Story by Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published April 19, 2024 8:40 A.M.

(Brighton Township, Pa) A box truck caught on fire on I-376 Thursday afternoon. Witness video shows a fully engulfed Rent a Center box truck on the shoulder of the road. The incident took place between the Beaver and Brighton Township exits. Beaver County Radio made calls to the State Police and Beaver Police and both responded that they had no information. We do not have any further details at this time.

Nick Schiralli, Denver Broncos assistant director of college scouting, left, talks with Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin as former Alabama players work at Alabama’s NFL football pro day, Wednesday, March 20, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — There used to be a time — say the vast majority of the franchise’s first 92 seasons — when the Pittsburgh Steelers would rely almost exclusively on the NFL draft to address whatever holes they might have on the roster.

Those days appear to be over.

The Steelers went through a very unSteeler-like March in which they signed Russell Wilson, traded for Justin Fields and gave inside linebacker Patrick Queen the biggest free-agent contract in team history.

It shortened Pittsburgh’s shopping list when the draft begins April 25. It did not eliminate the list entirely.

“Obviously, the more that you’re able to address in free agency it lessens narrow mindedness in draft prep,” longtime head coach Mike Tomlin said.

The “Tomlin-ism” translation: the Steelers could go several different ways with the 20th overall pick in the first round.

The offensive line could use an upgrade and the wide receiver group needs another big-time threat to line up opposite George Pickens. Queen’s arrival gives the Steelers at least one fixture at inside linebacker for the next three seasons, but after a trying season in which the position was essentially a rotating door because of injuries, finding another young player wouldn’t hurt.

And who knows, considering what Pittsburgh did during that dizzying stretch in which it signed Wilson to a team-friendly one-year deal, made the low-stakes acquisition of Fields and traded away Kenny Pickett less than two years after taking him in the first round, maybe the Steelers take another big swing at the most important position in the sport.

OK, so maybe that last one is probably a non-starter. Probably.

If the past few months have proved one thing, it’s that anything is on the table for a franchise trying to do things differently as it tries to end its longest playoff-victory drought since Franco Harris pulled in “The Immaculate Reception” 52 years ago.

NEEDS

The Steelers added depth along the defensive line by re-signing Montravius Adams and bringing in veteran Dean Lowry. Still, some fresh legs would help.

Cam Heyward is nearing the tail end of a brilliant career and turns 35 in May. Larry Ogunjobi will be 30 in June and has played more than 5,000 snaps. Keeanu Benton looked promising at times as a rookie, but Demarvin Leal could be trending toward “bust” territory after being a healthy scratch at times.

Broderick Jones shows all the signs of being the cornerstone offensive tackle the Steelers envisioned when they took him in the first round a year ago. Still, he’s going to need some help. Pittsburgh cut center Mason Cole and while Nate Herbig or James Daniels could be short-term options, the Steelers could use someone they can plug in and stop worrying about the position for a decade, something they haven’t had since Maurkice Pouncey retired following the 2020 season.

DON’T NEED

Pittsburgh has one of the best running back tandems in the NFL in Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, both of whom topped 1,000 all-purpose yards last season.

The biggest question at the position as the draft approaches is whether the Steelers will pick up Harris’ fifth-year option. Tomlin has done nothing but praise Harris at every turn during his three seasons in the league, though Tomlin also did the same for Pickett before making a series of moves that all but guaranteed Pickett would want to go elsewhere.

Outside linebacker is also in relatively good shape. T.J. Watt is in the prime of a career that is tracking toward the Hall of Fame. Alex Highsmith looked every bit worth the hefty investment the team made him last summer and Herbig showed flashes during a promising rookie season.

PICK’EM

Given the number of quality wide receivers in the top end of the draft, it will be very tempting for general manager Omar Khan to make a splash at a position of need.

Yet given how well selecting Jones a year ago seems to be panning out, it’s far more likely they grab a bookend and select Jones’ former Georgia teammate Amarius Mims with their first-round pick. If West Virginia center Zach Frazier is there in round two, it might be difficult for the Steelers to resist someone who played just an hour down the road in Morgantown.

President Joe Biden’s limosine is seen outside Sheetz, where the President stopped enroute to Pittsburgh International Airport, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Sheetz convenience store chain has been hit with a lawsuit by federal officials who allege the company discriminated against minority job applicants.

Sheetz Inc., which operates more than 700 stores in six states, discriminated against Black, Native American and multiracial job seekers by automatically weeding out applicants whom the company deemed to have failed a criminal background check, according to U.S. officials.

President Joe Biden stopped by a Sheetz for snacks this week while campaigning in Pennsylvania.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit in Baltimore against Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz and two subsidary companies, alleging the chain’s longstanding hiring practices have a disproportionate impact on minority applicants and thus run afoul of federal civil rights law.

Sheetz said Thursday that it “does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”

“Diversity and inclusion are essential parts of who we are. We take these allegations seriously. We have attempted to work with the EEOC for nearly eight years to find common ground and resolve this dispute,” company spokesperson Nick Ruffner said in a statement.

The privately held, family-run company has more than 23,000 employees and operates convenience stores and gas stations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Wednesday, the day Biden stopped at a Sheetz market on a western Pennsylvania campaign swing, buying snacks, posing for photos and chatting up patrons and employees.

Federal officials said they do not allege Sheetz was motivated by racial animus, but take issue with the way the chain uses criminal background checks to screen job seekers. The company was sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and national origin.

“Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary to ensure the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs at issue,” EEOC attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a statement.

“Even when such necessity is proven, the practice remains unlawful if there is an alternative practice available that is comparably effective in achieving the employer’s goals but causes less discriminatory effect,” Lawrence said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many job applicants have been affected, but the agency said Sheetz’s unlawful hiring practices date to at least 2015.

The EEOC, an independent agency that enforces federal laws against workplace discrimination, is seeking to force Sheetz to offer jobs to applicants who were unlawfully denied employment and to provide back pay, retroactive seniority and other benefits.

The EEOC began its probe of the convenience store chain after two job applicants filed complaints alleging employment discrimination.

The agency found that Black job applicants were deemed to have failed the company’s criminal history screening and were denied employment at a rate of 14.5%, while multiracial job seekers were turned away 13.5% of the time and Native Americans were denied at a rate of 13%.

By contrast, fewer than 8% of white applicants were refused employment because of a failed criminal background check, the EEOC’s lawsuit said.

The EEOC notified Sheetz in 2022 that it was likely violating civil rights law, but the agency said its efforts to mediate a settlement failed, prompting this week’s lawsuit.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Thursday that his administration will move all standardized school assessment tests online in an effort to save more classroom time for instruction, create a user-friendly exam for students and relieve a burden from teachers and administrators.

Shapiro, in a news conference at Northgate Middle School just outside Pittsburgh, said about one-third of Pennsylvania schools already provide the tests online and that, in 2026, all schools will be required to administer the tests online, instead of through pencil-and-paper tests.

Students will be able to complete the tests more quickly, saving an average of 30 minutes per test. Teachers and administrators will be relieved of the burden of receiving, preparing, administering, boxing up and shipping back test booklets.

That will mean “less testing and more learning” in schools, Shapiro said. He said he would like to get rid of the federally required standardized tests altogether, but that would mean losing $600 million in federal aid.

Grades 3-8 take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment in the spring, and grades 9-12 take the Keystone end-of-course tests, also in the spring.

The online testing will be more interactive and better at matching how students learn, Shapiro said. It will use methods such as drag-and-drop and sorting and ranking. Those are skills that students practice in school and on their own, Shapiro said.

Such questions take less time for students to answer than the multiple choice and essays questions that are prevalent on pencil-and-paper tests, Shapiro said.

FILE – Dickey Betts, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, exits the funeral of Gregg Allman at Snow’s Memorial Chapel, June 3, 2017, in Macon, Ga. Guitar legend Betts, who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” died Thursday, April 18, 2024. He was 80. (Jason Vorhees/The Macon Telegraph via AP, File)

Dickey Betts, who died Thursday at age 80, really was born a ramblin’ man.

He left home at 16 to join the circus and became a renowned guitarist touring the world with the Allman Brothers Band. He wrote the group’s biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” and remained on the road until he reached the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Betts died at his home in Osprey, Florida, his manager of 20 years, David Spero, said by phone. He had been battling cancer for more than a year and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Spero said.

“He was surrounded by his whole family and he passed peacefully. They didn’t think he was in any pain,” he said.

Betts shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman in the original Allman Brothers Band to help give the group its unique sound and create a new genre, Southern rock. The band blended blues, country, R&B and jazz with ’60s rock to produce a distinct sound that influenced a host of major acts, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Phish, Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton, among many others.

“My first concert was Dickey Betts at Coleman’s in Rome, New York in 1983,” blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa said in an Instagram post Thursday, crediting Betts with inspiring his favorite electric guitar model. “Blew my mind and made me want a Les Paul.”

Other tributes came from members of the Allman Brothers Band’s extended family.

Guitarist Derek Trucks and his wife and bandmate, Susan Tedeschi, posted on their Instagram account that Betts was “one of best to ever do it.”

Trucks joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1999. His uncle Butch Trucks was one of the band’s two founding drummers.

Bassist Berry Duane Oakley, son of Allman Brothers founding bassist Berry Oakley, honored his “Uncle Dickey” on Facebook, saying: “If not for him, I don’t think I would be a touring musician. The cat in the hat will never be forgotten, and will always be honored not only for the wonderful life he lived, but the wonderful music he has left behind for all of us to share and remember.”

Founded in 1969, the Allmans were a pioneering jam band, trampling the traditional formula of three-minute pop songs by performing lengthy compositions in concert and on record. The band was also notable as a biracial group from the Deep South.

Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, and Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle crash the following year. That left Betts and Allman’s younger brother, Gregg, as the band’s leaders, but they frequently clashed, and substance abuse caused further dysfunction. The band broke up at least twice before reforming, and has had more than a dozen lineups.

The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and earned a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2012. Betts left the group for good in 2000. He also played solo and with his own band Great Southern, which included his son, guitarist Duane Betts.

Forrest Richard Betts was born Dec. 12, 1943, and raised in the Bradenton, Florida, area, near the highway 41 he sang about in “Ramblin’ Man.” His family had lived in area since the mid-19th century.

A descendant of Canadian fiddlers, Betts was listening to string bands before he even started school. He developed a fondness for country, bluegrass and Western swing, and played the ukulele and banjo before focusing on the electric guitar because it impressed girls. But he usually did his songwriting on an acoustic guitar.

Betts changed schools often because his father worked construction, and those memories later inspired him to write “Ramblin’ Man.” His first big road trip came when he joined the circus to play in a band.

He returned home, and with Oakley joined a group that became the Jacksonville, Florida-based band Second Coming. One night in 1969, Betts and Oakley jammed with Duane Allman, already a successful session musician, and his younger brother. Together they formed the Allman Brothers Band.

Betts “excelled at anything that caught his attention,” according to a statement posted Thursday on the Allman Brothers Band’s official website. “He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing.”

The group moved to Macon, Georgia, and released a self-titled debut album in 1969. A year later came the album “Idlewild South,” highlighted by Betts’ instrumental composition “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which soon became a concert favorite.

The 1971 double album “At Fillmore East,” now considered among the greatest live albums of the classic rock era, was the Allmans’ commercial breakthrough and cemented their performing reputation by showcasing the unique guitar interplay between Allman and Betts. Their styles contrasted, with Allman playing bluesy slide guitar, while Betts’ solos and singing tugged the band toward country. When layered in harmony, their playing was especially distinctive.

The group also had two drummers — Butch Trucks and John Lee “Jaimoe” Johanson, a Black musician from Mississippi who helped integrate Southern rock.

Duane Allman died four days after “Fillmore” was certified as a gold record, but the band carried on and crowds continued to grow. The 1973 album “Brothers and Sisters” rose to No. 1 on the charts and featured “Ramblin’ Man,” with Betts singing the lead and bringing twang to the Top 40. The song’s intro suggested a fiddle tune, while the coda was inspired by Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” an earlier hit that had featured Duane Allman.

“Ramblin’ Man” reached No. 2 on the singles charts and was kept out of the No. 1 spot by “Half Breed” by Cher, who later married Gregg Allman. Betts’ composition became a classic-rock standard, with his soaring guitar reverberating in neighborhood bars around the country for decades.

“Ramblin’ Man” was the Allmans’ only Top Ten hit, but Betts’ catchy 7 ½-minute instrumental composition “Jessica,” recorded in 1972, also showed his knack for melodic hooks and became an FM radio staple. Painstaking in his approach to songwriting, Betts spent two months composing “Jessica,” which was inspired by the music of jazz guitar great Django Reinhardt.

Betts also wrote or co-wrote some of the Allmans’ other best-loved songs, including “Blue Sky” and “Southbound.”

Dormant for most of the 1980s, the Allman Brothers Band launched a comeback in 1990 with Warren Haynes joining Betts on guitar.

Betts recorded three more studio albums and toured with the band over the next decade, but he had an acrimonious split from the Allman Brothers in 2000. His bandmates suspended the guitarist from their summer tour and issued a statement blaming “creative differences.”

Betts said Gregg Allman and the other members delivered the news in a fax implying he needed treatment for substance abuse. Betts took legal action and settled with the band in arbitration. The breakup was permanent. Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks died in 2017.

After leaving the Allmans for good, Betts continued to play with his own group and lived in the Bradenton area with his wife, Donna.