for sailors

In the Philippines, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac said he has been leading an effort to reach out to the families of the missing Filipino sailors to update them on the search and rescue efforts.

“It’s human nature that one should be terribly worried and distraught about the situation,” Cacdac told The Associated Press by telephone. “It’s our role in government to be there for them in their utmost hour of need to ensure that not just government services but throughout this hand-holding process, we will provide the necessary support.”

The attacks on the ships drew international condemnation.

“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “The United States has been clear: We will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks.”

The EU force earlier said one of the wounded crew lost his leg.

Grundberg, the U.N. envoy, also decried the targeting of civilian infrastructure after Israel bombed three Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen over the weekend and hit a power station.

“Yemen must not be drawn deeper into regional crises that threaten to unravel the already extremely fragile situation in the country,” he warned during an address to the Security Council.

Satellite photos show damage from an Israeli strike

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed new damage at Yemen’s rebel-controlled port at Hodeida after it was targeted by the Israeli airstrikes. The images from Planet Labs PBC showed new portions of the pier at the port torn away by Israeli bombing, likely to affect the unloading of cargo there.

In conducting the strikes, Israel said the Houthis used the port to smuggle military equipment into the country, a growing worry of analysts and Yemen watchers in recent years. Hodeida is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis.

Jamal Amer, a Houthi official, reportedly said Wednesday that shipments continue to arrive “smoothly” to Hodeida. In comments published by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite channel, Amer also said that damage at the port ”directly affects civilians and is a disgrace to the United Nations, which is complicit in these crimes through its suspicious silence.”

Yemen’s war began when the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government considered trying to retake Hodeida by force in 2018, but ultimately decided against it as international criticism and worries about the port being destroyed grew.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A sign is seen outside of Seminole Hospital District offering measles testing, Feb. 21, 2025, in Seminole, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

(AP) The U.S. is having its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, and the year is only half over.

The national case count reached 1,288 on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though public health experts say the true figure may be higher.

The CDC’s count is 14 more than 2019, when America almost lost its status of having eliminated the vaccine-preventable illness — something that could happen this year if the virus spreads without stopping for 12 months. But the U.S. is far from 1991, when there were 9,643 confirmed cases.

In a short statement, the federal government said that the CDC “continues to recommend (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines as the best way to protect against measles.” It also said it is “supporting community efforts” to tamp down ongoing outbreaks as requested.

Fourteen states have active outbreaks; four other states’ outbreaks have ended. The largest outbreak started five months ago in undervaccinated communities in West Texas. Three people have died — two children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico — and dozens of people have been hospitalized across the U.S.

But there are signs that transmission is slowing, especially in Texas. Lubbock County’s hospitals treated most of the sickest patients in the region, but the county hasn’t seen a new case in 50 days, public health director Katherine Wells said.

“What concerned me early on in this outbreak was is it spreading to other parts of the United States, and that’s definitely what’s happening now,” she said.

In 2000, the World Health Organization and CDC said measles had been eliminated from the U.S. The closer a disease gets to eradication, the harder it can seem to stamp it out, said Dr. Jonathan Temte, a family physician in Wisconsin who helped certify that distinction 25 years ago.

It’s hard to see measles cases break records despite the widespread availability of a vaccine, he added. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and is 97% effective at preventing measles after two doses.

“When we have tools that can be really helpful and see that they’re discarded for no good reason, it’s met with a little bit of melancholy on our part,” Temte said of public health officials and primary care providers.

Wells said she is concerned about continuing vaccine hesitancy. A recent study found childhood vaccination rates against measles fell after the COVID-19 pandemic in nearly 80% of the more than 2,000 U.S. counties with available data, including in states that are battling outbreaks this year. And CDC data showed that only 92.7% of kindergarteners in the U.S. had the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the 2023-2024 school year, below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks.

State and federal leaders have for years kept funding stagnant for local public health departments’ vaccination programs that are tasked with reversing the trend. Wells said she talks with local public health leaders nationwide about how to prepare for an outbreak, but also says the system needs more investment.

“What we’re seeing with measles is a little bit of a ‘canary in a coal mine,’” said Lauren Gardner, leader of Johns Hopkins University’s independent measles and COVID-19 tracking databases. “It’s indicative of a problem that we know exists with vaccination attitudes in this county and just, I think, likely to get worse.”

Currently, North America has three other major measles outbreaks: 2,966 cases in Chihuahua state, Mexico, 2,223 cases in Ontario, Canada and 1,246 in Alberta, Canada. The Ontario, Chihuahua and Texas outbreaks stem from large Mennonite communities in the regions. Mennonite churches do not formally discourage vaccination, though more conservative Mennonite communities historically have low vaccination rates and a distrust of government.

In 2019, the CDC identified 22 outbreaks with the largest in two separate clusters in New York — 412 in New York state and 702 in New York City. These were linked because measles was spreading through close-knit Orthodox Jewish communities, the CDC said.

(File Photo of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA)  A man from Pittsburgh is accused of stealing hundreds of identities to make over $100,000 online from Giant Eagle and Lowes stores in four Pennsylvania counties and Beaver County. Police took thirty-three-year-old Cornelius P. Tucker into custody on July 3rd, 2025. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office confirms Tucker resold products on a Facebook page called “Pittsburgh Stamps” after buying them. Home security products, power tools and other items were bought by Tucker and then he went to pick up these items from some stores located in Allegheny, Beaver, Crawford, Washington and Westmoreland counties. 200 counts of felony identity theft and charges that are releated to those counts are the charges that Tucker is facing. According to court documents, Tucker is in the Allegheny County Jail with a $250,000 bail that he was unable to post.

(File Photo of Deer Approaching Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Governor Josh Shapiro signed House Bill 1431 on Wednesday, which means that Pennsylvanians will be able to hunt on more Sundays during the year. The law about Pennsylvanians only being able to hunt on Sundays that the board of commissioners from the Pennsylvania Game Commission picks has been repealed. The executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission Stephen Smith said that forty-seven states other than Pennsylvania had more chances to hunt on Sundays before House Bill 1431 was signed.