Center will research Lou Gehrig’s disease

PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh is creating the Live Like Lou Center for ALS Research to study a cure for the degenerative nerve disease named for baseball player Lou Gehrig.

The center is named after a charity founded by Neil and Suzanne Alexander, a Pittsburgh couple who started the fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation after Neil Alexander was diagnosed with the disease three years ago.

Pitt said the couple pledged to raise $2.5 million, half of the centers startup cost.

Alexander, who works with an investment firm and was diagnosed at age 46, named his charity after Gehrig because he believed the ballplayer showed dignity and courage in the face of the disease.

Woman pleads guilty, receives probation

WASHINGTON — A 25-year-old Western Pennsylvania woman will spent two years on probation for serving beer to teens at a party she hosted, before one of them was killed in a fatal crash afterward.

Elizabeth Ann Smith, of Blaine Township, 25, was sentenced Wednesday in Washington County.

She received the sentence after pleading guilty to four counts of furnishing alcohol to minors after prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Christopher Wetzel on June 18, 2011.

Wetzel was killed when he crashed and two other party guests were injured.