(File Photo: Source for Photo: The United States Steel Corporation Research Technology Center in Munhall, Pa., is shown, Thursday, June 27, 2024. Generations of Pittsburghers have worked at steel mills, rooted for the Steelers or ridden the rollercoaster at Kennywood amusement park, giving them a bird’s eye view of the massive smokestacks of Edgar Thomson Works, the region’s last blast furnace. Now, steel town USA’s most storied steel company, U.S. Steel, is on the cusp of being bought by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp. in a deal that is kicking up an election-year political maelstrom across America’s industrial heartland. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(West Mifflin, PA) The addition of purchasing U.S. Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel has been given an offer that will last a decade if it is accepted. The Washington Post cited a document from the White House that concluded that Nippon Steel put up a ten-year guarantee to not reduce production in six states. Pennsylvania will be one of the states affected if this deal is approved. This comes shortly after Nippon Steel was given an extension period to close the deal. January 7th is the date for when President Joe Biden will officially make the decision on whether U.S. Steel will be bought by Nippon Steel.

(File Photo of Center Township Polcie Department Police Car)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Center Township, PA) According to a Facebook post from the Center Township Police Department, police are looking for a man and a woman involved in an electrical wire retail theft at a Lowes in Center Township this week. The two suspects were spotted in a Buick sedan that was lighter colored. The license plate of the suspects was also hidden, and the duo might have used an item to make it obscure. If you have any information about this incident, please call 724-775-0880. The link to the pictures of the incident as well as the man and the woman can be found here: (10) Center Township Police are looking to… – Center Twp. Police Dept. | Facebook

(File Photo of the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is not moving forward in a change that would simplify the process of problem bettors coming back to casinos. The board made the announcement at a meeting on December 18th, 2024. Self-excluding is a process in which people can remove themselves from casinos. Therefore, after the period in which self-exclusion expires, people need to take themselves off the ban list. If this change had taken place, this removal would have been across all bans of gambling in Pennsylvania.

(File Photo of PennDOT logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Exeter Township, PA) PennDOT announced on December 19th, 2024 that a new PennDOT Driver’s License Center was opened in Berks County, Pennsylvania to provide transactions for both identifications and driver’s licenses. According to PennDOT secretary Mike Carroll, this center is one of only fifteen across the state of Pennsylvania to leave with a real ID. Carroll also confirmed that May 7th, 2025 is the deadline in which people need to receive a real ID by before traveling. If you do not have a passport along with the real ID, you can not travel at an airport.

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: PennDOT, PSP, PTC, Construction Industry Highlight National Work Zone Awareness Week)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on a part of Darlington Road, drainage improvement work will occur weather permitting on Thursday, January 2nd. 

From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. through mid-January, single-lane alternating traffic will take place on Darlington Road between Parr Avenue and Beaver Street. Crews from A. Liberoni, Inc. will work to repair drainage in the area while flaggers will also guide drivers through the work zone. 

(File Photo of the Beaver Valley Choral Society logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(New Brighton, PA) The Beaver Valley Choral Society invites you to attend their trial rehearsals, which begin on Monday, January 6th and Monday January 13th at 7 p.m. at the New Brighton Methodist Church. The rehearsals will continue in that church through the month of March on Mondays beginning at 7 p.m. You do not need to audition or to be a member of the Beaver Valley Choral Society to participate. The young chorus for second through eighth grade will start their rehearsals at the same location on Monday, January 6th. Details will soon be announced regarding rehearsals for members of the Beaver Valley Choral Society.

 

(File Photo of Police Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News, Published on 1/1/2025 at 8:02 A.M., Updated on 1/2/2025 at 8:00 A.M.)

(Beaver Falls, PA) A homicide was ruled the cause of death for a man that was murdered in Beaver Falls on Monday afternoon. The victim was identified by the Beaver County Coroner as forty-eight-year-old Eric Mason, who was shot in the head. Chief David Johnson of the Beaver Falls Police Department sent a press release on Tuesday to address the incident of a person being shot to death in Beaver Falls on Monday afternoon. According to Johnson, police were dispatched to the 200 block of 11th Street at around 2:40 p.m. for the concern of a male victim. The identity of the dead victim is not available yet and no danger was indicated to the community. Johnson states that the Beaver County Detective Bureau and detectives from the Beaver Falls Police Department are part of the investigation. That is all the details we have at this time, and we will have updates as soon as they are available.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Thomas Breth, front, a lawyer for Fulton County, Pa., stands with other county officials and explains that the state Supreme Court had just put their voting machine inspection on hold before it started in McConnellsburg, Pa., Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Marc Levy, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ruled 6-1 that the secretary of state has the authority to direct counties not to allow “unauthorized third party access” to voting machines or risk having those machines decertified and unable to be deployed for elections.

The Commonwealth Court said the Department of State does not have to reimburse counties when they decertify machines, a defeat for Fulton County in a dispute that arose after two Republican county commissioners permitted Wake Technology Services Inc. to examine and obtain data from Dominion voting machines in 2021.

That led the state elections agency to issue a directive against such third-party access based on concerns it could compromise security. Fulton’s machines were decertified as a result of the Wake TSI examination and the secretary of state was sued by the county as well as Republican county commissioners Randy Bunch and Stuart Ulsh.

Fulton had argued it had broad authority over the voting machines, while the secretary of state said that “would mean that every county board of elections can do whatever it wants” with electronic voting systems under their authority to inspect elections, “an absurd and unreasonable result,” wrote Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer for the majority.

She said a 1937 state election law gave county election boards broad power, but state lawmakers amended it “to give the secretary an important role in ensuring statewide consistency and safety” regarding electronic voting systems. The state and local power balance over elections and voting equipment, the majority said, helps “protect and provide for free and fair and secure elections.”

“There is no conflict between those provisions, and it is entirely possible — indeed necessary — for county boards of elections to fulfill their powers and duties while heeding the secretary’s report and directives,” Jubelirer wrote for the majority.

The Department of State issued a statement saying it was pleased with the decision and that the adminstration of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro “is committed to ensuring the free and secure administration of elections, and today’s decision recognizes that the secretary is empowered to keep voting systems secure from unauthorized third-parties seeking to undermine confidence in Pennsylvania’s elections.”

The Fulton County board, through chief clerk Stacey Shives, declined comment about the decision. Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday for Fulton County’s lawyers, Tom Carroll and Jim Stein.

The officials in Fulton, a 15,000 population county in rural central Pennsylvania, brought in Wake TSI and allowed another outside inspection as part of an effort to find the sort of election fraud that then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed existed after his 2020 reelection loss. Fulton heavily supported Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns. Ulsh is no longer an elected county commissioner.

Fulton replaced the voting machines, which were impounded by the court during the dispute over allowing others to access them.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown on Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s planning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.

Asked about it as he walked into a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump responded, “I’ll be there.” Pressed on whether he’d spoken to members of Carter’s family, Trump said he’d rather not say.

Funeral services honoring Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, will be held in Georgia and Washington, beginning Jan. 4 and concluding Jan. 9.

Trump was a frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November’s election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to unfavorably compare President Joe Biden to Carter and his administration.

But the president-elect was gracious about the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter’s death Sunday, writing that the nation “owed him a debt of gratitude.”

“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”

Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes of questions from reporters on various topics. He was asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, but said only, “We’re going to see what happens.”

The president-elect added of hostages seized more than a year ago by Hamas, “I’ll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon.”

Trump also said he thought 2025 would be a “great year” and “we’re going to do fantastically well as a country.”

“There’s a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They’re a lot of happy people,” Trump said of recent weeks.

Asked about his resolutions for the new year, Trump said, “I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.”

Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised “to do a great job as your president.”

Biden, for his part, spent New Year’s Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden cut short their traditional holiday trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE—In this file photo from March 12, 2020, work continues at a shale gas well drilling site in St. Mary’s, Pa. Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro is scheduled to release results on Thursday June 25, 2020 of a grand jury investigation into natural gas hydraulic fracturing. The fracking process has raised environmental concerns while turning the state into a major energy producer. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Penn Township, PA) A nonprofit group is challenging permits for the construction and operation of fracking wells in western Pennsylvania’s Penn Township. A hearing set for January 15th will examine whether the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection lawfully issued drilling permits to Apex Energy. Attorney Lisa Johnson, who represents the group Protect P-T, short for ‘Penn-Trafford,’ says it’s been a years-long fight to block the Drakulic Well project, for its proximity to homes and an elementary school. Johnson says the case underscores the importance of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment, which protects citizens’ rights to clean air and pure water. In 2023, the state partnered with CNX Resources, which acquired Apex Energy, to boost transparency in fracking, including chemical disclosures and expanded no-drill zones near homes, schools and hospitals, to better address health and environmental concerns.