Harrisburg, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro announced the Commonwealth will receive more than $1.16 billion in federal funding to expand broadband in unserved and underserved areas to make sure every Pennsylvanian has access to affordable, high-speed internet. The funding is coming to Pennsylvania through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and is part of President Biden’s “Internet for All” initiative.

The BEAD funding will be used to extend broadband infrastructure to areas of the Commonwealth that currently lack access to reliable, high-speed internet. Thanks to this significant investment, the Shapiro Administration will now have the resources it needs to connect Pennsylvanians to the internet and ensure they can go to school, start and grow businesses, and access telemedicine no matter where they live.

Since day one, Governor Shapiro has said extending and expanding access to broadband across the Commonwealth and making connections more reliable and affordable for Pennsylvanians is a top priority of his Administration.

“By expanding access to affordable, high-speed internet to every Pennsylvanian, we can create real opportunities for our students, our businesses, and our communities to learn, grow, and thrive,” said Governor Josh Shapiro. “Thanks to this historic investment from the federal government, my Administration has the resources to work with our community partners across the Commonwealth to bring reliable internet at high speeds and for affordable prices to every corner and every community in the Commonwealth.”

The $1.16 billion in BEAD funding to the Commonwealth will be administered by the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (Authority), an independent, bipartisan agency created by law in December 2021.

“We’re thrilled the Commonwealth is receiving this historic allocation — we’ve worked hard over the last year to ensure Pennsylvania received the funding it needs to finally address the connectivity issues impacting our communities,” said Brandon Carson, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority. “Everyone in the Commonwealth should have access to affordable, high-speed internet and the Authority is committed to making that a reality.

In preparation for this announcement, the Authority worked with Penn State Extension to identify more than 50,000 locations in Pennsylvania that lack access to high-speed internet but weren’t included in the federal government’s initial survey. So far, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has upheld more than 28,000 of those challenges, making those locations eligible for federal BEAD funding and helping ensure Pennsylvania received its share of the BEAD funding.

The Authority is now working to complete a five-year action plan for Pennsylvania’s BEAD allocation, which must be submitted to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) by August 12, 2023. Pennsylvania will receive the BEAD funding in 2024 following the NTIA’s approval of the plan. The Authority plans to award subgrants to approved, eligible applicants before the end of 2024.

This past Friday, the Authority encouraged Pennsylvanians to participate in community engagement events that are being held around the Commonwealth throughout the summer. Feedback will be collected from these events, as well as an online survey, and used to help shape broadband programs, including the five-year BEAD action plan.

To date, Pennsylvania has received more than $1.5 billion in federal funding allocations for its broadband efforts. In addition to the BEAD funding, Pennsylvania also received $279 million in funding through the Capital Projects Fund and $6.6 million in federal planning funds in 2022.

Visit the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority’s website to learn more about its work to close the digital divide in the Commonwealth.

Story By Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Director. Published June 26, 2023 2:43 P.M.

(Center Township, Pa) A person was flown to the hospital after a scooter collided with a car outside of the Cinemark in Center.  The injured person was flown to UPMC Presbyterian. Their condition is currently unknown. The accident took place Sunday afternoon.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 26, 2023 2:36 P.M.   

(New Sewickley Township, PA) At 2:52 p.m. Saturday, June  24, 2023, a call came in   to 9-1-1 from 414 Klein Road, New Sewickley Township, and the caller stated his “aunt was down on the ground , and it was his cousin Ben”.  The caller reported his mother and grandmother were in the home and he heard 15 gunshots. According to the report the caller said he opened the door and “saw his aunt on the ground groaning.”

(Beaver, Pa) The Beaver County Office of Planning and Redevelopment announced today that the County has selected Verizon to deploy high-speed fiber-optic broadband service to hundreds of Beaver County residents throughout the County by the end of 2026.

The partnership is the latest step in a multi-year effort to bring broadband access to unserved and underserved residents through the Connect Beaver County Broadband Program.

“Today’s announcement is great news for Beaver County communities, businesses and families,” said Commissioner Tony Amadio. “Connecting our residents provides an economic development boost to the county and improves people’s lives. More connections mean greater opportunities and more freedom for all.”

Beaver County Office of Planning and Development has set aside $11.9 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for this phase of the Connect Beaver County Program. Verizon will more than match the County’s investment by contributing another $12.3 million.

Verizon, one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services, will provide broadband service to an estimated 1,846 households in 24 Beaver County municipalities along 369 miles of fiber-optic cable where broadband is currently unavailable or unreliable. The new state-of-the-art fiber-optic network will enable minimum speeds of 300 Mbps download/300 Mbps upload and maximum speeds of 1 Gig download/1 Gig upload.

“We’re grateful to partner with Verizon as Beaver County takes this major step forward in strengthening its internet connectivity,” said Commissioner Chairman Daniel Camp. “Our goal with our ARPA funds has always been to make investments that will have a lasting impact for generations. Verizon presented the most compelling proposal for moving the County in that direction though we were fortunate to receive many viable bids for this important project.”

“We are proud to partner with Beaver County to boost community broadband access in new ways in this community. This project Is just one of many ways Verizon is expanding our network to deliver reliable and fast internet to residents and businesses throughout the County,” said Bill Carnahan of Verizon State Government Affairs.

A competitive open request for proposals was launched in September 2022 to local and national internet service providers (ISPs). Bids were received through November 2022, and a thorough, internal evaluation, interview, and negotiation process followed.

The successful ISP was expected to deploy a network that meets the requirements set forth in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).

“I’m proud of the hard work and careful consideration our team at the Office of Planning and Redevelopment has achieved to get the county to this point,” said Commissioner Jack Manning. “We believe these investments will be transformational in keeping Beaver County competitive in the digital age. We look forward to the results this new infrastructure will bring and appreciate the stakeholder support that helped to make this a fully connected future in Beaver County possible.”

Municipalities with locations slated to receive service include: Big Beaver Borough, Brighton Township, Center Township, Chippewa Township, Darlington Township, Daugherty Township, Eastvale Borough, Frankfort Springs Borough, Franklin Township, Greene Township, Hanover Township, Hopewell Township, Independence
Township, Industry Borough, Marion Township, Midland Borough, New Sewickley Township, North Sewickley Township, Ohioville Borough, Patterson Township, Potter Township, Raccoon Township, Shippingport Borough, South Beaver Township.

A 2021 Data Collection and Feasibility Study identified 24 total municipalities that lacked complete access to high-speed or reliable internet under the federal minimum as defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Several municipalities with little to no access were previously identified as Early Action Projects with progress already underway with other providers.

“We’re grateful for Verizon’s partnership with the Connect Beaver County Broadband Program,” said Lance Grable Director of the Beaver County Office of Planning and Redevelopment. “Broadband infrastructure and access to high-speed internet is absolutely critical for modern education, business, public safety, health and so much more. This is a big step in addressing those needs for so many in our County and for closing that digital divide.”

To learn more about the Connect Beaver County Broadband Program, view progress, and join the mailing list, visit connectbeavercounty.com.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The gunman convicted in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history had psychotic, delusional and paranoid symptoms that made him unable to “read the world appropriately” or make proper decisions, his lawyer said Monday, launching an effort to persuade jurors to spare his life.

Robert Bowers had a psychotic condition going back to childhood, as well as serious brain defects and a history of suicide attempts, defense lawyer Michael Burt said on the opening day of the penalty phase of Bowers’ federal trial. Bowers was convicted this month in the 2018 killings of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The defense argues that Bowers was unable to form the requisite level of intent to allow the jury to impose a death sentence. Medical tests found Bowers’ brain to be “structurally deficient,” with symptoms of epilepsy and schizophrenia, Burt said.

Prosecutor Troy Rivetti, in his opening statement Monday, said the government was prepared to rebut any mental-health defense.

Bowers clearly formed the intent to kill everyone he could find in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, Rivetti said. He called the magnitude of Bowers’ crimes staggering,

“He came to kill,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant entered the Tree of Life synagogue, a sacred place to gather and pray, and he murdered 11 innocent worshippers.”

Bowers, flipping through papers, gave little indication that he was paying attention to the lawyers’ statements. He has shown little reaction throughout the trial.

The sentencing portion of Bowers’ trial comes as the death penalty has become a more prominent topic in the 2024 presidential race. The federal death penalty wasn’t a high-profile issue until former President Donald Trump’s administration resumed executions in 2020 after a 17-year hiatus. With 13 inmates put to death in his last months in office, Trump oversaw more federal executions than any president in more than 120 years.

President Joe Biden said during his 2020 campaign that he would work to end capital punishment at the federal level and in states that still use it, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has paused executions to review policies and procedures. But federal prosecutors continue to work to uphold already-issued death sentences and to pursue the death penalty for crimes that are eligible, as in Bowers’ case.

Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, killed 11 members of three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life — who had gathered for Sabbath services in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. He also wounded two worshippers and five police officers.

The jury convicted Bowers on June 16, after five hours of deliberations, on all 63 counts he faced. The same jurors now must decide whether Bowers is eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors first have to show proof of intent and at least one aggravating factor that made the killings more heinous.

Rivetti told the jury Monday that many of Bowers’ victims were frail and elderly. He displayed a photo of a cane left on a pew by Bernice Simon, who was shot and killed as she attempted to tend to her mortally wounded husband, both in their 80s.

Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal both had intellectual disabilities, couldn’t read and “sometimes needed help tying their shoes,” Rivetti said. “And this defendant shot and killed them in their synagogue.”

The prosecutor also argued there was evidence of intent at every step of the attack.

Bowers raged against Jews online, fixating on a Jewish refugee-aid organization that he accused of bringing in “invaders.” He then drove half an hour from his apartment to the synagogue, his car loaded with weapons and ammunition, and made “decision after decision” to pull the trigger, Rivetti said.

From the beginning, the punishment that Bowers will receive — a death sentence or life in prison without parole — has been the only question in the case. His own attorneys admitted he carried out the attack and offered only a token defense at trial, and have long signaled their focus would be on saving his life.

Before the trial, Bowers’ attorneys offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence, which prosecutors rejected. Most of the victims’ relatives support seeking the death penalty.

The guilty verdict followed three weeks of wrenching survivor testimony and often graphic evidence, including victims’ 911 calls and photographs of the carnage. Bowers’ lead defense attorney, Judy Clarke, called no witnesses. She suggested Bowers was driven not by religious hatred but a deluded belief that by killing Jews, he was saving children from the genocide he believed was being perpetrated by immigrants aided by Jews.

The sentencing phase of the trial was expected to last four to five weeks.

Assuming it finds Bowers is eligible for the death sentence, the jury will then hear victim impact statements demonstrating the trauma suffered by survivors and the victims’ loved ones, as well as mitigating factors that might prompt a more lenient sentence, which may include pleas from his relatives.

To put him on death row, jurors will have to agree unanimously that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating ones.

Clarke has represented other killers in high-profile capital cases, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is appealing his death sentence, and 1996 Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and the late Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who both received life sentences.

“Mitigating evidence — that’s her specialty,” University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris said of Clarke. “You’ll hear anything that’s possible” to spare Bowers’ life.

Local Jewish leaders expect to hear a sympathetic portrait of the killer and are worried it will be traumatic.

“So we’re going to be learning what kind of horrible human being he really is,” New Light Congregation co-president Stephen Cohen said after the verdict.

(Photo/Commonwealth Media Services)
HARRISBURG– Attorney General Michelle Henry announced that her office has filed a lawsuit against a Pittsburgh-area landscaping company that failed to fulfill its contracts with consumers.

The lawsuit accuses Garden Art of Pittsburgh, LLC and its CEO, Arthur Ford, Jr., of violating Pennsylvania’s Unfair Practices and Consumer Protection Law by abandoning projects after retaining thousands of dollars in consumer deposits and utilizing non-compliant contracts.

The Attorney General’s legal filing also seeks injunctive relief to have Ford and Garden Art banned from contracting or performing home-improvement work in Pennsylvania.

“Mr. Ford repeatedly sought and received payment for work that he never completed, in clear violation of the law,” Attorney General Henry said. “We will do all we can to help affected consumers get their money back, while also working to ensure that Mr. Ford can never again solicit or perform home-improvement work in the Commonwealth.”

In August 2022, Ford filed for bankruptcy and identified approximately 25 consumer creditors with more than $262,000 in damages. That bankruptcy case has since been dismissed.

Ford was also charged criminally in Allegheny County.

In addition to seeking to permanently prevent Garden Art of Pittsburgh, LLC and Arthur Ford, Jr. from doing business as a home improvement contractor in Pennsylvania, the Office of Attorney General’s lawsuit also seeks consumer restitution for those impacted, civil penalties, and costs.

According to the lawsuit, eight consumers have filed complaints in the last two years with the Bureau of Consumer Protection alleging that they paid Garden Art thousands of dollars in down payments for home improvement projects, like installing retaining walls, walkways, stairs, patios or other landscaping — but few services were performed, and some consumers had no work completed.

The lawsuit alleges that in one instance, a consumer made multiple retainer payments totaling $22,800, and the only work performed was removing existing tiles and pavers from the consumer’s yard and applying a glue-like substance to the front steps. It is alleged that the project was abandoned before any materials were delivered or installed.

The defendants are also accused of using contracts that failed to notify consumers of their 3-day right to cancel, making the contracts non-compliant with Pennsylvania law.

Any consumers who believe they or someone they know may be a victim of these practices should file a complaint with the Bureau of Consumer Protection at www.attorneygeneral.gov, call 800-441-2555, or email scams@attorneygeneral.gov. Inspectors, contractors, laborers, suppliers, or anyone else who may have information regarding the business practices of Garden Art of Pittsburgh, LLC or Arthur Ford, Jr. are also encouraged to contact the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The lawsuit was filed by Deputy Attorney General Jaimie George in Allegheny County.

MIAMI (AP) — Rookie Eury Pérez scattered four hits and struck out nine in six dominant innings to lead the Miami Marlins to a 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Jonathan Davis homered, Bryan De La Cruz had three hits and Yuli Gurriel drove in the game’s second run for the Marlins, who won the series 3-1 and improved to 11 games over .500 at 45-34.

Miami’s Luis Arraez went 1 for 4, and his major league-leading batting average slipped to .399.

The 20-year-old Pérez (5-1) extended his scoreless string to 21 innings. The right-hander has allowed one run over 28 innings in five starts in June. His ERA dropped to 1.34 since being promoted from Triple-A on May 12.

“I’m focused on having fun with my teammates, going out there and competing,” Pérez said. “Put on a great game. Put on a great show. I have not checked out any numbers, but just go out there and do my job.”

Steven Okert and Andrew Nardi followed Pérez, throwing one inning each. Two days after blowing a one-run lead in the second game of the series, A.J. Puk closed with a perfect ninth for his 11th save.

“This is a crazy run and I just don’t see it going in a different direction because of how easy and fluid his mechanics are,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Pérez’s first six weeks in the major leagues.

Andrew McCutchen had two hits for the Pirates, who have lost 12 of 13.

“We’re getting elite starting pitching right now, we just have to figure out a way to score runs,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We have to figure it out because we’re not doing anything offensively, especially early in games.”

Davis’s shot to lead off the third put the Marlins ahead. Davis drove a slider from Pittsburgh’s Johan Oviedo into the seats in left field for his second homer.

“I knew he had a good fastball and I was just trying to be ready for the fastball,” Davis said. “I wanted to put the ball in play, put a good swing and it went.”

With the absence of star outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. because of a turf toe injury, Davis has provided valued depth after Miami acquired him in a trade May 22.

Gurriel increased Miami’s lead with a two-out, RBI single off reliever Carmen Mlodzinski in the eighth.

Oviedo (3-8) was lifted after seven innings. The right-hander allowed six hits and struck out six. Winless since May 19, Oviedo dropped his fifth straight decision.

Pirates starters limited the Marlins to five runs in the series.

“These days the starting pitchers did a really good job to keep us in games,” Oviedo said. “I believe in this team and not what’s going on right now. We’re going to be back.”

In a press release, New Sewickley Township’s police department stated the following regarding a recent double homicide:

New Sewickley Township Police Department is investigating a fatal shooting
which took place at 414 Klein Road, New Sewickley Township at approximately 1400
hours on Saturday June 24, 2023. Initial responding units encountered an armed and
barricaded suspect. Beaver County Emergency Services Unit was notified and responded to assist our department. New Sewickley Township Police Department was also assisted at the scene by several surrounding police agencies.

The male suspect was located inside the residence and taken into custody.
Additionally, two deceased females and one uninjured female were located inside the
residence. Criminal charges have been filed against the male suspect and he is currently incarcerated at the Beaver County Jail.

The initial response by our officers and officers from assisting departments quickly contained this incident within the residence. At no time were any neighbors or members of the public in any danger.

Additional information regarding this incident will be provided in coming days as
the investigation is ongoing.

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Director. Published June 25, 2023 11:19 P.M.

(Beaver County, PA) A woman by the name of Ashley Durham is wanted by Duane Chapman AKA Dog the Bounty Hunter. Chapman posted photos of the woman offering a $10,000 reward to locate her. Dog stated in a video posted to his Facebook page that the woman kidnapped her own daughter, who the father of the child has custody of, and the father is concerned for the child’s safety. Pennsylvania and Ohio have been named by Chapman among possible locations that Durham may be. At this time, Beaver County Radio has not been able to obtain any legal documentation from the FBI or any other official sources backing this information. Meanwhile, multiple Beaver County Facebook pages and groups have been suggesting that Durham may be in Beaver County, but no evidence currently backs these claims.

The 2023 Beaver County Boom Broadcast on Beaver County Radio was presented by: 

(Bridgewater, Pa.) The 2023 Beaver County Boom was big and better than ever. This was the thirteenth year for boom and it paid tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.