Rich Cholodofsky stories

The Westmoreland County Food Bank this week received a $75,000 emergency grant to help feed hungry residents. The money from the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County is needed to assist the food bank as uncertainty over federal SNAP benefits funding continues amid the federal shutdown, according to Executive Director McCrae...

A North Versailles woman was convicted Friday of attempted murder in the shooting of her former roommate in Penn Township. After just over an hour of deliberations, a Westmoreland County jury found Leah H. Gillis, 36, guilty of all three charges she faced: attempted murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment....

A woman’s jealousy over her roommate’s romantic interests led her to attempt to kill him more than three years ago in Penn Township, a Westmoreland County prosecutor said Thursday. Leah Hope Gillis, 36, now of North Versailles, Allegheny County, is on trial on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and...

Political leaders on attribute a higher-than-expected voter turnout for Tuesday’s general election to the hotly contested state judicial retention vote. Turnout in Westmoreland County, which featured few contested local races, reached 42%. County election officials had initially predicted turnout would be about 30%. In neighboring Allegheny County, where the Pittsburgh...

An eastern Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Wednesday to fleeing from police following a traffic stop two years ago in Jeannette. Police said a Jeep driven by Lance W. Frederick, 36, of Chester County, was stopped on Oct. 8, 2023. Police say he consented to a search of the vehicle, during...

The biggest winner on Election Day in Westmoreland County was the touch-screen voting machine. County voters overwhelmingly rejected the use of optional paper ballots at the polls, as just 5% of those who cast ballots at Westmoreland’s 306 precincts used pen and paper to vote Tuesday. “It proves me right....

One incumbent and three challengers won seats Tuesday to serve four-year terms on the Southmoreland School Board. Incumbent Stephanie Geyer was reelected while newcomers Nathan Alexander, Mellisa Moore and David Thomas appeared to win seats on the board, defeating incumbent Brian Shipley and challenger Bud Santimyer. With all precincts reporting,...

Democrat Mary Popovich, West Newton’s mayor, held off a challenge Tuesday from a political newcomer to win a fifth term in office. Popovich, 71, defeated Republican Robert Kepics, who was making his first run for public office. With all precincts reporting, Popovich received more than 61% of the vote. Kepics...

Republican incumbents Jeff Keefer and Justin Morrow won landslide victories Tuesday for seats on the three-member East Huntingdon board of supervisors. Keefer, 55, defeated Democratic challenger Wayne Godfrey, 65, a retired truck driver, to win his first four-year term in office. Keefer was appointed to the board in June 2024...

Westmoreland County voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly returned three local judges to the Common Pleas Court bench. With all 306 precincts reporting, incumbent judges Tim Krieger, Scott Mears and Harry Smail Jr. won new 10-year terms. Krieger’s retention was supported by 65% of voters, Mears’ by 66% and Smail’s by 66%....

Westmoreland commissioners voted Monday to accept an $11.6 million state loan, a move they say is necessary to fund essential social service programs through the end of the year. Even in doing so, more furloughs of county staff and partial closures of the county courthouse could follow as early as...

The state’s Attorney General’s Office has filed a civil lawsuit seeking to bar a Hempfield home improvement contractor from doing business in Pennsylvania. A three-count lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County accuses A&S Contracting and Roofing, LLC and its owner, Stephen Spallone, of violating Pennsylvania’s Consumer Protection Law and Home Improvement...

All three Westmoreland County judges who are seeking new 10-year terms on the Common Pleas Court bench know there is political attention this year on judicial retention. They also worry the large sums of cash spent to campaign for and against the retention of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices could...

The criminal case against a hunter charged with aggravated assault after allegedly wounding a man in a Smithton field nearly two years ago will proceed to a trial, a judge ruled Friday. Following a lengthy hearing that featured testimony from the shooting victim and a state game warden, Westmoreland County...

The widow of a Herminie man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a North Huntingdon volunteer fire station, claiming staff served her husband excessive alcohol, which resulted in his fatal fall. Brandon M. Schmeltz, 44, died on Feb. 12, about two weeks after a fall down a staircase in...

A lawsuit filed by a Allegheny County construction company to rebuild an underground garage and public courtyard at the Westmoreland County Courthouse has been settled. Commissioners on Thursday voted to pay Carl Walker Construction of Robinson an additional $700,000 for work the company said it was required to perform to...

Two incumbents and four challengers are seeking four seats on the Southmoreland School Board in the Nov. 4 election. The nine-member board has been embroiled in controversy over the past two months after director Catherine Fike was accused of disclosing confidential information about a student’s mental health during the board’s...

Westmoreland County commissioners unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution Thursday to condemn political violence, days after the measure appeared unlikely to pass. The vote followed a public plea from Smithton resident Karen Primm, who was injured in an alleged attack by a counter-protester during a recent No Kings rally in front...

A Westmoreland County judge has reinstated house arrest for a Jeannette man accused of breaking into an off-duty county detective’s home last year and assaulting him. The reversal by Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger came after the alleged victim, Detective Nick Caesar, voiced safety concerns about defendant Jonathan E....

A woman charged in connection with a raid at a Murrysville massage parlor pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge on Wednesday. Police said Weihong Wang, 63, was one of two women working last month during a raid of the Asian Garden Spa on Route 22. Police said Wang offered...

Westmoreland County government will continue to function as state funding dries up amid the ongoing budget impasse in Harrisburg, commissioners said Tuesday. Despite the uncertainty, county officials plan to keep operating essential human service programs as they await word on a pending application to the state Treasury for a $14...

Pennsylvania property owners have received tax relief for the last two decades as part of the deal that legalized casino-style gambling. Property owners are slated to receive more than $1 billion in tax relief this fiscal year, a nearly 42% increase over the last 10 years. But as the pot...

A Washington County man charged with the 2022 murder of a New Kensington man told a Westmoreland County judge Friday he wants to represent himself at his upcoming trial with the help of an artificial intelligence lawyer. Larry Osborn Nix II, 42, of West Brownsville is awaiting trial for criminal...

East Huntingdon incumbent supervisors Jeff Keefer and Justin Morrow have the same job. They also have the same opponent in separate races for two seats on the township’s governing board. Keefer, 55, a Republican, is seeking a four-year term. A former member of the township’s road crew, Keefer was appointed...

A judge has rejected an appeal from a Monessen man who has spent 50 years in prison for the 1973 murders of two young children and the rape of their mother. Attorneys for John Veltre Jr., 69, claimed that Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Stewart II abused his...