(Brighton Twp., Pa.) Recently some of the local school bus companies have purchased electric buses and it has become a hot topic in our area. DJ Frye., Owner of the Frye Transportation Group Inc., will be Eddy Crow’s guest on Teleforum Tuesday morning, February 13, 2024, at 10:10 AM to talk about the positives and negatives of electric buses and to give his opinion about them.

The phone lines will be open during the interview so that you can weigh in on the subject. The numbers to call will be 724-843-1888 or 724-774-1888. The interview will also be streamed live on our Facebook and YouTube channels.

https://www.facebook.com/beavercountyradio/

HOUSTON (AP) — A woman in a trenchcoat opened fire with a long gun Sunday inside celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Texas, sending worshippers rushing to find safety while two off-duty officers confronted and killed the shooter. Two other people were shot and injured, including a 5-year-old boy who was in critical condition.

The violence erupted shortly before the Houston church’s 2 p.m. Spanish service was set to begin, just as the rest of the country was preparing for the Super Bowl. The woman entered the enormous Lakewood Church – a building with a 16,000-person capacity that was previously an arena for the NBA’s Houston Rockets — with the boy who was later hurt in the shootout with police. A man in his 50s was also wounded.

Details of the confrontation remain unclear in the hours after the tragedy, and police have not released the woman’s identity or a possible motive. It’s also unknown what relationship, if any, the woman had to the boy, and who actually shot him and the man.

“I will say this,” Houston Police Chief Troy Finner told reporters during a news conference outside the church. “That female, that suspect, put that baby in danger. I’m going to put that blame on her.”

The boy was in critical condition at a children’s hospital, while the man was stable at a different hospital with a hip wound.

The shooting happened between services at the megachurch that is regularly attended by 45,000 people every week, making it the third-largest megachurch in the U.S., according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Osteen said the violence could have been much worse if it had happened during the earlier, larger 11 a.m. service.

Witnesses told reporters that they heard multiple gunshots. Christina Rodriguez, who was inside the church, told Houston television station KTRK that she “started screaming, ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’ ”and then she and others ran to the backside of a library inside the building, then stood in a stairway before they were told it was safe to leave.

Longtime church member Alan Guity, whose family is from Honduras, said he was resting inside the church’s sanctuary before the Spanish service as his mother was working as an usher when he heard gunshots.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom and I yelled, ‘Mom,’ ” he told The Associated Press.

The 35-year-old ran to his mother and they both laid flat on the floor and prayed as the gunfire continued. They remained there for about five minutes until someone told them it was safe to evacuate. Outside, Guity said, he and his mother tried to calm people down by worshiping and singing in Spanish, “Move in me, move in me. Touch my mind and my heart. Move within me Holy Spirit.”

Despite the chaos, Finner said the tragedy “could have been a lot worse” if the two officers had not “engaged” the woman when she opened fire. They had been working security at the church on Sunday, and Finner praised them for their quick actions.

The officers work for the Houston Police Department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, respectively. Both have been placed on protocol-mandated administrative duty.

After she was shot, the woman told police that she had a bomb, but authorities said no explosives were found when her vehicle and backpack were searched. First responders continued to search the megachurch for hours afterwards.

Osteen said Sunday that his congregation is “devastated.” He added that he would pray for the victims and for the woman who did the shooting and their families. It was not clear where he was at the time of the shooting.

“We’re going to stay strong and we’re going to continue to, to move forward,” he said during the news conference with police. “There are forces of evil, but the forces that are for us — the forces of God — are stronger than that. So we’re going to keep going strong and just, you know, doing what God’s called us to do: lift people up and give hope to the world.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement saying “our hearts are with those impacted by today’s tragic shooting and the entire Lakewood Church community in Houston. Places of worship are sacred.”

The church has grown tremendously over the past 25 years since Joel Osteen took over after his father’s death in 1999 and introduced an upbeat style of Christian televangelism that has captured a following of millions. His televised sermons reach about 100 countries. The elder Osteen founded the church in a converted feed store in 1959.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Photo/AP)

Author and Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance will be the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Day Dinner held by the Republican Committee of Beaver County on February 29.

Vance, who has served in the Senate since 2023 after rising to prominence with his 2016 book “Hillbilly Elegy” will be bringing his insights to those in attendance at the Fez in Hopewell.

The dinner will be held at 7:00 PM following a welcome reception, and tickets for the event are $50/piece. Pre-registration for the event is required, and RSVPs can be made by going to beavercountygop.com.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Europe advanced Monday after a quiet day in Asia, where most regional markets were closed for holidays.

Germany’s DAX added 0.4% to 16,990.02 and the CAC 40 in Paris also was up 0.4%, at 7,676.03. Britain’s FTSE 100 was nearly unchanged at 7,570.41.

The future for the S&P 500 was flat and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%.

In Asian trading, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 7,614.90 and the Sensex in India shed 0.6% to 71,159.98. Thailand’s SET gained less than 0.1% and in Jakarta, the benchmark gained 0.9% ahead of an election to be held on Wednesday.

With mainland Chinese markets closed for the week for the Lunar New Year, there was a dearth of market moving news in the region. Tokyo’s markets also were shut Monday, for a one-day holiday.

This week will bring an important update from the United States on consumer inflation expectations. On Thursday, Japan is due to announce its GDP growth for the last quarter of 2023.

The U.S. price data may not have a major impact on monetary policy, “However, the good news is that U.S. inflation probably decreased at the beginning of the year, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve may consider interest rate cuts in the coming months,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, finishing above 5,000 for the first time, at 5,026.61. It was the 10th record in less than a month for the index, which closed its 14th winning week in the last 15 to continue a romp that began around Halloween.

The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.2% to pull within 0.4% of its own all-time high, which was set in 2021. It closed at 15,990.66.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was a laggard, slipping 0.1% to 38,749 a day after it set a record.

Wall Street’s rally has been fueled by hopes that cooling inflation will lead the Federal Reserve to dial down the pressure by cutting interest rates.

Big Tech stocks did most of the market’s heavy lifting on Friday, as they’ve been doing for more than a year, in part on mania around artificial-intelligence technology. Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon were the three strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 after each rose by at least 1.6%.

Cloudflare was the latest company to soar after reporting stronger profit than analysts expected for its latest quarter. The cloud-services company jumped 19.5% after it said it signed both its largest new customer and its largest renewal ever, despite an overall economic environment that “remains challenging to predict.”

Profits have mostly been better than expected for the big companies in the S&P 500 this reporting season, which is roughly two-thirds finished. That has burnished optimism on Wall Street, but contrarians say it may have gone too far and carried stocks to too-expensive heights.

Traders are flowing into some riskier investments at a quick enough pace that a contrarian measure kept by Bank of America is leaning more toward “sell” now than “buy,” though it’s not at convincing levels. The measure tracks how much fear and greed are in the market, and it suggested buying in October when fear was at a convincing high.

In other trading Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 51 cents to $76.33 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 62 cents on Friday.

Brent crude, the international standard, lost 52 cents to $81.67 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 149.10 Japanese yen from 149.28 yen. The euro fell to $1.0775 from $1.0784.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid have made the Kansas City Chiefs a dynasty.

They’re already thinking three-peat.

First, they had to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions in 19 years.

Mahomes made sure of it, leading another super comeback on the NFL’s biggest stage in America’s showcase capital.

Mahomes threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman in overtime, and the Chiefs rallied to beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 on Sunday, becoming the NFL’s ninth repeat Super Bowl champs.

With pop star Taylor Swift watching boyfriend Kelce from a suite, the Chiefs captured their third title in five years, a run that puts them among the league’s greatest franchises.

“Well, you know the goal has always been to get three,” Kelce screamed on stage after sharing a kiss with Swift. “But we couldn’t get here without getting that two, and having that target on our back all year. … How about that. We get a chance to do it three times in a row.”

The NFL’s first Super Bowl in Las Vegas was a sloppy, mistake-filled affair that was mostly boring until the back-and-forth fourth quarter and OT. It was the second of 58 Super Bowls to be tied after regulation, and the first played under new overtime rules that ensured both teams got the ball.

The Chiefs (15-6) trailed 22-19 after Jake Moody kicked a 27-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime, but Mahomes rallied the Chiefs, completing another impressive comeback in a rematch of the Super Bowl four years ago.

Mahomes ran 8 yards on fourth-and-1 to keep the Chiefs’ chances alive and then scrambled 19 yards to set up the winning score, which came 14:57 into the extra period — just before what would have been the second OT.

“With all the adversity we’ve been through this season to come through tonight. … I’m proud of the guys,” said Mahomes, who earned his third Super Bowl MVP award. “This is awesome. Legendary.”

After he connected with a wide-open Hardman, the Chiefs ran on the field as red-and-yellow confetti fell onto the turf.

Mahomes and Reid are now halfway to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, who won six championships in 20 years together with the New England Patriots and were the most recent team to go back-to-back following the 2003-04 seasons.

The 28-year-old Mahomes becomes the fourth starting QB to win three Super Bowls — joining Brady, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman — and second-youngest.

“I am going to celebrate tonight, celebrate at the parade and then work my way to get back in this game next year,” Mahomes said. “I am going to do whatever I can to be back in this game next year. Three-peat.”

The most excitement in the first half came when a frustrated Kelce bumped Reid on the sideline, knocking the Chiefs’ 65-year-old coach a few steps back after teammate Isiah Pacheco fumbled inside the red zone during the second quarter.

“You guys saw that?” Kelce said. “I’m going to keep it between us unless my ‘mic’d up’ tells the world. I was just telling him how much I loved him.”

The action picked up after a crucial blunder by San Francisco’s special teams set up Mahomes’ 16-yard TD pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 13-10 lead.

Brock Purdy and the 49ers (14-6) answered but they couldn’t make enough plays, denying Mr. Irrelevant an opportunity to go from last pick in the 2022 NFL draft to Super Bowl champion.

“We have the offense to score touchdowns and I failed to put the team in position to do that,” Purdy said.

Niners wide receiver Jauan Jennings threw a TD pass and caught one, joining Eagles quarterback Nick Foles six years ago as the only players to do both in the Super Bowl.

After Moody’s 53-yard field goal gave the Niners a 19-16 lead with 1:53 remaining, Mahomes and Kelce went to work. Mahomes connected with Kelce for a 22-yard gain to set up Harrison Butker’s tying kick, a 29-yarder with 3 seconds left.

A holding call on Kansas City’s Trent McDuffie extended San Francisco’s opening drive of overtime and Purdy made key throws to drive the 49ers to the Chiefs 9. But San Francisco settled for a field goal.

Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and the Niners jumped ahead 10-0, but that’s no big deal for Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. They’ve trailed by 10 points in all three of their victories, including last year’s 38-35 win over Philadelphia.

Mahomes wasn’t at his best early and threw an interception. But with the game on the line, he was a magician once again. He finished 34 of 46 for 333 yards and two TDs.

The Chiefs were hardly dominant during the regular season and entered the playoffs as the AFC’s No. 3 seed. They won at Buffalo and at Baltimore in the postseason — the first road playoff games of Mahomes’ career — and entered the Super Bowl as 2 1/2-point underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

“The Kansas City Chiefs are never underdogs. Just know that,” Mahomes said.

They became the first team to win consecutive Super Bowls as underdogs; the Philadelphia Eagles were slight favorites a year ago.

The game turned when San Francisco’s Ray-Ray McCloud couldn’t scoop a punt that hit teammate Darrell Luter Jr.’s leg and the Chiefs recovered at the 49ers 16, leading to Mahomes’ go-ahead TD pass to Valdes-Scantling.

The Niners answered on the next possession with Purdy tossing a 10-yard TD pass to Jennings for a 16-13 lead. Moody’s extra point was blocked.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan gambled on fourth-and-3 from the Chiefs 15, passing up a chance for a tying field goal. Purdy hit George Kittle for a 4-yard gain and then found Jennings for the score.

Shanahan resorted to trickery for the only touchdown of the first half.

Jennings, a wide receiver who had never thrown a pass in an NFL game, tossed a 21-yard TD to McCaffrey. He was hit as he threw a wobbly pass across the field, but McCaffrey snagged it and sprinted to the end zone.

Shanahan fell to 0-2 as a head coach in Super Bowls and 0-3 overall, including a loss when he was offensive coordinator for Atlanta. That was the game in which Brady and the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 deficit to win in OT.

“When you go against guys like Tom Brady and Pat Mahomes, you never feel comfortable with a lead. Those guys are two of the best to ever play the game,” Shanahan said.

There were plenty of stars in the building as the NFL brought its biggest game to this gambling mecca — once a taboo idea. Jay-Z, LeBron James and Paul McCartney were among the celebrities in the crowd.

Post Malone sang “America the Beautiful,” Reba McEntire performed the national anthem and Usher electrified the crowd at halftime. He brought out a number of guests, including Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon and Ludacris.

Attendance was announced at 61,629 at the relatively compact Allegiant Stadium, the smallest crowd in Super Bowl history except for the pandemic game in Tampa, Florida, three years ago.

It didn’t start out well, but thanks to Mahomes, those fans ended up seeing one of the best Super Bowl finishes.

Fans will get to celebrate the Chiefs on Wednesday, Valentine’s Day. The Kansas City Sports Commission released the official route and timing late Sunday night, KMBC-TV reported. The parade will begin at 11 a.m.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The resignation of a Republican lawmaker in the previously deadlocked Pennsylvania House of Representatives has put the balance of power back to Democrats, ahead of a special election next week for another vacant position.

Rep. Joe Adams, R-Pike, resigned on Friday, saying previously that medical news had changed his focus.

“It has been an honor to serve you, the citizens of Pike and Wayne counties, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,” he said in a prepared statement. “Taking care of my family, understandably, must now be my priority. I will continue to work locally to help our community, its organizations, businesses and people.”

Adams’ resignation leaves the state House at a 101-100 Democratic majority. A Democratic resignation last year had the House deadlocked at 101-101, and a special election next week will fill that vacancy. Republicans control the state Senate, while Gov. Josh Shapiro is a Democrat.

Adams’ seat represents Pike and Wayne counties, in the northeastern part of the state. He won election in 2022 with about 63% of the vote over his Democratic challenger. Republicans have edged out their Democratic opponents in recent elections, with former President Donald Trump winning the area in 2020.

The resignation queues up another special election for the chamber, which will be scheduled as early as two months from now. Three special elections in the past year have determined party control of the chamber.

Next week’s special election in Bucks County, for a seat that has historically favored Democrats, will now either strengthen Democrats’ hold, or return the chamber to a deadlock until the election for Adams’ seat.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Speaker of the House said information about the election would be forthcoming.

(AP) Hershey is cautioning on its 2024 profit growth as the company contends with rising cocoa costs that are leading to higher prices for chocolate.

Cocoa futures prices have doubled over the past year and hit an all-time high of $5,874 per metric ton on Friday. Bad weather in West Africa is being blamed for damaging crop yields, which is pushing cocoa prices higher.

“The magnitude and pace of recent price increases seem to be unprecedented,” wrote Citi analyst Thomas Palmer.

With less than a week to go until Valentine’s Day, chocolate is on the minds of many consumers. But with inflation concerns still top of mind, many shoppers are pulling back on their spending and eyeing rising food prices cautiously.

Still, Hershey CEO Michele Buck is trying to ease consumers’ minds.

“Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business,” Buck said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call.

Hershey Co. anticipates its full-year earnings per share being relatively flat, partly due to higher cocoa and sugar costs.

Margins may also face some pressure.

“The confection business is going to bear the brunt of the margin impact due to cocoa,” Chief Financial Officer Steven Voskuil said on the call.

Hershey’s stock fell more than 2% Friday.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Photo/AP)

The Department of General Services Bureau of Vehicle Management (BVM) announced that 400 vehicles will be up for a public purchase at the February Commonwealth Vehicle Auction. The auction will take place on February 13th at 10 a.m. at Manheim Keystone Pennsylvania, 488 Firehouse Road in Grantville.

There will be a preview available on Friday, February 9th through the February 12th for people to see what cars they would like to purchase prior to auction day.

Some of the vehicles offered are 4-wheel drive SUVs, utility vehicles and pickup trucks from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, GMC, and Jeep. There is a pre-registration that is a mandatory procedure that must be completed before February 12th. 

To purchase a vehicle at the aution buyers must have certified funds in the forms of money order, cashier’s check, or certified check, made payable to “Manheim Keystone PA.” No cash will be accepted.

More information on this auction, registration information, payment conditions and a complete listing of vehicles is available on the DGS Auto Auction Information page.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro is taking the first step in what is shaping up to be a complicated, yearslong process to respond to a court decision that found that Pennsylvania’s system of public school funding violates the constitutional rights of students in the poorest districts.

A dominant feature of Shapiro’s budget plan released Tuesday seeks a $1.1 billion boost for public school operations and instruction. The 14% increase reflects recommendations produced last month by Shapiro appointees and Democratic lawmakers to fix the state’s system of school funding.

Those recommendations envisioned a seven-year process of ramping up to a funding increase of more than $6.5 billion a year that was a little slower and lighter on money than what had been sought by the school districts that won the landmark court case a year ago.

Still, Shapiro’s proposal represents a huge new sum for schools, and a significant step in an effort to ensure that every school district in Pennsylvania, no matter how poor, gets the amount of money necessary to adequately educate each student.

Much of it would be concentrated among the biggest and poorer districts, including many that educate large proportions of minorities.

However, getting even the first installment past the Legislature — to say nothing of six other annual installments through 2030 — is not guaranteed.

Republican lawmakers have signaled that they are unwilling to significantly spend down the state’s considerable reserves or raise taxes to fulfill the long-term funding schedule.

They have also avoided engaging in the question of how much more money for public schools is required to satisfy the court.

Instead, they have suggested using taxpayer dollars to send more students to private schools, talked about what sort of curriculum will improve test scores and questioned how to gauge the effectiveness of any spending increase.

Republicans — who hold a six-seat Senate majority — also maintain that the court didn’t explicitly say that the solution lies in more funding.

“We need to take a look at the educational opportunities we have in this commonwealth and get away from numbers,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said. “We have to get beyond just dollars and cents… and we have to talk about what is the return on the investment to the taxpayer.”

Democrats back Shapiro’s proposal, with Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, calling public school funding the “civil rights issue of our time.”

But neither Shapiro or Democrats have produced a plan to show how Pennsylvania will find billions more for schools if tax collections don’t pick up or the state’s reserves prove inadequate.

Pennsylvania became what researchers view as one of the most inequitable public-school funding states, in large part, by leaving a disproportionately large share of the bill to local taxpayers. It also has distributed state aid for the past three decades based on outdated or politically expedient formulas.

That often shortchanged growing or increasingly poor districts, making them more likely to have larger class sizes, less-qualified faculty and outdated buildings, textbooks, technology and curriculum, school officials say.

Of the nearly $1.1 billion that Shapiro proposed, $200 million is essentially meant to keep districts current with inflationary pressures.

The remaining $871 million is defined as the “adequacy” supplement designed to boost underfunded districts. It would be spread between 416 of the state’s 500 districts.

Philadelphia, the state’s largest district, would get $202 million, or 23%. After that, half of the adequacy money, just over $435 million, would go to 70 districts next in line for the largest proportional shares.

Those districts tend to be poorer, with an average household income of $53,000, versus an average of $63,000 in the rest of the state’s districts.

Those districts also tend to be larger — including Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem and Upper Darby — and tend to educate large proportions of minorities.

For instance, Black or Hispanic students are either a majority or a plurality in the 14 districts that would get the biggest slices of the money.

Public school advocates who supported the lawsuit hope that Republicans will sign on because their districts will benefit.

For instance, roughly half of the districts that get the biggest slices of money — such as Hazleton, Erie, Harrisburg, York, Lebanon, Central Dauphin and East Stroudsburg — are in Senate districts represented by Republicans.

Of the six plaintiff districts that sued the state, four — Lancaster, Greater Johnstown, Panther Valley and Shenandoah Valley — are also in Republican districts.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive Director of the Education Law Center, the nonprofit legal foundation that helped argue the winning case in court, said she hopes an unconstitutional school-funding system is enough incentive for lawmakers “to do the right thing.”