PITTSBURGH, PA (May 1, 2024)…Educators will be loving it on National Teacher Appreciation Day next week. On Tuesday, May 7, McDonald’s will serve teachers a free Egg McMuffin and medium McCafé hot or iced coffee or a medium soft drink.

No purchase is required, teachers should show a valid school ID when ordering. There is a limit of one per person during breakfast hours only. The offer is available at the drive-thru and front counter.

“Local McDonald’s restaurants have supported educators for decades through initiatives like MAC Grants For Teachers, Arch Support and McTeachers’ Nights,” said Owner/Operator Toni Hower.  “Our Teacher Appreciation breakfasts will allow us to celebrate even more teachers this year.”

For more information about local McDonald’s restaurants, go to the local Facebook and Instagram pages: McDonald’s of Three Rivers.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published May 2, 2024 1:19 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) The Aliquippa City Council met Wednesday night. Fire Chief Dave Foringer’s last day of service will be July 2, 2024, due to him retiring.

The 48th Greek Food Festival will be held from Thursday, June 13 to Saturday, June 15, 2024 in front of the community center on Davidson Street.

The city is interviewing candidates for City Financial Officer Cheryl McFarland’s position . Cheryl is retiring.

Council’s next meeting is their work session on May 29, 2024 at 7 p.m. The next regular meeting is Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at 7 p.m.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania took a step Tuesday toward becoming the latest state to punish someone for using a Bluetooth-connected device to track someone without their permission.

The state House of Representatives voted 199-1 to approve legislation that would make using a tracking device to secretly track another person part of Pennsylvania’s laws against stalking. The crime would be punishable as a third-degree misdemeanor, or up to 90 days in jail.

The bill goes to the Senate, where a separate bill is pending that would make the crime a second-degree misdemeanor, or punishable by up to two years in jail.

Most states have a provision in state law that prohibits remote tracking, while others are adding it. Ohio is considering such legislation, Florida is increasing penalties for using such a device and Kentucky approved a new law last year.

Bluetooth-controlled devices made by various tech giants or digital apps installed on a mobile phone can secretly track the movements of another person.

The House bill’s passage Tuesday comes a few weeks after a federal judge denied Apple’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit contending that the tech giant hasn’t done enough to prevent stalkers from using its AirTag devices to track victims.

Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from lost keys to wallets and luggage.

But stalkers have also taken advantage of AirTags and similar tracking devices, and dozens of plaintiffs sued Apple in 2022, contending that AirTag users had stalked them. They said its safety features are inadequate and that Apple should have done more to protect victims after AirTags “revolutionized the scope, breadth, and ease of location-based stalking.”

Apple has condemned any malicious use of the product. It argued in court that it “took proactive steps” to deter misuse and that it shouldn’t be liable for damage caused by third parties.

Last year, Apple partnered with Google to set standards for fighting secret surveillance with tracking devices.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., says she’ll call a vote next week on ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Rep. Greene, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is forcing her colleagues to choose sides after Democratic leaders announced they’d provide the votes to save the Republican speaker’s job. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

‘WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll call a vote next week on ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Georgia Republican is forcing her colleagues to choose sides after Democratic leaders announced they’d provide the votes to save the Republican speaker’s job. Speaking outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Greene railed against Republican Party leaders and pushed back against public entreaties from Donald Trump and others to avoid another messy political fight so close to the November election. With Greene was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the few lawmakers to join her effort. They said Johnson isn’t up to the job. Johnson responded that the attempt to oust him is “wrong for the country.”

FILE – Mark Rudd, a leader of the student protest at Columbia University in New York City, is interviewed outside Low Memorial Library, background, April 25, 1968, which has been occupied by students since the previous day. Rudd said the purpose of the protest was to “hit at” what he claimed was the university’s policy of “racism and support for imperialism.” (AP Photo/File)

NEW YORK (AP) — College students taking up space and making demands for change. University administrators facing pressure to get things back under control. Police brought in to make arrests. At other schools: students taking note, and sometimes taking action.

Columbia University, 2024. And Columbia University, 1968.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration and subsequent arrests at Columbia that have set off similar protests at campuses nationwide these days and even internationally aren’t new ground for students at the Ivy League school. They’re the latest in a Columbia tradition that dates back more than five decades — one that also helped provide inspiration for the anti-apartheid protest of the 1980s, the Iraq war protests, and more.

“When you’re going to Columbia, you know you’re going to an institution which has an honored place in the history of American protest,” said Mark Naison, professor of history and African & African American Studies at Fordham University and himself a participant in the 1968 demonstrations. “Whenever there is a movement, you know Columbia is going to be right there.”

STUDENTS ARE AWARE OF THE HISTORY

It’s part of Columbia’s lore, students taking part in this month’s demonstrations point out — recognized by the school itself in commemorative anniversary programming and taught about in classes.

“A lot of students here are aware of what happened in 1968,” said Sofia Ongele, 23, among those who joined the encampment in response to this month’s arrests.

The end of an academic year was also approaching in April of that year when students took over five campus buildings. There were multiple reasons. Some were protesting the university’s connection to an institute doing weapon research for the Vietnam War; others opposed how the elite school treated Black and brown residents in the community around the school as well as the atmosphere for minority students.

After several days, Columbia’s president allowed a thousand New York Police Department officers to be brought in to clear most demonstrators out. The arrests, 700 of them, were not gentle. Fists were flying, clubs swinging. Dozens of students and more than a dozen officers were injured.

It’s never been forgotten history. That includes now, when pro-Palestinian students calling on the university to divest from any economic ties to Israel over the war in Gaza set up a tent encampment earlier this month and more than 100 were arrested. It helped spark similar demonstrations at campuses around the country and world.

The storied protest past is one of the reasons Ongele chose Columbia for college and came here from her native Santa Clarita, California. “I wanted to be in an environment where people were indeed socially conscious,” she said.

When it comes to protest, “We have not only the privilege but the responsibility to continue in the shoes of those who came before us,” Ongele said. The goal, she said: to ensure “that we’re able to maintain the integrity of this university as one that is indeed socially aware, one that does have students that do care deeply about what goes on in the world, what goes on in our communities, and what goes on in the lives of the students that make up our community.”

Columbia University officials did not respond to an email asking about the school’s position on the legacy of the 1968 events. Those events, like the current protest, “sparked a huge increase in student activism around the country,” Mark Rudd, a leader of that protest, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Myself and others spent the entire year after April 1968 traveling the country, spreading to campuses the spirit of Columbia.”

NOT EVERYONE SUPPORTS THE PROTESTS

But the echoes of the past aren’t only in inspiration. Then, as now, the protest had its detractors. Naison said the disruption to campus life, and to law and order, angered many at Columbia and outside of it.

“Student protesters are not popular people in the United States of America,” he said. “We weren’t popular in the ’60s. We accomplished a tremendous amount. But we also helped drive the country to the right.”

That has a corollary these days with those critical of the protests, who have condemned what they say is a descent into antisemitism. Some Jewish students have said they have felt targeted for their identity and afraid to be on campus and university presidents have come under political pressure to clamp down and use methods like police intervention.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik had just testified in front of a congressional panel investigating concerns about antisemitism at elite schools when the camp initially went up. Despite her requesting police action the next day for what she called a “harassing and intimidating environment,” Republicans in Congress have called for her resignation.

“Freedom of speech is so important, but not beyond the right to security,” said Itai Dreifuss, 25, a third-year student who grew up in the United States and Israel. He was near the encampment this past week, standing in front of posters taped to a wall of the people who were taken hostage by Hamas in the Oct 7 attack that set off the current conflagration.

That feeling among some students that personal animosity is being directed against them is a difference between 1968 and now, Naison said. That conflict between demonstrators and their decriers “is far more visceral,” Naison asserts, which he says makes this time even more fraught.

“It’s history repeating itself, but it’s also uncharted territory,” he said. “What we have here is a whole group of people who see these protests as a natural extension of fighting for justice, and a whole other group of people who see this as a deadly attack on them and their history and tradition. And that makes it very difficult for university officials to manage.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, The Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

The proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.

The agency’s move, confirmed to the AP on Tuesday by five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regulatory review, clears the last significant regulatory hurdle before the agency’s biggest policy change in more than 50 years can take effect.

Once OMB signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. It moves pot to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids, following a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department. After the public comment period and a review by an administrative judge, the agency would eventually publish the final rule.

“Today, the Attorney General circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III,” Justice Department director of public affairs Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement. The DEA is a component of the Department of Justice. “Once published by the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal rulemaking process as prescribed by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s signature throws the full weight of the Justice Department behind the move and appears to signal its importance to the Biden administration.

It comes after President Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in December. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

The election year announcement could help Biden, a Democrat, boost flagging support, particularly among younger voters.

Biden and a growing number of lawmakers from both major political parties have been pushing for the DEA decision as marijuana has become increasingly decriminalized and accepted, particularly by younger people. A Gallup poll last fall found 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 30% who backed it in 2000.

The DEA didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Schedule III drugs are still controlled substances and subject to rules and regulations, and people who traffic in them without permission could still face federal criminal prosecution.

Some critics argue the DEA shouldn’t change course on marijuana, saying rescheduling isn’t necessary and could lead to harmful side effects.

Jack Riley, a former deputy administrator of the DEA, said he had concerns about the proposed change because he thinks marijuana remains a possible “gateway drug,” one that may lead to the use of other drugs.

“But in terms of us getting clear to use our resources to combat other major drugs, that’s a positive,” Riley said, noting that fentanyl alone accounts for more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.

On the other end of the spectrum, others argue marijuana should be treated the way alcohol is.

“While this rescheduling announcement is a historic step forward, I remain strongly committed to continuing to work on legislation like the SAFER Banking Act as well as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which federally deschedules cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act,” Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement. “Congress must do everything we can to end the federal prohibition on cannabis and address longstanding harms caused by the War on Drugs.”

Federal drug policy has lagged behind many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use.

That’s helped fuel fast growth in the marijuana industry, with an estimated worth of nearly $30 billion. Easing federal regulations could reduce the tax burden that can be 70% or more for businesses, according to industry groups. It could also make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances.

The immediate effect of rescheduling on the nation’s criminal justice system would likely be more muted, since federal prosecutions for simple possession have been fairly rare in recent years.

But loosening restrictions could carry a host of unintended consequences in the drug war and beyond.

Critics point out that as a Schedule III drug, marijuana would remain regulated by the DEA. That means the roughly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S. would have to register with the DEA like regular pharmacies and fulfill strict reporting requirements, something that they are loath to do and that the DEA is ill equipped to handle.

Then there’s the United States’ international treaty obligations, chief among them the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which requires the criminalization of cannabis. In 2016, during the Obama administration, the DEA cited the U.S.’ international obligations and the findings of a federal court of appeals in Washington in denying a similar request to reschedule marijuana.

___

Goodman reported from Miami, Mustian from New Orleans. AP writer Colleen Long contributed.

FILE – People walk past the Art Institute of Philadelphia operated by the Education Management Corporation on Nov. 16, 2015, in Philadelphia. The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will cancel $6 billion in student loans for people who attended the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges that closed the last of its campuses in 2023 amid accusations of fraud. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will cancel $6 billion in student loans for people who attended the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges that closed the last of its campuses in 2023 amid accusations of fraud.

Saying the chain lured students with “pervasive” lies, the Education Department is invoking its power to cancel student loans for borrowers who were misled by their colleges.

“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The Education Department will automatically erase loans for 317,000 people who attended any Art Institute campus between Jan. 1, 2004, and Oct. 16, 2017.

In total, the Democratic administration says it has approved the cancellation of almost $160 billion in student loans through a variety of existing programs. Among that total, $28.7 billion has been canceled for those who were cheated by their colleges or went to campuses that suddenly closed.

The department says it’s taking action after reviewing evidence from the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Iowa and Pennsylvania, which previously investigated complaints of fraud and sued the for-profit chain.

According to the department’s findings, the chain misled students about the success of graduates and about employment partnerships that would help students find jobs.

The chain told prospective students that more than 80% of graduates found jobs in their fields of study, but that was largely based on doctored data, the Education Department said. The true employment rate was below 57%.

Campuses also advertised graduate salaries that were based on fabricated data and included extreme outliers to make averages look better, the department said.

One campus included the annual salary of tennis star Serena Williams to skew the average salary, investigators found. Williams studied fashion at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The chain’s tactics led borrowers to borrow high amounts of debt for programs that didn’t pay off, the department said.

“The Art Institutes preyed on the hopes of students attempting to better their lives through education,” said Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office. “We cannot replace the time stolen from these students, but we can lift the burden of their debt.”

On Wednesday, the Education Department will start emailing borrowers who will get their loans canceled. They won’t need to take any action, and payments already made on the loans will be refunded.

At its height, the chain had dozens of campuses across the country, including in New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. It was operated for decades by Education Management Corp., which collapsed in 2018 after years of legal trouble.

The company reached a $95.5 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2015 over allegations of illegal recruiting tactics. Soon after, it began closing campuses and later sold the remainder to another company.

The final eight campuses were shuttered last year.

The Biden administration has continued to cancel student loans through several existing programs even as it pursues a wider plan for one-time cancellation. That plan is a follow-up to one that the Supreme Court rejected last year.

HARRISBURG, May 1 – The House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee yesterday approved H.B. 1615, which would set energy efficiency and water conservation standards for new residential and commercial appliances sold in Pennsylvania, state Rep. Rob Matzie announced.

 

“This is a good, commonsense bill that will benefit consumers,” Matzie said. “Nobody has to replace anything, nobody has to buy anything, nothing is banned. Appliances meeting these standards are already on the market and competitively priced. Implementing the standards for new appliances sold here in Pennsylvania could save consumers nearly $250 million annually on their utility bills by 2030.”

 

The bill passed by a vote of 17-8.

 

The committee also heard testimony on H.B. 1977, which would require businesses to clearly post notice of any surcharges on credit and debit card transactions in a location easily visible to consumers, and H.B. 2186, which would help protect consumers from gift card scams by requiring retailers to post signs warning consumers about these scams and train employees on how to identify and respond to gift card fraud.

“Today’s hearing was an important consumer protection hearing addressing fees when it comes to using your credit or debit card at a point of sale as well as the gift card scams that are happening, not only here in Pennsylvania, but throughout the country,” Matzie said. “We heard testimony from the Attorney General and Pennsylvania retailers and also heard from the bills’ prime sponsors. We believe we have two pieces of legislation that make sense conceptually. We still have some work to do, but we think we can get them both across the finish line.”

CARNEGIE, PA – Today, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) announced that he secured a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the work to be conducted at the Montgomery Locks and Dam. His effort makes sure that the expected 28,000 construction jobs created there will be solid, union Western Pennsylvania jobs. Pennsylvania’s biggest discretionary-funded recipient of federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Montgomery Locks and Dam project in Beaver County along the Ohio River is a critical part of the regional and national economy, transporting around 20 million tons of goods through the river system each year.

As defined by the United States Department of Labor, a Project Labor Agreement is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement negotiated between construction unions and construction contractors that establish the terms and conditions of employment for construction projects. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $857 million from the Infrastructure Law to upgrade the Ohio River Locks and Dam system but was not initially following President Biden’s Executive Order to require PLAs for all federally funded projects of more than $35 million or more. When Congressman Deluzio heard there was no PLA requirement in bidding out work for the massive Montgomery Locks and Dam project in his congressional district, he jumped into action, coordinating with the Army Corps, the Biden Administration, and local unions to require a PLA for all of the work on this project. An agreement was finalized on February 22, 2024.

“I’m proud that I secured a Project Labor Agreement requirement for the work at the Montgomery Locks and Dam project, protecting the more than 28,000 expected construction jobs so that they are solid, union, Western Pennsylvania jobs,” said Rep. Deluzio. “When I heard from workers and unions that the work for the project was being bid without a PLA, I knew we had to act to protect jobs here in Western Pennsylvania. Ultimately, we got the Army Corps of Engineers to bid this project out with a strong PLA. This means worker protections and solid pay for workers right around here in Western Pennsylvania—and it also means high-quality craftsmanship on the job. I am so proud that the Biden Administration is helping us make sure that we’ll have good, solid union jobs here in Western Pennsylvania, doing this important work.”

“We have a chance to lift people and communities up, through workforce development, through Project Labor Agreements, and through union jobs,” said Steve Mazza, Council Representative at Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. “When we found out that President Biden’s Executive Order requiring that all large projects funded from the Infrastructure Law have a PLA in place wasn’t being followed at the Montgomery Locks and Dam site, the Carpenters connected with Congressman Deluzio who immediately got involved. He was a great help with this, and it is largely thanks to Congressman Deluzio that we now have this PLA in place to ensure that the project is done on time and that it will bring more jobs and more opportunities to working people in Beaver County.”

Locks and dams are critical to waterway commerce and transportation. Activity at the Upper Ohio River, where the Montgomery Locks and Dam are located, is valued at more than two billion dollars annually. Built in the 1930s, the Montgomery Locks and Dam requires modernization and maintenance to meet the demands of modern waterway transportation, and even a one-year closure would cost the U.S. economy nearly $180 million and would require more than 100,000 rail cars or 400,000 trucks to augment the load that would have passed on the rivers. The Upper Ohio Navigation Project seeks to make the necessary maintenance and modernization improvements without interrupting operations. This project also expects to bring more than 28,000 jobs to the region during construction and will continue to support 5,300 long-term jobs after the project concludes.

Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Nancy A. Walker today announced a new Shapiro Administration initiative to make the process of applying for Unemployment Compensation (UC) benefits even more accessible to Pennsylvanians who have lost a job through no fault of their own.

 

Pennsylvania’s system for filing UC claims uses numerous fraud-detection measures, including virtual identity verification vendor ID.me to verify the identities of all new UC applicants. With grant funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, L&I has installed kiosks at 17 PA CareerLink® locations and 29 UPS locations throughout the Commonwealth to help Pennsylvanians navigate the ID.me process. By July, ID.me kiosks will be available in all PA CareerLink® locations.

 

“These kiosks are a lifeline for folks who don’t have internet access or who need a little extra help navigating online systems,” Secretary Walker said. “This is another way the Department is making identity verification accessible for underserved populations — or for someone who simply wants in-person assistance.”

 

The new kiosks are designed to enhance and improve the accessibility of the identity verification process, which claimants can still complete from their home computer or mobile phone should they choose to do so. For most claimants, the self-service identity verification options take fewer than 10 minutes to complete.

 

The kiosks are free to use and require no appointment. The kiosks allow claimants to bring physical documents to the location and skip the step of scanning a photo. For individuals who share a phone with others, the kiosks make the process of verification much easier.

 

All locations with kiosks have trained personnel on site who know how to help a claimant navigate the ID.me verification process.

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
When he took office, Governor Josh Shapiro promised to make overhauling the UC system a priority and directed L&I to focus first on resolution of the pandemic-era backlog – a workload of 40,000 remaining claims filed between March 2020 and November 2021 that each required individual examination and adjudication. Under Secretary Walker’s leadership, the entire backlog was eliminated within seven months.

With bipartisan support in the 2023-24 budget, L&I leveraged the Service Improvement and Infrastructure Fund (SIIF) to hire more than 380 additional UC interviewers to staff service centers and answer calls since January 2023. The impact of that investment is clear: wait times for phone assistance have decreased dramatically, and Pennsylvanians are once again receiving the efficient, timely customer service they deserve.

L&I distributed more than $1.7 billion in UC benefits in 2023 to about 326,000 Pennsylvanians – all of whom experienced the loss of a job or work hours through no fault of their own. 

In March 2024, L&I received 40,390 claims and distributed UC benefits totaling $192,068,334 to 116,447 eligible claimants.

In March, L&I served:

• 93,335 individuals through the UC helpline at 888-313-7284;
• 4,365 individuals through the UC Live Chat service;
• 16,690 individuals through email.

Since May 2023, UC staff have been answering most emails within 24 hours. 

Through the Department’s UC Connect program offering in-person customer service at PA CareerLink^® locations, L&I served 2,394 individuals in March for a total of 73,117 since the program’s launch in May 2022.

L&I reminds UC claimants of their responsibility to file weekly benefit certifications online or by using the Department’s touch tone telephone service, called PAT, at 888-255-4728 (en Español, 877-888-8104).