Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 87

A Unity woman who has worked for the last decade as a criminal justice liaison with the county’s mental health agency announced this week she will run to fill a potentially vacant district justice seat. Rebecca Salandro, 38, said she wants to serve as a judge on the local court...

Two Westmoreland County Courthouse offices were shut down Friday as the coronavirus continues to surge. The Register of Wills Office, which processes estate documents and marriage licenses, was closed on the courthouse’s third floor along with the Public Defender’s Office on the fourth floor after staffers tested positive for the...

Westmoreland County will award a final round of covid-relief grants next week to small businesses, while nonprofit agencies and local volunteer fire departments will receive awards later this month. Commissioners on Thursday increased grants handed out last week to Penn and Washington townships to cover coronavirus-related costs incurred by their...

The lawyer for former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez said 11 criminal charges related to allegations that he and a teenage girl exchanged sexually explicit text messages should be dismissed over jurisdictional issues. In court documents filed this week, defense attorney Gary Gerson said those charges related to alleged crimes...

Coronavirus cases among residents in five public housing properties throughout Westmoreland County were reported over the past week. Residents in communities in Greensburg, Hempfield, Latrobe and Monessen have reported contracting the virus, confirmed Michael Washowich, executive director of the Westmoreland County Housing Authority. “It’s a trend that mirrors what has...

All trials scheduled for December in Westmoreland County will be postponed amid the rising number of coronavirus cases already diagnosed and the potential for a continued surge in the coming weeks. Common Pleas Court President Judge Rita Hathaway said Wednesday that criminal trials slated to start next week will be...

As covid-19 cases continue to surge, Westmoreland officials said Tuesday that courthouse offices will scale back some public-facing services in an effort to mitigate the spread of infections. County Commissioner Sean Kertes said that unlike the spring, when commissioners furloughed hundreds of workers and limited most courthouse functions, there will...

Republican Gina O’Barto announced this week her candidacy for what is expected to be an open seat as prothonotary in Westmoreland County. O’Barto, 57, of Unity finished second in the 2017 Republican primary for the office that has for the last 11 years been held by Christina O’Brien, a Democrat....

Lawyers for the campaigns of Democratic incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster and Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli continued to argue in two different courts Friday over the legality more than 400 ballots cast in two counties that will swing the outcome of the tied race for the 45th District, which straddles...

Westmoreland County Transit Authority’s refurbished park-and-ride lot in North Huntingdon will reopen Monday. The lot, near Carpenter Lane next to a Sheetz location on Route 30, was closed since March for resurfacing and other upgrades. Transit officials said this week the $1.8 million project to pave and line the lot...

Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli has pulled into a tie with Democratic incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster in the race for the 45th District seat. Ziccarelli, a New Kensington lawyer, was trailing Brewster by 28 votes late Thursday afternoon, but she made up those votes as the tally from the Westmoreland...

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court this week upheld the death sentence imposed against the man convicted in the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally disabled woman in Greensburg. Justices unanimously rejected the appeal from Melvin Knight of Swissvale, who claimed a Westmoreland County jury improperly sentenced him to death by lethal injection...

Westmoreland County commissioners unanimously fired a Republican volunteer from his role as a member of the county’s provisional board for partisan activity during ballot reviews. Commissioners said Thomas Altman, 70, of Ligonier, improperly coordinated efforts with a Republican campaign poll watcher to challenge contested provisional ballots earlier this week. Altman...

Westmoreland County Commissioners said a final certification of election results won’t come until after Thanksgiving as officials continue to deal with a coronavirus outbreak among employees tasked with completing the ballot count. As of Wednesday, the outbreak that started days before the Nov. 3 election left just two full-time and...

The appeal of a Penn Hills man serving life in prison for a murder he claims was committed by his dead twin brother was rejected Tuesday by a Westmoreland County judge. Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio, in an 11-page decision, called the appeal from Darrelle Tolbert-McGhee “without merit” and...

An Arnold man claims his 20-year prison sentence for the sale of drugs connected to the 2014 fatal overdose of a Lower Burrell woman is excessive. In an appeal filed Monday, the lawyer for Demetrius Houser claims prosecutors agreed to more disproportionate and lenient sentences against two co-defendants who served...

Westmoreland commissioners on Monday postponed a vote to approve a preliminary 2021 operating budget until next week to allow county staff additional time to count remaining ballots cast in the November election. Officials said the processes to review and count ballots cast during the November election has taken longer than...

Westmoreland County commissioners on Monday agreed to count dozens of provisional ballots cast at more than 30 precincts on Election Day originally classified as defective based on clerical errors made by county staff. Sitting as the county’s Elections Board, commissioners unanimously agreed to count ballots cast by voters who received...

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will spend $18 million to expand its Indian Creek Water Treatment Plant near Connellsville, which supplies water to about half of the agency’s more than 121,000 customers. Authority officials said the construction project, expected to begin this spring, will allow an additional 10 million gallons...

Westmoreland County’s Republican commissioners on Friday declined to vote on the status of 343 mail-in ballots that were not properly dated and a separate batch of 375 ballots delivered to the courthouse by the Postal Service nine minutes after the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day. The move came during...

The application period for Westmoreland County small businesses and nonprofit organizations seeking additional grants for reimbursements to cover coronavirus-related expenses opened Friday. Requests will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis through the end of the year. County commissioners said small businesses will be first in line for grants of...

Coronavirus cases continue to mount at Westmoreland Manor, but the number of new infections has slowed in recent weeks. County officials said Thursday that, over the last two weeks, five residents and four employees have tested positive for the virus at the nursing home in Hempfield. With those most recent...

A coronavirus outbreak in the Westmoreland County Elections Bureau is slowing the provisional ballot count as officials scrambled Thursday to find additional volunteers to complete the work as the deadline to certify results from the Nov. 3 election nears. Commissioner Doug Chew said six county workers affiliated with the Elections...

Westmoreland commissioners will serve as the county’s elections board Friday to begin adjudication of challenges to mail-in and provisional ballots cast during the Nov. 3 election. Commissioners spent Monday and Tuesday reviewing 816 mail-in ballots that arrived at the courthouse between 8 p.m. on Election Day and 5 p.m. Nov....

The parents of student at Geibel Junior/Senior High School in Connellsville filed a federal lawsuit against the school, two administrators and a former student, alleging repeated incidents of sexual assault and harassment never were properly investigated. According to the six-count lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh,...