Laurel: To not giving up. Cherrie Mahan, 8, was last seen at a Winfield bus stop in February 1985.
Forty years later, although Cherrie has been legally declared dead, there is still a search for answers in her case.
Steve Ridge, a private investigator from Iowa, has stepped up with a $100,000 reward for information leading to recovery of her remains. He also believes the key to unlocking the mystery could be the blue backpack Cherrie was carrying the day she disappeared.
Cherrie’s mother, Janice McKinney, joined Ridge and others Tuesday at a news conference to discuss the investigation.
“I have never given up hope,” she said.
Lance: To egregious behavior. Jonathan Weston, 60, will be serving 27 months for his part in a scheme to embezzle $6.8 billion from Hillandale Farms, a Hempfield-based company that is one of the country’s largest egg producers.
To add insult to injury, after laundering the money through his own candy stores and car washes, Weston failed to pay $1.2 million in taxes.
The 27 months is about half of what he might have served under sentencing guidelines, but Weston also will have to give up his 2008 Aston Martin convertible, a 1933 Ford Model 40 Coupe and a Downtown Pittsburgh condominium, among other property and cash.
In pre-sentencing documents, Weston claimed he was the victim of a Ponzi scheme, losing $325,000, and he only received between $2 million and $3 million from the Hillandale scheme.
One would think that as a victim of a financial crime, Weston could have known what pain his actions might cause. As a former Hillandale controller and vice president of finance, he should have known what that level of theft might do to the company and potentially to the customers.
Instead, he bristled at being required to pay back more than he believed he should, claiming more should be the responsibility of his partner in crime, Victoria Petrulis, who died in 2019.
Laurel: To getting rolling. In 2019, Kennywood debuted The Steel Curtain. It’s a Steelers-themed roller coaster that created a lot of buzz. It subsequently created disappointment when it was closed after a July 5, 2023, Agriculture Department inspection and then closed for yearlong modification project in 2024.
Kennywood, which has since been acquired by Dollywood owners Herschend of Atlanta, announced a May 24 reopening of the black-and-gold attraction.