Clairton Bears Win Fourth Straight Class A State Football Championship

HERSHEY – Clairton is fast.  Clairton is physical.  Clairton is tenacious.

And those are the reasons the Bears are state champions – again.

Playing with the determined focus of a champion, Clairton derailed Dunmore, 20-0, on a sun-soaked Friday afternoon at Hersheypark Stadium to claim its fourth straight PIAA Class A title.

The Bears (16-0) built on their state-record winning streak, which currently sits at 63 games and is also the longest in the nation.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/sports/piaa-football-dunmore-falls-to-four-time-champ-clairton-1.1416856

Wyomissing Wins State AA Football Championship

Wyomissing defeated Aliquippa 17-14 to win the PIAA Class AA football championship today at Hershey.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=436335

Related story –   Spartan pride swells for state title game:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=436220

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Search For Answers Begins After Connecticut School Massacre

Map of Connecticut highlighting Fairfield County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) – Residents of the small Connecticut community of Newtown were reeling on Saturday from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, as police sought answers about what drove a 20-year-old gunman to slaughter 20 children at an elementary school.

The attacker, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, who once attended Newtown High School, opened fire on Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which serves children aged 5 to 10. He ultimately killed at least 27 people, including himself.

Police said another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in the town, which many media accounts indicated may have been the shooter’s mother, Nancy Lanza.

State police said they hoped to have more information by Saturday morning, including confirmation of the victims’ identities.  More than 12 hours after the shootings, police began removing the bodies from the school and bringing in parents to make identifications, NBC News reported.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/sns-rt-us-usa-connecticut-answersbre8be034-20121214,0,3298509.story

Allentown’s American Parkway Bridge Groundbreaking

The PPL Building (seen here in the distance) is the tallest building in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At first glance, Friday’s groundbreaking for the American Parkway Bridge looked pretty much like every other ceremony where shivering, dark-suited community leaders poke their gold-painted shovels into some carefully piled dirt.

But this time, behind all the pomp and pageantry were more than five decades of planning, fighting, waiting and frustration.

It was 1956 when excited city leaders first proposed a direct path between downtown Allentown and Route 22, and Friday those shovel-wielding leaders celebrated the beginning of construction of a $46 million American Parkway Bridge project they say represents both the struggles of the past and the promise of the future.

It will span the Lehigh River just north of the Tilghman Street bridge and south of the Route 22 bridge.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-american-parkway-bridge-20121214,0,3965525.story