Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 5:51 AM
By MARK SCOLFORO and MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top state election official is warning that delays in drawing new legislative districts boundaries may require pushing back next year’s spring primary election. That’s as a group of voters asked Pennsylvania’s highest court to pick a new map of congressional districts if Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers fail to agree on one soon. Pennsylvania must redraw state legislative districts and congressional districts to account for a decade of demographic shifts, but partisan disagreements are threatening to delay both processes. Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid told the Legislative Reapportionment Commission in a letter Tuesday that its current schedule will not work with the current primary deadlines.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at %;48 AM
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is using his veto on a bill that would have required school districts to post information about textbooks, course material and state academic standards online. The Democratic governor said Wednesday the legislation “politicizes what is being taught in our schools” and that state regulations already require public schools to provide similar material upon request. It  would have required links or titles for every textbook and course summaries to be posted on district websites, starting with the next academic year. Both legislative chambers were split nearly along party lines in votes on the measure. Republicans supported the bill and Democrats were opposed.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

According to a press release sent Wednesday, the Beaver Area Board of Education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Dr. Carrie Rowe on Monday, December 20, 2021. Rowe is leaving the school district to become a member of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, serving as the Director of the Bureau of School Support.

Dr. Rowe had served as a staff member at Beaver since 2004, beginning on the administrative team, accepting a position as Middle School Principal, and eventually becoming the Superintendent in 2016. During her tenure, Dr. Rowe helped the Beaver School District to a Pennsylvania Blue Ribbon Award and a National Blue Ribbon Award.

Rowe will remain Superintendent until the end of January 2021, at which point she will begin her new position.

(File Photo)
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 6:55 AM
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s highest court is putting a final nail into the coffin of a proposed victims’ rights constitutional amendment that state voters supported by a large margin more than two years ago but which has never gone into effect. The justices ruled Tuesday by a 6 to 1 vote that the sprawling proposal violated the Pennsylvania Constitution’s requirement that amendments address a single topic to prevent lawmakers from bundling together items that might not pass on their own individual merits. Unofficial tallies indicate the so-called “Marsy’s Law” amendment question passed by a ratio of 3 to 1 in 2019.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 6:52 AM
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A New Jersey man accused of having thrown a homemade explosive device at police during protests in western Pennsylvania following the death of George Floyd last year has pleaded guilty to a federal obstruction charge. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholas Lucia of Long Beach Township pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Pittsburgh to a charge of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that he faces a two-year prison sentence under a plea agreement with prosecutors that is to be served at the same time as a state sentence for related conduct that has yet to be imposed.

(AP Photo)
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 6:50 AM
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Perry joins other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying to stonewall the committee. Perry said Tuesday the nine-member panel is “illegitimate.” Perry is the first sitting member of Congress the panel has requested to speak with. The committee has requested Perry provide information for its investigation surrounding his efforts to install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General.

(File Photo of Rochester Giant Eagle)

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 6:48 AM

(Pittsburgh, Pa.) Giant Eagle is recalling multiple Fresh Express salad items as well as select items sold in the company’s prepared foods departments. The items were sold at its Giant Eagle and Market District locations across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana between Dec. 12 and Dec. 20 due to possible listeria contamination.

Giant Eagle’s recall is associated with the nationwide recall by Fresh Express. Fresh Express announced its recall after learning that certain varieties of its branded and private label salad products produced at the company’s Streamwood, Illinois facility had the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Giant Eagle is conducting this voluntary recall out of an abundance of caution. Giant Eagle said there are no reported illnesses among Giant Eagle customers to date associated with this recall.

The items being recalled by Giant Eagle include:

Items sold in the produce department with production codes of Z324 through Z350. Production codes are located on the front of package below use-by date.

(File Photo)
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 6:44 AM
(Perry Twp, Lawrence County, Pa.) Two medical helicopters were called to the scene of a two-vehicle crash on Route 488 in Perry Township, Lawrence County, Monday evening around 6:30 PM

The Portersville/Muddy Creek Township Volunteer Fire Department rescued a person was trapped in one of the vehicles which was on fire under the dashboard at the time.

The vehicle was also suspended by the guard rail and crews has to stabilize the vehicle as other first responders worked to free the person and put the fire out.

The conditions of the people injured in this crash have not been released

(File Photo)
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at6:41 AM
(Ambridge, Pa.) Ambridge Police Officers received a call for a domestic situation around 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning from Shannon Lee Hartman, who wanted to press charges against Warren Jackson, but when police arrived at the scene in Crestview Village Apartments neither Hartman or Jackson were there and officers found five children home alone living in deplorable conditions.

There was dirt, food , and feces covering the kids and the floors throughout the apartment.
A one-year-old was found crawling at the top of the steps alone in danger of falling. When they searched the rest of the house, there were four more kids alone ranging in ages two to seven.

It took almost four hours before police finally located the pair back in the apartment parking lot. One the children was taken by another family member and the other four are with children and youth services.

Both Hartman and Jackson are each facing five counts of endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.