Former Tioga County resident accused of having child pornography on computer….Tioga County couple facing child endangerment for having drugs around two children….Two Brooklyn NY residents arrested in Potter County for drug possession….Penn State study finds the number of acres of farmland has fallen….Number of virus cases shows improvement statewide and in the region……
Wednesday’s high, 65; Overnight low, 33
OVERCAST TODAY A HIGH OF 55
SHOWERS MOVE IN TONIGHT A LOW OF 35
PERIODS OF CLOUDS AND SUN TOMORROW A HIGH OF 51.
PARTLY CLOUDY TOMORROW NIGHT AND LOW OF 22. SATURDAY MOSTLY SUNNY WITH A COOLER HIGH OF 43
CLOUDS RETURN SATURDAY NIGHT WITH A LOW OF 28
A former Tioga County resident has been arrested in Snyder County on charges of sexual abuse of children through possession of child pornography. State Police report that this past Tuesday their Bureau of Criminal Investigation Northeast Computer Crime Task Force with the assistance of troopers from Mansfield executed a search warrant at East Hill Road in Covington Township Tioga County on a child pornography investigation. A search warrant was obtained from information provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and provided task force members with an Internet protocol address and images of suspected pornography. While the search warrant was being executed, police learned that Kevin Perry used to live at the East Hill location. Contact was made with Perry who when he was walking along Route 15 is Snyder County. Task force members met him at that location. A search warrant was executed on the devices belonging to Perry inside Snyder County .Forensic results showed him to be in possession of suspected child pornography. As a result, Perry was charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse of children as defined by Pennsylvania crime codes. A preliminary arraignment was held by the Honorable Judge Jeffrey Mensch and Perry was remanded to prison in lieu of $25,000
Charges of endangering the welfare of a child have been filed against 33 year old Gary Gerow of Morris Run and 34 year old Jessica Page of Blossburg. Police say the couple was found in possession of Summit Street in Hamilton Township February 22. Two children, a five month old and two year old, were in the home and police believe the couple was under the influence of a controlled substance.
Tioga County Police report Bethany Huck of Wellsboro was driving a Kia Sorrento west on Route 6 when the car went onto the berm after Huck tried to retrieve her glasses which she had dropped. The car went off the south side of the highway and struck a legally parked Adventure Wheels motor home and continued on for short distance after the collision. Huck was taken to UPMC Soldiers and Sailors for treatment of unknown injuries
Two Brooklyn NY 19 year olds were arrested on drug charges by Coudersport based state police February 27 in Ulysses Township. A Police claim when they initiated a traffic stop on a 2007 Mazda on Route 6, they discovered that the driver, 19 year old Isaiah Rodriguez, was in possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia . His passenger,Justin Camacho, was also allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance and associated drug paraphernalia
Coudersport state police are investigating a reported child endangerment occurring in Brizzee Hollow Road in Oswayo Township between March 14 2016 and this past February 15. The report was that the child was being kept from receiving dental services.
The number of acres of farmland in Pennsylvania fell by 6% between 2012 and 2017, at a time when the state’s prime farming regions are experiencing population growth that may create long-term challenges for producers.That’s one conclusion of a new report from the Center for Economic and Community Development in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “Where the Soybeans Grow: An Exploration of Agricultural Land Use in Pennsylvania, 2017” is based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2017 Census of Agriculture.
The report is part of a series, “Understanding Pennsylvania Agriculture: 2017 Update,” which explores various aspects of the 2017 Census of Agriculture. The ag census is compiled every five years, and the 2017 census results were released in 2019.
According to the report, Pennsylvania is the 32nd largest state in terms of total land area with more than 28.6 million acres, about 25% of which — nearly 7.3 million acres — is farmland. This agricultural land is grouped into four categories defined by USDA: cropland, woodland, pastureland and “other land” dedicated to farming purposes.
The state’s total farmland acreage in 2017 was 6% smaller than it was at the time of the 2012 ag census, noted Timothy Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics and co-director of the Center for Economic and Community Development.
“At the same time, the number of farms in Pennsylvania fell by an even greater amount, 10%, which suggests that some operators who left farming may have sold land to other producers, who kept that land in production,” he said. “This probable consolidation would explain why farmland acreage declined at a slower rate than the decline in the number of farms.”
At the county level, the percentage of total land used for agricultural purposes ranged from virtually 0% in Philadelphia County to about 65% in Lancaster County. Counties with the highest percentage of their total land in farming tended to be in south-central and southeastern Pennsylvania — regions that also have seen robust increases in population.
The largest proportion of Pennsylvania farmland in 2017 was dedicated to crop production, which accounted for 64% of the state’s total ag land. With a 2% increase in acres, cropland was the only category of farmland to expand between 2012 and 2017, the report revealed.
Woodland acreage, which includes natural or planted woodlot that might be used for wood products or timber, accounted for 20% of farmland; pastureland used for animal grazing was 10% of the total; and “other land” — which includes houses, barns, roads, ponds, wasteland or other infrastructure — represented 6% of ag land. Total acres devoted to woodland, pastureland and “other” ag land fell by 18%, 13% and 20%, respectively, from 2012 to 2017.
To enhance understanding of how agriculture varies across the state, the report describes three USDA-designated land-resource regions, which transcend state borders and are based on climate, soil types and geographic factors that may influence where different types and sizes of farms occur.
Parts of northeastern and northwestern Pennsylvania fall into the Northeastern Forage and Forest Region, which is made up largely of forested plateaus, plains and mountains. A wide swath of Pennsylvania from the southwestern corner to the northcentral counties bordering New York belongs to the East and Central Farming and Forest Region, which is characterized by rolling hills and valleys. Much of this region is located in the Allegheny Plateau.
This and other reports in the “Understanding Pennsylvania Agriculture, 2017 Update” series can be found on the Center for Economic and Community Development website. Penn State Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this work.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., March 10, there were 2,594 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 955,730. Here in the Black Forest Broadcasting service area the number of cases continues to improve. McKean County has 2329 confirmed cases; Tioga 2185; Elk 1253. Potter 828 and Cameron 176. in neighboring New York State Cattaraugus County has 4518 and Allegheny County 2939 confirmed cases. The state also reached a milestone of more than 1 million Pennsylvanians fully vaccinated.
There are 1,530 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that number, 313 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older.
The trend in the 14-day moving average number of hospitalized patients per day is about 4,400 lower than it was at the peak on December 25, 2020. However, the current 14-day average is now also below what it was at the height of the spring peak on May 3, 2020.
Statewide percent positivity for the week of February 26 – March 4 stood at 5.7%.
The most accurate daily data is available on the website, with archived data also available.
As of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, there were 43 new deaths identified by the Pennsylvania death registry, reported for a total of 24,439 deaths attributed to COVID-19. County-specific information and a statewide map are available on the COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
Pennsylvania hospitals began receiving shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 14 and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 21. The Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine was first allocated to Pennsylvania the week of March 1, and the commonwealth is using it for a special initiative involving educators. Vaccination numbers for Pennsylvania do not include Philadelphia, which is its own jurisdiction, or federal facilities, which are working directly with the federal government.
This week, a total of 4,179,220 doses will have been allocated through March 13:
254,150 first/single doses will have been allocated this week.
225,890 second doses will have been allocated this week.
To date, of the 4,179,220 doses allocated through March 13, we have administered 3,128,637 doses total through March 9:
First/single doses, 87 percent (2,111,658 administered of 2,427,085 allocated)
Second doses, 58 percent (1,016,979 administered of 1,752,135 allocated)
Mask-wearing is required in all businesses and whenever leaving home, even if fully vaccinated. Consistent mask-wearing is critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19.
There are 115,252 individuals who have a positive viral antigen test and are considered probable cases and 640 individuals who have a positive serology test and either COVID-19 symptoms or a high-risk exposure.
There are 3,963,707 individuals who have tested negative to date.
In licensed nursing and personal care homes, there are 68,126 resident cases of COVID-19, and 13,560 cases among employees, for a total of 81,686 at 1,560 distinct facilities in all 67 counties. Out of total deaths reported to PA-NEDSS, 12,632 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities. A county breakdown can be found here. Note that the number of deaths reported to NEDSS is not exactly the same as the COVID-19 related deaths reported by the death registry. The number of deaths among nursing and personal care home residents and employees is taken from the PA-NEDSS death data, as this information is not available in the death registry data.
Approximately 25,377 of our total cases are among health care workers.