Patrick Varine stories, Page 93
Murrysville takes public input on spending federal covid relief dollars
Murrysville officials wanted to hear from ideas from the public about how to use a little more than $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan relief funding at their Feb. 16 meeting. Chief Administrator Jim Morrison said the municipality had received an initial payment last July, and the second will...
Monroeville girl trains for National Ninja League championships
Nya Scott wants to be a ninja world champion, and this spring, the 7-year-old Monroeville resident will get the chance. But it’s not the ancient Japanese martial art of ninjutsu. Scott is a member of the Iron City Ninjas, who train to run obstacle courses that test their physical endurance...
Western Pennsylvania residents look to preserve region’s mining historyVideo
On an unusually warm day in what would normally be the dead of winter, melting snow perfectly illustrated why an old Pittsburgh Coal Co. mine in Fayette County is now called “The Ruins.” “Nature takes a backseat to industry, but it always wins out in the long term,” said Rachel...
South Fayette teen’s song to debut on Pittsburgh radio on Friday
As a 14-year-old, Aleia Snider of South Fayette was excited to be meeting “American Idol” standout Gabby Barrett after one of Barrett’s performances at the South Hills Village Mall a few years ago. “I her her through my dad (Star 100.7 FM DJ) Bubba Snider,” she said. “After hearing that...
Sinkhole opens up along Route 136 in west Hempfield
A sizable sinkhole opened up on Thursday afternoon along the 3200 block of Route 136 in Hempfield. “My employees spotted it and let me know about it this morning,” said Joe Maher, owner of West Hempfield Self Storage. “There’s an old mine shaft about 25 feet down. This area was...
Murrysville area: Art show, library programs, wellness checks, more
Submit news, briefs and event listings to pvarine@triblive.com. Franklin Regional fined for chemical discharge The Franklin Regional School District recently paid a $7,000 fine to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, after mop water containing floor finish and floor-finish stripper was poured down a janitorial sink connected to the stormwater...
Greensburg fighter wins MMA title in Ohio Combat League
Greensburg got itself a mixed-martial arts champion in January. Mataeo Garner captured the Ohio Combat League’s light heavyweight championship Jan. 29, fighting in the amateur division at 204 pounds. The 24-year-old Greensburg resident won a unanimous decision in the third round against Dayton, Ohio, fighter Darryl Booker. At 5-foot-9, Garner...
Customs agents helped guarantee pest-free petals for Valentine’s Day
Earlier this week, people who received a bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s Day were typically looking for the card. But earlier this year, when Customs and Border Protection officers received them, they were looking for pests, because the U.S. has become more reliant on importing flowers from overseas growers in...
Franklin Township sewage authority finalizing system-wide flow model as part of state consent order
The Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority is wrapping up work on a flow model of its entire system, the next milestone in its consent order with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The authority has been conducting smoke-and-dye testing for illegal connections as well as video inspection of all its...
Decades after forming Prince cover band, CAPA alumni lead tribute concert at Kelly Strayhorn Theater
Once up a time nearly four decades ago, Dwayne Fulton of Pittsburgh and his Creative and Performing Arts High School classmates Brian Edwards and Stan Howard started a band with the lofty goal of covering music by funk and R&B legend Prince. In the 1980s, Howard changed his first name...
Westmoreland Intermediate Unit offers free course to help bolster substitute teacher ranks
On a school day in November, Allegheny Valley School District officials had 11 teachers off work and only one substitute to call in. The district was considering using some of its American Rescue Plan funding to help bring in additional substitutes, serving as yet another example of a district struggling...
New York jazz trio’s newest songs named for Pennsylvania disaster townsVideo
To call Moppa Elliott’s approach to music composition “loose” might be an understatement. The Pennsylvania native is a music teacher at Information Technology High School in Long Island City, N.Y., and the bassist for jazz collective Mostly Other People Do the Killing, which will perform in Pittsburgh on Feb. 23...
Maryland man pleads guilty after selling U.S. nuclear data to undercover FBI agent
A Maryland man who worked at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges after prosecutors say he delivered restricted data on the design of U.S. nuclear warships to an undercover federal agent he believed was representing a foreign government. Jonathan Toebbe, 43, of Annapolis, used...
Commonwealth Court denies Murrysville Watch Committee’s appeal of fracking ordinance
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court this week denied the Murrysville Watch Committee’s appeal of its failed challenge to Murrysville’s fracking ordinance. Initially filed as a challenge to the Murrysville Zoning Hearing Board, which upheld the ordinance on unconventional gas well drilling, appeals at the county (2020) and now state level (2021) have...
Vehicle crashes into newly opened Brewery at Luciano’s in Monroeville
David Stumpf of Monroeville had just placed his drink order Saturday night at the Brewery at Luciano’s when “the wall behind us just exploded.” After nearly two years of waiting out covid-19 restrictions, the new restaurant hadn’t even been open a week when a vehicle struck the building Saturday night....
Pittsburgh man charged with Mt. Oliver armed robbery
An 18-year-old Pittsburgh resident was arrested and charged with robbing a car at gunpoint on Thursday. Mt. Oliver police responded to the 200 block of Rustic Avenue shortly before midnight on Thursday for a report of an armed robbery. They found an uninjured 30-year-old male victim at the scene, who...
Police identify body discovered on Monroeville hillside
Allegheny County Police homicide detectives are investigating the death of a Turtle Creek woman whose body was found on a hillside in Monroeville on Saturday afternoon. Shortly after noon, emergency officials were called to the 500 block of Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville, where they discovered the body of Christina Spicuzza,...
Police arrest 2nd suspect in Greensburg shooting
The second of two men wanted in connection with a Jan. 30 shooting in Greensburg was arrested Friday afternoon, according to police. Stevin “Twogunz” S. German, 27, of Allison, near Uniontown, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment after allegedly engaging in a shootout with Evan R. Curley, 24,...
Police investigate Plum stabbing
A man is in stable condition after being stabbed in the early hours of Saturday morning in Plum, according to Allegheny County Police. First responders were called to the 600 block of Glengarry Court in The Highlands subdivision off of Old Leechburg Road, where they found a man with stab...
No injuries reported in Monroeville house fire
No one was injured following a fire Saturday morning near Monroeville’s Monroe Heights neighborhood. Multiple fire companies responded to the 2500 block of Haymaker Road, near the end of Kayser Drive, for a report of a working house fire shortly after 8 a.m. Firefighters at the scene said no one...
Fire destroys Mt. Pleasant retreat center’s maintenance building but no lodging affected, no one hurt
While no one was hurt, the loss of the Laurelville Retreat Center’s maintenance building in a large fire early Saturday morning took out the resort’s main base of operations, according to its director. Firefighters from multiple companies responded to Laurelville Retreat Center along Mennonite Camp Road in Mt. Pleasant for...
‘Book of Boba Fett’ finale, like the series, is messy but fun
It’s tough to reconcile how I feel about “The Book of Boba Fett.” On one hand, it was a series full of great moments, bridging a lot of the current “Star Wars” properties in a way that feels really great, especially as it takes place in the dustier, grittier universe...
Export lowers fee, inspection requirements in landlord licensing ordinance
Export officials ended 2021 by tightening up the borough’s ordinances regarding rental properties, particularly instituting a $100 annual license that landlords must acquire along with mandatory inspections. Initially proposed as a $200 annual fee in the 2022 budget, council ultimately settled on a version that cut the fee price in...
Delmont moves ahead with infrastructure-related projects
Delmont officials are moving ahead with multiple infrastructure-related projects, including progress on two state consent orders aimed at addressing storm water and sewage issues in the borough. As part of the consent order Delmont entered into along with the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority and its client communities, public works...
Murrysville area: ‘Egg my Yard,’ meetings and more
Submit news, briefs and event listings to pvarine@triblive.com. “Egg My Yard” registration opens Feb. 21 Murrysville residents seeking to have their yards “egged” this Easter by the recreation department can begin signing up on Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. Department members will hide candy-filled plastic eggs for a “family-sized” egg...
