PA Headlines 1/12/22 WKOK’ PA Headlines is a compilation of headlines from around the state.
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) — AP is reporting… pilot crash-landed a medical helicopter Tuesday without loss of life in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church, authorities and witnesses said. It was a “miracle” that none of the four people aboard, including an infant patient, suffered life-threatening injuries, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt said. Rescue crews rushed to the wreckage by the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church in Upper Darby at about 1 p.m. and helped get the pilot, two crew members and the infant out of the aircraft, Bernhardt said at a press conference.
The infant was taken to a hospital as authorities worked to notify the child’s family, Bernhardt said. The aircraft had taken off from out of state. It’s believed to have encountered mechanical problems during the flight, said a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, citing reports from county officials. At the crash site, a stop sign on the corner was cleaved into two and had apparently been hit by the helicopter when it came down. The aircraft was on its side in two pieces, just outside the stone church. “It’s a miracle, it’s an absolute miracle, here what you see behind me,” Bernhardt said, adding that he’s eager to shake the pilot’s hand for getting the helicopter down the way they did.
A witness, Joshua James, said he was driving nearby with his wife and young son when he saw the tail of the helicopter swaying back and forth as it slid to a stop. He put his car in reverse. “It makes no sense to me that it didn’t hit any of the wires or anything — that it didn’t hit us,” James said. Jerrell Saunders, 28, said he had been walking from his work in maintenance at an apartment building nearby when he saw the helicopter “just floating, like real low, like extremely low, like it could land on the building that I work at.” He got in his car to go to the hardware store and the helicopter was going in the same direction. He said he saw it hit the ground in the middle of the road and slide across the ground until it crashed.
“I guess the pilot tried to land in a safe area, because it took a bounce on the a ground and fell and, like, slid,” Saunders said. The helicopter turned on its side and, as smoke was coming out, he saw people jumping out of the helicopter. “I’m telling my grandkids about this one,” he said. A fire official said the helicopter had about an hour’s worth of fuel left at the time of the crash, and crews took steps to keep leaking fuel from contaminating groundwater. The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft was a Eurocopter EC135 medical helicopter and that the agency was investigating, along with the National Transportation Safety Board. A spokesman for Air Methods, the air medical emergency transport service that owns the helicopter, said it was part of the LifeNet program based in Hagerstown, Maryland. Federal agencies were investigating.
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — WHTM is reporting… Three months after Chambersburg became the 70th and most recent Pennsylvania municipality to specifically prohibit discrimination against gender and sexual minorities, Franklin County’s seat, and most populous municipality is preparing to repeal its new anti-discrimination ordinance. The move comes after a dramatic change in the composition of the borough’s council following November’s election, from a veto-proof Democratic majority (which, sure enough, overrode a mayoral veto of the ordinance) to a 7-3 Republican majority. A reversal of progress? Or of government overreach?
That depends on whether you ask the former borough council president, Alice Elia (D), who fought for the ordinance, or the new one, Allen Coffman (R), who also served in that role years ago and who ran for re-election on a slate of Republicans whose priorities included the repeal. At the newly-seated council’s first meeting last week, Republicans asked the borough’s solicitor to draft legislation repealing the ordinance. Technically, it’s not a done deal: The actual vote on the repeal is scheduled for Jan. 24. But a 7-3 GOP majority and a newly-elected Republican mayor portend little drama about the outcome. “Many people in the community saw [the local ordinance] as a win for the LGBTQ community and other members of the community who are not protected at the state level,” said Elia, who said she was sorry but not surprised about the move. “I was mostly just disappointed that at the very first meeting, this was what they chose to do.”
PITTSBURGH (TribLive) – TribLive is reporting… No vaccine, no classes. That’s the policy the University of Pittsburgh is now enforcing, saying it has “disenrolled” students who have not complied with the school’s covid-19 vaccine mandate. Pitt announced Dec. 6 it was putting a requirement in place for all students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 1. Students who didn’t comply or have an approved exemption on file were told they would not be allowed to enroll in spring 2022 term classes, which began Monday, or live in residence halls. In addition, Pitt officials said current faculty and staff who were not vaccinated would be subject to disciplinary action. “While we continue to work with those who are trying to come into compliance, late last week noncompliant students were disenrolled from classes, and lost access to Pitt buildings and certain IT functions,” assistant vice chancellor of communications David Seldin said Tuesday in a statement.
“In addition, noncompliant employees lost access to Pitt buildings and certain IT resources.” If students get vaccinated after being disenrolled, Pitt said it will allow them to return to school. A similar policy applies to Pitt staff members. To do so, students would need to either provide proof of vaccination or apply for and receive an approved exemption. Any student who is disenrolled and chooses not to take steps to return to compliance can apply for a refund said Seldin. “Employees who choose not to take steps to return to compliance may be subject to additional disciplinary action in accordance with the University’s disciplinary guidelines,” said Seldin.
HARRISBURG — Spotlight PA is reporting… In May, GOP lawmakers who control the state House and Senate hired the chair of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to represent them in legal matters at $575 an hour. Within three weeks, Lawrence Tabas — one of the state’s top election lawyers — and his law firm had charged the chambers more than $36,000 for 78 hours of work, records show.
What Tabas did for the legislature, however, is a mystery. Republican leaders redacted all details about his work from his contract and other public records, continuing into 2021 a stubborn pattern of secrecy surrounding the legislature’s agreements with private lawyers, an ongoing review by The Caucus and Spotlight PA shows.
In eight cases that began in 2021, or continued to be billed that year, the House and Senate wholly blacked out the reasons for hiring the private law firm, records obtained through a Right-to-Know request show. In other cases, lawmakers drafted the contract with the outside law firms using language so vague that it is impossible to tell what the case was about.
In doing so, those leaders have continued to flout a 2013 decision by the state’s highest court that ruled general descriptions of legal services, and the identity of who is being represented, are public information. The Caucus and Spotlight PA are appealing the redactions. “Where … the taxpayers are footing the bill for the legal services, they are entitled to know the general nature of the services provided for the fees charged,” a panel of Commonwealth Court judges wrote following the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Legislative leaders spend millions in taxpayer dollars each year to hire private law firms through a closed-door process that, unlike other state contracts, is made with virtually no public oversight. These contracts are regularly awarded to law firms that pour cash into legislators’ campaign coffers, a previous investigation found. Not only do taxpayers pick up the cost for those legal battles — sometimes twice if the cases involve both political parties or separate branches of the government — but they are also paying for legislative leaders to keep details of those fights under wraps.
In 2021, the House and Senate GOP spent $34,659 to fight attempts by The Caucus and Spotlight PA, under the state’s open records law, to make public critical details in legal bills from prior years. he top-paid firm fighting the news organizations’ appeal: Philadelphia-based Kleinbard LLC. The company also happens to be one of the eight firms whose reason for being hired is completely redacted. In the first nine months of 2021, the legislature’s legal bills totaled $3.5 million, on par with the roughly $5 million the two chambers have spent annually on lawyers in recent years.Road
