Beaver County man faces drunken tractor ride charges

OHIOVILLE – A western Pennsylvania man faces charges that he assaulted a police officer after he was arrested on drunken driving charges – aboard a lawn tractor.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 44-year-old Mark Grove, of Ohioville, who did not immediately return a call for comment today after the Beaver County Times reported his arrest.

Police say they were responding to a 911 call reporting an “out of control male” when they encountered Grove on the tractor driving down the middle of the road Thursday afternoon.

Police say a coffee mug sitting on the tractor contained beer and say Grove told them, “I’m drunk. Just take me home.”

Instead, police arrested Grove and that’s when they say he kicked an officer and head-butted a partition that encloses prisoner’s in the squad car’s back seat.



DA: Man killed inside Westmoreland County home threatened owner

IRWIN – Authorities say a man shot inside a Westmoreland County home had been charged with threatening the woman who lived there.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports 43-year-old Thomas Weber Jr. was shot dead early Saturday morning inside a home in North Huntingdon, .

District Attorney John Peck says Weber was pronounced dead at the scene after a man inside the home shot him multiple times. The man told investigators Weber entered the home armed with a pipe and was approaching the woman’s bedroom before he was shot.

The report says Weber had been charged with aggravated assault last week after allegedly firing a gun into a wall at the home. The prosecutor says Weber and the woman had previously been in a relationship.



Burglars set fire to storage units near New Castle

NEW CASTLE – Police are trying to figure out why burglars broke into a rental storage facility and then set the contents of several units on fire.

Police and fire crews in Union Township, near New Castle, say someone cut through a chain-link fence to enter the Convenient Storage Unit Facility about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Fire crews had to use power saws to cut through the locked doors of several units so they could extinguish fires set in the various rental units. At least a dozen units, and perhaps as many as two dozen, were set on fire.

Township Fire Chief Steve Stasko says whoever is responsible will likely face charges of vandalism, burglary and arson.

Investigators are hoping surveillance cameras will provide clues about who broke in and set the fires.



Police investigate big rig wheel thefts in region

BELLWOOD – State police are trying to figure out who is jacking up commercial trucks and making off with their wheels and tires in central Pennsylvania.

WJAC-TV reports a Blair County business lost $11,000 in wheels and tires in a theft last week. Officials at W.W. Engine & Supply say they lost $40,000 in parts in a similar theft last year.

The report says another business in Clearfield County lost about $10,000 in parts in a theft last month, when trucks were left up on wooden blocks after the wheels were taken.

The thefts haven’t been linked, but state police in Hollidaysburg say the crimes aren’t ones of opportunity. The thefts require specialized knowledge of the trucks.



Trial to start in death of jogger pushing stroller

PITTSBURGH – A suburban Pittsburgh man is set to go on trial in the death of a woman fatally struck while she pushed her two young children in a jogging stroller.

Twenty-one-year-old Benjamin Cope’s vehicular homicide trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

Police say Cope was high on marijuana when he ran a stop sign and struck 36-year-old Lisa Clay Styles in Mt. Lebanon last summer.

Styles died a day after being struck while pushing her 1- and 3-year-old children while taking a run. Neither child was hurt.

Defense Attorney Bruce Beemer wanted to take the jury to the intersection where Styles was struck, but an Allegheny County judge denied the request last week citing changes made to the area since the crash.

 

Allegheny County man dies in ATV crash

MONONGAHELA – Authorities say a Pittsburgh-area man is dead after he crashed an all-terrain vehicle into a creek.

Police identified the man as 22-year-old Eric Fisher. Police say he crashed the ATV into a creek near his family’s home in Forward Township, Allegheny County around 2 a.m. Sunday.

The county medical examiner’s office says Fisher was ejected from the vehicle and landed in the creek.

 

1 dead, 2 wounded in York shooting

YORK – Police say a shooting has left one man dead and two wounded in central Pennsylvania.

York police say 23-year-old Rudolph Mendoza IV was shot and killed early Sunday in York. Two other men were taken to hospitals.

Investigators say the shooting happened around 4:30 a.m. Mendoza was shot at least once in the neck.

Authorities say they’re still trying to determine what led to the shooting.

An autopsy for Mendoza is scheduled today. His death was the sixth homicide in the city this year.



Pet pig problem prompts petition

CATASAUQUA – A Pennsylvania woman’s little pig is causing a big problem with her local zoning board.

The Morning Call of Allentown reports Holly Hacker is taking signatures for a petition in support of her spotted Vietnamese potbellied pig, Porkus Maximus, after being cited for violating Whitehall Township’s zoning rules.

Hacker says she was cited for having a livestock farm after a zoning officer noticed Porkus at the home.

Hacker says she’s appealing to the township zoning board because Porkus isn’t livestock raised for sale or profit. He’s just a pet.

Mayor Ed Hozza says the board must consider its definition of livestock carefully, because one pig may be a fine pet but five may be too much.

The Morning Call report says a zoning board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.



Fire damages recycling center near Pittsburgh

NEVILLE ISLAND – Officials at a Pittsburgh-area recycling center say they’re still investigating a fire that damaged the facility.

No injuries have been reported in the fire at Neville Recycling on Neville Island, just east of the city on the Ohio River.

The fire was reported about 4:30 a.m. and was reportedly started in a building that housed paper products.

A woman who answered the phone at the business says officials are still reviewing the incident and have no comment.



Berks County teen drowns at state park

BARNESVILLE – Authorities say they’ve recovered the body of a man who drowned at a Pennsylvania state park.

The Pottsville Republican & Herald reports police in Rush Township did not immediately release the name of the 19-year-old whose body was recovered Sunday evening at Tuscarora State Park in Schuylkill County.

Officials say the Berks County man was swimming with friends when he went underwater and didn’t resurface.

The Republican & Herald report says rangers and police were called to the scene around 5:30 p.m. He was pulled from the water soon after but pronounced dead at a hospital at 7:45 p.m.



State agency set to decide on Pittsburgh pensions

PITTSBURGH – A state agency is expected to announce whether it will take over Pittsburgh’s underfunded pension plan or whether a City Council-backed plan to used parking revenues to bolster the fund is sufficient.

The Public Employee Retirement Commission is empowered to take over the pension plan if the city can’t fund at least half of its obligations.

Right now, the city has money for less than 30 percent of its obligations, though City Council has approved a plan to use some parking revenues make up for the shortfall. City Council approved their plan after rejecting a plan by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to lease city parking facilities to a private vendor for $450 million over 50 years.

The state retirement commission is expected to announce its decision later today.



North Carolina firm buying PPG Place in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH – A North Carolina-based real estate investment firm is expected to release more details about its purchase of One PPG Place, a six-building office complex featuring a 40-floor, glass-spired skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh.

Officials with the Highwoods Properties of Raleigh, N.C., are expected to release more details on the deal at a news conference later this morning.

The complex includes 1.5 million square feet of office space, along with retail and food outlets, a winter garden enclosed exhibit area, and an outdoor plaza that features fountains in warmer weather and a portable ice rink that typically operates from November until about March.

Highwoods has placed newspaper ads and made other announcements to herald its entry into the Pittsburgh market.

The company owns or has an interest in more than 330 office and retail properties, mostly in the southeastern United States.