(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

A conciliation agreement has been reached between the U.S. Department of Labor and Michael Baker International to resolve allegations of gender-based pay discrimination.

According to the USDL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the company will be paying $122,299 in back wages following an investigation that found that the company was paying female professionals less than their male counterparts in similar positions.

The agreement also includes a full review and possible revision of the compensation system at Michael Baker, including making salary adjustments if there are any discrepancies.

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring Friday at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania, the scene of the country’s largest and best known Groundhog Day celebration in the United States.

The annual event is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s handlers, members of a club with roots in the late 19th century, reveal whether the groundhog has seen his shadow.

Just after sunrise Friday, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced Phil did not see his shadow, which will usher in early springlike weather. The groundhog seeing his shadow presages six more weeks of winter, according to the group.

Before the announcement, Punxsutawney Groundhog Club President Tom Dunkel told the crowd that a cane he held gave him the power to speak “Groundhog-ese” and that Phil would tell him which of two scrolls to use. At Dunkel’s direction, the crowd helped fire-up the groundhog with repeated chants of “Phil!” before a club member pulled the groundhog from a door in a stump on the stage and held it aloft.

Dunkel and other club members leaned over the stump where the groundhog sat before announcing that they had a decision.

Vice President Dan McGinley read the decision, written in verse, from the chosen scroll and announced, “Glad tidings on this Groundhog Day, an early spring is on the way!”

About 10,000 people have made their way in recent years to Punxsutawney, where festivities begin in the dead of night and culminate in the midwinter forecast. A bundled-up crowd, some wearing groundhog-themed hats, watched musical performances and fireworks as they waited for sunrise and the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro took the stage before Phil to urge people around the world watching the festivities to come to Punxsutawney next year. Shapiro also announced the famed groundhog is the new official meteorologist for Pennsylvania.

“Punxsutawney is the center of the universe right now and I love that you’re all here,” Shapiro said.

Phil predicts more winter far more often than he sees an early spring, not a bad bet for February and March in western Pennsylvania. A federal agency took a look at his record last year and put his accuracy rate at about 40%.

The tradition of celebrating the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox goes back many centuries in European farm life.

There are more than a dozen active groundhog clubs in Pennsylvania, some dating back to the 1930s, and weather-predicting groundhogs have appeared in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

The 1993 blockbuster film “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray, fueled interest in Punxsutawney Phil and inspired informal observations far and wide.

When he’s not making his annual prognostication, Phil lives in a customized space beside the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, with a window where library patrons can check out his burrow. Back in 2009, library workers said Phil had somehow managed to escape three times, climbing into the library ceiling and dropping into offices about 50 feet (15 meters) away. He wasn’t injured.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published February 1, 2024 4:05 P.M. REVISED February 2nd: Confirmation that dog didn’t survive.

(Beaver Falls, Pa) A police pursuit of a black truck that started in Ohio led to the Beaver Valley Rifle & Pistol Club shooting range next to the Brady’s Run Walking Trail along Constitution Boulevard Thursday afternoon. Dispatch calls stated that the incident started with a prostitution sting in which the suspect fled nearly running over an officer.

Witnesses allegedly informed police that the suspect was on the shooting range property after he allegedly ran over their dog. The dog did not survive.

Over a dozen Police and law enforcement officials were on scene. The suspect was reportedly driving around at the shooting range frantically. Reports indicate that the suspect was held at gunpoint and taken into custody from his vehicle around 2:40pm.

EMS were called in and reports indicate that the suspect suffered a K9 bite. White powder was also allegedly found near the suspect in his vehicle, and Narcan was administered.

A witness traveling on Route 51 during the chase says that police were traveling so fast that one cruiser almost rear ended her and slid into dirt on the side of the road. Dispatch calls stated the suspect was traveling at 120 mph.

An ambulance left the scene followed by Police around 3:30pm.

UPDATED STORY HERE: https://beavercountyradio.com/news/suspect-kills-dog-during-chase-before-being-taken-down-by-k9/

Photos & Video from the scene:

BERLIN (AP) — German beer sales dropped 4.5% last year, resuming a long-term downward trend, official figures showed Thursday.

German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.4 billion liters (2.2 billion gallons) of beer last year, the Federal Statistical Office said. That figure doesn’t include non-alcoholic beer and beer imported from outside the European Union.

In 2022, beer sales increased 2.7% thanks to a recovery in demand at home and in the EU following the end of COVID-19 restrictions. But demand in both markets was lower again in 2023.

Sales inside Germany — more than four-fifths of the total — dropped 4.2% to 6.9 billion liters (1.8 billion gallons).

Exports were down 5.9% overall. There was a relatively modest 2.6% drop in sales to other countries in the 27-nation EU, which bought 784 million liters (207 million gallons) of German beer, while sales to other countries were down 9.6% at 646.7 million liters (170.8 million gallons).

German brewers have been struggling with a long-term downward trend fueled by health concerns and other factors. The statistics office said last year’s sales were 11.3% lower than in 2013 and 25.3% lower than in 1993.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A group of employees and teachers from a Kentucky middle school who bought a $1 million Powerball winning ticket tucked it in a math text book for safekeeping before claiming the prize this week.

The group of 30 educators, some retired, met at Rector A. Jones Middle School in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati and have been playing the Powerball together for eight years. They call themselves the “Jones 30,” and the members include counselors, administrators, teachers and some retirees from the school, according to a media release from the state lottery.

They’ve been playing the same Powerball numbers since 2019, when they drew them randomly from a hat.

On Saturday, those numbers, 7-38-65-66-68, finally hit. Their ticket matched all five white numbered balls in the drawing, but missed the Powerball, giving them a $1 million prize.

After school ended on Tuesday, the group carpooled to Louisville, about a 90-minute drive, with the winning ticket safely stashed away in a math textbook, page 200.

Arriving at lottery headquarters in Louisville, officials greeted them each with their individual winnings — $24,000 each after taxes.

Kentucky Lottery President Mary Harville handed them the winning checks.

”Kentucky Lottery games create fun for our players, and these winning educators were having the time of their lives,” Harville said in the release.

The group members said they plan to continue playing the lottery. Some plan to invest the money while others will use it for travel or home repairs, the lottery said.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Congressman Chris Deluzio released a statement on the U.S. House’s Passage of Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. In his statement he talked about his support to give a tax break to his constituents who receive payments from Norfolk Southern after last year’s devastating derailment in East Palestine. 

As Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the derailment, Deluzio says “I’m in this fight for as long as it takes to make rail safer and to make sure that folks like us who live near the tracks are not treated like collateral damage in the way of big railroads’ profits”.

Deluzio says his goal is to have a government that supports all the people and not just a specific group of people, and that while progress takes time, the vision is clear and attainable.

“I supported tonight’s tax package because it gives a tax break to my constituents who received payments from Norfolk Southern in the aftermath of last year’s devastating derailment … It’s time to build a government that serves all of us, not just the rich and powerful. I hope we can make more progress toward that vision soon.”

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding steadier Thursday following their worst tumble in months.

The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 113 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.

A suite of reports suggested the economy remains solid, blasting past earlier expectations for a recession, while pressures on inflation may be easing. Such data could give the Federal Reserve more of the evidence it wants of a slowdown in inflation before it will deliver the cuts to interest rates that investors desire so much. A day earlier, stocks fell sharply after the Fed’s chair warned it doesn’t have enough such evidence yet.

Lower interest rates help all kinds of investments, and they tend to benefit high-growth stocks in particular. Tech stocks recovered some of their sharp tumble a day before, when Alphabet and Microsoft sank despite reporting stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Microsoft rose 2.4% a day after falling 2.7%. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, added 1.3% after tumbling 7.5%

Big Tech stocks are facing very high expectations after they soared much more than the rest of the market last year, carrying the S&P 500 to records recently. Apple, Amazon and Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, will report their latest results after trading ends for the day. They’ll also need to deliver big numbers to justify their big runs higher.

Align Technology, the maker of Invisalign teeth aligners, rose 6.3% after it topped expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Merck climbed 2% after likewise reporting profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates.

On the losing end of Wall Street, MetLife sank 4.6% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue than Wall Street expected. Analysts pointed to its forecast for 2024, where the insurer put some numbers on challenges it had previously discussed.

Peloton Interactive fell 20.8% after it gave a forecast for upcoming revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. That was despite it roughly matching forecasts for the latest quarter.

New York Community Bancorp. fell another 11.4% after plunging 37.7% a day before, when it reported a much larger quarterly loss than expected and cut its dividend to build its financial strength. The surprising report caused stocks of other regional banks to tumble, reviving uncomfortable memories of the banking crisis last year that led to the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and others.

New York Community Bancorp. had acquired much of Signature, and analysts say much of its struggles are because of factors related to that. But its losses tied to commercial real estate are a reminder of challenges facing the entire industry. The KBW Nasdaq Regional Bank index fell 3.2%, following Wednesday’s tumble of 6%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.88% from 3.92% late Wednesday.

It sank after one report showed that slightly more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. While no one wants workers to lose their jobs, the number is still low relative to history. And Wall Street wants to see a cooldown in the job market, which could keep a lid on inflationary pressures.

A separate report offered similar encouragement for traders. It said U.S. workers were much more productive in the last three months of 2023 than expected, producing more stuff per hour worked. Strong growth in productivity could allow workers to get bigger raises in pay without adding more pressure on inflation.

“If companies can generate strong productivity growth, they will be able to control costs and protect margins without sacrificing talent in an environment of still-elevated wages and fading pricing power,” said EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco.

Data released later in the morning suggested the U.S. manufacturing industry is improving after struggling for more than a year under the weight of high interest rates. Manufacturing activity shrank for a 15th straight month in January, but not by as much as economists expected. Growth in new orders is helping to boost the industry, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

Potentially concerning, though, was that prices for raw materials increased in January following eight months of decreases.

Traders are increasingly betting the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates in May, after pushing back expectations from March. Whenever it does begin, it would mark a sharp turnaround after the Fed hiked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001 in hopes of getting inflation under control.

High interest rates intentionally slow the economy, and they undercut prices for investments.

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 added 0.2% after the Bank of England said it’s keeping its main interest rate at a near 16-year high as inflation in Britain unexpectedly rose to 4% in December.

Indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

With the anniversary of the globally infamous train derailment that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, local residents and U.S. Citizens alike are wondering what is happening and what is going to happen.

In an exclusive press conference yesterday with news reporters and other government department heads, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke about the answers to those questions.

“We’ve done our part with the DOT,” Buttigieg stated. “We are pressing industry to do their part. Congress needs to act as well, and any Congressional leader of any party who is serious about railroad safety, should support funding for railroad safety inspections and inspectors, and should support the Railway Safety Act that can help make railroading safe across America.”

Buttigieg said that the passing of the Railway Safety Act of 2023–which was introduced last March–“would increase the authority of my department to assess tough penalties against railroads for safety violations, it would require better detectors, it would expand the list of hazardous materials that qualify for certain safety precautions…and more.”

Despite what Buttigieg states are measures that would not only help East Palestine, but all areas where trains are present, the Railway Safety Act has yet to be passed.

“It should not be the case that, one year after that derailment, we are still waiting for Congress to act.”

Secretary Buttigieg made no mention of when his boss, President Joe Biden, will be making his official stop in East Palestine that was announced by the White House on Wednesday.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Additional writing provided by BCR Intern Isaiah Wise)
(Photo provided courtesy of Pennsylvania Crimestoppers)

The Center Township Police Department is teaming up with the Pennsylvania Crimestoppers regarding a homicide that took place January 29th, 2001 about a male lying on the road on Temple Road in Center Township.

Police arrived at the scene and found a male dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Upon investigating, it was learned that Marvin Charles Steals was the 27-year old victim involved in the homicide.

Investigators learned Steals was involved in some verbal altercation that ended with another man pulling out a gun. On the night of the murder, Steals was at a local bar in Aliquippa where he was last seen entering a vehicle with two males. 

There are no further updates regarding the incident about the death of Steals. Any persons with information regarding this incident are asked to contact the PSP Beaver Station at 724-773-7400 or anonymously contact the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers Toll Free at 1-800-4PA-TIPS.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

A Connoquenessing woman has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for filing false tax returns and wire fraud.

58-year-old Constance Stobert was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court following an investigation that showed that Stobert knowingly embezzled over $500,000 in false tax returns between 2016 and 2019.

She also was found to have stolen over $1.6 million dollars in assets from Mechanical Operations Company, where she had worked as a controller from 1994 until 2021. The money stolen from MOC was used to make personal credit card payments and to withdraw cash at casino ATMs in Las Vegas and Pittsburgh.

The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab.