Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 36

Accounting errors were identified in new state audits of South Huntingdon and Ligonier Township police pension funds. According to findings released this week by Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor both townships saw funding discrepancies associated with contributions made to the pension funds. Two errors were identified related to Ligonier’s...

Divorce-seekers are in line for a discount. Costs to file court documents in Pennsylvania are more than $20 cheaper, for now. An under-the-radar casualty of the state’s financial uncertainty related to a monthlong budget impasse is an annual surcharge added to fees for the filing of most court documents. That...

State police were justified in the fatal shooting of a 51-year-old man killed following a traffic stop last month near Homer City, Indiana County District Attorney Robert Manzi Jr. announced Wednesday. Manzi said the monthlong investigation into the circumstances of the July 3 fatal shooting of John V. Dye determined...

Westmoreland County prosecutors will have access to the mental health records of a Hunker man who was charged with illegal gun possession at a Delmont restaurant where he claimed he was defending former President Donald Trump. Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger authorized the release of records as part of a...

State police were justified in the fatal shooting of a 51-year-old man killed following a traffic stop last month near Homer City, Indiana County District Attorney Robert Manzi Jr. announced Wednesday. Manzi said the monthlong investigation into the circumstances of the July 3 fatal shooting of John V. Dye determined...

Ted Kopas didn’t need directions to get to work Tuesday morning. Kopas, a Democrat who lives in Hempfield, was sworn in to office as a Westmoreland County commissioner. He takes over the minority role on the county’s board of commissioners from Democrat Gina Cerilli Thrasher, who left office a day...

A Westmoreland County judge ruled Tuesday that a man charged in connection with a fatal shooting in an Upper Burrell bar nearly two years ago is competent to stand trial. Police claim Daniel Moles, 77, of Lower Burrell shot and killed 31-year-old Randy Jenereaux at Woodpeckers Pub & Grub tavern...

A North Huntingdon man was ordered Monday to serve seven years on probation for his role in an armed robbery nearly three years ago in Mt. Pleasant Township. Elijah Ben Chaabane, 20, pleaded guilty earlier this year to robbery, conspiracy and weapons offense related to a Dec. 19, 2020 incident...

Gina Cerilli Thrasher’s title will remain the same. In her next role, Thrasher will serve as a commissioner on the state’s Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board when she starts her new job Tuesday. Her more than seven years as a member of Westmoreland County’s Board of Commissioners ended Monday. “It’s bittersweet...

Sewers are the new growth industry for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. The agency last week completed the purchase of a municipal sewer system that services Scottdale, Everson, Upper Tyrone and part of East Huntingdon, and officials said the utility, whose primary business during its first 60 years has...

The operator of a Murrysville golf course claims the landlord wants to take over what has become a successful business. J.K. Golf Inc., the operator of the Murrysville Golf Club, filed a lawsuit this week seeking an arbitration panel be convened to determine the future of the 18-hole course on...

Westmoreland County’s Department of Veterans Affairs will host an open house at the courthouse on Thursday to assist with applications for special benefits authorized by the federal government last year. The clinic will operate from noon to 3 p.m. to provide assistance for veterans and their families to apply for...

Carol Polo waited years to hear the news she received this week. “I didn’t think I would see this,” Polo said Thursday at a news conference held the day after police arrested and charged a Derry Township man in the 2007 murder of her 22-year-old daughter. Police said Samantha Lang...

Westmoreland County leaders huddled for more than an hour Wednesday to begin working on a playbook to ensure essential programs and services continue locally if the state legislature fails to adopt a budget. “We are prepared for it and we want to make sure we have enough money in our...

(Editor’s note: To mark Westmoreland County’s 250th birthday this year, we’ve come up with a list of 250 things — 10 things in 25 communities — that we consider to be important to the makeup of our area. This series will appear each week through December. If you have a...

A Chicago man awaiting trial on charges that he was part of a multicounty catalytic converter theft ring can be released from jail if he posts $750,000 bail, a Westmoreland County judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio ordered Christian Buie, 32, to post three, $250,000 straight cash bonds if he...

A married Trafford couple pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating a sex business from their home this year. Police said Robert Wargo, 53, and his wife, Kayla Wargo, 35, solicited and hosted men for sexual encounters at their Fairmont Avenue residence during daytime hours. Investigators contended they opened the investigation in...

Two mental health experts gave conflicting testimony Monday as to whether a now 16-year-old boy charged in connection with a fatal shooting last summer in New Kensington should be prosecuted as an adult. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Wright said Avian Molter is not receptive to treatment in the juvenile justice...

Nearly four years after Jason Zollinger was killed as he pedaled up Route 30 toward Laurel Mountain summit in Ligonier Township, his family on Monday finally obtained a level of closure. “I am speaking for my son because he can’t. It’s been 1,392 days since my life changed forever. I...

Westmoreland County Transit’s daily bus service to Pittsburgh Mills will be temporarily cut starting Monday. Officials said the authority’s Route 14 bus service that runs through New Kensington and to the shopping complex will be shortened and no longer run to the mall during the six-week closure of the New...

On Thursday, nearly two years after he barricaded himself in his Hempfield home and tried to kill himself, George Gardner claimed he was a new man. Gardner pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that stemmed from two separate incidents in 2021 in which authorities said he shot at his wife and...

A South Greensburg man pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that he recorded video of sexual encounters with a teenage girl. Police said Nicholas James Rossi, 27, had a seven month sexual relationship with a then 17-year-old girl in 2021 and 2022 in which he recorded their sex acts. Rossi pleaded...

Editor’s note: Former Greensburg Kenneth Burke pleaded guilty Friday to an amended misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and summary harassment. The charges to which he pleaded guilty were incorrect in the original version of this story. A suspended Greensburg police officer has been forced to resign after pleading guilty Friday...

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members Wednesday approved a $17.5 million deal to purchase a small sewer system that serves Scottdale, a part of East Huntingdon as well as two communities in Fayette County. MAWC will pay $2.25 million in cash for the Westmoreland Fayette Municipal Sewage Authority and...

A Hempfield man was ordered to serve up to four years in prison for the sexual assaults of three teens. Joshua Esteban Kunkle, 21, pleaded guilty in April to a reduced set of charges in connection with attacks against three juveniles over a four-year period that ended in 2020. Westmoreland...