The Tri-County Report for September 6th, 2010...


The state Harness Racing Commission has given Centaur some hard deadlines in the company's effort to sell the race track project in Lawrence County. The first deadline is October 5th...it is by that date that Centaur must show proof that at least one new written bid has been submitted to take over the project. If there is more than one bidder the license will be auctioned. If there is at least one new bidder, they have until December 31st to file the application for the license.


A 19 year old Columbus, Ohio woman is facing several felony counts after she led state police in Lawrence County on a high speed chase. Briante Moore refused to pull over for a traffic violation, setting off a chase on Route 422 that exceeded speeds of 100 miles per hour. The chase ended when she wrecked near New Castle. Police say the vehicle she was in had been reported stolen in an armed robbery. She was placed in the Lawrence County Jail.


A Butler County man has been arrested for allegedly holding a woman captive in his mother's basement and attacking her. 34 year old Jeremy Michael Flood of Evans City faces nearly a dozen charges, including aggravated assault and rape. The victim tells police that she had been dating Flood for about four months and had gone to his mother's home on Tuesday. That is when he reportedly pushed her down the steps into the basement. Police have not released the woman's name.


Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Chief Riley Smoot is urging residents to make sure their car doors are locked at night. The warning comes in the aftermath of another wave of thefts from vehicles. Smoot said some of the cars that were burglarized had been left unlocked. The thefts took place in West Middlesex, where residents living along Kiwanis Road, Dogwood Lane and Oak Hill Drive reported vehicle break-ins.


Today is Labor Day, meaning most government offices are closed. Schools and colleges area also shut down around the state. Police around Pennsylvania are wrapping up extra patrols in place for the past few weeks as part of a national crackdown on drunk driving. The enforcement will run through tonight.


State police in Mercer County are asking for the public's help in finding a 24 year old Jamestown man. Bradley James Cleveland of Liberty Street is accused of using the Internet to send obscene photograph's of himself to a minor. State police believe Cleveland has fled the Jamestown area and his whereabouts are unknown. Anyone with information on where he may be should contact state police at 724-662-6162.


State Representative Daryl Metcalfe says taxpayers will be saddled with a half-billion-dollar transportation tax increase if rumors are correct and Senate Republicans cave on their promise not to participate in a lame-duck legislative session. But Westmoreland County Republican Senator Kim Ward says those rumors are meritless. Governor Rendell has been pressing lawmakers to pass his transportation funding tax package to generate one-billion-revenue dollars for road and bridge maintenance and transit system deficits.


Three people were flown to Saint Elizabeth's in Youngstown after an accident in Mercer County's Pine Township. Police say the accident took place on state Route 208 when a 63 year old woman drifted across the centerline and hit an oncoming vehicle head on. The accident took place Thursday. Again...three people airlifted to Youngstown...two others were treated at Grove City Medical Center.


Fire officials in Beaver County say a trailer home in Raccoon Township was destroyed by a fire. It started when a neighbor's brush fire ignited a pine tree before spreading to the trailer home. Fire Chief Joe Dickton says the fire happened along Reesman Drive. Officials did not release the name of the neighbor who started the brush fire. The owner of the trailer was not home at the time.


Butler police say a 34 year old man was taken into custody after a foot chase on the city's West Side. Robert Draper of Mercer Street in Butler is accused of attacking his girlfriend. Police were called out and officers eventually spotted him at a business on West Cunningham. Draper reportedly tried to run from police but they caught up with him and used pepper spray to subdue him. Draper's bond was set at 20-thousand dollars.