Author: Beaver County Radio

Man walking near Ft. Pitt tunnels is killed

The outbound side of the Fort Pitt Tunnels was closed for a time Sunday morning as police investigated a fatal crash. State police said a 45-year-old man was walking on the outbound lanes of the Parkway West by the Ft. Pitt Tunnels just before 5:30 a.m. Sunday, when he was hit and killed by a car.  According to police, the driver of that vehicle stayed at the scene.

Sunday evening, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Gary Gregrich Jr., of McKees Rocks.

Entrepreneur Magazine recognizes Bruster’s

Bruster’s Real Ice-Cream, a company based out of Bridgewater has been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 50 companies committed to employing Veterans. Nearly 10 percent of their franchise owners are veterans. Bruster’s offers a 50% discount on franchises to military veterans.

Local woman embezzles millions

WIRE FRAUD

Leet Township resident Sue O Neill, 55, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and filing false income tax returns after embezzling nearly 9 million dollars from a North Hills contracting company between 2009 and 2019. She and her unidentified business partner purchased everything from entertainment tickets to multiple vehicles with the stolen money. O’Neill faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charges and 3 years for the false tax returns, plus $500,000 in fines. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 26, 2020.

CLEAN UP ACROSS THE STATE

CLEAN UP ACROSS THE STATE

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has spent millions providing drinking water to residents while cleaning up cancer-causing chemicals across the state. They will need millions more to clean up barrels recently discovered in a closed-down Beaver County business. The contents are a mystery as the barrels are simply marked “Dark Acid”. An even bigger problem is that the “State Superfund” used for these projects is going broke while many sites remain untouched. DEP’s McDonnell is confident that some solution will be worked out, but his predecessor from the Ridge administration is not sure anything less than an actual catastophe will move the needle.

Reddick wins 2nd consecutive Xfinity Series championship

Reddick wins 2nd consecutive Xfinity Series championship
By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Tyler Reddick won his second consecutive Xfinity Series championship by snatching the lead away from Cole Custer in a spirited season finale Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Reddick and Custer traded the lead three times in a single lap with Reddick finally surging his Richard Childress Racing entry to the front for good with 18 laps remaining. Reddick is the first to win consecutive Xfinity championships since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2011 and 2012 and ninth driver with multiple titles.
It’s the only championship for manufacturer Chevrolet, which was shut out in Friday night’s Truck Series finale when Matt Crafton won the title in a Ford. Chevrolet is not represented in the Cup championship race Sunday.
Reddick’s title comes in his final ride as full-time driver of the No. 2 for RCR. He’s being promoted to the Cup Series next season to drive the No. 8 Chevy.
Custer finished second and runner-up to Reddick in the championship race for the second consecutive year. Stewart-Haas Racing announced Friday that Custer is being promoted to the Cup Series next year. Same for Christopher Bell, who finished fifth in the race and third in the championship picture, who was probably the title favorite but his Toyota dropped off in the final stage of his final ride before he moves to Cup.
Justin Allgaier, who won at Phoenix last weekend to make the final four, finished 14th and last in the championship race.
Reddick won the title last year driving for JR Motorsports, but he had already made the decision to move to Childress for this season. He had to win at Homestead to claim both titles.
Childress has likened the 23-year-old to Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough and believes the driver will feature heavily in the future of the organization, and Reddick is the first driver in the Xfinity Series to win consecutive titles for different teams.
“It’s all about Richard, man,” said Reddick. “He’s the one who believed I could be a champion even before I won the first one.”
Reddick ended the season with six victories, shy of Bell’s eight wins and seven from Custer. Reddick and Custer had a pit road confrontation during these playoffs and raced each other hard before Reddick used a crossover move to take the win for good.
“It sucks to come home second two years in a row. We will take it. We were a lot closer this year,” Custer said. “I am looking forward to next year and seeing what we’ve got.”
Bell has now lost two titles he was favored to win.
“We got beat my 17 seconds there,” Bell said. “For some reason I can’t hit on what I need to get around this place for a 30-or 40-lap run. I’m ready for the next chapter.”
The Xfinity Series driver title is the fifth for Childress as Reddick joins Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Austin Dillon as champions for the organization celebrating its 50th season. Childress also tied Joe Gibbs for a record five Xfinity owner championships.
The title was the first for Reddick crew chief Randall Burnett.
“Best team I’ve ever been a part of, amazing group of guys, and amazing driver, too,” said Burnett.
Chase Briscoe won rookie of the year and said after the race Stewart-Haas Racing has not yet found enough funding to bring him back in 2020. Briscoe said he’s hopeful the organization can put something together because he has no other ride planned.
___
More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Mechanical issue forces flight to land in Pittsburgh

Mechanical issue forces flight to land in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (AP) — An American Airlines flight was forced to land at Pittsburgh International Airport due to a mechanical issue.
The airline says Flight 2244 had departed about 7:30 a.m. Saturday from Chicago and was bound for Washington with 72 passengers and six crew members aboard. The Boeing 737-800 landed in Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m. without incident and soon taxied to a gate.
No injuries were reported in the incident, and there was no disruption to air traffic in Pittsburgh. American says all the passengers were rebooked on other flights to Washington.
Specific details about the mechanical problem were not disclosed.

Patrick refuses to disavow PAC money in Dem presidential bid

Patrick refuses to disavow PAC money in Dem presidential bid
By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick says he will not discourage potential support from political committees raising huge sums from undisclosed donors for his campaign.
The former Massachusetts governor told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that while “I’m not crazy about super PACs” he wouldn’t disavow their support because he’s doing “catch up” in the 2020 race.
Patrick launched his presidential bid last week, joining an already crowded Democratic field less than three months before the primary voting officially begins.
So-called super PACs can raise unlimited sums and do not have to disclose their donors, and Patrick said that was his only concern with their involvement in his campaign.
He says that “if there is going to be super PAC money that supports me, the sources of that should be disclosed.”