President Barack Obama will join CNN tonight for an exclusive one-hour live town hall meeting on gun control at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in hopes of mounting a final pitch to the public. Beaver County Radio’s Lindsey Watson spoke to some Beaver Countians to get their reaction to the president’s unilateral action that was announced earlier this week. Reaction was mixed: some say more background checks are needed while others said no matter how much one tries to regulate gun sales, gun violence is here to stay.
A lottery official says the estimated prize for this weekend’s Powerball drawing is the largest jackpot of any lottery game in U.S. history. Officials say Saturday’s drawing will be worth about $675 million. That’s because no one matched the numbers drawn for Wednesday night’s estimated $500 million jackpot. The previous record was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot won in March 2012.
Bill Cosby’s next court appearance on a sex assault charge in Pennsylvania is being postponed. Officials say Cosby’s January 14th preliminary hearing will be rescheduled. Cosby’s defense lawyers sought a postponement to give them more time to prepare. At the hearing, the prosecutors will argue they have enough evidence to go to trial.
(Seven Springs, PA) The Pittsburgh Pirates front office staff held a question and answer
Pirates’ team owner Bob Nutting
session with members of the Pittsburgh Pirates Radio Network at an affiliate gathering earlier today at Seven Springs Mountain Resort. Pirates Team owner Bob Nutting opened the meeting by re affirming his thoughts that this year’s team is expected to continue the their winning ways in 2016. Nutting then challenged other Pirates team leadership present that he fully expects this year’s squad to be better than last year’s.
Pirates General Manager Neil Huntington and President Frank Coonley also addressed numerous issues at the meeting including the need for Major League Baseball to come up with a a different formula for revenue sharing and how foreign professional players are recruited and signed among others, to help make all teams be able to compete on an equal basis with each other in the future.
Coonley lauded the Pirates success of this past year pointing out several interesting observations including the fact that the Pirates, with 98 wins in 2015, had the third best record in Baseball, were one of only three teams to make the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, and yet the greater Pittsburgh area , is the second smallest market in the league.
The Allegheny County police bomb squad was called to the Beaver County Courthouse, which was evacuated this morning. Beaver County Radio’s Bob Barrickman was inside the courthouse when the evacuation began at 10:05. An all-clear was given and the building was re-opened at 11:23 this morning. Officials have not yet said what type of threat had been made.
An Ellwood City man convicted of stalking Amish schoolchildren waived his detention hearing today on federal child pornography charges and will remain in custody at the Mercer County Jail on a federal detainer. 39-year-old Lucas Klobetanz was indicted last month after a search of his house by the FBI and state police turned up child pornography on a thumb drive and photos of young boys engaged in sex acts. Klobetanz was charged last winter with attempting to lure children into the courthouse of an Amish school. When the children told a neighbor, Klobetanz explained that he had dropped toilet paper and needed help picking it up. He pleaded guilty to stalking in that case and prosecutors dropped a related charge of luring.
A man is in custody after a nearly seven-hour standoff in Ellwood City. According to police, the incident started around 6:00 last night at a home in the 200 block of Patricia Drive. Officers initially went to the home to serve a warrant to a man who failed to show up for a court appearance. At that time, he barricaded himself inside the home and refused to come out. Around 1 a.m. this morning, the man surrendered peacefully and was taken into custody. No injuries were reported.
Have you seen a spike in your electric billy recently? You’re not alone. Some are blaming the problem on so-called Smart Meters. Over 160,000 smart meters have been installed by Duquesne Light and since that time here in Beaver County, there have been reports of customers seeing huge spikes in their electric bills. It apparently happened to Cindy Landman of Beaver Falls, who told Beaver County Radio’s Pat Septak that her bill jumped to $916 after a new meter was installed at her White Township home. We reached out to Duquesne Light. Spokeswoman Jessica Rock blames the problem on ‘human error’ and tells us that they are in contact with the customer and will be issuing a new bill before the end of the week.
Aliquippa 65, OLSH 34
Beaver Falls 58. Hopewell 31
Avonworth 79, Freedom 42
New Castle 73, Ambridge 45
Central Valley 53, Blackhawk 47
Eden Christian 67, Rochester 53
Lincoln Park 81, Mohawk 16
Sewickley Academy 76, Union 41
The Aliquippa Quips remain undefeated in both Section 5-AA and overall play with a 65-34 victory over the Our Lady of The Sacred Heart Chargers. Tom Hays has this recap for Beaver County Radio.
