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CBS News
13 minutes ago
- CBS News
A family hired a contractor to repair the driveway for their special needs child. They say the repairs quickly faltered.
A local family says they're out thousands of dollars after hiring a contractor to repair their driveway and build a wheelchair-accessible ramp for their special needs son. A new path meant to include Devin Roberts now leaves him behind, stuck watching from above. "The whole project is disappointing," said Casey Roberts, Devin's mother. "Obviously, with limited mobility, you have limited options where you can go, and we wanted to even go to family gatherings we were going to have in the backyard," Devin's father, Shawn Roberts, said. Devin has special needs. He's in a wheelchair and can't get around without help from his parents or brother, Nick, but that doesn't stop them from making sure he's always part of the world around him. "We started to plan for this 11 years ago after we had the patio and a front walk done," said Shawn. Finally, this year, the Roberts came up with enough money to get it done. It cost an estimated $37,000 to repair the driveway and build a wheelchair ramp to the backyard. They hired AB Concrete and Excavating to get the job done. Work began June 2, with the Roberts paying half of the total cost up front. "So, a significant investment, but we wanted to do it for our family," said Shawn. Bah: How does it feel knowing this is what you've been left with? Casey: It's disheartening. The Roberts say the project quickly went downhill. "This is way steeper than it's supposed to be. It's also too narrow, and there's also no ramp," Shawn explained. "Really, from the beginning, it didn't start off well, and it didn't end well." An industry expert met with KDKA-TV at the Roberts household to explain what, if anything, is wrong with the work that was done. "This part here you can tell was poured hot," said Brian Tomasits, as he described the errors he saw at the house. Tomasits owns Tomasits Landscaping, working in the field for over 30 years, and he even built the walkway to the Roberts' home and patio 11 years ago. "It's obviously a bad job, bad installation by the contractor," he said. Tomasits said the driveway and backyard walkway are already falling apart. "This is just two concrete trucks poured up against each other," Tomasits explained. Tomasits agrees that the path to the backyard is not wide enough for a wheelchair and is also way too steep. All told, the Roberts wrote three different checks to AB Concrete and Excavating during the project's construction, which was only expected to last three days. Those checks totaled $34,250, short $2,750 of the balance owed. Shawn said he was going to pay the rest until he saw the quality of the work and asked them to stop. "I just wish, if we would have known when he started it was going to end up this way, we wouldn't have had him start," explained Casey. "It was supposed to be a two-to-three-day job that turned into a month," Shawn added. On July 7, Shawn sent an email to the owner of AB Concrete and Excavating asking them to address the issues. On July 15, the owner responded, admitting there were inconsistencies in the finish, but said it was only because he wasn't allowed to complete the job. "We've tried over and over to get a resolution, and each time, his proposed solution is not what he delivers as a solution," Shawn said. "Absolutely, I think that would be the fair thing to do," said Shawn when asked if the family wanted their money back. KDKA-TV reached out to the owner of AB Concrete and Excavating. After multiple attempts to contact the owner, when asked if he was willing to meet and discuss the issues presented by the Roberts family or issue a refund, the owner claimed that he was still owed money for the job. "I believe [the question of a refund] is for Shawn Roberts and I to discuss or our attorneys to discuss," the owner said when contacted by KDKA-TV. When asked how much it would take to make more repairs to the home following the job, Tomasits said it would be between $50,000 and $60,000. With the nearly $40,000 the Roberts have already spent, that would leave them at nearly $100,000 all in. "Any money we have to pay additional out of pocket, that's less time or money that we have to save for Nicholas' education or Devin's future." A high price to pay, both literally and figuratively, for quality time as a family.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Delta flight forced to hit brakes when another jet lands on same runway
Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from Mexico City to Atlanta experienced a jolt this week when the pilots were forced to hit the brakes before takeoff as another jet landed on the same runway, airline officials confirmed. Delta flight 590 departed the gate at 7 a.m. local time on Monday, July 21, and was accelerating to takeoff at Benito Juárez Mexico City International Airport when the incident took place, according to Delta and information from theonline site Flight Aware, which tracks flight paths. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft had 144 passengers on board, including two pilots and four flight attendants, Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant told USA TODAY. The plane had just started to roll for takeoff when a regional Aeromexico jet flew over the Delta flight and landed in front of it on the same runway, forcing the Delta pilots to hit the brakes. Aeromexico Flight 1691 arrived from the city of Aguascalientes, online tracking shows. "As the flight crew was initiating the takeoff, they observed another aircraft landing in front of their aircraft on the same runway," Durrant said. No injuries were reported. More news: Social media users are proving why nothing beats a Jet2 holiday. What's that? Delta near-collision reported to FAA, NTSB After taking on additional fuel and conferring with Delta safety and flight operations officials, the plane eventually departed for Atlanta at 9:42 a.m. local time and arrived at 3:20 p.m. ET, Durrant said. 'Because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, Delta will fully cooperate with authorities as the circumstances around this flight are investigated," Delta released in a statement on Wednesday, July 23. "We appreciate the flight crew's actions to maintain situational awareness and act quickly." According to Delta, the airline reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board. USA TODAY has reached out to both federal agencies. Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@ and follow her on X @nataliealund. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Delta flight slams on brakes when another plane lands on same runway Solve the daily Crossword
CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
I Was a Grilled Burger Purist Until I Tried This Easy, Indoor Method
I'm no air fryer rookie -- I've crisped, roasted and reheated just about everything in my beloved countertop convection oven, but I held off on burgers for one reason: I wasn't convinced it could deliver that perfect medium-rare magic like a grill or cast-iron pan. Turns out, I was wrong. If your backyard's missing a Weber -- and the smoky sizzle of burgers -- you're not out of luck. You can whip up juicy cheeseburgers, turkey patties and veggie stacks without ever stepping outside. One of my favorite tricks? Letting the air fryer do the heavy lifting. After air-frying a burger -- bacon, bun and all -- I am happy to report that making a bacon cheeseburger in an apartment-friendly air fryer is fast, clean and, as I found out recently, nets an equally juicy burger. Plus, you can easily get your air fryer burger medium rare via the super-convection heat that crisps the outside of food quickly without overcooking the inside. Here's how to make a bacon cheeseburger in your air fryer at home. How to make a cheeseburger in your air fryer Even a small air fryer can handle a full-sized burger patty and a few slices of bacon at once. Pamela Vachon/CNET I consulted a variety of different sources for timings and temperatures, but the process is about what you'd expect and similar to that which you'd experience cooking a burger in any manner: flipping the patty about halfway through for even results, with different timings depending on the size of your desired doneness. Read more: How to Tell When Steak Is Perfectly Cooked Without a Thermometer The air fryer works by circulating hot air in its contained chamber, so as a matter of interest, your air fryer burger will cook opposite to what you'd see on a sauté pan, with the exposed side of the burger cooking more quickly and becoming browner than the underside of the patty. Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive Click to unmute Video Player is loading. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Next playlist item Unmute Current Time 0:01 / Duration 0:30 Loaded : 100.00% 0:01 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:29 Share Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive I tried two approaches, both with a quarter pound of lean ground beef, seasoned simply with salt and pepper. Air fryer cheeseburger recipe Shape a single patty of beef about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Place in a greased air fryer basket and cooked at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, flipping at the halfway mark. With about 2 minutes to go, add cheese to top of burger patty and place bun into air fryer basket to toast. Remove all ingredients and build burger on bun with toppings of your choice. Serve. I also tried the same amount of meat shaped into two, thin, smash-style patties for a total cooking time of about six minutes. (Double your cheeseburger, double your fun.) Making a great burger in an air fryer takes almost no skill and requires very little cleanup afterward. Pamela Vachon/CNET Air fryers require very little cleanup You can cook a burger to that perfect medium or medium rare with an air fryer. Pamela Vachon/CNET Well, that was easy. In both cases the patties cooked evenly, with an outcome that was medium in doneness. (You can easily experiment with your model and ideal burger patty size to find the precise timings for your preferred degree of doneness.) The hot air circulation even managed to produce a bit of caramelized crust on one side. Because I could, even with a small, single-household air fryer, I put in a couple of strips of bacon with the single burger patty, since crispy, spatter-free bacon is another excellent use for an air fryer -- not to mention an exceptional burger topping. Speaking of spatter-free, this is the single most compelling reason to employ the air fryer for burger prep. Your clothing, skin and stovetop all avoid the sizzling oil droplets that -- safely contained within the air fryer drawer -- like to escape the pan during regular skillet cooking. The smoky, greasy, meaty aroma, which is otherwise appealing at a burger dive, but not so much in a studio apartment, is also minimized. Cleanup was limited only to the nonstick, air fryer drawer. Read more: I've Been Making Bacon Wrong. Here's the Best (and Cleanest) Way to Cook it There are drawbacks to air fryer burgers With an air fryer, you can't smash the patties down as easily as you can on a grill or griddle. Pamela Vachon/CNET The air fryer isn't perfect when it comes to burgers, and the drawbacks as I experienced are twofold. First, since you can't really access the patty while it cooks, you're unable to smash it down in such a way that it doesn't shrink up significantly while cooking. Since an English muffin is the best burger containment method -- I will not be considering opposing viewpoints at this time -- this didn't bother me so much, since the resulting patty fits the intended vessel perfectly. Expect shrinkage when considering the size of your patty before cooking. Second, if you're like me and believe that a burger without cheese isn't worth eating, things get a little more complicated. Because of the air circulation action of the air fryer, it's hard to anchor cheese on top for a quick melt at the end of the process. My first attempt with a sliced single, an ideal burger cheese -- and I am a cheese pro, so don't come at me -- flew off and unhelpfully adhered to the surface of the air fryer drawer. Am I seeing double? Pamela Vachon/CNET My second attempt where a slice was halved and layered for extra heft was more successful, even more so when I moved the patties to the back edge of the fryer basket, which gets less aggressive air circulation. This may just be a quirk of my model, but I'd be prepared to experiment. I wouldn't even consider shredded cheese on top of a patty, but I absolutely would consider a cheese-stuffed burger, which should work nicely.
