Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing bridge washing activities on the Shippingport Bridge (Route 168) in Shippingport and Industry boroughs, Beaver County, will begin Wednesday, June 26 weather permitting.

Single-lane alternating traffic will occur on the Shippingport Bridge which carries Route 168 over the Ohio River, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Tuesday, July 2. Crews from Green Acres Contracting will conduct the washing operation.

Motorists should be prepared for changing traffic patterns. Please use caution when driving through the area.  Work zone safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 25, 2024 1:57 P.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) The township commissioners approved the hiring of Logan Cantwell and Payne Nairn at Monday night’s regular meeting. The new full time officers were sworn in by District Justice Felicia Santillan. They will earn entry level pay and benefits in accordance with the police department’s collective bargaining agreement contingent upon them completing  pre-employment requirements. Cantwell said he is honored to work in the Hopewell Police Department. Payne stated he appreciates the opportunity to work for you, “We won’t let you down.”

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing daylight bridge washing activities on I-376 and Route 18 in Beaver County will occur Monday through Thursday, June 24-27 weather permitting.

Bridge washing operations requiring traffic shifts and lane restrictions will occur from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day in the following locations:

• I-376 at the Route 18 Monaca/Shippingport (Exit 39) interchange
• Route 18 (7th Avenue Bridge) over the Beaver River in the City of Beaver Falls and New Brighton Borough

Crews from Green Acres Contracting will conduct the bridge washing.

Motorists should allow extra time if traveling in the area.

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is advising motorists that line painting operations on various roadways in Allegheny and Beaver counties will occur Monday through Friday, June 24-28 weather permitting.

Work to repaint lines will occur daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the following locations:

​Allegheny County

• Interstate 279 (Parkway North) between I-579 in the City of Pittsburgh and the Camp Horne Road (Exit 8) interchange in Ohio Township
• Route 2059 (Long Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2064 (Lime Hollow Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2070 (Indiana Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2071 (Shannon Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2074 (Poketa Road, Hulton Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2078 (Hulton Road, Hamil Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2080 (Hunter Road, Plum Street) in Oakmont Borough and the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 2126 (Hamil Road) in the Municipality of Penn Hills
• Route 4042 (Wexford Bayne Road) in Franklin Park Borough
• Route 4061 (Franklin Road) in Pine Township
• Route 4065 (Hardt Road) in Hampton and Richland townships
• Route 4070 (Ingomar Road, Wildwood Road) in McCandless and Hampton townships
• Route 4086 (Pine Creek Road) in McCandless Township and Franklin Park Borough

Beaver County

• Route 68 between Rochester Borough and Butler County
• Route 288 between Lawrence and Butler counties
• Route 1016 (Harmony Road) in Daugherty Township
• Route 1022 (Marion Hill Road) in New Brighton Borough, and Pulaski and Daugherty townships
• Route 1026 (Reno Street) in Rochester Township
• Route 1028 (Big Knob Road) in New Sewickley Township
• Route 1029 (Concord Circle Road) in North Sewickley and Daugherty townships
• Route 1033 (Tulip Drive) in Daugherty and New Sewickley townships
• Route 1035 (Pittsburgh Road) in Daugherty and Rochester townships, and East Rochester Borough
• Route 1037 (Reno Street Extension) in Rochester and New Sewickley townships
• Route 1039 (Virginia Avenue) in Pulaski and Rochester townships

Roadway line painting is an important part of PennDOT’s highway safety initiatives. Paint lines provide direction, delineation, and guidance to motorists.

Generally, PennDOT is not responsible for paint on vehicles.

Motorists should use caution and be aware of changing traffic patterns when driving through the area.

MONACA, PA (June 24, 2024) — The Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC) will launch their first Free Little Library program on Thursday, June 27th at 6 PM est with a ribbon cutting ceremony at Monaca Riverfront Park (600 Atlantic Ave, Monaca, PA 15061).

“We believe that Beaver County children and youth deserve access to high-quality, age-appropriate education about the environment in order to thrive in the world they’re growing up in. This is why our Free Little Library program will focus on Environmental Education,” said Hilary Starcher- O’Toole, Executive Director of BCMAC.

The book-sharing box was created by Tyler Tournay of Hopewell Township with recycled materials and without the use of plastics. It will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day and is freely accessible to all, removing barriers to book access. “The Borough of Monaca was excited to host BCMAC’s first Free Little Library program at our riverfront playground. Having been recognized as a Gold Level Community by Sustainable Pittsburgh, our neighborhood fits perfectly with BCMAC’s vision to educate adolescents about their impact on the environment.  We look forward to supporting the youth who patronize our park and this library for years to come,” said Dave Kramer, Borough Manager of Monaca.

A fellow non-profit, Progress Thru Pages (PTP), donated the first round of books to the library. “Research shows that if a child chooses a book, they are likely to read it. The books we donated to BCMAC were chosen because they focused on nature and ecosystems illustrating the critical inter connectivity of our natural world and the action or inaction of people. We are pleased to partner with BCMAC in promoting literacy surrounding  the environment,” said Michele Knoll, Director of PTP.

BCMAC is still accepting donations to buy books and construct additional Free Little Library programs throughout Beaver County.

CORRECTS DATE FILE – A row of Pennsylvania Skill brand game terminals are open for play, Jan. 10, 2024, in Monaca, Pa. Pennsylvania’s highest court said Tuesday, June 18, 2024, that it will decide whether the cash-paying electronic game terminals that have become commonplace in convenience stores, bars and other businesses are unlicensed gambling machines. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s highest court will decide whether the cash-paying electronic game terminals that have become commonplace in convenience stores, bars and elsewhere are unlicensed gambling machines and, as a result, must be shut down.

The state Supreme Court said this week that it will consider an appeal by the attorney general’s office of a lower-court decision that found that what are often called skill games are based on a player’s ability — and not solely on chance, like slot machines and other traditional gambling games.

For years, the state has maintained that the devices are unlicensed gambling machines that are operating illegally and subject to seizure by police. Machine makers, distributors and retailers contend they are legal, if unregulated, games that are not subject to state gambling control laws.

The high court’s decision to take the case is a significant development that could set rules for years to come regarding how the machines are treated under the law, said Jeffrey Rosenthal, a Blank Rome lawyer representing Parx Casino in suburban Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania’s courts and lawmakers have wrestled for years with the legality of the machines. Similar legal fights are playing out in Texas, Virginia and Kentucky.

The court is wading into the legal fight as lawmakers discuss regulating and taxing the devices as part of their closed-door negotiations to finalize an annual budget ahead of the July 1 start of the new fiscal year

The Pennsylvania Lottery and the state’s casino industry oppose skill games and say they are losing revenue to them. Casinos pay a roughly 54% tax on slot machine revenue and say that is an unfair burden when the proliferating skill games pay nothing.

A total number of the skill game terminals remains hard to pin down, although the American Gaming Association estimated there are at least 67,000 in Pennsylvania, more than any other state.

“Thousands of substantially similar devices are cropping up in corner stores and bars throughout the state,” Attorney General Michelle Henry’s office told the court in a brief.

The agency’s lawyers said courts, government and private parties are looking for “clear guidance on the application of the relevant Pennsylvania statutes. Only this court can provide it.”

The court said it will determine whether electronic slot machines are illegal games-of-chance gambling devices if they are manufactured with “a so-called ‘skill’ element that is almost entirely hidden from view and is almost impossible to complete,” and how the term slot machines should be defined.

Commonwealth Court Judge Lori Dumas wrote last year that the first stage in playing the games in question “may be analogous to the experience that a slot machine offers.” But, Dumas wrote, they also include a memory game feature that distinguishes them from the common definition of a slot machine.

The case began in Dauphin County in 2019, when investigators with the state police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement took the Pennsylvania Skill-branded machines from Champions Sports Bar in Highspire, a few miles south of Harrisburg.

No one was charged with a crime, but Champions was issued an administrative citation. The bar and Capital Vending Company Inc., which owns the machines, sued to get the machines and money back.

A county judge ruled the machines and $525 in cash had to be returned. Commonwealth Court upheld that decision.

Chris Carusone, a lawyer who represents Champions bar, said the machines are integral to the bar and restaurant business sector in Pennsylvania. “They were a lifeline for these businesses coming out of the pandemic,” Carusone said Thursday.

The games allow players to reverse losses by completing memory challenges, which the attorney general’s office has described as involving a minimal element of skill.

The office wrote that the “Follow Me” skill portion “requires quite the eagle eye even to detect this feature, let alone to understand it, let alone to win anything by playing it.”

Bills to ban or regulate skill games are pending in the Legislature, and the skill game industry is urging lawmakers to regulate the machines, at least in part to protect them from seizure.

“These bills show the future of skill games is a public policy debate for the General Assembly, and not for this Court,” the bar and vending company’s lawyers argued in a Supreme Court brief.

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro were among the dignitaries marking the groundbreaking Sunday of a new structure replacing the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 worshippers were murdered in 2018 in the deadliest act of antisemitism in U.S. history.

Plans for the new complex include a cultural center, sanctuary, educational center and museum along with a memorial to the worshipers from three congregations who were murdered on the Sabbath morning of Oct. 27, 2018. The new design is by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, whose previous works include Jewish museums, Holocaust memorials and the master plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center after 9/11.

Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president, said his purpose on Sunday was to “send a message to the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, to the country, and to the world, that we must never forget what the poison of antisemitism can do.”

“We are turning what was once a tragic crime scene into a place of hope and inspiration – a place that is full of light,” said Emhoff, who has met previously with Tree of Life family members and survivors of the attack.

Survivors were among the speakers at the groundbreaking, including Tree of Life’s rabbi, Jeffrey Meyers.

“Today we announce, loudly and clearly, to the entire world that evil did not win — that it did not chase us from our home, and it never, ever will,” Myers said.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, reminded the audience that when he was sworn in as governor 18 months ago, one of the bibles on which he swore his oath was from the Tree of Life. To this day, that bible sits on his desk in the Capitol, he said.

“Far too many people in today’s world either ignore or failed to learn from the atrocities of the past,” Shapiro said. “The task of remembering requires us to stand up, speak out, and ensure that everyone in this country knows the stories of the 11 people who were murdered here – and the dangers of antisemitism.”

Much of the original synagogue complex, which had been unused since the shootings, was demolished earlier this year. The reconstruction is being overseen by a new non-profit organization, named Tree of Life. The building will include worship space for the historic congregation of the same name along with space for other activities.

The attack claimed the lives of 11 worshippers from Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life congregations, which shared space in the synagogue in Squirrel Hill, the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. Two worshippers and five responding police officers were also injured in the attack.

The attacker was sentenced to death in 2023 after being convicted on 63 counts, including hate crimes resulting in death.

“The end of our story is not victimhood, it’s about how we as Jewish people define ourselves and, out of the worst moments, our capacity to be resilient, to get up and to rebuild,” said Carole Zawatsky, chief executive officer of the Tree of Life non-profit organization overseeing the project in tandem with the congregation of the same name.

Organizers aim to have the project completed by the end of 2026, she said in an interview,

She said the project aims to honor the memories of the 11 who were killed and to combat the hatred behind such attacks.

“What we’re truly doing is looking at the root of all identity-based hate,” she said. “In a society where antisemitism is allowed to flourish, all forms of hate are allowed to flourish. It is an American problem.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

East Palestine Train Derailment (Curtis Walsh)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new federal rule finalized Monday aims to ensure first responders can find out what hazardous chemicals are on a train almost immediately after a derailment so they can respond appropriately.

Too often in past disasters like last year’s fiery Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, firefighters risked their lives trying to extinguish a blaze without knowing the right way to respond. The local fire chief in charge of the response said it took him 45 minutes to learn exactly what was in the 11 burning tank cars on the train, but some firefighters from neighboring departments that came to help said they didn’t know what they were dealing with until two hours after the Feb. 3, 2023, crash.

First responders need to know exactly which hazardous materials are on a train so they can look it up in the government’s official guidebook and make sure they have the right protective gear and firefighting tools, said Tristan Brown, deputy administrator of the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration agency that proposed the rule.

Knowing what chemical is involved and how much of it is aboard also affects how big of an evacuation zone might be required to protect the public.

“There are so many different types of hazardous materials being transported across the country on any given day — one in 10 goods that move across the United States — and each one, poses unique risks and hazards, certainly to the folks who are running towards a fire,” Brown said. “But certainly as well for anybody who may be living or working in that vicinity.”

The rule was published just one day ahead of the National Transportation Safety Board’s final hearing on the East Palestine derailment, where they will discuss exactly what caused that crash and recommend steps to prevent similar disasters.

Train crews have long carried lists of their cargo in the cabs of their locomotives, but in the middle of the chaos after a derailment those engineers and conductors, who might have moved their locomotives miles down the track, can’t always be found right away.

That’s part of why the largest freight railroads developed an app called AskRail roughly a decade ago that enables firefighters to quickly look up the details of what each train carries. But not every firefighter had the app, and cell phones don’t always have a signal strong enough to work in a disaster.

Regulators want the railroads to continue expanding access to that app, including to 911 centers, so information reaches first responders sooner. The railroads have been expanding access over the past year. The Association of American Railroads trade group estimates some 2.3 million first responders now have access to that information as a result of the effort to expand into dispatch centers.

The six biggest railroads also make train cargo information immediately available through the chemical industry’s hazardous materials hotlines in the U.S. and Canada known as the CHEMTREC and CANUTEC, emergency call centers.

But the new federal rule also applies to the hundreds of smaller railroads that aren’t involved in AskRail. Even railroads that only have one or two employees now must have a plan to get the crucial details of their cargo to the local fire department quickly, even if its as simple as having the fire chief’s cell phone number at the ready. Railroads also must test their plan at least once a year.

“In a hazmat incident, firefighters and first responders arriving on scene need to know what kind of hazardous materials are present so they can protect themselves and their communities,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

It’s not clear how this rule might have changed the outcome in East Palestine, but more information could have helped responding firefighters.

The derailment prompted a nationwide reckoning over railroad safety and prompted Congress to propose changes and regulators like Buttigieg to urge railroads to do more to prevent derailments.

The Federal Railroad Administration has issued various advisories about different aspects of railroad operations, but the reforms in Congress have stalled because Republicans wanted to wait for the final NTSB report and regulators have had only limited success making changes.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 24, 2024 12:33 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) A Sewickley man was arrested by PA State Police in Aliquippa. On June 4, 2024, Francis Smith, 48 of Sewickley was stopped for a traffic violation in the 600 block of Maratta Road. He was arrested for possible DUI and was in possession of cocaine. Charges are pending according to the state police report.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 24, 2024 12:30 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Aliquippa Police responded to a disturbance in the 300 block of Linmar Terrace Saturday around 9pm. Police identified a suspect as Damar Freeman, a black male with brown eyes, black hair with frosted dreads. He’s 6 foot 1 inch tall, and weighs approximately 150 pounds. He had an active warrant for his arrest for felony aggravated assault, and fled on foot from police.

Police are filing additional charges, according to the report for escape, for flight to avoid apprehension, resisting arrest, theft and other charges.

He is considered armed and dangerous and police say don’t attempt to apprehend him. Anyone with information is told to call 724-775-0880, or 9-1-1.