Author: Beaver County Radio

I-376 Parkway East closures occurring this weekend if weather permits

(File Photo: Caption for Photo: PennDOT, PSP, PTC, Construction Industry Highlight National Work Zone Awareness Week)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Allegheny County, PA) PennDOT announced that I-376 Parkway East will be closed if weather permits this Saturday night through Monday morning between the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and the Edgewood/Swissvale interchange. During the closure of this interchange, PennDOT confirms that an overhead sign will be replaced and demolished. From 9 p.m. on Saturday until 5 a.m. on Monday. Traffic will experience detours on this interchange on Exit 77. According to PennDOT and WTAE, here are some detours and more information about the closures happening on I-376 Parkway East:

POSTED DETOURS 

Westbound traffic (inbound toward Pittsburgh) 

  • Get off the parkway at Wilkinsburg (Exit 78B) 
  • Continue onto Route 8 (Ardmore Boulevard) 
  • Bear left to continue on Route 8 (Penn Avenue) 
  • Turn left onto Fifth Avenue 
  • Bear left onto the ramp toward westbound I-376 to Boulevard of the Allies 
  • From Boulevard of the Allies (Route 885), take the ramp to West I-376 toward Downtown 
  • End detour 

Eastbound traffic (outbound from Pittsburgh) 

  • Exit at Forbes Avenue/Oakland (Exit 72A) 
  • Continue straight onto Forbes Avenue 
  • Turn left onto Bellefield Avenue 
  • Right onto Fifth Avenue 
  • Right onto Penn Avenue 
  • Bear right onto Route 8 (Ardmore Boulevard) 
  • Take the ramp to I-376/Pittsburgh/Monroeville 
  • Stay right onto the ramp to eastbound I-376 
  • End detour 

EXITS STAYING OPEN 

PennDOT says Exit 74 (Squirrel Hill/Homestead) will remain open during the parkway closure. 

Westbound drivers can use the Edgewood/Swissvale interchange, but traffic will be down to one lane in that area. 

ALTERNATE ROUTES 

PennDOT suggests avoiding the Parkway East altogether if possible and using an alternate route, such as Route 837 or Route 28.
 

LANE RESTRICTIONS 

On Saturday, August 9th, eastbound I-376 will be only one lane from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. between Churchill (Exit 79B) and the PA Turnpike (Exit 85) for base repairs. 

Additionally, the Rodi Road on-ramp to eastbound I-376 will be completely closed from 7 p.m. tonight to 9 p.m. Saturday for milling and paving. 

Rodi Road Detour: 

From Rodi Road 

  • Turn right onto Business Route 22 (William Penn Highway)
  • Continue straight onto westbound I-376
  • Bear left to take the Churchill (Exit 79B) exit
  • Turn left onto Beulah Road
  • Turn left onto Churchill Road
  • Turn left onto the ramp for eastbound I-376
  • End detour

If the work is completed early, lane restrictions will be removed. 

Carolyn Romano Hewko (1940-2025)

Carolyn Romano Hewko, 85, passed away unexpectedly on August 2nd, 2025 at her home. She was born in Beaver Falls on May 1st, 1940, the daughter of the late John R. and Elvira Sebastian Romano. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, John T. Romano, her sister-in-law, Laura Goerhing Romano, her dear son-in-law, Paul D. Susich, and her nephews, William J. Romano and John Romano, Jr. She is survived by a daughter, Lynn M. (Dave) Caffro, a son, Johnny Hewko, a granddaughter, Megan (Steven) Hewko-Ward, a grandson, William Hewko, three great-grandchildren and a loving niece, Crystal Romano Presto.

Carolyn graduated from Beaver Falls High School and Geneva College. She was a dedicated teacher at Beaver Area High School for over 35 years, who was beloved by students and faculty alike. Her loss will be deeply felt by those she touched during her long career.

Carolyn was an excellent cook. Her red clam sauce was beyond compare and always a favorite at the Christmas Eve dinner table. She enjoyed teaching, traveling, dancing, and watching both Jeopardy and CSI. She was also an 80s disco queen, a stunning beauty who was outspoken to a fault and was indeed a special lady. Her presence will be missed by many.

Friends will be received on Monday, August 11th from 3-7 p.m. in the Noll Funeral Home Inc., 333 Third Street, Beaver, who was in charge of her arrangements. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, August 12th at 10 a.m. at Saints Peter and Paul Church, Beaver, 200 Third Street, Beaver. Carolyn will be laid to rest at Beaver Falls Cemetery.

Online condolences may be shared at www.nollfuneral.com.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Carolyn’s name can be made to the Beaver Area Memorial Library, 100 College Avenue, Beaver, Pa. 15009.

Gloria A. Botte (1931-2025)

Gloria A. Botte, 94, of Industry, formerly of Koppel, passed away surrounded by her family’s love and under the care of her hospice nurse, Amanda, the early morning of August 4th, 2025.

She was born in Koppel on March 18th, 1931 in Koppel, a daughter of the late Ann Percic. In addition to her mother, she was preceded in death by her husband, Paul S. Botte, her son, Paul J. Botte, her sister and brother-in-law, Janet and Ron Reeher and her longtime companion, Richard Wanner. She is survived by her son, Michael (Jodi) Botte, her brother, John (Kathy) Percic, her daughter-in-law, Diane Golnik Wilk, her grandchildren, Jennifer (Tim) Laveing, Paul Botte, and Teya Botte, her great-grandchildren: Jonathan (Abbey) McGeary, Justin Laveing, and Jocelyn Laveing (Matt) Veon, Ethan Botte, Devin Botte; along with her great-great-grandchildren, Jase Laveing, and Alexis, Allison and Jameson McGeary, as well as countless nieces and nephews.

Gloria was a resident of Industry most of her life, Gloria worked as a special education paraprofessional with McGuire Home and New Horizon School. In her spare time, she could be found in nature, especially walking at Brady’s Run Park. She also enjoyed winning at pinochle, having dessert after every meal, especially sfogliatella, line dancing, antiquing, feeling the sun on her face and listening to the wind. She will be remembered by her family as the consummate caregiver. She was also Catholic by faith.

Friends will be received Saturday, August 9th, from 12 noon until 2 p.m. in the Noll Funeral Home, Inc., 333 Third Street, Beaver, who was in charge of her arrangements. Interment will take place at St. Mary’s Cemetery, 2045 Darlington Road, Beaver Falls. Online condolences may be shared at nollfuneral.com.

Gerald “Jerry” Mark Florence (1957-2025)

Gerald “Jerry” Mark Florence, 67, of New Brighton, passed away on August 2nd, 2025 at his home.

He was born in Rochester on December 6th, 1957, in Rochester, a son of the late Edward Florence and Joanne Rose. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Karen Florence. He is survived by his children, Jerry Brown, Justin Brown and Brian Taylor, six grandchildren, his brother, Eddie (Kelly) Florence, two nephews, Scott (Maela) Florence and Eddie (Alexis) Florence, five great nephews, one great niece and a special friend, Jessica, as well as many friends and relatives.

Gerald was a graduate of New Brighton High School. He enjoyed fishing, golf, gardening, and watching sports. He will be remembered as a kind and gentle man who was friendly with everyone. His memory will be forever cherished in the hearts of his family and friends.

A Celebration of Life ceremony for Gerald will be held on Saturday, August 9th at 10 a.m., at Lifeway Christian Fellowship, 1207 7th Avenue, Beaver Falls, with Pastor Kevin Lee officiating. Arrangements have been entrusted to the J&J Spratt Funeral Home, 1612 Third Avenue, New Brighton.

United Airlines tech issue that impacted more than 1,000 flights resolved, residual delays expected

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A United Airlines jet begins to taxi at O’Hara International Airport in Chicago, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

(AP) A disruption to a system housing United Airlines’ flight information that caused more than 1,000 delays has been resolved, but delays continued into Thursday.

The impacted system, called Unimatic, houses flight information that is fed to other systems including those that calculate weight and balance and track flight times, according to United. It’s not clear what caused the problem, which was resolved late Wednesday. While residual delays were expected, United said its team was working to restore normal operations.

About 35% of all the airline’s flights were delayed and another 7% were canceled Wednesday, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions. By midmorning Thursday, 5% of United flights for the day were delayed and 4% were canceled. FlightAware reported 43 cancellations at Chicago O’Hare by Thursday morning, including 42 United flights.

An alert on the Federal Aviation Administration website Wednesday said all United flights destined for Chicago were halted at their departing airports. Flights to United hubs at Denver, Newark, Houston and San Francisco airports also were affected.

The airline’s travel alert page noted that a technology disruption might impact flights to or from several U.S. airports from Thursday to Sunday including Denver, Newark, Washington, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu and Guam and some in Europe, such as London, Frankfurt and Munich.

“Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” an emailed statement from the Chicago-based airline said.

The system outage, as the company described it, lasted several hours, the statement said. It wasn’t related to recent concerns about airline industry cybersecurity. United said it was treating it as a controllable delay, meaning it paid customer expenses such as hotels when applicable.

In an interview, United Airlines passenger Benjamin Fuentes, who flew from Boston to Houston, told KTRK-TV that they were told that they would be waiting for a while after the plane landed.

“The first hour, people were already standing up and just walking around the cabin because there was nothing to do,” he said. “I got on Netflix.”

After about an hour, they were told that the system was down nationwide, he said. Eventually, they learned that they found a gate, but it took another 45 minutes before they got there, he said.

The FAA said in a statement Thursday that it was aware of the disruption to United operations, noting that delays may continue as the airline recovers.

“We’ve offered full support to help address their flight backlog and remain in close contact with United,” the FAA said.

United Airlines apologized on social media and said in some cases it would pay for hotel and other expenses incurred by travelers because of the delays.

“Hey there, we apologize for the travel disruption today,” the airline told a customer on the social platform X. “Our teams are working to resolve the outage as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

Putin says he hopes to meet Trump as the White House presses for a peace deal on Ukraine

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – This combination photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump in a business roundtable in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 16, 2025, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo, Files)

(AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he hopes to meet next week with U.S. President Donald Trump, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. The news came on the eve of a White House deadline for Moscow to show progress toward ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov had said earlier a summit could possibly take place next week at a venue that has been decided “in principle.”

No location had been determined Thursday morning, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. was still expected to impose additional sanctions Friday on Russia, the official said.

Ushakov brushed aside the possibility of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joining the summit, something the White House had said Trump was ready to consider. Putin has spurned Zelenskyy’s previous offers of a meeting to clinch a breakthrough.

“We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump, and we consider it most important that this meeting be successful and productive,” Ushakov said, adding that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s suggestion of a meeting including Ukraine’s leader “was not specifically discussed.”

Putin made the announcement in the Kremlin after his meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE.

Asked who initiated the meeting, Putin said that didn’t matter and “both sides expressed an interest.”

According to the White House official, a Trump-Putin meeting would not happen if the Russian leader does not agree to meet with Zelenskyy.

Speaking of Zelenskyy’s possible involvement, Putin said he has mentioned several times that he wasn’t against it, adding: “It’s a possibility, but certain conditions need to be created” for it to happen. The Kremlin has previously said that Putin and Zelenskyy should meet only when an agreement negotiated by their delegations is close.

Ukraine fears being sidelined by direct negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund who met with Witkoff on Wednesday, said a Trump-Putin meeting would allow Moscow to “clearly convey its position,” and he hoped a summit would include discussions on mutually beneficial economic issues, including joint investments in areas such as rare earth elements.

The meeting would be the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. It would be a significant milestone toward Trump’s effort to end the war, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.

Next week is the target date for a summit, Ushakov said, while noting that such events take time to organize and no date is confirmed. The possible venue will be announced “a little later,” he said.

Months of U.S.-led efforts have yielded no progress on stopping Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. The war has killed tens of thousands of troops on both sides as well as more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.

Centre County, Pennsylvania man faces charges for allegedly threatening to kill President Donald Trump and his supporters in a TikTok post four days before Trump’s second inauguration

(File Photo of the United States Department of Justice Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Centre County, PA) The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced yesterday that a Pennsylvania man faces federal charges for threatening to kill President Donald Trump and supporters in a TikTok post prior to Trump’s second inauguration. The U.S. Department of Justice confirms that twenty-two-year-old Jacob Buckley of Port Matilda in Centre County allegedly posted threats on TikTok on January 16th, 2025 with his comments saying “I’m going to kill Trump,” “I hate MAGA republicans bro on god I’ll kill all of them,” and “Bro we going into a literal oligarchy in 4 days and im going to kill Trump.” This was four days before President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second presidential term that was non-consecutive. According to Acting U.S. Attorney John Gurganus, Buckley, who was charged by criminal information, faces a maximum five-year prison sentence if convicted. Buckley also can face other penalties, a fine and a term of supervised release if he is convicted. This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.

Moon Township man killed in crash in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh which is under investigation

(File Photo of Police Siren Lights)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Detectives from the Allegheny County Police Homicide Unit are investigating a shooting that occurred last night in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh which killed twenty-four-year-old Matthew Foster of Moon Township. The shooting occurred at a home on the 4100 block of Murray Avenue after officers responded to an incident of domestic disturbance. Preliminary investigation shows that a man had a knife in a stairwell and officers fired shots at him and he died later that night. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Foster as that man this morning and Foster died at a local hospital late last night after being taken into critical condition.

Robinson Township police officer facing charges for alleged connection to an attack involving road rage against a business owner in Robinson Township

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Robinson Township, PA) A police officer from Robinson Township is now facing charges for allegedly being connected to an attack involving road rage in Robinson Township on July 2nd, 2025. It is confirmed by court paperwork that fifty-year-old Steve Pies got a misdemeanor count of simple assault and a felony count of aggravated assault. According to the criminal complaint, Pies followed Al Cannella in his personal vehicle after Cannella failed to yield to him in traffic. Canella owns Al’s Texaco on Forest Grove Road, and Pies, who was off duty at the time, says Canella cut him off. Pies is accused of breaking the ribs of Cannella and punching Cannella in the face. Pies allegedly had a confrontation with Cannella in a parking lot and said curse words to him and after allegedly punching Cannella in the face, Cannella became unconscious temporarily after he fell. Robinson Township Solicitor Jack Cambest confirmed to KDKA that Pies was originally suspended without pay on July 30th, 2025 Cambest then confirmed Pies is still on leave while Pies is still getting paid. The preliminary hearing for Pies is pending and Pies is out on bond. Pies can respond to the charges against him next week in a loudermill hearing scheduled for that time. A decision will then be made by Robinson Township on how Pies will be disciplined.

Four men in custody in the Allegheny County Jail after they got caught attempting to steal about $7,000 of copper piping from the old Pittsburgh VA hospital in Pittsburgh

(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Brandon Balzer, Matthew Cain, Robert Felton and Matthew Wiggins are all now in custody after they got caught attempting to steal copper piping from the old Pittsburgh VA hospital. According to police, when they found these four suspects, they were trying to steal more than 2,000 pounds of copper piping from the hospital located off of Highland Drive in Pittsburgh. It is believed that the reason that the four suspects tried to steal the copper that police estimate is around $7,000 is to recharge the power tools they were using to strip the copper in the old Pittsburgh VA hospital. Those four men are in the Allegheny County Jail and they now have several charges against them which range from burglary to vandalism.