Author: Beaver County Radio

UPDATE at 4:45 PM: Road Closures Due to Flash Flooding From Storms

​Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is advising motorists that portions of the following state roadways are closed or restricted due to flooding at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Allegheny County

  • Northbound Route 837 under the Duquesne-McKeesport Bridge in the City of Duquesne – Closed
  • Bull Creek Road (Route 1034) between Metz Road and Ridge Road in Fawn Township – Closed
  • Verona Road (Route 2058) between Mt. Carmel and Lincoln Road in the Municipality of Penn Hills – Closed
  • McKee Road (Route 3103) between Route 978 and Crossroads Drive in Oakdale Borough – Closed
  • Reis Run Road (Route 4022) at the intersection with Rochester Road in Ross Township – Closed

Beaver County

  • North Camp Run Road (Route 1011) near Route 288 in Franklin Township – lane restriction
  • Brush Creek Road (Route 1019) between Melon Road and Powell Road in New Sewickley Township – Closed
  • Duss Avenue (Route 2011) in Baden Borough – lane restriction
  • Lovi Road (Route 2006) near Route 989 in New Sewickley Road – Closed

Lawrence County

  • Old Plank Road (Route 1003) between Woodland Drive and Oakwood Way in Neshannock Township – Closed

Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional X alerts accessible on the 511PA website.

Beaver, Allegheny, Lawrence County Road Closures and Restrictions Due to Flooding

Pittsburgh, PA – PennDOT District 11 is advising motorists that portions of the following state roadways are closed or restricted due to flooding:

Allegheny County

  • Route 65 in Emsworth Borough – Closed
  • Route 51 near Ewing Road in Stowe Township – lane restriction
  • Verona Road (Route 2058) between Mt. Carmel and Lincoln Road in the Municipality of Penn Hills – Closed
  • Montour Street Extension (Route 3081) between Rosedale Avenue and Grace Street in Coraopolis Borough – Closed

Beaver County

  • Route 168 near Green Hill Road in Shippingport Borough – lane restriction
  • Mercer Road (Route 1006) between Route 65 and Route 288 in Franklin Township – Closed
  • North Camp Run Road (Route 1011) near Route 288 in Franklin Township – lane restriction
  • Duss Avenue (Route 2011) in Baden Borough – lane restriction
  • Lovi Road (Route 2006) near Route 989 in New Sewickley Road – Closed
  • Shenango Road (Route 4021) between Park Road and Braun Road in Chippewa Township – Closed

Lawrence County

  • Old Plank Road (Route 1003) in Neshannock Township from Woodland Drive to Oakwood Way

Duquesne Light Company Preparing Customers for Severe Weather

PITTSBURGH — Duquesne Light Company (DLC) is encouraging customers to be safe and prepare for high winds beginning this afternoon until late tonight. The National Weather Service is warning southwestern Pennsylvania of severe weather with heavy rain and wind gusts potentially reaching over 55 mph. In addition to strong winds, the area could also see hail and heavy rain, resulting in flash flooding. Strong winds can damage electrical equipment and result in potential power outages.

 

DLC has increased staffing to ensure that any outages are responded to safely and as quickly as possible. Because of potentially hazardous conditions, some response times may be delayed during the weather event.

 

In light of this forecast, DLC is reminding customers to:

  • Call 9-1-1 for any emergency medical issues that could be impacted by an outage.
  • Avoid downed power lines and give ample space to lineworkers.
  • Avoid walking under or around trees that have a visible trunk or dangling limbs.
  • Review DLC’s storm plan on what to do before, during and after an outage, including:
    • Checking emergency supply kits to ensure that essential items (batteries, battery-powered radio, first-aid kit, medication, flashlights, water, blankets, etc.) are within reach.
    • Charging all important electronic devices such as cell phones.
    • Checking medications that require refrigeration and may be affected by a prolonged outage.
    • Having an alternate source of heating available (along with extra fuel), including wood for wood-burning stoves and fireplaces.

 

In the event of an outage, the quickest way to report it is through DuquesneLight.com or the free DLC Mobile app. Those without internet access can call 888-393-7000. Customers should keep in mind that crews are aware of outages as soon as they are reported, even if they do not immediately appear on DLC’s outage map.

 

Customers can follow DLC on Twitter/X (@DuquesneLight) and Facebook (@DuquesneLight) for additional updates.

Judge refuses to toss out tax case against Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden and is wife Melissa, arrive with President Biden on Air Force One, Friday, March 29, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President Biden is returning from New York after a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has refused to toss out a tax case against Hunter Biden, moving the case closer to the possible spectacle of a trial as his father campaigns for another term as president. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi on Monday denied eight motions to dismiss the charges accusing President Joe Biden’s son of a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses. His attorneys contended the prosecution is politically motivated, among other arguments seeking to have the case dismissed.

Cargo ship’s owner and manager seek to limit legal liability for deadly bridge disaster in Baltimore

Wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge rests on the container ship Dali, Sunday, March 31, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

The owner and manager of a cargo ship that rammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge before it collapsed are seeking to limit their legal liability for the deadly disaster. The two Singapore-based companies filed what’s known as a “limitation of liability” petition Monday. The filing is a routine but important procedure for cases litigated under U.S. maritime law. Grace Ocean Private Ltd. owns the Dali, the vessel that lost power before it slammed into the bridge last Tuesday. Synergy Marine Pte Ltd. is the ship’s manager. Their joint filing seeks to cap the companies’ liability at under $44 million.

Google to purge billions of files containing personal data in settlement of Chrome privacy case

FILE – The Google building is seen in New York, Feb. 26, 2024. Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser as part of settlement in a lawsuit accusing it of illegal surveillance. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser. The move comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance. Although Google isn’t paying consumers any money in the case, estimates made in court records pegged the value of the privacy controls at $4.75 billion to $7.8 billion. The details of the settlement emerged in a court filing Monday, more than three months after Google and the attorneys handling the class-action case disclosed they had resolved June 2020 lawsuit targeting Chrome’s privacy controls.

Trump will go after Biden on the border and crime when he visits battleground Michigan and Wisconsin

FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Mich., Feb. 17, 2024. Trump is holding events Tuesday, April 2, in Grand Rapids, Mich. and Green Bay, Wis., as he pressures President Joe Biden on immigration. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will continue to hammer President Joe Biden over his border policies during a trip to two pivotal midwestern states that could determine the outcome of the 2024 election. Trump on Tuesday will deliver a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on what his campaign called “Biden’s Border Bloodbath.” Trump has been leaning into inflammatory rhetoric about the record surge of migrants at the southern border since he became his party’s presumptive nominee. That includes portraying migrants as “poisoning the blood of the country” and questioning whether some should even be considered people.

The women’s NCAA Tournament had center stage. The stars, and the games, delivered in a big way

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark (22) signs autographs for fans after Iowa defeated LSU in an Elite Eight round college basketball game during the NCAA Tournament, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

There were plenty of people at a movie theater in central Iowa on Monday night, though very few of them were watching an actual movie.

They were there to see Caitlin Clark.

And they weren’t alone. Not even close. Millions of people — the preliminary viewing numbers are expected sometime Tuesday — tuned in across America to watch a doubleheader of women’s basketball that captivated fans like perhaps never before. Clark and Iowa, in a national-title-game rematch against Angel Reese and LSU in one game; Paige Bueckers and perennial power UConn against freshman sensation JuJu Watkins and Southern California in the other.

The winners on the scoreboard: Iowa and UConn, which are heading to the Final Four in Cleveland this weekend. Perhaps the biggest winner: the women’s game, which had the NCAA Tournament stage all to itself on Monday night with massive star power delivering two games worthy of the over-the-top billing, and maybe, just maybe, adding a few new fans along the way.

“It’s a perfect opportunity to make the moment a movement,” said former Division I guard Isis Young, now a broadcaster and analyst. “Right now, women’s basketball is a movement … and the movement is really riding on the back of these players that we’re watching.”

And make no mistake: People were watching.

Baseball had a no-hitter on Monday night; Ronel Blanco’s gem for Houston against Toronto didn’t seem to capture attention the way Iowa-LSU and UConn-USC did. Phoenix’s Devin Booker scored 52 points, his league-high-tying third game of 50 or more this season; it happened while fellow NBA guards Damian Lillard and Patrick Beverley were tweeting about Watkins and Clark.

“Caitlin Clark the truth,” offered New York Knicks forward Josh Hart.

In homes, in sports bars from Seattle to Miami, even in NBA locker rooms, the women’s games Monday night had people staring at televisions. At a sports bar in Indianapolis, where the NBA’s Pacers were simultaneously playing maybe a block or so away, most TVs were on Iowa-LSU. Indiana’s WNBA team has the No. 1 pick in the draft this year. There’s no mystery about who it will select; the city knows Clark will soon be calling Indianapolis home.

“Not only did we have all the TVs on the game, we had them with the sound on, too,” said Clara Husson, a longtime basketball referee in New England. She missed her morning flight from Indianapolis to Boston after a weekend wedding and was given two options for a rescheduling opportunity — Monday night or Tuesday morning.

She chose Tuesday. Easy call. “I wasn’t missing these games,” she said.

This was not just another night for women’s basketball. The buzz built throughout the day. Rapper Travis Scott told his nearly 12 million followers on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Monday “might be one for the illest days in women’s sports historyyyyyyy.” And Hall of Famer Magic Johnson let his 5.2 million followers know he considered Monday’s two-game slate “one of the best in history.”

The games didn’t disappoint. Bettors took notice, too — even a 4:15 p.m. start time in Las Vegas didn’t keep LSU-Iowa from setting records, a surefire gauge of whether people had interest.

“It is the biggest handle we’ve seen for a women’s game,” Jay Kornegay, executive vice president of race and sports operations at Westgate Las Vegas, said shortly before tipoff. “It’s already surpassed last year’s final with these two teams.”

Had the game been later in the day, Kornegay said, the numbers would have been even bigger.

South Carolina and North Carolina State reached the Final Four with wins on Sunday, a day when the women’s game was going head to head with men’s tournament games. Monday’s slate from an NCAA tourney perspective was all women, two games both featuring star players, not to mention a rematch of last year’s Iowa-LSU championship game that smashed records by drawing nearly 10 million viewers.

It was a perfect storm. Even in defeat, Reese understood the magnitude of the moment.

“I think it’s just great for the sport, just being able to be a part of history,” Reese said Monday night. “Like I said, no matter which way it went tonight, I know this was going to be a night for the ages. And just being able to be a part of history is great.”

Clark is the biggest name in the college game; she set the NCAA all-time scoring record earlier this season and has become a full-fledged celebrity, starring in national commercials and commanding media attention like no one else. After the Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, they tuned in for the end of the Iowa-LSU game.

“Caitlin Clark is stealing the show of basketball,” Celtics forward Sam Hauser said.

To Zoe Pawloski, Clark was just someone to share the weight room with. Pawloski used to swim for Iowa and her team would lift at the same time Clark’s team would work out.

“I never sat down and watched March Madness on TV until Caitlin Clark,” said Pawloski, who watched the game with a few dozen other Iowa fans in a bar in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “It’s really cool how much she’s grown basketball, and people knowing Iowa the school makes me really happy. Iowa is on the map.”

Not a lot of people were at the movies in Waukee, Iowa, on Monday night. There probably won’t be a lot of moviegoers there on Friday, either — that’s when the women’s Final Four starts.

At The Palms Theater in Waukee, about 200 people showed up to watch Clark play on a 75-foot screen. It was a private party put together by Dowling Catholic High School, her alma mater. And let’s just say the game was far more popular than the movies on other screens.

“Not even close,” said Alison Meyer, the theater’s general manager. “Nope, nope, nope. It’s pretty big-time when you have an Iowa team playing, let alone somebody from our hometown.”

The games didn’t disappoint. The stars didn’t disappoint, either. Clark had 41 points and 12 assists, plus she tied a tournament record with nine 3-pointers. Reese had 17 points and 20 rebounds. Bueckers had 28 points and 10 rebounds. Watkins had 29 points and 10 rebounds.

“It’s been a great ride,” Watkins said.

And for the game, it was a great night.

___

AP Sports Writers Eric Olson in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 5-0 for the first time since 1983 after beating the Nationals 8-4

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Henry Davis celebrates his double during the sixth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates are 5-0 for the first time since 1983. They beat the Washington Nationals 8-4 on Monday with two run-scoring hits from Connor Joe, including a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning. Michael A. Taylor, a former member of the Nationals, had three hits, and Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen, Alika Williams and Henry Davis delivered two apiece. Reynolds stretched his on-base streak to 33 consecutive games dating to last season and tacked on a two-run double in the ninth. Pittsburgh remained unbeaten in 2024, all on the road, following a four-game sweep at Miami to begin the season. Washington’s Riley Adams made it 3-all with a two-run homer in the seventh.