Latest news with #AMED
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Shapiro Administration looks to recruit more people to EMS workforce
ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — A week before National EMS Week, the Shapiro Administration kicked off a new statewide initiative to recruit more people to the EMS workforce. First responders and the Department of Health gathered at AMED in Altoona on Wednesday to talk about the initiative. According to the administration, in 2024 alone, over 1,200 emergency agencies responded to more than 2 million calls for service. Kristen Rodack, Department of Health Executive Deputy Secretary, said that equates to nearly five calls per minute every day of the year. 'Providing 24 hour access to emergency care is no easy feat, because every call for help has unique circumstances, and many EMS agencies are stretched thin,' Rodack said. Rodack also noted that urban and rural communities are facing a shortage of EMS professionals. 'The struggle is this in the sense that 30% of AMED's business is now going into other people's areas because small services are failing. 52 ambulance services closed in the last 29 months,' Gary Watters, Chief of AMED said. Watters said it's also due to poor reimbursement rates from insurance providers and low pay rates. Red Cross opens shelter in Somerset County for residents impacted by flooding Next week, as part of National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week, May 18-24, Pennsylvania Regional EMS councils and agencies will be hosting career events across the state where residents can meet EMS professionals and learn about local career opportunities and training. One of those events includes EMS Night at the Curve on Sunday, May 18. There will be a VR Headset at the game for people to experience what it's like to respond to a call. Anyone interested in the profession can also speak to local first responders to learn more about EMS careers and opportunities in the area. James Musselman is a Volunteer Fire Chief with the Friendship Fire Department and is also training to be an EMT with the Conemaugh School of EMS. Since he started taking classes, Musselman said he has a newfound respect for the profession. 'Without that care, preventative care, pre-hospital care, those patients probably would not have made it. So, if you save one life, it's worth it,' Musselman said. Governor Shapiro's proposed 2025-26 budget adds $6 million more a year for the next three years to the Emergency Medical Services Operating Fund, which would be disbursed through the 13 regional EMS councils to local stations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘I'm not going down for this,' woman charged after overdose death in Altoona
BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — A woman is facing drug delivery resulting in death charges after a man was found dead in Altoona. Cassandra Williams, 43, was charged after police were called to an apartment building on reports of an unresponsive man March 22. When officers arrived, they found the victim slouched over at the doorstep to one of the apartments. AMED reported that the victim was cold to the touch and had no pulse, according to the criminal complaint. Police found a hypodermic needle in the victim's hand along with an additional needle and an empty blue heroin wax packet next to him. Officers attempted to contact the residents of the apartment; however, they were unsuccessful. When the Deputy Coroner arrived on scene, it was discovered that the victim had recent injection sites near the inner portion of his elbows, according to the affidavit. It was noted in the complaint that the victim allegedly had three white heroin packets containing suspected heroin, an empty white heroin wax packet and two empty blue heroin wax packets in his possession. Police were able to contact the victim's ex-girlfriend, who said that the last message she had received from him was about how he was going to the store to find a friend he had been staying with. She also gave police a list of names of people who would be associated with her ex, who were involved in substance abuse. Officers obtained security camera footage from the owner of the building where the victim was found, which showed him standing outside the main door area around 5:00 p.m. Later in the evening, a 2019 Mitsubishi Mirage could be seen parking across from the building, with two people seen getting out and walking over to the building. Earlier in the footage, police also noted that the victim was exiting the front seat of the Mirage and walking toward the apartment building. Police were able to determine that the driver of the vehicle was Williams, according to the complaint. On April 15, Williams was in custody at the Altoona Police Station for a separate incident. Police were able to interview her during which she allegedly confirmed that she was with the victim on March 22 and that she had purchased three to four white heroin bags that night, according to the affidavit. She claimed that she had engaged in multiple drug exchanges with the victim as well, but denied selling to him March 22. Williams added that the victim may have taken the heroin packets from her purse without her noticing, which were blue wax packets, the same kind the officers reported finding on the victim. Police then asked Williams if she ever texted the victim to coordinate any drug transactions, to which she allegedly said, 'I don't know.' Police then interviewed one of the other people seen on the security footage with Williams. He allegedly told police that Williams was supposed to sell him drugs, but when she arrived, she was in a 'frenzy state of mind,' upset that the victim's phone wasn't taken after he was found dead. He claimed that Williams said, 'I'm not going down for this,' and that she was worried that if police found the text messages between her and the victim that she would be criminally charged for his death, according to the complaint. He continued to explain that he had met up with Williams to buy drugs, and when he arrived at the apartment building, the victim was sitting at the top of the steps, still alive. Later that evening, as he went to leave, he told officers that it was then he found the victim dead and he called 9-1-1. Officers were able to obtain a search warrant for Williams' phone, which showed multiple conversations in relation to drug trafficking, according to the complaint. Police found multiple communication threads discussing, organizing and conducting drug transactions across numerous dates, which involved heroin, methamphetamine, morphine, oxycontin and ecstasy. Police also found a deleted conversation allegedly between Williams and the victim from March 21, where the victim asked her if he could buy some drugs from her. On March 22, the victim messaged Williams again, with her replying and telling him to go to Sheetz. On April 30, police were provided the toxicology and autopsy report from the Blair County Coroner's Office for the victim, which showed he had fentanyl, amphetamine and methamphetamine in his system. His cause of death was ruled acute fentanyl toxicity, with the fentanyl levels noted to be toxic enough to cause cardiopulmonary arrest and death. Williams is now facing charges of drug delivery resulting in death, manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to deliver, recklessly endangering another person and other related charges. She is currently being held in the Blair County Prison after being unable to post her $250,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 21. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Post
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
San Francisco State University slammed for hosting Palestinian terrorists
San Francisco State University sponsors a program that has included Palestinian terrorists as guest speakers, The Post has learned. The university's Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) course also organized a student trip to Jordan to meet with a convicted Hamas financier and the first woman to hijack an airplane – in the name of Palestinian liberation – according to sources. The controversial guests and other incidents have led to lawsuits being filed by Jewish students and the university being dubbed 'the most antisemitic college campus in the country' in 2018 according to a study by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). Advertisement The study comes amid the Trump administration's crackdown on universities, threatening to cease billions federal funding from schools that do not comply with efforts to protect Jewish students. 7 Rabab Abdulhadi teaches ethnic studies at San Francisco State University, where she has hosted webinars featuring members of terrorist groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas. C-SPAN Rabab Abdulhadi, a professor and the director of the AMED program, has close ties to pro-Hamas groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the People's Forum, the report obtained by The Post says. Advertisement People's Forum, which is financed partly by the Chinese Communist Party, organized many of the New York demonstrations in support of Hamas immediately following the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel that left 1,200 Israelis dead. Three days after the Hamas terror attacks, AMED posted on its official Facebook page honoring 'all resistance fighters from Geronimo to #Gaza, Huwarra and Al Aqsa.' Geronimo refers to a 19th century Native American resistance fighter; Huwarra is the name of a Palestinian town located in the West Bank and Al Aqsa is a network of Palestinian militias, named for the holiest site in Jerusalem. 7 Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, made history in 1969 as the first woman to hijack a commercial airplane. AP In June, 2024, Abdulhadi — who has been on the faculty of the school since 2007 — attended the People's Conference for Palestine in Detroit and expressed full support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which was designated a foreign terrorist group in 2021 by the State Department, according to NCRI. Advertisement Among the speakers at the conference were Wisam Rafeedie, a PFLP member and Sana Daqa'a, the wife of PFLP terrorist Walid Daqu'a, who was convicted of commanding an operation that kidnapped and killed an Israeli soldier in 1984. A month after the Detroit conference in July 2024, AMED sponsored a webinar honoring Ghassan Kanafani, a leader of the PFLP who was assassinated by Mossad in 1972. Among the speakers was Marwan Abdel Al, a member of the PFLP based in London. 'If taxpayer-funded universities repeatedly host operatives from US-designated terrorist organizations, at what point does academic freedom cross into material support for terror?' said an analyst at NCRI. 7 San Francisco State University hosted a webinar featuring featuring hijacker Leila Khaled. Zoom as well as YouTube and Facebook prevented the organizers from using their software and equipment after Jewish students at the school protested. The event was cancelled. Advertisement 7 After October 7, 20203, pro-Palestinian demonstrations broke out in New York City, organized by the People's Forum, an anti-Israel group partly funded by the Chinese Communist Party. REUTERS In 2014, AMED sponsored a delegation to Palestine led by Abdulhadi in which students met with Sheikh Raed Salah, who has previously been jailed for raising funds for Hamas. In January, Israeli authorities shut down his Afsha'a Al-Islam committee, citing its alleged ties to the outlawed Northern Faction of the Islamic Movement, which is linked to the terrorist group. On that trip, students also met with Leila Khaled, a member of the PFLP who hijacked an El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York City in 1970, becoming the first woman to do so. In 2020, Khaled was scheduled to speak at a webinar organized by Abdulhadi, but the Zoom event was cancelled following protests from Jewish students and outrage from lawmakers. Zoom Video Communications as well as Facebook and YouTube prevented the organizers from using their software and platforms, citing antiterrorism legislation, according to reports. 7 An entryway to San Francisco State University, which was dubbed 'the most antisemitic college campus in the country' in 2018 according to a new report. San Francisco State University 7 Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi moderated a panel featuring Wisam Rafeedi, who is associated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Facebook 7 Ghassan Kanafani was one of the first leaders of the PFLP. His book is promoted by the Samidoun Network, which the Israeli government named a terrorist organization in 2021. Last year, the US Department of the Treasury, named Samidoun a sham charity. Professor Rabab Abdulhadi contributed to the English translation. X Two years later, in Sept. 2022, Abdulhadi traveled to Beirut to moderate a panel that included Salah Salah, a co-founder of the PFLP as well as Khaled. Advertisement SFSU and Abdulhadi did not respond to requests for comment from The Post. The University was sued by Jewish students in 2017 for inciting antisemitism and discrimination against Jews after the disruption of a speech by the mayor of Jerusalem at the school a year earlier. In settlement negotiations, the school agreed to hire a Jewish student life coordinator. The lawsuit was sponsored by the Lawfare Project, a New York-based non-profit that provides pro-bono legal services to protect Jewish rights around the world.
