President Joe Biden attends the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton, Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is out to win votes by scoring some laughs at the expense of Donald Trump, unleashing mockery with the goal of getting under the former president’s thin skin and reminding the country of his blunders.

Like a comic honing his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and expanding his jokes over the past few weeks. It started with jabs about his Republican opponent’s financial problems, and now Biden regularly pokes fun at Trump’s coiffed hair, his pampered upbringing and his attempt to make a few extra bucks by selling a special edition of the Bible.

The jokes are the latest attempt to crack the code on how to clap back at Trump, whose own insult comedy schtick has redrawn the boundaries of what is acceptable in modern politics. Few have had much luck, whether they try to take the high road or get down and dirty with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

“This is a constant challenge,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. Trump is “not someone who plays by the rules. So it’s up to Biden to figure out how to adapt and play by new rules of engagement.”

So far, Biden has been trying to thread a delicate needle to boost his chances of a second term. He uses humor to paint Trump as a buffoon unworthy of the Oval Office, but the president stops short of turning the election into a laughing matter.

Sometimes he finds that a few jokes can energize an audience even more than a major policy victory and draw precious attention away from an opponent who otherwise commands the spotlight even while stuck in a New York courtroom for his first criminal trial.

The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. After years of Trump constantly needling Biden as “sleepy” and mocking his age (Biden is 81, Trump is 77), Biden lobbed the insult back after Trump appeared to doze off in court. Trump’s campaign disputed that he was asleep, and with no video camera in place and trained on him there’s no way of knowing for sure.

Still, Biden nicknamed his rival “Sleepy Don,” adding, “I kind of like that. I may use it again.”

”Of course the 2024 election’s in full swing and, yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old.”

Trump didn’t seem to appreciate the ribbing, posting on his social media platform that the dinner was “really bad” and Biden was “an absolute disaster.”

But jokes at the annual black-tie affair, which also features a professional comedian (this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), are nothing new. The real meat of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he devotes a few moments to taking digs at Trump in between recitations of policy proposals and legislative accomplishments.

“Remember when he was trying to deal with COVID? He suggested: Inject a little bleach in your vein,” Biden said Wednesday to a labor union, describing Trump’s guidance from the White House during the pandemic. “He missed. It all went to his hair.”

In Tampa, Florida, the day before, he assailed Trump for the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned abortion protections — with three justices nominated by Trump voting in the majority of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — and then pivoted to the former president’s hawking of a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible.

“He described the Dobbs decision as a ‘miracle,’” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell. Whoa. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it.”

Biden rarely references Trump’s court cases, but jokes about financial problems that began soon after the former president was ordered to pay $454 million in a civil case in New York.

“Just the other day,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Dallas last month, “a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, I need your help. I’m being crushed with debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ I had to say, ‘Donald, I can’t help you.’”

Even when Biden tries his hand at humor, he rarely strays far from talking about policies. He likes to note that he signed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law — after his opponent failed to do so despite repeatedly holding White House events to drum up support for an idea that never materialized.

“He promised ‘Infrastructure Week’ every week for four years and never built a damn thing,” Biden said this month to a group of laughing union members.

The dilemma is that Trump, who tells voters the whole American political system is hopelessly corrupt, can get away with name-calling that would backfire on other candidates. During his rallies, Trump imitates Biden as a feeble old man who cannot find the stairs after giving a brief speech, and he calls the president “crooked” and “a demented tyrant.”

The Republican’s campaign said the insults will only intensify as Biden tries to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said Biden is “shuffling his feet like a short-circuited Roomba,” referring to the robot vacuum, while failing to address the “out-of-control border” and “runaway inflation.”

Rick Tyler, who worked on the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2016, said voters have a double standard because expectations are different for Trump, who first became famous as a real estate developer and the star of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

“Celebrities don’t really have standards, and Trump is in that lane,“ Tyler said. For a politician going up against Trump, “it’s like trying to play a sport with the wrong equipment.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., found that out the hard way in the Republican primary in 2016. After Rubio joked about Trump having “small hands” — suggesting that another part of him was small, too — Trump swung back by saying, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”

“Nobody has ever beaten Trump by getting in the ring with him,” said Alex Conant, communications director for Rubio’s campaign.

Karen Finney, who advised Democrat Hillary Clinton in her 2016 White House run, said Trump can bait opponents into “communicating on his terms, not your terms.”

“It’s the kind of thing where you have to have a balance,” she said. “You could spend all day just responding.”

But if Trump’s humor is blunt, Biden sometimes tries to get the most mileage by staying subtle. During a Pittsburgh stop earlier this month, Biden spoke elliptically about Trump’s trial, betting his audience was already in on the joke.

Trump, he said, is “a little busy right now.”

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — U.S. police departments have reported a year-over-year increase in sworn officers for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd. A survey released by the Police Executive Research Forum shows more officers were hired in 2023 than in any of the previous four years. It also notes there were fewer retirements and resignations of officers among the 214 law enforcement agencies that responded. Forum Executive Director Chuck Wexler says departments appear to be turning the corner on hiring but aren’t out of the woods yet. Departments saw an exodus of officers after the pandemic and Floyd’s 2020 death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board.

A quarter-mile ahead, the truck’s sensors spotted a trash can blocking one lane and a tire in another. In less than a second, it signaled, moved into the unobstructed lane and rumbled past the obstacles.

The self-driving semi, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks.

Within three or four years, Aurora and its competitors expect to put thousands such self-driving trucks on America’s public freeways. The goal is for the trucks, which can run nearly around the clock without any breaks, to speed the flow of goods, accelerating delivery times and perhaps lowering costs. They’ll travel short distances on secondary roads, too.

The companies say the autonomous trucks will save on fuel, too, because they don’t have to stop and will drive at more consistent speeds. Also, Aurora says its testing has shown that if a maintenance issue arises while one of its trucks is traveling on a freeway, the vehicle will automatically pull to the side of the road and remotely call for assistance.

The image of a fully loaded, 80,000-pound driverless truck weaving around cars on a super-highway at 65 mph or more may strike a note of terror. A poll conducted in January by AAA found that a decisive majority of American drivers — 66% — said they would fear riding in an autonomous vehicle.

But in less than nine months, a seven-year science experiment by Aurora will end, and driverless trucks will start carrying loads between terminals for FedEx, Uber Freight, Werner and other partners. Aurora and most of its rivals plan to start running freight routes in Texas, where snow and ice are generally rare.

For years, it seemed as though the initial venture for autonomous vehicles would be ride hailing in large cities. But General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit is struggling in the aftermath of a serious crash. And Alphabet’s Waymo faces opposition to expanding its autonomous ride service in California. The result is that self-driving trucks are poised to become the first computer-controlled vehicles deployed in widespread numbers on public roads.

The vehicles have drawn skepticism from safety advocates, who warn that with almost no federal regulation, it will be mainly up to the companies themselves to determine when the semis are safe enough to operate without humans on board. The critics complain that federal agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, take a generally passive approach to safety, typically acting only after crashes occur. And most states provide scant regulation.

But Aurora and other companies that are developing the systems argue that years of testing show that their trucks will actually be safer than human-driven ones. They note that the vehicles’ laser and radar sensors can “see” farther than human eyes can. The trucks never tire, as human drivers do. They never become distracted or impaired by alcohol or drugs.

“We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora’s CEO and formerly head of Google’s autonomous vehicle operations. “And to do that, we have to be safe. It’s the only way that the public will accept it. Frankly, it’s the only way our customers will accept it.”

Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies vehicle automation safety, said he agreed that self-driving trucks can theoretically be safer than human-driven ones — for the very reason that they lack drivers who might become distracted or impaired. But he cautioned that the vehicles’ computers inevitably will make errors. And just how the trucks will fare in real-world situations, he said, will depend on the quality of their safety engineering.

With billions of dollars in investments at stake, Koopman said, he wonders how the companies will balance safety decisions against cost concerns.

“Everything I see indicates they’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “But the devil is in the details.”

On the test track, reporters saw Aurora’s semis avoid simulations of road obstacles, including pedestrians, a blown tire, even a horse. But the trucks were running at only 35 mph (56 kilometers per hour) in a controlled environment with nothing unexpected happening. (The trucks are being tested with human safety drivers on Texas freeways at speeds of 65 mph (105 kph) or higher.)

On the track, the trucks spotted obstacles more than a quarter-mile away and acted immediately to avoid them. Urmson said the trucks’ laser sensors can detect people walking on a highway at night, far beyond the distance of headlights.

Since 2021, Aurora trucks have autonomously hauled freight over 1 million miles on public highways — but with human safety drivers in the cabs. There have been only three crashes, Urmson said, all of them caused by mistakes by human drivers in other vehicles.

The crashes turned out to be minor, with no injuries. And in each case, the company said, the Aurora truck was able to safely pull to the side of the road.

A federal database that started in June 2021 shows at least 13 crashes with other vehicles involving autonomous semis, including three involving Aurora. In all the cases, the crashes were caused by other vehicles changing lanes or rear-ending the trucks. Sometimes, human safety drivers took over just before the crash.

Aurora won’t compromise safety, Urmson said, even if ensuring it might delay the timetable for achieving a profit.

“If we put a vehicle on the road that isn’t sufficiently safe — that we aren’t confident in the safety of — then it kills everything else,” he said.

Last month, when Urmson displayed the trucks to Wall Street analysts in Pittsburgh, he said the publicly held company expects to turn a profit by late 2027 or early 2028. To meet that goal, Aurora must succeed in putting thousands of the trucks on the roads, hauling freight from terminal to terminal and collecting a per-mile charge from customers.

The company’s competitors — Plus.ai, Gatik, Kodiak Robotics and others — also plan soon to put driverless trucks on the roads hauling freight for customers. Gatik expects it to happen this year or next; the others haven’t set timetables.

Don Burnette, CEO of Kodiak, said freeways are a better environment for autonomous vehicles than congested cities where ride-hailing robotaxis have been running. There are fewer pedestrians, and fewer unexpected things happen. Still, there are higher speeds and longer braking distances.

In testing on highways with human backup drivers, Burnette said, Kodiak has never experienced a crash in which its trucks were at fault.

“At the end of the day,” Burnette said, “these trucks should be much safer than human drivers.”

Almost every year in the United States, a tractor-trailer plows into traffic that is stopped because of road construction, often causing deaths and injuries. By contrast, Burnette said, autonomous trucks pay attention all the time and are always watching 360 degrees.

Perhaps so. But at a Buc-ee’s mega convenience store and gas station along Interstate 45 about 35 miles south of Dallas, the prospect of driverless semis struck a note of fear.

“It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” said Kent Franz, a high school basketball coach in Chandler, Oklahoma, who was traveling to Houston for a wedding. “I’ve heard of the driverless cars — Tesla, what have you — and the accidents they’ve been having. Eighteen-wheelers? Something that heavy, relying on technology that has proven it can be faulty? Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me.”

Patti Pierce, a retired accountant from Plano, Texas, said she would be OK with the technology — in about a decade.

“I don’t want to be on the road with them right now,” she said. “I like the gadgets in my car, but I’m not sure the technology is good enough right now to have a truck that drives itself.”

No federal regulations specifically cover autonomous vehicles, Koopman of Carnegie Mellon noted. Most states have no such regulations, either. Koopman said the automated-vehicle industry has persuaded many states to bar local governments from enacting such regulations. The result, he said, is that the public must trust the companies that are deploying autonomous semis.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, both part of the federal Department of Transportation, lack authority to stop autonomous vehicles from going on the roads. If something goes wrong, though, they can require recalls or order trucks out of service.

“You can’t expect the government to protect you here,” Koopman said. “The company’s going to decide when they think they’re safe, and the only thing the regulator is going to do is judge them after the fact.”

For the past five years, the motor carrier administration has been preparing safety standards for trucks with automated driving systems. The standards will govern inspections, maintenance and the remote monitoring of the trucks. But it’s unclear when the rules will emerge from the regulatory process.

In the meantime, the autonomous semi companies say they can help address a truck driver shortage, estimated by the industry to amount to 64,000 drivers. Yet there also are worries that autonomous trucks eventually will supplant human drivers and cost them their livelihoods.

The Teamsters union, which represents about 600,000 drivers, most of them truckers, is pushing state legislatures to require human drivers to monitor the self-driving systems, contending that they are unsafe. A 2021 Transportation Department study concluded that the nationwide use of fully automated semis was years away, giving drivers time to transition to other transportation and logistics jobs that will be created.

Aurora’s Urmson said he thinks driverless semis will complement the work already done by human drivers, because many more goods will have to be moved for a growing population.

“If you’re driving a truck today,” he said, “my expectation is you’re going to be able to retire driving a truck.”

____

AP Business Writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas and AP Data Journalist Aaron Kessler from Washington.

HAMPTON TWP, PA – Yesterday, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) hosted a Social Security Town Hall with NAMS (Northern Area Multi Service Center) in the North Hills. He was joined by Max Richtman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), one of the nation’s most influential senior advocacy and education membership organizations. Several dozen constituents attended the Congressman’s event to hear updates from Washington and to ask questions about Social Security and Medicare.

“The way I see it: Social Security is an obligation this country makes to its hardworking people,” said Rep. Deluzio. “Social Security beneficiaries of today and tomorrow are all of us—our loved ones, family members, neighbors, and friends. More than 170,000 of my constituents receive Social Security, and many rely on these earned benefits to make ends meet. I stand firm in my commitment to protect and strengthen the promise of Social Security.”

“Twenty-one percent of this congressional district is over 65, so it’s critical that Western PA has a congressman who recognizes the value of Social Security and Medicare,” said Max Richtman, President and CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “These programs provide fundamental financial and health security for older constituents living on fixed incomes—and Rep. Deluzio will continue to protect them from cuts. We’re glad that Congressman Deluzio has cosponsored the Social Security 2100 Act, which would boost seniors’ benefits and strengthen the program for decades to come.”

ALIQUIPPA, April 26 – Nearly $1.2 million in new state funding is coming to bolster school security and expand resources for student mental health in the 16^th Legislative District, state Rep. Rob Matzie announced today.

Matzie, D-Beaver, said the competitive school safety and security grants awarded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will bolster resources for students and school staff throughout the region.

“Our kids deserve to spend their school days learning, developing confidence and discovering their abilities, and this new funding of nearly $1.2 million will ensure they do so in the safest, most secure environments possible,” Matzie said. “We have worked hard to help keep these grant programs well-funded because we know these dollars are going to support one of our most important priorities – ensuring students and school staff are safe and free to focus on the business of learning and teaching.”

Matzie said the grants – which include both school safety and mental health funding – include:

• $172,548 to Ambridge Area School District.
• $168,502 to Central Valley School District.
• $166,517 to Hopewell Area School District.
• $151,288 to Freedom Area School District.
• $150,426 to Aliquippa School District.
• $139,931 to Rochester Area School District.
• $74,500 to CLASS Academy.
• $70,000 to Beaver County Career and Technical Center.
• $70,000 to Baden Academy Charter School.
• $3,725 to Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit 27.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published April 29, 2024 11:35 P.M.

(Aliquippa, Pa) Shawn Dedominicis,35, and Karissa Brewer,32, of Aliquippa have been arrested by PA State Police in regards to the death of Rikiah Mahrquis Griffie, 23 of Aliquippa. The report was released on Friday, April 26, 2024. The remains were found on April 19, 2024 when Aliquippa Police responded and turned over the investigation to State Police.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published April 29, 2024 11:33 A.M.

(Ambridge, Pa) Nyeheam Kirksey, 18 was arrested in Mckees Rocks, PA Friday afternoon.  Kirksey was the second shooter that law enforcement sought in the murder of Asaun Moreland,15, in Ambridge in July 2023.

(File Photo of Scott Tady and Frank Sparks)

(Brighton Twp., Pa.) Tune into “The Beaver” 95.7 FM and 1460 WMBA AM at 7:00 AM for the debut of “The Beaver Morning Show” with Frank Sparks and Scott Tady, Entertainment Editor for the Beaver County Times.

The show will be an expansion of the show that Sparks and Tady came up with 8 years ago called “Notes on Local Entertainment”. The show ran on “The Beaver”  sister station WBVP and 99.3 FM up until the final show this past Thursday. The show will be expanded to 3 hours.

Curtis Walsh will join the pair at the bottom of each hour.

You can tune into the Beaver by tuning your dial 95.7 FM, 1460 WMBA, by going to our website beavercountyradio.com, or by downloading our free apps from the links below:

(File Photo of the Sewickley Bridge)

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is announcing the Sewickley Bridge (Route 4025) in Moon Township and Sewickley Borough, Allegheny County has reopened to traffic.

(File Photo of Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh)

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.)  A former resident of Clinton, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of possessing material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.
Roderick T. Long, 59, pleaded guilty to one count before United States District Judge J.
Nicholas Ranjan.
In connection with the guilty plea, the Court was advised that, on March 9, 2020, Long,
who had previously served a 121-month federal sentence of imprisonment for receiving material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, was found in possession of more than 500 videos and still images in computer graphics and digital files depicting the sexual exploitation of minors, many of whom had not attained the age of 12 years. The Pennsylvania State Police had obtained a search warrant for Long’s home, where they found the sexually exploitive material saved in his laptop
computer and cellular telephone.
Judge Ranjan scheduled sentencing for August 8, 2024. The law provides for a maximum total sentence of not less than 10 years and up to 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. Under the federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history of the defendant.
Pending sentencing, the Court ordered that Long remain in custody.
Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
The Pennsylvania State Police conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Long.