Clairton News

Lots of Clairton news today

Hot off the presses: The explosion last week at the Clairton works sent ripples of fear through the Mon Valley. Reports of the number injured ranges from 15-20 depending on the report. With memories of Nicholas Revetta’s death last September still fresh in the minds of residents, questions of the mill’s relevance are again being raised. The blast occurred at an oven in the Coke Works about 9:30 last Wednesday. At least two and possibly three of the injured were critical. Most of the injuries were burns. By Friday nine were still hospitalized.

Although most of the U. S. Steel mills in the valley have been shuttered for decades, Clairton Works is one of the few remaining. It employs about 1,500 and manufactures nearly five million tons of coke per year. The plant is an anachronism left over from Clairton’s glory days. Besides coke the plant also produces putrid air that exposes Clairton and Glassport resident to toxic air that increases their risk of cancer by 20 times the national average. That makes Clairton and Glassport the third and fourth highest risk air pollution in the nation. U.S. Steel had announced a $1 billion renovation of the plant last year but later cancelled those plans. Ironically, Clairton’s new, young Mayor, Richard Lattanzi, is the safety coordinator for nearby Irvin Works.

Magic Mike Super: Clairton native Mike Super can make plenty of things disappear. Ok, maybe not the bad air that surrounds the community, but the young magician recently brought his act to the Palace Theater in nearby Greensburg. In his act, Super mixes humor with illusions, makes audience members levitate, and even makes a vehicle disappear. The 1987 CHS grad also made The Daily News disappear... well, more accurately, he was one of many newsboys who tossed the paper six days a week. His high school magic, which he began performing at age six, also included being a member of the CHS Marching Band. He is in the midst of preparing a TV series. Mike Super, magician and Clairton boy.

Ghosts from Clairton past: The Pastore family name is well known in Clairton. Dan, Sr. was a local store owner and newspaper distributor, other family members were football heroes and achievers who added to the Clairton story. Sadly for at least one Pastore, life ended too soon. Eddie Pastore was killed 21 years ago. At the time Clairton was struggling fiscally and was in such turmoil that it had no police department. No local detectives, no hometown force that knew the community, and the case languished. A childhood friend has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the murderer of Eddie Pastore.

Mike Boss grew up with Eddie and the fact that the investigation has not moved forward has stuck in his craw for more than two decades. So he is trying to get the case reopened. In addition to the reward efforts include a Facebook page, “Eddie Pastore Memorial” and a show on www.talkradio.com. We hope the efforts of Mike Boss and his collaborators will provide new information for this cold case.
Clairton man hiking Appalachian Trail: On November 24, 2003 Clairton resident Rodger Henry Biddle had a very bad day. That day he was arrested for aggravated assault, discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure, 23 counts of terroristic threats, and 26 counts of recklessly endangering another person. He was shot six times by a SWAT Team with bean bags and pleaded guilty to all counts. But he fled to South Carolina and made the number one spot on the Allegheny County Most Wanted list. The second worst day of his life was a couple of weeks ago when authorities in South Carolina arrested him on the outstanding warrant and shipped him back to PA. Not quite the reason Clairtonians want to shout, “We’re Number 1!”

Hot August Nights in June: The area of Third Street and Baker Avenue became the hub of activity a couple of weeks ago. At 2:00 a.m. police from 12 different communities answered the “Officer needs assistance” call and went to that location. There they discovered what was described as a riot. Although there were reports of shots fired the only apparent injury was to a woman who broke her arm during the brawl.

Hometown loyalty: Ralph Imbrogno was recently furloughed from his job as Clairton’s City Manager after more than a decade of service in that position. The reasons were purely fiscal. The City has to cut costs and Ralph understands that. His history with the City of Clairton extends back to the early 1970s. The positions of City Manager and Finance Director were combined and a part time employee was hired to do that job. Although his tenure as a paid employee for Clairton has ended Mr. I. has vowed to assist the city with his expertise in any way he can. Specifically he said, "It's my home. Anything I can do to help out, I will do it." THAT is the attitude that will bring Clairton back to prosperity.

A special thank you for all who sent me information that appeared on today’s blog.

A little blogging music Maestro... “My Hometown” by the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
www.mifflintownship.org

Monday, Monday

Give me Liberty or a Jelly Donut

Helps build strong bodies several ways: One of the staples of life in the 1950s and 1960s was a two-parent family that had dinner together. My how society has changed. Breakfast on the run in the car with a Starbucks triple mocha latte grande and a giant slice of New York coffee cake. No hands on the wheel. Lunch is a tube steak (uh, that’s a hot dog for you rookies) from the gut wagon that stops outside your place of employment. Dinner? Grilled chicken and rice, but you’re eating alone. The kids grabbed a burger and fries on their way to meet their buds. What dummies! No, really. Research shows that kids who eat sit down family meals at least once per day have higher grade point averages, are better adjusted, and are less likely to experiment with drugs. Bon apetite.

FOX News – Fair, Balanced, and made up: Last night Mrs. Dr. Forgot was watching Fox News. The story was about a dam breach and flood in the Grand Canyon. BREAKING NEWS! A high speed chase in upstate New York. Speeds in excess of 130 mph. The driver was identified as CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Mrs. Dr. Forgot replayed the clip and sure enough that was the story. There is no verification. No news media, not even Fox has posted the story anywhere. The story must have been a hoax. Since the tag line “All the News That’s Fit to Print” is already taken, perhaps Fox News can run theirs as “We Outrage the Tabloids.”

Tag on your car and I’ll follow you anywhere: Each winter Olympics the story goes around about Picabo (pronounced Peek-a-boo) Street. She was injured in a ski accident but the hospital patched her up good as new. As a thank you, goes the story, she paid for an entire new emergency unit, which was named Picabo ICU. Cops in Fairfax VA must have heard the story and gotten the bright idea to attach a GPS (global positioning system) to cars of suspected bad guys. They tagged a GPS to the bumper of a van owned by a convicted rapist after 11 rapes were reported in his neighborhood. Result: GPS worked, rapist caught, lawyer objected because it was done without first getting a warrant. The left side of my brain says we need to be cautious about compromising our rights to privacy especially in view of the abuses by the current administration. The right side of me says, “One more bad guy off the streets.” ‘Tiz a puzzlement.

Nonsense and Sensibility: Don’t think we’ve forgotten that this is the political silly season. Democrats take the lead on this one. Since John Edwards got outed regarding his affair with his videographer (wait until we see THOSE sex tapes) he will be a persona non grata at the Demo convention in Denver. No speakers with a sordid sex history for these Demos. The Edwards the speech slot instead will be given to Bill Clinton! Off to the right you have Mitt Romney. Is it just me or does he look like the picture that comes in the frame? There is also some discussion that Mitt might have been the model on the “Just For Men” hair products. Mitt would balance the Republican ticket. None of his five sons served in the military but John McCain has served longer than any five candidates’ kids combined. Senator McCain also announced his economic plan to wipe out the deficit – he’ll put it all on his wife’s gold card.

Just when you thought the worst was over: Ah, things have been starting to look up on the economic front. Gas prices hit a three month low, stock markets were up more than down last week, T. Boone Pickens was getting windy in a good way. Perhaps the current administration is not as bad as the opposition had portrayed them. Or not. Well, oil slumped again down another dollar per barrel. But economists suggests that is just the “normaling out” of a market that had been fueled (pun intended) by speculators. Fuel is precarious and can be impacted by so many disasters including the storm in Florida. Oil’s loss has been the bond market’s gain but as the price of oil seems to be settling experts are predicting a dive in the bond market. Hershey stock is down ten percent as the price of chocolate increases the outlook is bittersweet. At least there is plenty of hot air to keep T. Boone’s windmills turning.

Won’t you take a ride in my beautiful balloon: Many of us can remember a time in the not too distant past when flying was a first class operation. We used to get dressed up just to board the plane. Food was served on cloth napkins and real silverware and silver salt and pepper shakers were the rule in First Class. A menu gave you several choices of cuisine. Even coach had warm meals decent legroom. My how times have changed. Off came the jackets and ties in favor of jeans, shorts, and tee shirts. Low fare airlines became the Greyhound of the sky. Then it got worse. Food disappeared. Charges were added to everything from free water to pillows and blankets. Delays, sultry cabin attendants, rude passengers, and barroom brawl boarding procedures replaced the once regal way of travel. Brace yourself. It’s going to get worse. Fewer flights, higher fares, reduced service, and fewer employees are all strategies airlines are using to keep profitable. How about this for a strategy? Improve service and legroom and raise prices so that only those who can afford it will fly. Passengers will probably dress up and be treated royally. Déjà vu!

A little blogging music Maestro... Frank Sinatra crooning, “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Dr. Forgot
See me also at http://vegasbuzznews.com/

News, Views, and Ptooos

Media Take Comedians Seriously and Politicians as a Joke

Sorry, No Political News Today: I know, I know. One guy is on tour and the other is on tour. Both are sniping at the other and each is telling whoever will listen that he is the way, the truth, and the light. In case you’ve overdosed on pontificating politicians, phlegmatic pundits, and the paralysis of analysis, wash your mind out with this item. Corey Warburton is 14. He looks like a typical teen with scraggly hair, backwards baseball cap, and a skateboarding addiction that he feeds whenever he can. On his way to a skate park he found a note – a suicide note along with glasses and a shirt on a bridge. He scanned the icy water and saw a body appear to move, so he did what any hero would have done – he jumped into the freezing water. He reached the woman who said, “Help me,” and for the next 30 minutes struggled to get her to shore. Finally another teen saw them and dived in to help pull the 70-year old woman to safety. She is expected to make a full recovery. Sort of restores your faith in the “Yes We Can” generation, doesn’t it?

From the Bureau of Inane Sadistics: Today must be a slow news day if you don’t count the political deluge that has impregnated our media for the past year or so. All the big time anchors with their reading glasses on their nose, their off-color hair dye, and pompous attitudes are worshipping at the political alter, hoping to get an exclusive with the next president. That leaves the second string to amble on down to Texas like a candle in the wind to be blown out and around the storm center. Somehow, a miked up tied down, bundled in much more than swaddling clothes reporter screaming to be heard above the din of Mother Nature is the latest bandwagon upon which the major stations have boarded. Any port in a storm, I guess. That leaves the interns – those crazy young creative Katzenjammer type kids who are left to tend the newsroom. So when the cat is away what stories do the mice play?

Marriage is for White People Only: “I am a statistic” cries Dionne Hill, oh so single but looking for Mr. Good Beau. She reflects on her fifth grade teacher who went to college, stayed a virgin, got married, and had her first bundle of joy at age 26. At age 12 Ms Hill – not the lawyer from Texas – had a dream to follow in her teacher’s footsteps. But at age 30 she is still searching. She cites the discrepancy – nearly half of America’s black women vs. a quarter of their white sisters have never been married. Her teacher, she concluded, achieved success because she was white. Hill withstood jokes and heckles from her co-workers and questions from other single black women. She has not given up hope, though. After this article there must be some eligible bachelor who will come knocking.

White Women Get Hammered Too: Our last story from the annals of the creative Youtube-genner tells about the dating load shouldered by white women. I guess equal time is important in the lives of the kinder-writers. Judy McGuire, a white woman who calls herself “The Frisky,” opines that women get called crazy more than men. To avoid the wacko label Ms. Frisky warns that when going out on dates women refrain from using the icebreaker, “My therapist says.” In fact she warns against any discussion of psychotherapeutic medications. Stay away from religion and politics she warns, and steer clear of any discussion of recovery. Finally, she suggests that gals wait until they are sure he has fallen for them before showing him the collection of restraining orders that have been taken out against her. Perhaps those gals should go with their new boyfriends to a doctor who specializes in psychiatry and proctology. Look in the Yellow Pages under “Odds and Ends.”

A little blogging music Maestro... How about that classic by Aerosmith, “Crazy.”

Dr. ForgotSee me also at http://vegasbuzznews.com/

All the News That's Fit to Blog

No Political Races but Plenty of News

Drive by stabbing in Akihabara: Tokyo and Japan have some of the world’s strictest handgun laws. It is illegal to own any type of firearm except a shotgun that can be used for skeet shooting. For that there is a lengthy application. Closely regulated, however does not mean absence of malice. Tokyo auto parts worker Timohiro Kato decided to wreak havoc for some twisted reason and smashed a rented truck into a crowd then stabbed and slashed until he’d taken seven innocent lives. Gun laws can curb some violence but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Did Francis Albert Sinatra predict this?: Crooner Frank Sinatra was famous for adding words to traditional songs in a scat-like fashion. One line he added to My Way was, “The higher the top the longer the drop.” So has it been for Mr. Hummer and his SUV cousins. In case you don’t remember Hummer, the neo-Jeep was born on the battlefield as was its grandpa. The Happy Hummer took the troops to battle then took the country by storm during the past “Damn the mileage, full speed ahead” decade. Take a troop carrier, slap on a little chrome, charge a fortune for it, and Viola! A General Motors success story. There are Hummer limos, Hollywood Hummers, and even diamond-encrusted Hummers. Then there was $ 130 per barrel oil. That’s when the long drop occurred. What’s next for the die-hards? Perhaps a Hummer Hybrid.

No Home on the Range – the unkind split: Picture this: you live in a boring suburb and hate your job. So you save up and buy a cabin on a lake and each summer you add to and spiff it up. It becomes your dream home and is worth a ton of money. One night as you watch the news you see your home – then only half of it as the other half is washed into the Wisconsin River. The blood and sweat you poured into the house reduced you to tears. Mother Nature can be cruel. Engineers who designed the earthen dam that gave way can be sued.

Read something by the Hollywood Madam instead: Ah, those crazy bimbos in “Sex and the City” are causing trouble again. You would think their hit movie would be trouble enough since politicians are touting family values these days, but no, they are inadvertently competing with Oprah’s book club. Seems that in a few boudoir scenes Carrie Bradshaw is reading the book, “Love Letters From Great Men.” There has been a rush to the bookstores by horny women old and young to purchase the book. Memo to all such horny women: Carrie Bradshaw is a fictional character. The book is a prop. It doesn’t exist. Stop pestering Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Noble. Get a life.

Back from vacation to get some sleep: ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. More and more people are sleeping through their mornings at work, but they are all awake in time for lunch. A poll showed more than one-third of workers nod off during the work day. And it is no wonder. We average a little more than six hours per night sleep but 9 ½ hours at work. The answer, of course, is to change jobs. As the song sung by a hooker in the musical Les Miserables goes, “Join your sisters.... make money in your sleep.” It reminds me of one call girl who asked another, “Can you loan me 20 bucks until I get back on my back again?”

A little blogging music Maestro... “Sleepwalk,” by Santo and Johnny.

Dr. Forgot