Joe Napsha stories, Page 116

West Newton’s mayor has endorsed an environmental organization’s goal of getting her community 100 percent powered by clean and renewable energy for heating, lighting and transportation. Mary Popovich recently signed a pledge from the Sierra Club to get the Youghiogheny River town powered by clean and renewable energy — solar,...

Police, firefighters and ambulance personnel in the Norwin area — Irwin, North Huntingdon and North Irwin — will join forces for National Night Out from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 6 at Excela Square at Norwin, Route 30, North Huntingdon. Fire trucks from all seven of North Huntingdon’s volunteer fire...

A Michigan company has moved one step closer to opening a medical marijuana testing laboratory in Trafford after borough officials approved the firm’s request to operate out of a building used by the town’s ambulance service. The Trafford Zoning Board this week granted Lansing-based ACT Laboratories Inc. a variance to...

Do you want $348,435? If you do, all you have to do is convince the state Attorney General that the money confiscated from two women during a traffic stop last year near the New Stanton exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, is really yours. The catch in this get-rich-quick scheme is...

The owners of Mexican restaurants in Murrysville and in Downtown Pittsburgh anticipate opening a similar restaurant this fall in North Huntingdon, an Excela Health spokeswoman said. David and Virginia Montanez, who own Madero Cantina on William Penn Highway and Las Velas in Pittsburgh, won approval recently from North Huntingdon officials...

Need a break? Looking for new adventure? There’s no reason to leave Western Pennsylvania. In this occasional series, we highlight “staycation” ideas found in our own backyard. For those who want to see a part of Pittsburgh area’s heritage as the center of the nation’s steelmaking, there is no better...

Irwin’s popular Gig on Main — an evening filled with plenty of music and food in downtown Irwin, is planned for 6 to 11 p.m. Aug 3. A Pittsburgh band, The Clarks, will be the headline performers, as well as Twisted Fate and Spectrum Band. At least eight food trucks...

A Virginia man whose two dreadlocks containing body tissue were found at a 2015 murder scene in Pittsburgh was arrested this week after DNA tests matched him with the hair samples, Pittsburgh police said. The suspect, Aaron Cross, who is incarcerated in Riverside Regional Jail in North Prince George County,...

A 62-year-old Harrison City man pleaded guilty in federal court in Pittsburgh on Friday to intentionally damaging his employer’s computer programs for a two-year period, the U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania said. David Tinley, 62, admitted to inserting “logic bombs” into computer programs he designed for Siemens Corp. in Monroeville,...

Four new North Huntingdon police officers were sworn into duty this week by a Westmoreland County judge. Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio swore in Todd Cappetta, Shane Rebel, John Popovich and Jacob O’Brian-Rice as the police department’s new officers on Wednesday at the township commissioners meeting. The officers were hired in June...

The Norwin Public Library is taking reservations until July 29 for Library Night at PNC Park, when the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Miami Marlins at 7:05 p.m. Sept. 4. Tickets are $23, which includes a free $5 concession voucher. For those who want to ride the bus to the game,...

With the heat index expected to top 100 degrees Saturday, keeping the family’s four-legged companion cool is as important as keep the two-legged humans from boiling in the summer sun. “You don’t ever want to get them overheated. The only way dogs have to remove heat is by panting,” said...

Without much debate or verbal fireworks, North Huntingdon officials this week granted a fireworks company a 90-day extension of its temporary occupancy permit so it could attach the kind of facade the company had originally proposed around the base of its building off Route 30. The commissioners approved the request...

Irwin has hired another part-time police officer. Devin Jay McCurdy of North Huntingdon was hired at the probationary rate of $12 per hour. After two weeks, he will be paid at the full part-time officer’s rate of $19 an hour, at the discretion of Chief Roger Pivirotto. The chief said...

A New Stanton bugler who has played at military funerals since he was in the eighth grade is set to play Taps Saturday at the Soldiers Monument in the Gettysburg National Cemetery as part of “100 Nights of Taps.” Jay Copenhaver, 63, who plays for the Youngwood Veterans of Foreign...

If you think it is too hot and muggy in Western Pennsylvania these days, just wait until it gets worse in a few decades, according to a science advocacy organization that is warning about the dangers of climate change. The state will experience an average of 40 days a year...

A Michigan-based firm wants to open Western Pennsylvania’s first medical marijuana testing laboratory, which would move from Clearfield to Trafford. Lansing-based ACT Laboratories Inc. is seeking a variance from Trafford Borough to operate the lab at 109 Brinton Ave., in a building owned by Trafford Emergency Medical Services Company No....

A newly constructed fireworks store off Route 30 in North Huntingdon may have to close because of a dispute with the township over the company’s failure to construct the metal building’s facade according to the approved land development plan. Township officials told Wholesale Fireworks representatives the Hubbard, Ohio, firm must...

The buckets that catch rainwater inside Irwin Borough’s offices will have to remain in place as borough officials try to solve a recurring problem — what to do with the town’s fire department siren atop the borough building roof, where water continues to leak inside the structure. Borough officials last...

A member of Fort Ligonier’s education department will discuss the French & Indian War and the role Western Pennsylvania played in that global conflict during a program at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Norwin Public Library, Caruthers Lane, Irwin. David Gerstel, an educator at historic Fort Ligonier, will provide the...

The Sewickley Area Athletic Association improved its pony league ballfield in Herminie, thanks in part to a $5,000 donation from a Texas-based energy company. Before the baseball season began the spring, the athletic association made long-term major field improvements to the baseball field, including grading the field and installing French...

The eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 in Rostraver were backed up Friday afternoon because a van caught fire along the highway, then an accident occurred in the traffic backlog, a Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety supervisor said. The van caught fire around 5 p.m. on the interstate between Routes...

Joseph Churbock Sr. of Hempfield Township was part of the Greatest Generation of Americans, who served their country in war and came home to marry and raise a family. “He instilled the importance of family in us,” said his son, David Churbock of Hudson, Ohio. “He was always busy with...