Brian C. Rittmeyer stories, Page 63

In 2020, the headline about “Newsies” was “Canceled.” The Valley High School Drama Club was two weeks from its first performance of the Disney musical when the covid pandemic shutdown started in March. “It was very crushing,” said Spencer Pastrick, 17, a junior from New Kensington who was a freshman...

An adult is expected to survive after being shot in Duquesne on Saturday afternoon, Allegheny County Police said. A report of shots fired in the 200 block of Harden Avenue was made to 911 around 3:40 p.m. According to county police, first responders found the victim, described only as an...

An 18-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy will face charges after state police said they fired water-filled beads at people in Washington County on Friday night. State police said the 18-year-old, of Claysville, was driving the car in which the 15-year-old, of Washington, was a back seat passenger. Their names...

A story by Myron Cope about a Brentwood bar where Steelers players and reporters hung out stirred Stu Emry’s imagination. Emry was a corn syrup salesman living in Chicago, dreaming of working in radio or television. When he was transferred to Pittsburgh in 1965 to service his biggest client, Heinz,...

The Armstrong Tunnels in Pittsburgh will be closed overnight Monday into Tuesday morning, Allegheny County Public Works announced. The closure is scheduled to run from 8 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday. The tunnels are being closed so that T2 Utility Engineers of Cranberry can do utility investigation work, according...

It was on one of their first calls together when Northern Regional Police Chief John Sicilia knew he had a keeper in Jennifer Abbondanza. Sicilia was a sergeant at the time, and Abbondanza was new on the job, the last officer he trained before becoming captain. They were looking for...

New Kensington-Arnold School District’s teachers ratified a new contract Wednesday, a representative of the Pennsylvania State Education Association said. The teachers union and the school district reached a tentative five-year agreement Friday night, averting a strike that the teachers had announced would begin Monday. According to a joint statement from...

Arnold Council has approved plans for a gas station and convenience store on Freeport Road. Following a public hearing Tuesday, council voted unanimously in favor of a conditional use that Mike Thakkar, owner of Yashvi Oil, needs to turn the former auto repair shop at 1610 Freeport Road into a...

An Army Reserve company that specializes in building things left New Kensington on Monday for a deployment based in Kuwait. Police and firefighters from across the Alle-Kiski Valley helped with their sendoff as the roughly 150 members of the 340th Engineer Company left on tour buses from the New Kensington...

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is likely to fall under $4 this week, an industry analyst said Monday. “Gas prices have continued to move in the right direction — down — saving Americans approximately $100 million every day compared to when prices peaked about a month...

After the last two of their combined six children graduated from college, Melissa Palumbo imagined she and her husband, Jim, would downsize their home. He found her a castle instead. “We walked through with a Realtor,” Melissa said. “I said, ‘Nope.’ ” But when the price came down on the...

Coping with the grief that followed the death of his father took Mike Post’s life straight to the dogs. Post, 42, of Lower Burrell is the shelter manager at Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley in New Kensington. It’s not where he thought life would lead him after graduating from Burrell...

New Kensington Council has awarded the first of three contracts that will see a parking lot transformed into a new downtown playground. Council approved paying Derry Construction $32,175 to resurface the parking lot behind Peoples Library, along Barnes Street at Eighth Street. The city is paying for the development with...

New Kensington and Arnold both are interested in joining a Westmoreland County blight-fighting program, but the school district the cities share will have the deciding vote. New Kensington Council has unanimously approved joining the Westmoreland County Land Bank, which is an extension of the county Redevelopment Authority that buys tax-delinquent...

Aldi confirmed Friday that the discount grocer will close its Lower Burrell store in favor of a new building nearby in New Kensington. New Kensington earlier this year approved plans for a grocery store identified as Aldi and a ModWash car wash to be built in Riverview Plaza along Tarentum...

Teachers in the New Kensington-Arnold School District will get an average 3.5% pay increase in each year of a proposed five-year contract, according to a joint statement issued Sunday by the school district and its teachers union. The district and the New Kensington-Arnold Education Association reached a tentative agreement on...

Kiski Township police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man involved in a chase Friday. According to police, the unidentified man was driving an older, white Mitsubishi Outlander when he nearly hit a marked Kiski Township police vehicle at an intersection on Garvers Ferry Road. The incident...

No further talks are scheduled between negotiators for the New Kensington-Arnold School District and its teachers union ahead of a strike the union says will begin Monday, union and district representatives said Friday. However, the district has not yet canceled classes for Monday. “We want to provide ample time for...

Space is limited but still available in a new program that will be held in New Kensington this summer for high school students interested in careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Applications for “BELONG in STEM” are being accepted through April 10. It is being offered free with support...

Teachers in the New Kensington-Arnold School District will walk off the job Monday if they and the district can’t agree on a new contract by then. The New Kensington-Arnold Education Association sent a formal strike notice to district Superintendent Chris Sefcheck after talks Wednesday night failed to produce a settlement,...

New Kensington Council bestowed commendations on several first responders and a marina employee who all, successfully and unsuccessfully, tried to save lives in recent tragic incidents in the city. Police officers Christian Leonarski and Jerry Hobeck and Assistant Fire Chief B.J. Kersey were honored for efforts to try to save...

Most days, Robert Simpson is president of a reinforcing bar fabricator in Arnold. On Tuesday, the president of Simpson Reinforcing was filming movie scenes with Tom Hanks. “It’s pretty cool,” Simpson said at the end of a lunch break that came after filming the same scene over and over again...

Several free programs for those who own or are interested in starting a business will be offered this week at The Corner in New Kensington, including the introduction of a four-week “boot camp” open to business owners and entrepreneurs in New Kensington or Arnold. The events, beginning Tuesday night and...

The release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is causing oil prices to pull back and bringing down gasoline prices, according to AAA. The national average for a gallon of gas is now $4.19, down 6 cents from last week, AAA reported. That’s still 35 cents higher than a...

An upcoming fundraiser that promises to be “totally tubular” will support art in downtown New Kensington. The event, ’80s for the Arts, will be Saturday, April 16 at Voodoo Brewery New Kensington. It is being sponsored by Voodoo Brewery, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, New Kensington Art Center and the...