Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published February 19, 2024 1:39 P.M.

(East Palestine, Oh) President Joe Biden made a visit to East Palestine Friday afternoon over a year after the train derailment. Beaver County Radio was on scene as the presidential motorcade arrived to town. Taggart Road was lined with mostly anti-Biden and Donald Trump supporters, yelling expletives and holding signs while the president arrived. Biden went on to meet with East Palestine local officials and made a speech.

During his speech, the president blasted Norfolk Southern stating “Let me be clear. While there are acts of God, this was an act of greed that was 100% preventable,”. Biden also made a stop in Darlington Township to the fire department where he met with Beaver County officials. Beaver County Radio was not given access to either of the stops.

Beaver County Radio spoke with some locals in East Palestine on their opinions of Biden’s visit to the town. The most common answer was that “it’s too late”.

One man said “we don’t want him here, we don’t need him here, he’s late, he didn’t do nothing for us the first time, Trump showed up. It ain’t about Trump/Biden, it’s about help”.

Another man said “It’s just a shame, half the people in this town probably owe more on their house than what it’s worth now, something needs to happen to make it right.”

Congressman Deluzio, who met with Biden in Darlington, said he’s “grateful that the Biden Administration has been on the ground responding to Norfolk Southern’s toxic train derailment and providing federal resources since the beginning.

Photo/Video of Biden’s visit:

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published February 19, 2024 1:33 P.M.

(Beaver County, Pa) Governor Josh Shapiro was a guest on Beaver County Radio last week, when he made a comment suggesting he did not know who State Representative Josh Kail is. Shapiro was asked about Kail’s comments towards him, which included calling him a “California Democrat”. Kail responded Monday to the remarks made by the Governor.

“Look about a year ago, the governor and I worked together on the East Palestine train derailment situation. My office is right above his office in the capital, but what’s more concerning to me isn’t that he doesn’t remember who I am, what’s more concerning to me is that he doesn’t remember his own campaign promises, his campaign promise to cut taxes and his budget this year is adding new taxes.

He had a campaign promise to advocate for school choice, in his budget this year, he is actually cutting school choice measures across the commonwealth. In his campaign, he said now is not the time to enter into the regional greenhouse gas initiative. When in fact, his administration is appealing the decision to ensure that we stay in this initiative, which is essentially a carbon tax, an energy tax on all consumers in Pennsylvania. It’s concerning to me that the governor’s memory has lapsed to the point where he’s not going to be remembering his campaign promises.

But over the course of the next few months, we will make sure that he does remember them and hopefully we can get some of these initiatives done.”

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published February 19, 2024 11:24 A.M.

(Beaver Falls, Pa) The Chippewa Township Volunteer Fire Department reports they were called to a rollover motor vehicle accident Saturday.
The accident occurred on a ramp of  I-376 at Wallace Run Road.
Fuel was reportedly leaking from the rolled over truck but no injuries were reported.
State Police in Gibsonia, who patrols the Turnpike, is investigating the cause of the crash.

Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published February 19, 2024 11:22 A.M.

(Chippewa Township, Pa) Chippewa Township Volunteer Fire Department released a statement that they responded Saturday morning around 7am to a residential structure fire in Big Beaver.
Crews on scene reported a working chimney fire with extension to the exterior wall.
They say a quick knock down was made and damage was limited to the outside of the structure.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high court is taking a case to decide whether some automatic life sentences for those convicted of murder violate constitutional protections for defendants. The justices said Friday they will hear the appeal by Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing. Lee argues the state’s life-without-parole law violates prohibitions in the Pennsylvania and U.S. constitutions against cruel punishment. Pennsylvania law makes someone liable for murder if they participate in a felony that leads to death, and life with no possibility of parole is currently the state’s only possible sentence for those convicted of second-degree murder.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Eight days after the announcement of his budget proposal, Governor Josh Shapiro joined Mike Romigh on “The Live Mike” to talk about how the budget would benefit Beaver County and its surrounding areas.

One of the major focuses of Shapiro’s budget is education, and said that “no school district is worse off than they were last year” in regards to the funding they’ve received. Specifically, he stated that the new budget would create a 15% increase (~$2 million) for the Ambridge and Big Beaver Falls Area school districts.

“I think it’s also important to note the dollars aren’t just going into the bottom lines of school districts,” Shapiro told Romigh. “We’re investing in important things like meals for kids at school, mental health services for kids, [and] a new fund to rebuild schools that are crumbling or falling down.”

However, several Republicans in Congress have come against Governor Shapiro for this new budget plan, including several in Western Pennsylvania. One of the loudest has been State Representative Josh Kail (R-Beaver/Washington), who has labelled Shapiro as a “California Democrat” following the announcement of the budget proposal.

When Romigh brough Kail’s comments to the Governor’s attention, he responded slyly by stating “I don’t know who this person is” in regards to Rep. Kail.

“I get there are certain politicians in Harrisburg who love to just be against everything that I’m for, but that doesn’t actually solve any problems,” Governor Shapiro added. “What we need to do is find common ground on education and a whole host of other issues.”

One of the biggest issues that Shapiro has been dealing with over the course of his first full year as governor is the recovery of East Palestine, Ohio following the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3, 2024. Shapiro told Romigh that he is still “angry” at Norfolk Southern for their response, and that he wants to continue the fight to hold them accountable.

“We’re going to continue to do what we’ve done, which is testing our water, our air, and our soil,” Shapiro stated, adding that they will publish the results so that the public may know the effects of the train derailment in the current moment. The Governor is also pushing to help reimburse first responders who responded to the disaster, including a $1 million “community fund” for Darlington Township and Lawrence County.

The negotiations for Governor Shapiro’s budget begin on February 20.

CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling Pittsburgh Penguins will have to claw their way back into the playoff race without star forward Jake Guentzel.

The team placed Guentzel on injured reserve before Thursday night’s game at Chicago with an upper-body injury. Guentzel, whose 52 points are tied with captain Sidney Crosby for the team lead, will miss up to four weeks.

Guentzel did not play the final 10 minutes of a 5-2 loss to Florida on Wednesday night. Head coach Mike Sullivan said afterward that Guentzel was being evaluated.

The setback is the latest blow for reeling Pittsburgh, which entered Thursday riding a three-game losing streak while falling off the pace in the race for one of the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.

The Penguins were already playing without injured forwards Noel Acciari, Jansen Harkins and Matt Nieto, who are all on injured reserve.

Pittsburgh recalled forwards Jonathan Gruden, Vinnie Hinostroza and Valtteri Puustinen from their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to fill in.