Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been quite busy through the free agency period and the draft, much like many other teams have been. However, the team has made numerous strides to improve its roster, which includes signing former Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson and trading for former Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
Though grading or predicting how draftees will do can be viewed as premature, the Steelers did do a good job at boosting their offensive line. The team plans to run the ball with effectiveness, and putting together a stellar offensive line is the sure-fire way to ensure running lanes are opened up to aid a good rushing attack.
Though the Steelers beefed up the offensive line through the draft, one area where the team still needs work is at wide receiver. Receiver George Pickens had a good year with 1,140 receiving yards, but the next closest was Diontae Johnson, who secured 717 yards.
George Gojkovich/Getty Images
Johnson has since been traded to the Carolina Panthers, leaving the receiving room the Steelers currently have as majorly lacking. The dropoff from Johnson’s 717 receiving yards falls to 370 yards, which belonged to running back Jaylen Warren.
The Steelers clearly need help at wide receiver, and they have since been attached to huge names and rumors. The biggest rumor is that they were actively attempting to trade for San Francisco 49ers star receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk leading up to the draft.
Steelers general manager Omar Khan has since addressed these rumors. He appeared on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee show to discuss Pittsburgh making a play for a big receiver.
Khan was asked by McAfee if there was any truth to the Steelers attempting to land these receivers. Khan simply stated, “I heard about it [rumors about trading for 49ers receivers]… but there is nothing going on.”
Khan could be playing the role of the naive general manager when he knows full well who the Steelers are attempting to land, or they truly might not be trying to trade for anyone at the moment. Training camp and preseason could lead to the team exploring options at wide receiver far more, though it would be believed Khan would attempt to land someone far before that.
Apart from the rumors that Aiyuk and Samuel could still be traded, Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is also a possibility. Higgins stated he wanted a trade after the Bengals were unwilling to give him a new contract. He did recently state that he expects to be with the team in 2024, and his not being traded right before or during the draft means Cincinnati likely feels the same.
The Bengals are also a division rival of the Steelers, so it would be highly unlikely they would allow Higgins to go to the team they would be directly competing with for a playoff berth in 2024. Still, Khan could come up with a deal for Higgins that Pittsburgh would be hard-pressed to pass on. Either way, Khan could be throwing up a smokescreen to throw other teams off the trail of the Steelers landing a premier wide receiver.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
No one showed up in court for either side.
Not for the victim, a 33-year-old immigrant killed in Pittsburgh last year by a drunken driver.
And not for the defendant, a 22-year-old woman who created a good life for herself and her twin sons despite a string of difficult life circumstances, including an incarcerated father and a mother with mental illness.
Maria Davis, of Uniontown, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault and driving under the influence after police say she crossed the center line on Beechwood Boulevard last year, crashing head-on into Abdulaziz Sharibbaev and killing him.
Sharibbaev lived in Pittsburgh’s Westwood section at the time of his death. Law enforcement could not confirm where he emigrated from and were unable to reach any relatives for the court proceedings.
As part of a plea agreement, Davis will serve 16 to 32 months in custody to be followed by two years probation. Her attorney asked the court to allow his client to enter an alternative housing program, which the judge said she will consider after Davis has served at least 12 months.
She must also pay $3,500 in mandatory fines.
Davis was driving a black Hyundai sedan north on Beechwood Boulevard toward Squirrel Hill around 12:30 a.m. on March 11 when she crossed the center line and struck a silver Toyota Prius head-on, according to a criminal complaint.
Sharibbaev, who was driving the Prius, had to be extricated by medics.
He died from his injuries five days later.
Both Davis and a passenger in her car were taken to local hospitals. The passenger sustained facial injuries and fractures from being thrown into the windshield.
A blood test showed Davis had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.163% — more than twice the legal limit for driving of 0.08%.
She also had marijuana in her blood, police said.
Birthday celebration
Defense attorney Adam Bishop told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Simquita R. Bridges that his client had been raised primarily by her great-grandmother after her father was incarcerated and her mother could not care for her.
After her great-grandmother became ill, Davis had to return to live with her mother at age 14, Bishop continued. Three years later, she moved out.
Davis had no prior criminal history and worked as a certified nursing assistant at a facility in Uniontown, Bishop said.
The night of the crash, she and friends were going out to celebrate her birthday.
Davis had gotten a babysitter, drove to Pittsburgh and attended a baby shower that day before checking in to a hotel room.
At the shower, Davis had a shot of tequila and shared a glass of wine, Bishop said. Then, when Davis returned to the hotel to get ready for her night out, she had a couple more shots.
Davis and her friend arrived at a bar called Eon in Homestead and were waiting outside in line for more than 90 minutes when a fight broke out, Bishop said.
One of the men involved made threats, Bishop told the judge, and fearing he would return with a gun, Davis and her friends left.
Although she had not planned to drive any more that night, Davis got in her car to follow another friend to a bar in Greenfield, the attorney said.
The two vehicles got separated in traffic, Bishop said, and the friend texted Davis the address for the bar.
She was trying to type the address into the GPS on her phone when she crossed the center line and crashed, according to Bishop.
“It was that act of distracted driving, in conjunction with her intoxication,” Bishop said, that caused the crash.
Bishop described Davis as extremely remorseful and said she accepts full responsibility for her actions.
“She got dealt some bad cards in life,” Bishop said, but still managed to make a good life for her sons, who will turn 2 next month.
“One night can change everything,” he said.
A ‘poor decision’
No one was in court to describe the impact of Sharibbaev’s death.
Davis told the judge she is sincerely sorry.
“I would never purposely hurt somebody,” she said. “I ask that his family accept my apology. For as long as I live, I hope they can forgive me at some point.”
Davis told the court she is trying to learn from what happened.
“I tried all my life to be a good person and stay on the right path,” she said. “This night, I just made a poor decision.”
But Assistant District Attorney Jameson Rohrer said it wasn’t just one bad choice.
“This was a series of decisions that (ended) a man’s life and permanently changed the lives of the defendant and her children,” he said.
Bridges agreed.
“You are a textbook example of why drinking and driving is illegal,” the judge said. “Good people sometimes make bad choices. That doesn’t make you a bad person.
“Your life isn’t over because of this. You can pick yourself up and move on.”
Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer behind the former Shop ‘n Save store in the city’s Carrick neighborhood.
Pittsburgh Public Safety said late Monday night that detectives from the Violent Crime division responded to the area of Amanda Street and Wynoka Street in Carrick after a man’s body was found around 8:30 p.m.
Public Safety said the man’s body was found underneath a trailer and that he was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.
A photo provided by Pittsburgh Public Safety shows officers surrounding a taped off area and what appears to be a refrigerated trailer parked at the loading dock along Amanda Street behind the former Brownsville Shop n’ Save, which closed its doors last month.
No details surrounding the circumstances of the man’s death were provided by Public Safety, who said that the cause and the manner of the man’s death will be determined by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The man’s identity has not been released.
Public Safety said the investigation into the man’s death is “ongoing.”
In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.
The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction.
Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021.
The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that.
People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away.
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