The “I Am Not Invisible” campaign aims to increase awareness and dialogue about women veterans, and spotlight the many faces of women vets by capturing and sharing their portraits.

U.S. Veterans Affairs Photographer and Army Veteran Gene Russell will be taking portraits of women vets at the Butler VA’s New Castle Road campus at the end of the month. Women interested should register by next Wednesday, Feb. 19.

Women veterans do not need to be enrolled at the VA to participate. Childcare, and professional hair and make-up services, will be available.

There are roughly two million women veterans making up 10 percent of the veteran population, and officials say that number continues to grow.

Women veterans may register for the event by contacting Karen Dunn at 878-271-6484 or Karen.Dunn2@va.gov.

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II-VI is an electronic component maker based in Saxonburg.

The company has a 24,000-person workforce in China, and nearly half of them are in areas affected by the coronavirus.

CEO Vincent Mattera spoke with shareholders on a conference call earlier this week.

“We are committed to protecting the health and safety of all of our employees, while delivering for our customers,” he said. “I am proud of our worldwide leaders who have collaborated from the outset to provide a business continuity and emergency management plan, and who are carefully tending to the needs of our employees.”

II-VI is also avoiding all nonessential travel to China.

Officials also expect there to be financial ramifications, although specifics weren’t revealed.

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There are a number of services that can still be done online at dmv.pa.gov—but the license centers themselves will be closed through Monday.

Regular business hours continue for the DMV starting Tuesday, Feb. 18.

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U.S. scientists say the global average land and ocean surface temperature was just over two degrees above the average January temperatures for the 20th century. That made this past January the warmest first month of the year since records started being kept in 1880.

Warmer temperatures mean melting snow and ice. Scientists say Antarctic sea ice was 9.8 percent below the average.

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According to KDKA, Michael Neppach is accused of robbing the PNC Bank on Route 19 last Wednesday.  Officials say that Neppach entered the bank just before 5pm, and was holding a note that said he had a gun.

Police say that Neppach never showed a gun, and later fled the scene on-foot toward North Boundary Road.

Neppach faces charges including robbery.

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In the latest update, Butler Superintendent Dr. Brian White states that after working all day Thursday and into the night editing and entering data, district employees are “in the final process of reviewing and printing cards for our elementary schools”.

Once these new transportation cards have been printed, they will be available in each school’s office as well as on the Tyler parent portal. Parents should expect an email or text message when the cards for their child’s school have been delivered and are ready to be picked up.

District employees have used feedback from parents to create routes in the best way possible so an online forum has been created in order to continue gathering detailed information about suggested changes. That forum can be accessed through the district’s website.

The Butler Area School District still plans to start the new school year on Tuesday. The district will have open office hours at the admin building for critical transportation issues and information on Monday from 8 a.m. to noon.

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The county commissioners announced the retirement of Joyce Ainsworth on Friday. She has worked for the county for 30 years- starting out as a mental health specialist in late the 80s.

She climbed her way through the ranks before being named the Human Service Director in 2014. The department covers all aspects of human service- including mental health, intellectual disabilities and early intervention.

The county has hired internally to replace Ainsworth. Brandon Savochka will take over the role. He has worked for the county since 2013. He has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Waynesburg University, with continuing education and certification in the therapeutic crisis intervention field.

Ainsworth and Savochka will work together during the month of October, before she officially retires at the end of the month.

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PECO, formerly known as the Philadelphia Electric Company, has dispatched three dozen employees and 20 utility trucks to Florida to help that state from any damage caused by Hurricane Dorian.

Crews left the PECO service center in Eddystone, Delaware County on Thursday for the hours-long journey south. Once the crews arrive, they will wait out the storm in northern Florida before they’re dispatched to pitch in with storm relief.

Meanwhile, members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from Pittsburgh were previously dispatched to Florida with plans to head onto Puerto Rico if to provide hurricane assistance there. The crews expected to remain where they are as the storm approaches.

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Data shows the use of vaporizers and other inhaling devices has become increasingly common on college campuses in recent years. And while the aerosol plumes emitted by someone using an electronic vaping pen are not the same as the smoke from tobacco cigarettes, the associated risks are still a concern.

“You see (e-cigarettes) everywhere; just by walking around The Quad, you’ll see these huge puffs,” said Megan Pesci, a junior exercise science major from Indiana. “It follows the national trend of high school and college students not knowing a lot about (adverse effects of use) and getting addicted to it, and our campus absolutely follows that trend.”

E-cigarette use has only been measured in recent years in the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment, but statistics from 2016 to 2018 show increases from 4.3% to 9% in college students nationwide who say they used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days. SRU students taking the survey indicated a larger increase, from 4.5% to 11.9%.

“That’s a significant jump that concerns us because they are coming here already addicted,” said Vanessa Vought, health promotion coordinator at SRU’s Student Health Services. “They are starting to use earlier and earlier and by the time they get to college they are already addicted. That is a big problem because your brain is not fully developed until you’re around 25, well past the age of typical college students. That usage can affect your brain development and your success in college.”

According to the 2017 Pennsylvania Youth Survey, the past-month e-cigarette use for high school seniors increased from 27% to 29.3% from 2015 to 2017, while past-month use of tobacco cigarettes decreased from 14.6% to 13.2%. Of all students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 included in the survey who used an e-cigarette in their lifetime, 67% percent used them just for the flavoring, 29.4% for nicotine and 12.6% for marijuana or hash oil.

“E-cigarettes just don’t have the stigma compared to cigarette smoking,” Vought said. “(E-cigarettes) have cool flavors, they smell good and the companies that are selling them are putting out these messages that they are not as harmful as cigarettes.”

Vought is providing more education about e-cigarettes for SRU students through the University’s Healthy Outreach Through Peer Education. Known as the HOPE Peer Educators, the group conducts programming in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout each November.

While e-cigarettes lack the tobacco and tar, they contain higher concentrations of nicotine than cigarettes. Although nicotine does not cause cancer, it is highly addictive and harms brain development, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office.

There are also chemicals such as diacetyl, which has been linked to lung disease, and ultra-fine particles that are inhaled by e-cigarette users. Scientists are studying the effects, but with e-cigarettes being a relatively new product, there is not enough data to prove the long-term effects.

“But it’s coming; it’s only a matter of time,” Vought said. “We want students to take these risks seriously and I don’t want a student who is addicted now to find out later that it might develop into something serious because it’s the same thing that happened to cigarette users decades ago. It wasn’t until much later that we found out how harmful they are.”

Braden MacBeth, a 2019 SRU graduate with a degree in computing, decided to conduct his own research. After taking a Medical Ethics class at SRU last year, he began submitting monthly articles to Science-Based Medicine, a website that explores issues and controversies related to science and medicine.

One of his articles titled “Vape Nation: Vaping is Bad, Kids,” addressed how the vaping community downplays the risks even after the Surgeon General declared youth e-cigarette use an epidemic.

“A lot of people are doing it but we don’t fully understand the risk profile because it’s a new thing,” said MacBeth, who is currently working as a software engineer with intentions of applying to medical school to become a psychiatrist. “We definitely know it’s not good. This was a good topic to study because there was a lot of research that has started to come out and that’s why I decided to write the article.”

A research group from SRU is also contributing to the investigation of e-cigarettes usage.

Pesci and Julia Tremel, a senior exercise science major from Pittsburgh, with supervision from Steve Verba, associate professor of exercise and rehabilitative sciences, are conducting a study to see if acute bouts of exercise can mitigate cravings for JUUL, a type of e-cigarette.

“There have been similar studies done previously with cigarette cravings, so we’re thinking exercise might mirror the effect to reduce cravings,” Pesci said. “This is an epidemic and we think this topic is relevant to our students. Research will continue to come out (from others), but we hope studies like this can help make progress and get the word out about the risks and effects. Anything we can do to stop the addiction and the probable health effects down the road (will help).”

Participants in the study must be college students, ages of 18-24; frequent JUUL users with no desire to quit within the next month; and must have a sedentary lifestyle with little or no regular exercise. The protocol involves three visits: a baseline to gather medical information, 15 minutes of aerobic activity and 15 minutes of resistance training. During the exercise visits, participants will be asked to measure their cravings before exercise, immediately after exercise and 10 minutes after exercise.

The SRU research team has already tested 10 subjects and are seeking at least 10 more participants this semester. Individuals interested in participating can contact Pesci at mgp1005@sru.edu or Tremel at jmt1021@sru.edu.

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The incident was reported about 4 p.m. on Route 8 South, just past the intersection with Route 228.

It is not known exactly how much diesel fuel from the 150 gallon tank ended up leaking out or what caused the leak. No one is believed to have been injured.

At least one lane of traffic did need to be shut down for a time in order to allow for clean-up. Crews cleared the scene around 5:30 p.m.

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