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By MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A statewide court says Pennsylvania’s expansive two-year-old mail-in voting law is unconstitutional, agreeing with challenges by Republicans who soured on mail-in voting after then-President Donald Trump began baselessly attacking it as rife with fraud in 2020’s campaign. Friday’s decision by a five-judge Commonwealth Court panel could be put on hold immediately by an appeal from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to the state Supreme Court. The decision throws the state’s voting laws into doubt in a big election year. The three Republican judges agreed with Republican challengers. The two Democrats on the panel dissented. The state Supreme Court has a 5-2 Democratic majority.

Lawmakers look to head off all-electric building codes
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature is signaling again that it wants to stop municipalities in the nation’s No. 2 natural gas state from adopting building codes that prohibit gas hookups. Legislation passed the GOP-controlled House Wednesday, 118-83, three months after the state Senate passed a similar bill. The bills prohibit municipalities from writing new building codes that restrict utility service based on the energy source. Neither bill has reached Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk. States, cities and counties elsewhere have begun looking at all-electric building codes as a way to fight climate change. In December, New York City barred most new buildings from using natural gas.

Judge begins review to pick new congressional district maps
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania judge is undertaking a review of competing proposals for the state’s redistricted congressional maps. The hearing that began Thursday in Harrisburg followed a veto Wednesday night by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of a plan that had been sent to him by legislative Republicans. Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough warned the parties the hearing could go into the weekend. The schedule reflects pressure to redraw lines for 17 congressional districts in time for the May primary election. The matter is highly likely to be ultimately decided by the state Supreme Court, which currently has a 5-2 Democratic majority.

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Story by Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News Correspondent
Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 1:33 PM
(Aliquippa, Pa.) Aliquippa City Council approved it’s first resolution of 2022  at its  work session Wednesday night

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Story by Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News Correspondent
Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 1:16 PM
(Hopewell Twp., Pa.) Dr. Robert  Kartychak  presented the board with feedback from the principals and a parent survey on the ESSER III plan and it was presented to the school board at Tuesday’s night’s meeting.  The superintendent reported that the district has  $1,682,601 remaining,  Deadline to use the funds 9/30/2022. The remaining amount is $1,682,601. The fund addresses students’ academic, social emotional, and mental health needs as well as opportunity gaps that existed before and were worsened by the pandemic..

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Story by Sandy Giordano, Beaver County Radio News Correspondent
Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 12:59 PM
(Aliquippa, Pa.) A rally was held outside the city building yesterday because residents of Towne Tower want things done to the  apartment complex by the owners, and they have been making allegations the city isn’t helping them enough.

(Ambridge, Pa.) At 4 a.m Thursday morning . the AMWA  was notified   that a water line broke under the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge. Merchant St. to 8th St. is closed to traffic A water authority official and police confirmed the closure of the bridge. PennDot closed  Route 65 in that area, according to police.

HARRISBURG – In response to Gov. Tom Wolf vetoing the citizens’ congressional redistricting map, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) issued the following statement:

“Under the cover of darkness, much like the development of Gov. Tom Wolf’s map, the governor issued a vague and partisan gerrymandered-filled veto of the first citizens’ congressional map ever adopted by the General Assembly. Once again, Wolf has shown his failed leadership through his unwillingness to work across the aisle with Republicans in the Legislature on a constitutionally mandated requirement.

“Instead, Wolf has picked political brinkmanship and unnecessarily requiring the courts to address congressional redistricting instead of joining the General Assembly in adopting the first ever citizen-drawn map which did not use partisan data in the development of the map.

“We went from a redistricting process that was open to every Pennsylvanian, took into account feedback from countless residents and a Legislature-approved map drawn by a citizen to the Wolf way of having a few select members of the judiciary decide which map will be used.

“I am even more puzzled by Wolf’s reasons for his veto. In one argument he vetoes the bill because he doesn’t want politicians drawing the maps, but he himself, a politician, drew a map and he further supported politicians drawing maps by his opposition to Democrat members being “cut out” of the process. He further opposed the bill because it wasn’t drawn with more Democrat districts, and he opposed the splits in four counties of which he also split in his map. Finally, he made a vague statement about a violation of a court case without any reasons as to why or how the map violated the court case.  Talk about hypocritical, nonsensical ramble.

“What can we surmise from Wolf’s veto message?  He wanted a Democrat gerrymandered map drawn by Democrat politicians. The Republicans in the General Assembly showed tremendous leadership by using the most open and transparent congressional redistricting process in the history of the Commonwealth to select a citizen-drawn map for the first time in Pennsylvania history to end partisan gerrymandering. However, Wolf just wants a Democrat power grab to help the failing president. Wolf is just a typical politician who has failed Pennsylvania once again.”