Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 2
Utilities, health care costs top Westmoreland County residents’ affordability concerns, survey finds
Utilities and health care are the two expenses Westmoreland County residents worry about the most, a nonprofit community organization’s recent survey on affordability found. With those results in hand, Voice of Westmoreland is organizing residents to appear before the county commissioners in April and share their stories, in hopes of...
1st of 3 eggs hatches at U.S. Steel’s bald eagle nestVideo
The first of three eggs in the bald eagle nest near U.S. Steel’s Irvin plant in West Mifflin hatched on Sunday, according to PixCams. The eagle pair, Irvin and Stella, welcomed their first egg of the 2026 season on Feb. 20. This is Irvin’s seventh season at the nest and...
Man rescued from trench at PRT South Hills Junction garage
A Pittsburgh Regional Transit employee was rescued from a trench at the South Hills junction garage in Beltzhoover Saturday morning, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety and PRT. According to public safety, the employee fell into a 12-foot deep concrete trench at the garage. A PRT spokesman called the trench an...
Music scholarship honors life, legacy of North Hills graduate, former school board member
A music scholarship has been established in honor of North Hills High School graduate and former school board member Annette Lois Giovengo. The $500 scholarship is supported by Giovengo’s husband, Kevin Nolish, and son, Andrew Nolish, through the North Hills Foundation. It will be awarded annually to a graduating North...
West View awards contracts for paving, demolitions for new municipal complex
West View Council in March awarded contracts totaling about half a million dollars for road paving and demolition work. Portions of five roads and a bridge deck are scheduled to be paved, while two buildings will be torn down to make way for the borough’s new municipal center that includes...
Millvale man faces federal child sex abuse charges
A Millvale man is accused of violating federal law regarding the sexual exploitation of a minor, U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti announced March 23. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted Robert William Bauer, 65, on two counts. According to the indictment, Bauer knowingly transported child sexual abuse material on Feb....
Washington County contractor accused of fraud in South Fayette now facing charges in Millvale
A Washington County contractor accused of home improvement fraud in Millvale is awaiting trial on similar charges in South Fayette, according to court records. Millvale police charged James R. Nunamaker, 62, of North Strabane on March 18 with felony counts of deceptive or fraudulent business practices and false statements to...
Debt restructuring plan balances Shaler Area 2026-27 budget without property tax increase
The Shaler Area School District’s plan to restructure its debt and borrow new money to pay for building projects would balance its 2026-27 budget, erasing a $3.7 million deficit and leaving it with an $856,000 surplus, according to the district’s business manager. In either case, the district’s preliminary budget carries...
3 juveniles arrested, 20 treated for pepper spray exposure after fight in Market Square
Three juveniles were arrested Sunday in Downtown Pittsburgh after police say a fight broke out among about 40 people during which pepper spray was used, according to Pittsburgh police. Officers responded to reports of a large gathering of juveniles at Forbes Avenue and Market Square around 5:30 p.m. A fight...
Pittsburgh region at ‘enhanced risk’ for storms with large hail, damaging wind
The chance for severe weather in the Pittsburgh region increased this afternoon and evening, according to the National Weather Service. Most of the area south of I-80 was upgraded to an enhanced risk, or a level three out of five, for severe storms, the weather service announced. They are expected...
Verona family receives gifts, love at Semper Gratus’ ‘Small Town Loud Voice’ event
Cora Kuhn is a 5-year-old girl from Verona who loves Disney movies, singing and dancing. She loves to swim in the summer, and play with friends. And since she was just 5 months old, Cora has had 39 seizures that have lasted from as briefly as a few seconds to...
North Hills alum creates trade school scholarship to encourage graduates to continue their educations
Following his graduation from North Hills High School in 1998, Chads Mullinary didn’t find any encouragement to further his education. He spent 21 years working in restaurants, rising from dishwasher to management, before becoming a Realtor, which he’s done now for five years. “I came from a poor family,” he...
Owner of 3 Shop ’n Save locations planning to close 1 in Ross
There will not be a “going out of business” sale for a Shop ’n Save on Perry Highway in Ross. When the grocery store in Pines Plaza closes April 4, its inventory will be sent to owner Mike Mihelic’s other stores on Rochester Road in Ross and Butler Street in...
Ross commissioners enact restrictions on vape shops, introduce regulations on massage therapy
After approving regulations restricting where vape shops can locate in Ross, commissioners are now considering regulating massage therapy businesses. Commissioners voted 8-0 March 16 to approve an ordinance governing vape, tobacco and smoke shops. Commissioner Pat Mullin was absent. After discussion, commissioners removed language banning most if not all lighted...
Beaver County man accused of leaving message threatening Muslims at Allegheny County mosque
A Beaver County man is accused of leaving an expletive-laden voicemail threatening Muslims at a mosque in northern Allegheny County. Ted Steven Frank, 54, of Center Township was sent to Allegheny County Jail on Tuesday after District Judge Matthew J. Brungo denied bail. Frank is charged with felony counts of...
More damaging wind gusts possible ahead of 1-day cold snap
After being buffeted by winds that knocked out power for thousands this weekend, the Pittsburgh area is expected to get blasted again Monday followed by a one-day cold snap this week. A wind advisory began at midnight and is expected to end at 11 a.m. Monday for Western Pennsylvania. Winds...
1 dog dies, another rescued from Greensburg house fire
One dog died and a second was hurt in a fire that caused substantial damage Sunday to a Greensburg home. The fire at 208 Peterinelli Way, an alley between West Third and West Fourth streets, was reported shortly after 6 p.m. No one was at home at the time of...
Resignation comes from Pittsburgh Episcopal priest accused of stealing baseball cards at WalmartVideo
The head priest of a Pittsburgh Episcopal church accused of stealing baseball cards from a Walmart has resigned. The Right Rev. Ketlen Solak, the Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh, announced she accepted the resignation of the Very Rev. Aidan Everett Smith, dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Downtown Pittsburgh, in a...
6 arrested, officer hurt after confrontation at West Mifflin protest
Six people were arrested Sunday after a confrontation broke out at a protest near Kennywood Park in West Mifflin. Friends and family of Terrel “TJ” Byars Jr. were holding a protest that began at the Duquesne Police Department on South Second Street shortly after 1 p.m. and was planned to...
Butler woman found after running away from 3-vehicle, wrong-way crash on Fort Duquesne Bridge, state police say
A woman ran away after being involved in a wrong-way crash Saturday morning on the Fort Duquesne Bridge in Pittsburgh, according to state police. State police said Pittsburgh officers found Lindsay K. Kleeman, 41, of Butler near the 31st Street Bridge six to seven hours after the 6:30 a.m. crash....
Pittsburgh Brewing turns the home of Iron City into ‘Irish City’ to celebrate St. Patrick’s DayVideo
It’s said everyone’s a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. Ed Daquila, of Lower Burrell, found out through some ancestral investigation that he is, in fact, a little Irish. “Very little, but it’s there,” he said. That genetic bond, however small, may have helped Daquila feel right at home at...
1 person dies in early morning Jefferson Hills house fire
A person died in a house fire in Jefferson Hills early Saturday morning. The fire in the 100 block of Frontier Drive was reported shortly after 3 a.m., an Allegheny County 911 dispatcher said. The first firefighters to arrive found heavy fire and began an offensive attack, according to the...
Ross/West View EMS names new medical director, pediatric medical director
Dr. Philip Nawrocki has been named medical director of Ross/West View Emergency Medical Services, while Dr. Angelica Cercone has been named pediatric medical director. The addition of Cercone makes Ross/West view among the first EMS agencies in the region to have a secondary medical director specializing in pediatrics, the agency...
Courtney Brennan, Matt Dieterich named recipients of North Hills’ 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award
Courtney Brennan and Matt Dieterich are the 2026 awardees of the North Hills High School Distinguished Alumni Award, the district announced in early March. They will be inducted on May 18 and serve as keynote speakers at the high school’s annual Senior Awards Night that evening. Brennan, a 2001 graduate,...
Shaler Area preparing to borrow $7.5M to pay for capital projects including roof at middle school
The Shaler Area School Board will vote next week to award about $4.6 million in contracts for work at the district’s middle school as it begins a process to borrow $7.5 million and restructure the district’s debt to pay for it and other capital projects. The board is expected to...

