Young Professional of the Year gets DUI
Lexington’s Young Professional of the Year was arrested and charged with driving under the influence last week.
Police records show that Lee Pitcovich’s blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit at .23 when he was arrested March 14, WIS reported.
Pitcovich was pulled over by a Lexington County police officer after he was clocked driving 47 mph in a 35 mph zone and he stopped in the middle of an intersection after braking late for a red light, according to WIS.
The police report said Pitkovich was returning home from a “Keg Cowboy” event. He told the officer he’d only had one beer, but he failed a series of field sobriety tests, the report said.
Pitkovich was released the following day on a $2,267 bond.
He was awarded the Lexington Chamber’s Young Professional of the Year award last month.
According to WIS, Pitkovich is active in Lexington’s business community and Christian outreach programs. He’s the founder of a Lexington-based event planning and rental company and of the Lexington Young Professionals club, WIS reported. He is also a board member of Leadership Lexington and the chair of the Lexington YMCA board of directors, WIS reported.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
March sees increase in vasectomies nationwide
Some men could be finding a good excuse to kick back and relax during the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament at the urologist’s office.
Doctors at Carolina Urology say they’ve seen about a 20 percent increase in the number of vasectomies scheduled for this month, and national experts say vasectomy rates go up as much as 50 percent during March Madness, WIS reported.
“It’s a time to really relax, really sit back with your TV clicker, frozen peas, pain pills if you need them, and just kind of chill out,” Dr. Thomas Edmunds Jr. told WIS.
A Cape Cod, Mass., urology clinic is offering its vasectomy clients a coupon for a large one-topping pizza through the end of the NCAA basketball tournament, ABC News reported. The clinic offered the promotion last March, too, and saw a 22 percent increase in its business that month, ABC News reported.
One local man told WIS he plans to relax watching basketball this weekend after his vasectomy Thursday.
“Four straight days of basketball from about noon to midnight,” Matt Reiff told WIS. “What a better time to sit on the couch than this week?”
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Nuclear project more costly than expected
A pricey South Carolina nuclear fuel project has become even more expensive.
The federal General Accountability Office says the reactor being built at the Savannah River Site along the South Carolina-Georgia border is now expected to cost $7.7 billion — a $3 billion increase from the 2008 estimate of $4.9 billion, Associated Press reported.
The project will also take about three years longer than originally expected; it is now expected to be complete in November 2019. Construction began in 2007.
The Savannah River MOX (“Mixed-Oxide Fuel”) reactor will be the first of its kind in the United States, according to AP, blending weapons-grade plutonium to create nuclear reactor fuel. The site was formerly home to a nuclear bomb plant whose reactors have been out of service for more than 10 years, AP reported.
Congressional representatives from both South Carolina and Georgia have been supportive of the project, but some, like Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth, object to continued spending on the MOX reactor.
“Predictions that MOX costs would spin out of control have proved correct and it is now time for [the Energy Department] to immediately begin a study for cheaper, safer plutonium disposition alternatives, a so-called Plan B,” Clements told AP.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor