(Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) According to a release from the Pennsylvania Public Utilty Commission (PUC), the PUC today released a report on a Management Efficiency Investigation (MEI) of FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company (FE PA), which provides electric distribution service to customers across large portions of Central and Western Pennsylvania. A 5-0 vote was taken by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to let the MEI report be public, along with an implentation plan submitted by the FE PA going through a publication. Implementing 15 of the 27 original recommendations made as part of a 2022 PUC Management and Operations Audit, along with a review of the company’s compliance with PUC regulations regarding physical security, cybersecurity, emergency response, and business continuity plans with this most recent investigation focuses on FE PA’s progress of those things. FE PA effectively or substantially implemented seven of the recommendations reviewed and has acted on the remaining eight items, which is what PUC auditors found. According to that same release from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, here is some more information about this report and more about the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission:

Notable improvements highlighted in the report include:

• Realizing approximately $174 million in operating and maintenance expense savings through FirstEnergy’s FE Forward and FE Forward Refresh initiatives, with about $41 million of those savings allocated to FE PA.
• Cooperating with investigations and meeting settlement agreement obligations while enhancing the company’s ethics and compliance culture.
• Implementing new internal controls over financial reporting, resulting in unmodified audit opinions throughout the review period.
• Establishing a new process for engaging with third-party collections agencies to improve collections performance.

Areas identified for further improvement include:

• Maintaining focus on compliance with ongoing settlement agreements.
• Enhancing transparency in base rate filings by disclosing cost increases linked to prior executive misconduct.
• Strengthening corporate governance through timely review and updating of affiliated interest agreements.
• Improving electric reliability by addressing the top outage causes with remedial programs and best practices.
• Developing workforce planning models to better manage overtime and storm response, with potential savings of approximately $4.3 million annually.
• Expanding penetration testing of Pennsylvania facilities to strengthen cybersecurity defenses.
• Addressing persistent inventory turnover challenges at distribution centers, with potential carrying cost savings between $147,000 and $1.1 million annually.
• Implementing enhanced safety training and performance targets to reduce accidents, potentially saving up to $575,000 annually.
• In total, the MEI resulted in 12 follow-up recommendations related to prior audit findings and three new recommendations for improvement. According to the company’s implementation plan, FE PA has committed to address these items, with many targeted for completion within the next year.

About Management Audits and Management Efficiency Investigations

 

• State law requires the PUC to conduct periodic Management and Operations Audits of major jurisdictional utilities, reviewing a wide range of management practices, organizational structures, operations, and financial management.
• Management Efficiency Investigations are follow-up studies designed to determine the extent to which a utility has effectively implemented recommendations from previous audits.

About the PUC

• The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission balances the needs of consumers and utilities; ensures safe and reliable utility service at reasonable rates; protects the public interest; educates consumers to make independent and informed utility choices; furthers economic development; and fosters new technologies and competitive markets in an environmentally sound manner.
• Visit the PUC’s website at puc.pa.gov for recent news releases and video of select proceedings. You can also follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Search for the “Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission” or “PA PUC” on your favorite social media channel for updates on utility issues and other helpful consumer information.

(File Photo of the PennDOT logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to a release from PennDOT District 11, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the Allegheny County Police Department, the PA Traffic Injury Prevention Project (PA TIPP) and the Bellevue Fire Department held a media event recently in Pittsburgh to demonstrate proper methods to buckle small children and infants in a vehicle during National Child Passenger Safety Week which runs through Saturday, September 27th, 2025. The purpose of Child Passenger Safety Week is to emphasize people needing to buckle seatbelts, booster seats or the right car seat on children each time that those children travel. Every vehicle occupant is more likely to be survivors of a crash when the right restraint is correctly secured on them. This event showed safety partners demonstrating the way that is proper to buckle a child, a toddler and an infant in a vehicle, while making sure these children are in a car seat that is properly fitted and a booster seat respectively. According to PA TIPP, from 2020-2024, 82% of the children under age 4 who were involved in crashes and restrained in a child seat sustained no injury. In 2024, the Pennsylvania seat belt use rate was nearly 88%. For every one percent increase in seat belt usage, eight to twelve lives can be saved, which is shown by national statistics. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), using the correct and properly installed car seat reduces the chance of fatal injury by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers. Adults should make sure that children and everyone buckle their seatbelts for each trip, especially children. Anybody younger than eighteen years old must buckle their seatbelt as a requirement because of the law in Pennsylvania, no matter what seat someone is in in each vehicle. A rear-facing car seat needs to be what children under the age of two must be secured in vehicles in Pennsylvania, and an approved child safety seat is what children under the age of four must be restrained in vehicles in Pennsylvania. Children need to ride in a booster seat until they are the age of eight in Pennsylvania. Child Passenger Safety Technicians are also available throughout the year to help amek sure that seats are suitable and properly installed. You can also visit the PA TIPP website by clicking here to find a car seat check event in your area. Visit www.PennDOT.pa.gov/safety for more information on Child Passenger Safety.

(File Photo of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Midland, PA) According to a release from PA Cyber in Midland, PA Cyber is celebrating the announcement of a Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy® Award for “Moments in History: Melvin Goldman” in the Education/Schools – Long Form Content category. PA Cyber’sMoments in History series earned three Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy® Award nominations in a row and PA Cyber’sMoments in History series gets its first Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy® Award. The film shows the journey of Holocaust survivor Melvin Goldman as his daughter, Lee Goldman Kikel, uses cassette tapes he left behind to tell his story. PA Cyber hosted a video premiere of “Moments in History: Melvin Goldman” on January 27th, 2025, which was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which included a Q&A with Lee Goldman Kikel. On June 4th, 2025, which was Holocaust Survivor Day, Chatham University in Pittsburgh hosted a screening of  “Moments in History: Melvin Goldman.” The film shows Goldman and his real experience of spending five years in the Jewish ghetto and concentration camps. When Allied Forces liberated the concentration camps in 1945, Goldman was twenty-one-years old. Goldman even could not walk and weighed 85 pounds at that time. A stranger helped Goldman sponsor his movement to the United States after he had recovery for several years in Germany. Goldman owned a jewelry store that was popular in Squirrel Hill, which is part of Pittsburgh and raised a family in the United States. The Emmy® Award is recognized through excellence in television through The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Every year, nineteen Emmy® regional ceremonies are held around the United States. The regional Emmy® winners for 2025 were announced on Saturday, following nominations in August of 2025. The recipients of these awards and the complete list of them is available on the website of the Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Awards which you can view by clicking here.

(File Photo of a top of a School Bus)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Carnegie, PA) A father from Carnegie is now facing charges after police confirm he got on a school bus and threatened kids he believed were bullying his third-grade daughter. According to a criminal complaint filed by Carlynton school police, 32-year-old Michael Woods Jr. climbed onto a bus on August 29th, 2025 and threatened students, swearing at them and demanding to know who was bullying his daughter. Police state that Woods going onto a bus in Carnegie close to the intersections of Chestnut Street and Main Streets was seen on surveillance video. According to investigators, Woods could be seen walking past the driver and down the aisle before he started yelling at a group of students. Police confirm Woods exited the bus when no one answered him. Woods recently got charged with a misdemeanor count of unauthorized school bus entry. The superintendent of Carlynton School District confirmed in a recent statement that Woods boarded a bus without permission and was charged. Carlynton School District also said that it can not make any comments further on the specific information on this case from this incident, citing an active investigation.

(Photos Below and Headline Photo Taken by Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Chippewa Township, PA) The new Sheetz convenience store in Chippewa has now opened in Chippewa Township on 2733 Constitution Boulevard. The ribbon cutting ceremony started at 10:45 a.m. this morning in Beaver Falls with the actual ribbon cutting taking place near 11 a.m. The store was standing room only for that ceremony inside the store. Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning was also present at the ribbon cutting, and he said that Sheetz “is going to be a great asset, a great amenity to Beaver County, but particularly the Chippewa, along Route 51 here.” A local woman named MaryAnne Bolland also stated that today was “a very exciting day” for Sheetz and that the enterprise of Sheetz got a very warm welcome from Chippewa, because the people are showing their support, which she said was “a wonderful thing.” The Pirate Parrot, the mascot of the Pittsburgh Pirates, also flew in this morning and was among those celebrating the ribbon cutting with the employees and customers for the grand opening at the new Sheetz store in Chippewa. Prizes were also given away this morning, including a grand prize of free Sheetz for a year. The festivities began at 9 a.m. this morning and for the entire day today, employees of the new Sheetz in Chippewa offered free soda and self-serve coffee to customers. Sheetz also made some donations as well to celebrate the opening of this new store in Chippewa, as $2,500 was donated by Sheetz to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which helps people in eleven counties to provide food to neighbors that are in need of them. Customers that attended the grand opening celebration were encouraged to donate a food item that is non-perishable to the nonprofit. Sheetz also donated $2,500 to the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania, because the company has been supporting the Special Olympics for more than thirty years.  While supplies last from 9-11 a.m., those who donated received a thermal bag that was branded with Sheetz on it, with a limit of one per customer. Approximately thirty individuals will work at the new Sheetz store in Chippewa. Sheetz has over 800 locations of stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia with every location open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

By Scott Tady, Beaver County Radio

NEW SEWICKLEY TWP. — It’s zombie hunting season again.

The Zombies of the Corn attraction returns for its 13th spooky season at Three Rivers Paintball Park, in New Sewickley Township.

Open weekends through Nov. 1, the family owned and operated Zombies of The Corn brings Halloween-style screams, thrills and fun for all ages.

Zombies of the Corn lets guests live out their paintball dreams where the zombies have the rage, but only you have the weapons. Guests climb aboard zombie battle wagons in the Zombie Shoot, or visitors can face the undead in the Zombie Compound.

Other attractions include the Z-Maze and the 3D Funhouse.

Family-friendly favorites like face painting, storytellers and outdoor movies round out a full night of Halloween excitement.

The public can reserve a covered picnic table complete with a campfire. Guests can bring their own food or enjoy tasty fall treats from the facility’s menu offering savory to sweet specialties.

New for 2025: Fractured Realm — a twisted labyrinth of shifting reflections where
nothing is as it seems. Just when you think you’ve found an escape, fear and confusion set in.

Parking is once again managed by Boy Scout Troop #444, working to collect
donations for their High Adventures trips. Parents and scouts will appreciate a $5
donation per car to work toward their goals.
Interviews are underway for seasonal positions, and management currently is accepting applications for maintenance, target zombies, actors/scarers and line facilitators.

With over 60% of the cast returning each year — including retirees who just love the fun — it’s one of the most spirted teams around, according to owner Debra Krischke.

“We love providing a very unique, fun-filled night for our customers and truly do offer fright levels for all ages.

Early weekend visits are advised, as this event sells out by mid-October.

Admission is $34.99 to $59.99.

There are Friday and Saturday hours starting this week, with Sundays added beginning Oct. 12.

Tickets and more information is at zombiesofthecorn.com
or by calling 724-775-6232.

(Photo Courtesy of the Cranberry Township Police Department)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Cranberry Township, PA) Twenty-one-year-old David Matthew Lisyuk of Aliquippa has been charged with possessing a weapon on school property because he was the one who was allegedly on the property of Seneca Valley School District which caused a threat to the district on September 15th, 2025 in the Haine Elementary/Middle School parking lot. According to the criminal complaint, several people reported a suspicious male riding a bike in Cranberry Township with a black pistol holstered in a bag on his chest. School district officials confirm in a letter that a resource officer saw someone riding a bike through the Haine Elementary/Middle School parking lot on September 15th, 2025. Lisyuk, who has no ties to Seneca Valley School District,was reportedly carrying a working, privately made 9mm pistol. He stated to police he was unaware he was on school property until he was going through the parking lot. Reports were also given to police that Lisyuk allegedly stopped at a business that was local in Cranberry Township. According to officials, he was wearing a mask and appeared to be carrying a holstered weapon across his chest, officials say. All buildings of the Seneca Valley School Disrict got put on secure status on September 15th, 2025 with increased presence of police out of an abundance of caution, even though no direct threat to the schools was seen.

(File Photo of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) According to a release from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved a consent agreement yesterday resulting in a $30,000 fine against the operator of Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania after it allowed a 13-year-old to gain entry to the gaming floor and gamble. This incident happened in November of 2024 and that thirteen-year-old was gambling on slot machines for more than six hours. 12 individuals also got put on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s various involuntary exclusion lists yesterday, which forbids people from gaming in a Pennsylvania casino via a betting site that is online regulated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board or a location for a video gaming terminal. 1,422 people are on these lists. Yesterday’s actions from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board also included ten individuals being put on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Casino Exclusion List, which includes three of them for gambling while they left minors unattended in vehicles. According to that same release from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, here is the explanation of these three aforementioned people are who got on these lists, and why:

• A female patron who left two children, 3 and 9-years-old, in a vehicle in the parking lot of Wind Creek Casino Bethlehem for 10 minutes in order to gamble at slot machines; and,
• A male and a female patron who together left two 8-year-old children in a vehicle in the parking lot of Presque Isle Downs & Casino for 29 minutes while they gambled in the sportsbook.

Two othe people were put on the Involuntary Interactive Gaming Exclusion list from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for actions involving gambling online that were fraudulent.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will meet next at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, October 23rd, 2025 in the Public Hearing Room of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on the second floor of the Strawberry Square Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will post more information on www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov about this meeting and the agenda the agenda before the meeting begins.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Three men have been recently convicted for being in connection with a transnational drug operation which brought narcotics to western Pennsylvania. Twenty-nine-year-old Carlos Zamora of Phoenix, Arizona and twenty-eight-year-old Bryce Hill of Seattle Washington were found guilty of this crime after a trial of two-and-a-half weeks. Twenty-eight-year-old Jesus Ramirez of Phoenix, Arizona took his guilty plea for this crime during the middle of a trial. The evidence from this crime included rifles, handguns, 28 kilograms of fentanyl pills and 48 kilograms of meth. Hill and Zamora face no less than 10 years and up to life in prison, a fine of up to $10 million, or both and their sentencings have not been scheduled yet. Ramierez faces no less than five years and up to 40 years in prison, a fine of up to $5 million, or both, and will be sentenced on January 20th, 2026. These convictions follow ones for 29 additional co-defendants. According to Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti,  “These convictions are a testament to the collaborative efforts of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies throughout the country. Refusing to be bound by borders, law enforcement disrupted the deadly flow of fentanyl into western Pennsylvania by aggressively targeting conspirators in Phoenix, Seattle, Mexico, and elsewhere. This multi-year investigation enabled the seizure of millions of fentanyl tablets, the largest quantities ever obtained through an investigation based in western Pennsylvania.” In May of 2025, James Pinkston of New Kensington was sentenced to 220 months in prison in relation to this crime.