PITTSBURGH
University of Pittsburgh police are working with City of Pittsburgh police to determine whether some students arrested along with Group of 20 protesters were actually just innocent bystanders.
If police can determine that's the case, then criminal charges of failure to disperse will be dropped against those students.
Police arrested 110 people including students and at least two journalists during demonstrations in Schenley Plaza on Friday night.
Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney says some of those arrested were students who were just trying to get into dormitories when they were caught up in the protest. Delaney says it's unclear how many of those arrested that night were Pitt students.
Less than two months after it opened, the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh has become a riskier bet for one credit rating agency.Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating for casino affiliate Holdings Gaming Borrower one notch yesterday, from B to B-minus.The agency cites concerns about what it calls the Rivers' "weak operating performance" and its ability to meet debt service payments if there's no change in fortunes.Standard & Poor's also put Holdings Gaming on its CreditWatch, with negative implications, meaning there's about a 50 percent chance the rating could be dropped again.The casino, which opened Aug. 9, has failed to produce revenues near its own estimates or those of the rating agency.
The former chief executive and four other employees of defunct soft-drink maker Le-Nature's Inc. have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh for an $806 million fraud.U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan says Gregory Podlucky conspired to cook the Latrobe company's books to get $806 million in loans and equipment leases.The indictments were returned under seal Sept. 17 and revealed Monday when Podlucky and three of his four co-defendants were arrested.Buchanan says the fraud is believed to be the largest ever in the Western District of Pennsylvania, a 25-county federal court district centered in Pittsburgh.Buchanan says Podlucky is charged with money laundering for allegedly spending much of the $700 million that banks lost in the alleged fraud.
