Lunch Box: Weekend fun, Century III Mall scuffle, scam artists, Jim Roddey remembered
Here are some noon headlines from TribLive, Friday, March 8, 2024:
• Who is going to tear Century III Mall down?
The owners of the blighted Century III Mall said in court papers filed this week that they have contracted with a company to raze the property, but they claim that the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office is interfering with their ability to carry out the demolition.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday.
It’s the weekend. If you are not attending the opening weekend of the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show at the David Lawrence Convention Center, here are some other ways to spend it.
When the bear tackled her, Lee Ann Galante’s face cracked against a cement slab in her backyard.
“I’m screaming and screaming and screaming — ‘Someone help me!’”
It was one of two or three times a black bear knocked her down during an attack Tuesday night behind her Butler Township home.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to die — she’s going to kill me,’” Galante said.
• Intellectually disabled parents sue Allegheny County CYF for taking their baby
Andrew and Lauren Hackney’s daughter was 7 months old when they took her to the pediatrician because she’d been refusing her bottle.
The doctor diagnosed her with dehydration and recommended she be evaluated at a hospital.
Within weeks of the baby being admitted for treatment, a caseworker with Allegheny County’s Office of Children, Youth and Families launched an investigation into the couple, who have intellectual disabilities. In short order, the county took the Hackneys’ baby — and then gave her to foster parents who are not disabled.
What unfolded since that day in 2021 has been a nightmare for the Robinson couple.
• Do you fear scam artists? You should
Experts say scammers are becoming more sophisticated.
Federal Trade Commission data shows more than 26,000 reports of fraud in the Pittsburgh metro area in 2023. Imposter scams were most common, followed by illegitimate online shopping offers, then prize-based scams.
Nationwide, scammers siphoned a record $10 billion from consumers last year. That’s up from the $8.8 billion stolen in 2022, which, itself, was a 30% increase from 2021.
• Jim Roddey, 1st Allegheny County executive, dies
Jim Roddey, Allegheny County’s first chief executive, died Thursday.
He served as county executive from 1999 to 2004 and was a former chairman of the county’s Republican committee.
He was 91.
Roddey was honored for his service to the Republican committee at its annual Spirit of Lincoln fundraising dinner at the Westin Convention Center Hotel in February 2016. He stepped down the following month as committee chairman after eight years.
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