O-R Weekend Recap: 5 things you need to know for Monday
We hope you had a great weekend! If you didn’t have the chance to catch up on the biggest news from the weekend, the O-R has you covered with this recap of our most-read stories from Friday through Sunday.
Michael S. Berry collapsed to the courtroom floor Friday night after he was convicted in a “rent-a-center” contraband scandal at the state prison near Waynesburg, while two other SCI-Greene correctional officers also charged in the case were acquitted.
Berry, 35, of Clarksville, was checked by medics upon passing out moments after the Greene County jury of nine women and three men delivered the verdict after deliberating for six hours. He was convicted on two counts of unlawful use of a computer and one charge of reckless endangerment, while found not guilty of criminal conspiracy and records tampering.
His co-defendants, John C. Smith Jr., 46, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Andrew Schneider Jr., 35, of Grindstone, were acquitted on all charges.
For more details on the case, click here to read Mike Jones’ story.
In the latest installment of our Mental Health Matters series, Natalie Reid Miller speaks with Debi Mahoney about her son, Charles Francis “Chuck” Mahoney IV. On Feb. 11, 2002, in the bedroom of his fraternity house at Allegheny College, Meadville, Chuck took his own life by hanging himself with his dog’s leash.
Soon after the death of their middle child, the Mahoneys came to believe college officials could have prevented the tragedy. In 2003, they sued Allegheny College for wrongful death. Administrators and mental health professionals should have alerted them to their son’s “continued spiral downhill,” said Debi.
Jessica and Frank Crockard are parents of four, so they knew how to run a family. But they had never operated a family business before. About a year ago, they seized an opportunity. Hills Restaurant, a New Eagle staple and long-time Mon Valley favorite, was on the market. Frank and Jessica had become regulars there and liked the place, liked the location, loved the possibilities. So they bought it.
The Crockards took over in late February, and 11 months later have no regrets.
For more information on Hills Restaurant, click here to read Rick Shrum’s story.
Union Township was once home to a top-secret military operation during the Cold War-era, when defending the Pittsburgh region’s steel mills from a Soviet Union missile attack was a top priority for the U.S. Army.
A control room for missile launch pads at Nike Site 43 was constructed along Finleyville-Elrama Road near concrete barracks that housed as many as 100 men more than six decades ago during the nuclear arms race. The Army decommissioned the Nike missile site in 1974, and it waited nearly 40 years to donate the control and launch properties to Union Township. In the meantime, the buildings’ roofs badly deteriorated.
For the full story on the Nike missile site, click here to read Scott Beveridge’s report.
The view from 84 Lumber Co. headquarters has been getting rosier over the past several years. Revenue at the country’s largest privately held building materials supplier has been steadily climbing since 2011, following the bust in the housing industry that began in 2007 and was responsible for the Great Recession that began a year later and lasted until a turnaround began in 2010.
The steady revenue improvement, which has tracked the recovery in the U.S. housing industry, has meant that 84 Lumber has been opening new stores around the country and on Sunday will run a 90-second ad just before the half of the Super Bowl asking people to consider applying for management trainee positions, an entry-level spot that offers the chance to move up in its ranks.
Click here to learn more about 84 Lumber in Michael Bradwell’s story.