WEATHER THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2018
TODAY: Rain and snow showers mixed for the afternoon. High 43F.
TONIGHT: Cloudy. Low 14F
FRIDAY: Overcast. Colder. High 21F. Low 13F
SATURDAY: Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High 36F
SUNDAY: Periods of snow. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s
This year commemorates the 70th anniversary of when Beaver County’s first radio station, WBVP, was heard over the airwaves for the the first time on May 25, 1948. To mark the historical event, each week, another “70th Anniversary Moment” will be showcased on the airwaves and published on the station’s online feeds.
Perhaps the most famous caller to be on the other end of the phone when a WBVP announcer would “go to the phone lines” during an talk show was none other than President Ronald Reagan. Dave Felts was the host of “Teleforum” in the early eighties and happened to be at the right place at the right time when The Chief Executive decided to dial in. Local Beaver County historical writer, Kenneth Britten, wrote about the famous call to WBVP in a 1990 article entitled “Local Radio”:
“A historic moment in WBVP history occurred when David Felts was hosting the morning talk show. It was on the morning of Tuesday, April 22, 1981, as Felts was interviewing Democratic Congressman Eugene Atkinson on the air when the station received a call from the White House and Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. The assassination attempt by John Hinkly had (just) occurred two weeks and one day before and the President was calling from the hospital to speak with the Congressman (publicly) about needing his vote concerning economic development. For the President to call a talk show of a relatively small radio station was front page news. Dave and Congressman Atkinson were interviewed by members of the media from as far away as London, England.
The Staff and station received a Spot News Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters for that year along with others. WBVP had really cracked into the big time and became visible to Western PA as well as the World!”
“70th Anniversary Moments” is presented by Freedom United Federal Credit Union.
By STEVEN WINE, AP Sports Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Hurricanes showed they can win without star guard Bruce Brown Jr. — at least against woeful Pittsburgh.
And if they have Lonnie Walker IV.
The freshman guard scored 16 points Wednesday, and Miami regrouped after blowing a 13-point second-half lead to hand the Panthers their school record-tying 10th consecutive loss, 69-57.
Miami (16-5, 5-4) won in its first game since losing Brown , who is expected to be sidelined for about six weeks with a left foot injury that was diagnosed Monday.
“Not having him was a little bit of an upset moment,” Walker said. “He’s one of those players who gets everyone going. We’ve just got to get used to fighting without him.”
Walker did that, scoring on three consecutive possessions during a 7-0 run by the Hurricanes immediately after Pittsburgh had scored 14 consecutive points to go up 44-43. Pitt never led again.
“I don’t like losing at all,” Walker said. “I felt like I had to take over. I felt like I can do what I want to if I really put my mind into it.”
The Panthers (8-15, 0-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), off to their worst conference start ever, matched the longest losing streak in program history. Pitt also lost 10 in a row in 1968-69 and 1992-93.
Coach Kevin Stallings said his team played Miami much more competitively than in December, when the Hurricanes won by 14.
“Our team is getting better,” Stallings said. “We don’t have wins to show for it, and I feel horribly for my guys for that, because they’ve been as coachable as any group I’ve ever had. Hopefully we keep getting better and we’ll knock one off.”
The Panthers have lost 14 consecutive ACC regular-season games since last season under their second-year coach.
But Walker said Miami didn’t take Pitt lightly.
“We treat every team like they’re No. 1 in the country,” Walker said. “It was definitely a challenge for this game not having one of our key players.”
In Brown’s absence, freshman Chris Lykes played a season-high 33 minutes and totaled 13 points and five assists. Anthony Lawrence added 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Jared Wilson-Frame led Pitt with 17 points, including five 3-pointers, but was limited to 29 minutes because of foul trouble.
The Hurricanes, who were 16-point favorites, led 43-30 but then went nearly six minutes without a point as the Panthers rallied. Once the Hurricanes fell behind they switched to a zone, and that cooled Pitt off.
“At the end we missed a bunch of open shots,” Stallings said.
Miami rebuilt its advantage to 11 points with five minutes left. Walker’s run of seven consecutive points included two free throws, a layup and a long 3-pointer.
“That was pretty amazing,” Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga said. “I was calling a play, and he was launching an NBA 3.”
BIG PICTURE
The Hurricanes have won five in row against Pittsburgh, including both meetings this season. Miami improved to 8-1 at home this season.
DISPARITY
Pitt went 3 for 3 at the free throw line, while Miami went 17 for 23. When asked about the disparity, Stallings said, “We shot our free throws well.”
INJURED GUARD
Brown watched from the bench and is scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday.
“I feel badly for the kid because he’s one of my favorite players in the league that doesn’t play on my team,” Stallings said. “He’s a difference-maker. They’re deep enough to absorb his loss for a while, but obviously any team would be better with him.”
UP NEXT
Pittsburgh: The Panthers play the second of three consecutive road games Saturday at No. 19 North Carolina.
Miami: The Hurricanes play at Virginia Tech on Saturday.
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For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — New England Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski says he expects to play in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Gronkowski has been in the league’s concussion protocol after taking a hit from Jacksonville’s Barry Church in the AFC championship game. He made his first public appearance on Tuesday night while playing former teammate and current Eagles running back LeGarrette Blount in a game of “Madden 18” at the Mall of America.
Gronkowski said he’s still in the concussion protocol and would leave his status up to those in charge of making medical decisions.
“Hopefully by (Wednesday),” he said. “We’ll see how it goes. I’m not the guy to say I’m out of the protocol. That’s the doctors’ calls.”
Gronkowski led the Patriots with 69 receptions for 1,084 yards and eight touchdowns this season. He missed last year’s Super Bowl win against Atlanta because of a back injury.
Blount, who won two Super Bowls with Gronkowski and the Patriots before joining the Eagles, dominated his virtual matchup on Xbox in front of a packed crowd of Patriots fans at a Microsoft store. They left disappointed as Blount led his Eagles to a 33-13 win over Patriots.
By BARRY WILNER, AP Pro Football Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Roger Goodell wants to see the mystery of the NFL’s catch rule solved, and he’s ensured that the process has begun.
The commissioner said at his annual Super Bowl news conference Wednesday that he personally sees that rule as the most obvious to address.
Asked about the scrutiny that NFL officiating came under this season, Goodell said “on the catch/no catch rule, we need to find a rule we think will address that. We certainly need to get this rule right so everyone can appreciate.”
Goodell recently spent three hours with former players, including Pro Football Hall of Famers, going over 150 plays. He said there were many good ideas offered, but as for the specifics of what should be a catch, there was little consensus.
“There were a lot of people with different perspectives and lot of disagreement in the room,” he said.
So the competition committee will dive into not only this rule, but perhaps refining the rulebook.
“I would like to start back, subtracting from the (catch) rule and look at the rule fundamentally from the start. These rules are very complex.”
He added that there were more video replay interruptions in 2017 “and I think we can look at that. How do we make the game more attractive with less stoppages is one of the things we focus on.”
“How do we use replay to ensure correcting obvious mistakes but making sure it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game.”
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For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL
The Pittsburgh Pirates today acquired left-handed relief pitcher Josh Smoker from the New York Mets in exchange for minor league pitcher Daniel Zamora and cash considerations. The announcement was made by Executive Vice President, General Manager Neal Huntington.
The 29-year-old Smoker went 1-2 with a 5.11 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 54 relief appearances last year for the Mets. He was a member of New York’s Opening Day roster before being optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas on May 9.
Smoker, who was designated for assignment by New York on January 26, broke into the big leagues in 2016 and went 3-0 with a 4.70 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 20 relief appearances. Since breaking into the big leagues, he has averaged 11.68 strikeouts per 9.0 innings in 74 appearances.
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned Wednesday over financial conflicts of interest involving her investments in health care businesses.
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald’s complex financial investments presented conflicts that made it difficult to do her job, according to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. In an ethics agreement filed in September, Fitzgerald had said that legal and contractual restrictions prevented her from selling the two investments.
A new HHS head, Alex Azar, who took office on Monday, accepted her resignation Wednesday, effective immediately.
Fitzgerald’s investments were “limiting her ability to complete all of her duties as CDC Director,” HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd said in the statement. “Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period.”
Fitzgerald’s resignation follows a news report Tuesday that her financial manager bought tobacco and drug stocks after she took the job in July, while selling other stocks that posed a conflict of interest.
Before she became the CDC’s chief, she owned a range of stocks, including holdings in beer and soda companies, the tobacco company Philip Morris International, and a number of health care companies. She said she sold the stocks, but in December, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) wrote Fitzgerald saying she was concerned about the unresolved financial holdings.
In the ethics agreement, Fitzgerald discussed long-term investments in an electronic medical records company and a biotech startup that focuses on early cancer detection. She said in the agreement that she would not participate in matters that might affect those companies. Those investments prevented her from talking about cancer and prescription drug monitoring programs, Murray wrote.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that a month after becoming CDC director, Fitzgerald’s financial manager bought new stocks, including shares in Japan Tobacco and the drug companies Bayer and Merck & Co. Those stocks were later sold, Politico reported.
Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment. Her predecessor, Dr. Tom Frieden, said he talked to her after the Politico story came out, and Fitzgerald told him she didn’t know about the purchase of the stocks when they were made.
“I have spoken with Dr. Fitzgerald and believe her when she says that she was unaware that a tobacco company investment had been made, she understands that any affiliation between the tobacco industry and public health is unacceptable, and that when she learned of it, she directed that it be sold,” Frieden said in a statement.
Fitzgerald, 71, was a longtime OB-GYN in the Atlanta area, a former major in the U.S. Air Force, and campaigned twice, unsuccessfully, as a Republican candidate for Congress in the 1990s. She led Georgia’s state health department for six years before being tapped for the CDC job.
Fitzgerald kept a low-profile in the job. She said she wanted to spend time learning about the agency, but also acknowledged a financial conflict of interest kept her from appearing at a Congressional hearing on opioids in early October.
She was appointed by Dr. Tom Price, who was a Republican congressman from Georgia before Trump picked him to head HHS. Price resigned in late September after his costly travel on chartered planes triggered investigations and angered Trump.
Murray issued a statement Wednesday after Fitzgerald’s resignation.
“It is unacceptable that the person responsible for leading our nation’s public health efforts has, for months, been unable to fully engage in the critical work she was appointed to do. Dr. Fitzgerald’s tenure was unfortunately the latest example of the Trump Administration’s dysfunction and lax ethical standards,” Murray said.
The CDC, the nation’s top public health agency, is the only federal agency headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. It has nearly 12,000 employees, and about three-quarters of them are based in the Atlanta area.
Police were contacted by officials at Beaver Falls Central Elementary School when a teacher helping a student smelled marijuana in a child’s packpack. Melissa Heffner of Beaver Falls is the only person who cares for the child and has been charged by the Beaver Falls police with a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.
SCHOOL THREATS
Tracing a threat used to be easier for school districts: administrators and police would link the ominous phone call to a pay phone outside the building and find a naive student eager to get out of class for the day.
But now, as it happened Monday to Pittsburgh Public Schools, a threat made from a Florida resident in a chat room of an online video game can put schools 1,200 miles away on modified lockdown.
Social media and the evolving digital landscape has complicated the effort to keep students safe, broadening the ways in which threats of violence can be made and forcing school officials to be vigilant in monitoring a complex platform.
Though administrators have to take each threat seriously, school safety experts and officials say there are ways to determine whether or not to cancel classes or institute a lockdown.
The number of total threats toward Allegheny County schools has stayed consistent over the past few years;
Penn-Dot spokesman Steve Cowan said on Tuesday that the section of Freedom-Crider Road between Route 989 and Freedom-Lovi Road in New Sewickley Twp. will be closed to traffic in mid-February and will remain closed until August. It’s part of an $80 million Freedom Road upgrade project that started two years ago. There will be road alignments and new intersections. The exact detour for the 6,000+ vehicles that travel this road daily, has not yet been determined.