Latest news with #Grimaldi
Technical.ly
6 days ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
With federal support for robotics and defense, this Pennsylvania town is reinventing itself
The New Economy Collaborative of Southwestern Pennsylvania announced a $62.7 million Build Back Better grant toward workforce development in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Follow coverage of the 11-county project here. If you're a company looking for defense manufacturing, Southwestern PA is the place to be. For the 34th year in a row, major corporations from around the world joined government officials and local organizations in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to attract defense contracts to the region. Called the Showcase for Commerce, the annual event has long served as a hub for collaboration, where attendees from around the world come to exchange ideas, forge partnerships and ink defense contracts that fuel the regional economy. But Johnstown faces a growing challenge — who will do the work to fulfill these defense contracts? 'We're losing young people,' said David Grimaldi, director of workforce development at JARI, a nonprofit economic development organization in Johnstown. 'We just want to keep the people and provide a workforce for our manufacturers who are in desperate need of it because of the contracts they have.' The Johnstown metro area ranked as the third fastest-shrinking city in the country in 2017, and in the years since, it has struggled to reverse that trend. The most recent figures put the population of Johnstown proper at 17,668, a nearly 4% decline since the 2020 Census, or a drop of nearly 1% per year, according to data from the World Population Review. With local defense manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Martin-Baker America landing big contracts in recent years, demand for entry level workers trained in basic manufacturing skills is growing, according to Grimaldi, and federal dollars are already flowing into Johnstown to address this problem. The New Economy Collaborative (NEC) of Southwestern Pennsylvania, an organization tasked with administering $62.7 million of the federal Build Back Better (BBB) Regional Challenge, is providing grants to organizations in the region to expand pathways to entrepreneurship and new manufacturing jobs. That $62.7 million is part of a broader $1 billion BBB initiative, launched in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan to spur post-pandemic economic recovery and revitalize communities impacted by decades of industrial decline. Southwestern Pennsylvania was fortunate to receive federal funding to supercharge robotics and automation, according to Jackie Erickson, the senior director of federal government affairs for the Allegheny County Conference on Community Development, which is part of the NEC. 'For many years, most of the funding for robotics went into Carnegie Mellon University, and a lot of that was geared towards the defense sector,' Erickson said. But in recent years, partially thanks to NEC funding, robotics adoption is spreading beyond the city of Pittsburgh, out into more rural areas of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The NEC is deploying funds through five projects across 11 counties in the region, including Cambria County, where Johnstown is located. The projects focus on adopting robotics in manufacturing, upskilling the regional workforce and commercializing new technologies for the advanced manufacturing sector. Helping people find work, helping companies find skilled labor JARI recently received a $144,000 grant from the New Economy Collaborative to support workforce development programs aimed at underemployed and unemployed residents in the region. 'We go directly into the Johnstown Housing Authority units and provide work readiness skills to those people that are underemployed or unemployed, giving them the skills that they need to get into the workforce,' said Grimaldi, the organization's workforce director. The initiative is already showing results. In the first cohort of JARI's Work Readiness Program, a mother and daughter participated together, Grimaldi said. After her father's recent death, the daughter had been working part time at a local Dollar General, while her mother was unemployed. Completing the program helped the daughter get into Drexel University, while her mother enrolled at the Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center to train as an automotive technician. Without NEC and BBB funding, JARI wouldn't be able to offer as many economic development opportunities in the area, Grimaldi said. Down the street, a local makerspace called Made in Johnstown is using the same federal funding to change residents' lives through workforce training bootcamps, certification classes and entrepreneurial mentorship. Director Michael Rottam received federal funding routed through the NEC to help him launch the makerspace and provide programming. Since opening Made in Johnstown's doors, he's seen the space make a tangible impact on the community. 'One gentleman who went through our bootcamp, he was working at the local Walmart and had three children and wanted to better his life,' Rottman said. After attending the makerspace's workforce training bootcamp, the father enrolled in a local vocational school to become a robotics technician and now works for a local manufacturer. 'Robotics and defense go hand in hand' JARI and Made in Johnstown were featured at last week's event, where government officials from both sides of the aisle, including US Sen. John Fetterman and US Rep. Glenn Thompson, were able to see their work firsthand. The showcase has a rich history, according to Allegheny Conference's Erickson, who helped coordinate the showcase for a number of years while working for Bob Casey, Pennsylvania's former senator. Over 30 years ago, former US Rep. John Murtha established the showcase to promote job creation and advanced manufacturing in the region, Erickson said. Since his death in 2010, the event has continued with strong bipartisan support. The showcase has helped introduce large and small manufacturers from around the world to the region, helping develop a strong defense supply chain in Cambria and surrounding counties. And Southwestern Pennsylvania is well positioned to advance the defense sector moving forward, Erickson said. 'Robotics and defense go hand in hand,' Erickson said. 'As we look towards what the Defense Department is doing with different and new capabilities for future national security reasons, robotics is going to be at the heart of that.'
Otago Daily Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
High-class field vying for title of Otago's best
From snowboarding to surfing — the best of the best will be honoured at the Otago Sports Awards this year. The finalists for the awards, organised by Sport Otago, have been revealed, with the judges sifting through more than 90 nominations, showing the breadth of Otago's sporting talent. Up for sportsman of the year are kayaker Finn Butcher, freeskier Luca Harrington and Black Cap Glenn Phillips. Harrington, after starting the year as an X Games alternate, burst on to the scene to finish with a remarkable five world cup podiums, including X Games gold, a world championship and New Zealand's first FIS Freeski Crystal Globe. Phillips had another big season with the Black Caps, including playing at the Champions Trophy, and Butcher will long be remembered for his Olympic heroics as he won gold in the kayak cross in Paris. Sportswoman of the year will also be a tight contest between snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, swimmer Erika Fairweather and alpine skier Alice Robinson. Returning from injury, Sadowski-Synnott had a stellar year, with several world cup podium finishes, landing the world's first triple cork in a women's slopestyle competition and winning the FIS Snowboarding Crystal Globe. Fairweather, who recently moved to Auckland, swam in four finals at the Olympics, narrowly missing the podium in her specialist 400m freestyle, and Robinson continued her form with podium finishes and was named Snow Sports New Zealand athlete of the year. Skiing veteran Adam Hall and athletic stars Holly Robinson, and Anna Grimaldi are nominated for para athlete/team of the year. Hall produced several world cup podium finishes, while Robinson and Grimaldi collected world championship and Paralympic medals. Grimaldi won T47 long jump silver and 100m bronze at the world para athletics championships, and backed up with gold in the 200m at the Paralympics, with an Oceania record, and bronze in the 100m. Robinson set a national record when she won silver in the women's F46 shot put at the world championships and won bronze in the shot put at the Paralympics. Team of the year will be another hotly contested category between the Otago Sparks, the Southern Stampede and the Otago men's 4x100m relay team. Finley Melville Ives (freeskiing), James Gardner (cycling) and Rocco Jamieson (snowboarding) are up for junior sportsman, while Ruby Star Andrews (freeskiing), Catherine Lund (athletics) and Ella Southby (netball) will battle for junior sportswoman. The next crop of Otago's future stars will also be recognised, with Alexis Owen (surfing), Mason Clarke (cricket), Phoebe Laker (athletics), Josh Grieve (cycling) and Joel Paterson (ice hockey) nominated for emerging talent. Michael Jacobs (athletics), Sean Thompson (snowboarding) and Nils Coberger and Tim Cafe (skiing) have been nominated for coach of the year, and Raylene Bates (athletics), Chris Gaffaney (cricket) and James Doleman (rugby) are up for official of the year. Services to sport, innovation in sport and the supreme award will be announced at the awards. "It is so exciting to see Otago's best athletes, officials and coaches continuing to shine on the national and international stage, with an exceptional lineup across all of the categories for 2025," Sport Otago chief executive James Nation said. "The Otago sporting community should be super proud of the calibre of finalists chasing bragging rights." The awards are judged by Nation, Otago Academy of Sport manager Carmel Leslie, Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle, TVNZ sports reporter Michelle Prendiville and University of Otago pro vice-chancellor health sciences Megan Gibbons. The awards will be held at the Edgar Centre on June 13. Otago Sports Awards finalists Sportsman: Glenn Phillips (cricket), Luca Harrington (freeski), Finn Butcher (canoeing). Sportswoman: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (snowboarding), Erika Fairweather (swimming), Alice Robinson (skiing). Team: Otago Sparks (cricket), Southern Stampede (ice hockey), Otago 4x100m relay (athletics). Para athlete/team of the year: Adam Hall (skiing), Holly Robinson (athletics), Anna Grimaldi (athletics). Junior sportsman: Finley Melville Ives (freeskiing), James Gardner (cycling), Rocco Jamieson (snowboarding). Junior sportswoman: Ruby Star Andrews (freesking) Catherine Lund (athletics), Ella Southby (netball). Coach: Michael Jacobs (athletics), Sean Thompson (snowboarding), Nils Coberger and Tim Cafe (skiing). Official: Raylene Bates (athletics), Chris Gaffaney (cricket), James Doleman (rugby). Emerging talent: Alexis Owen (surfing), Mason Clarke (cricket), Phoebe Laker (athletics), Josh Grieve (cycling), Joel Paterson (ice hockey).
Otago Daily Times
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Grimaldi rounds off brilliant year with top Otago award
Paralympic champion Anna Grimaldi has capped off a breakthrough season on the track by being named athlete of the year at the Athletics Otago awards last night. It was a dream season for the 28-year-old, who was crowned the T47 200m champion in Paris after soaring home in a personal best 24.72sec to set an Oceania record. She also won bronze with a personal best, and Oceania record, of 12.20sec in the 100m and finished fourth in the long jump in Paris. Grimaldi, who was named para athlete of the year at the Halberg Awards, had earlier won silver in the long jump, and bronze in the 100m, at the world para athletics championships in May. Grimaldi, who was the flag bearer for the Paralympics opening ceremony, also won Otago para athlete of the year, while her coach, Michael Jacobs, was named elite coach of the year. Ultramarathon superstar John Bayne won male winter athlete of the year for his efforts in the gruelling discipline. He finished sixth at the IAU 24hr race in Australia and was the second-last Kiwi standing in the backyard ultra world team championships in Otematata, where Bayne ran 72 laps, beating his personal best by 21 laps. Long-distance runner Catherine Lund was named female winter athlete of the year and junior summer athlete of the year. Among her highlights, Lund competed in the 5000m at the world under-20 championships in Peru, where she finished 16th. Ariki athlete Shay Veitch won senior summer athlete of the year after a return to form after injury in early 2024. Veitch laid down the sixth-fastest time in New Zealand history with 10.34sec in the 100m at the Potts Classic, lowering his previous best of 10.64sec to win the event. He was also part of the Otago 4x100m relay team that won gold at the national track and field championships and won the national long jump title. Veitch's coach, Michael Beable, was named development coach of the year for his work with Veitch and his Wanaka athletes. Raylene Bates was recognised for her contribution to athletics, having served as the Paralympics chef de mission and was head of the local organising committee for the national track and field championships. Bates also coaches several Otago athletes, including Paralympian Holly Robinson, who won bronze in the shot put in Paris, and Dunstan seated thrower Mac Denniston, who landed on the podium at the Oceania championships. Joan Merrilees was named official of the year for her tireless work behind the scenes. She also put in countless hours upskilling polytechnic students to be officials at the national track and field championships.
New York Times
21-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
Patsy Grimaldi, Whose Name Became Synonymous With Pizza, Dies at 93
Patsy Grimaldi, a restaurateur whose coal-oven pizzeria in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge won new fans for New York City's oldest pizza style with carefully made pies that helped start a national movement toward artisan pizza, died on Feb. 13 in Queens. He was 93. His nephew Frederick Grimaldi confirmed the death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital. Mr. Grimaldi began selling pies in 1990 under the name Patsy's. In those days, legal skirmishes periodically disturbed the city's pizza landscape, and it wasn't long before threatening letters from the lawyers of another Patsy's led him to rename the place Patsy Grimaldi's, then simply Grimaldi's. Many years later, he reopened his restaurant with a name that pays tribute to his mother. Today that sign reads Juliana's Pizza. Under any name, Mr. Grimaldi's pizzerias attracted long lines of diners outside, on Old Fulton Street, who were hungry for house-roasted peppers, white pools of fresh mozzarella and tender, delicate crusts baked in a matter of minutes by a scorching pile of anthracite coal. Like the cooks he trained, Mr. Grimaldi hewed to the techniques he had learned in his early teens working at Patsy's Pizzeria in East Harlem, owned by his uncle Pasquale Lancieri. Mr. Lancieri was one of a small fraternity of immigrants from Naples, including the founders of Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitana in Brooklyn and John's of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, who introduced New Yorkers to pizza in the early 20th century. Mr. Grimaldi reached back to those origins when, after a long career as a waiter, he opened a place of his own with a newly built coal oven. At the same time, the minute attention he brought to his craft — picking up fennel sausage at a pork store in Queens every morning, for instance, while other pizzerias were buying theirs from big distributors — anticipated the legions of ingredient-focused pizzaioli who would follow him. 'It was the first artisan-style pizza' in the city, Anthony Mangieri, the owner of Una Pizza Napoletana in Lower Manhattan, said in an interview. 'He was really the first place that opened up that had that old-school connection but was thinking a little further ahead, a little more food-centric,' he said. Patsy Frederick Grimaldi was born on Aug. 3, 1931, in the Bronx to Federico and Maria Juliana (Lancieri) Grimaldi, immigrants from southern Italy. His father, a music teacher and barber, died when Patsy was 12. To help support his mother and five siblings, Patsy worked at his uncle's pizzeria, first as a busboy, then as an apprentice at the coal oven and eventually as a waiter in the dining room. Apart from a brief leave in the early 1950s to serve in the Army, he stayed until 1974. Patsy's Pizza kept late hours in those days, and Mr. Grimaldi grew adept at taking care of entertainers, mobsters, off-duty chefs and other creatures of the night, including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Rodney Dangerfield, Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra. The bond he formed with Mr. Sinatra lasted for decades. Mr. Grimaldi personally made deliveries from Patsy's — two large sausage pies — when Mr. Sinatra stayed in his suite at the Waldorf Astoria. In 1953, they ran into each other in Hawaii, where Mr. Sinatra was filming 'From Here to Eternity.' 'What are you doing here?' the singer asked the waiter. Mr. Grimaldi had been sent by the military to play bugle in an Army band. Mr. Grimaldi met his wife-to-be, Carol, at a New York nightclub and took her to Patsy's Pizza on their first date. They married in 1971. A short time later, Mr. Grimaldi left Patsy's to wait tables at a series of restaurants, including the Copacabana and the jazz club Jimmy Ryan's. He was 57 and working at a Brooklyn waterfront cafe when he noticed an abandoned hardware store on Old Fulton Street with a 'for rent' sign in the window and a pay phone bolted to a wall nearby. He picked up the phone and dialed the number. Not long after, he was showing off the nuanced, elemental pleasures of coal-fired pizza to people who had never tried it. Matthew Grogan, an investment banker, ate at Patsy's just a few weeks after it had opened. Until that moment, he thought he knew what good pizza was. 'I said, 'I've been living a fraud all these years. This is the greatest food I've ever had,'' he recalled in an interview. (He later founded Juliana's with the Grimaldis.) Others seemed to agree, including critics, restaurant guide writers and customers. Some of them were well known, like Warren Beatty, who brought Annette Bening, his wife. ('So, are you in the movies, too?' Mrs. Grimaldi asked her.) Others were obscure until Mr. Grimaldi decided that they resembled someone famous. 'Mel Gibson's here tonight!' he would call out. Or: 'Look, it's Marisa Tomei!' He was more discreet when the actual Marisa Tomei walked in. According to an unpublished history that Mrs. Grimaldi wrote, when the mob boss John Gotti was on trial in 1992 at the federal courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn, his lawyers became frequent takeout customers. 'We would wrap each slice in foil and they would put it in their attaché cases so that John would be able to have our pizza for lunch,' she wrote. In 1998, the Grimaldis decided to sell the pizzeria to Frank Ciolli and try their hand at retirement. It didn't last. Neither did their relationship with Mr. Ciolli, who opened a string of Grimaldi's around the country that they believed failed to uphold the standards they had set in Brooklyn. When they learned that their old restaurant was being evicted, they snapped up the lease. Mr. Ciolli, who moved Grimaldi's to the building next door, sued to stop them from reopening. Mr. and Mrs. Grimaldi, he claimed in an affidavit, were trying to 'steal back the very business they earlier sold to me.' A truce was eventually reached. These days the lines outside Juliana's are often indistinguishable from the lines outside Grimaldi's. Mr. Grimaldi is survived by his sister, Esther Massa; a daughter, Victoria Strickland; and a grandson. His wife died in 2014. A son, Pat, died in 2018. An alcove at Juliana's holds a small Sinatra shrine. The jukebox at its forerunner, Patsy's (a.k.a. Patsy Grimaldi's a.k.a. Grimaldi's), was stocked with Sinatra records, interspersed with a few by Dean Martin. Mr. Grimaldi maintained a strict no-delivery policy with one exception: for Mr. Sinatra.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Yahoo
Davis Islands attack: Social media message reveals threats, racist comments from victim to one of the suspects
The Brief A social media message reveals threats and racist comments from the victim in the Davis Islands dog park attack to one of the suspects involved. Tampa police said the attack stemmed from an earlier dispute before the teen was left unconscious last Thursday. The message was shared with FOX 13 by an anonymous viewer. TAMPA, Fla. - A social media message, shared anonymously with FOX 13 on Wednesday, sheds some light on what preceded an attack by a group of teenagers at a Tampa dog park that left another teen unconscious. Dig deeper The Tampa Police Department confirmed they're looking at social media messages as they investigate the attack at Davis Islands Dog Park last Thursday, which they said stemmed from a dispute earlier in the week. RELATED: Sixth teenager arrested for brutal Davis Islands dog park attack The message shared with FOX 13 from an anonymous viewer appears to have been sent by the victim to at least one of his eventual attackers. It's filled with threats and racist comments. The backstory According to detectives, the night began with everyone involved in the incident gathering for a bonfire at Davis Islands on Thursday. Cell phone video shared anonymously with FOX 13 and confirmed by police to be part of their investigation shows the chaos that ended the night. A group of teenagers, which includes one person holding a knife, can be seen surrounding a black pickup truck with a teenage driver and passenger. Police said another teenager threw a rock, which can be heard hitting the vehicle. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube Moments later, the video shows several teens attacking the passenger, including another person holding a knife. The victim was pulled from the truck and beaten until he was unconscious. "Pretty sickening. Makes me concerned for my kids," said T.J. Grimaldi, a Tampa attorney who is not connected to the case. "You see that this kid is being stomped on and kicked and down and looks unconscious by a mob of kids. Whether he was provoking them in the past or not, this kid was outnumbered out-positioned, couldn't have done anything really to defend himself just because there were so many in this mob mentality." Police arrested six of the suspected attackers, ranging in ages from 15 to 18 years old. All are charged with battery or assault and a 17-year-old faces an attempted murder charge. Although investigators have released the names of the suspects, FOX 13 is not identifying them until Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez decides whether to try them as adults. A spokesperson for Lopez's office said she's waiting for police to finish their investigation. PREVIOUS: 5 juveniles arrested for alleged assault at Davis Islands Dog Park: TPD Several high school sports-related websites indicate at least a few of the suspects either currently attend or previously attended Plant High School. A Hillsborough County Schools spokesperson wouldn't confirm that, but said if that was the case, they could face suspension or expulsion based on the district's Student Code of Conduct. What's next Grimaldi expects the situation to get worse for the suspects. "The state has the option to charge them as adults and I think, with current society, current people in power and everything, I think they're going to be charged as adults," he said. FOX 13 reached out to the victim, who declined an interview. He also didn't respond to a request for a comment on Wednesday regarding the social media message. The Source The information in this story was gathered through details from social media messages sent to FOX 13 anonymously as well as previous reporting on this case. FOX 13's Aaron Mesmer also interviewed T.J. Grimaldi, a Tampa attorney who is not connected to the case. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
