Tom Davidson stories

Matthew Stock has his keys, wallet and phone but little else. He suspects the rest of his possessions were lost Tuesday in a fire that gutted a nearly century-old apartment building on Forward Avenue in Squirrel Hill. The 35-year-old is unemployed and was looking for a new job before the...

A negotiation with a man in crisis that spurred a seven-hour closure of Route 28 on the North Side ended successfully at about 9 a.m. Saturday morning, police said. The situation started about 2 a.m., when the man threatened to jump from the East Ohio Street overpass in the city’s...

The latest viral video of health care workers behaving badly made the rounds on Labor Day weekend. It originated in Santa Barbara, Calf., and was shared on TikTok by a former employee of the Sansum Clinic there. It was a since-deleted video that depicted former co-workers at the clinic, which...

For what it’s worth, Google’s AI assistant thinks it’s highly unlikely Pittsburgh classic rock station WDVE has ever played “The Sign.” The earworm from Ace of Base, the Swedish pop group that invaded American airwaves as an antidote for grunge in 1993, would have been a fitting electric lunch request...

Thousands of people came to Northmoreland Park for the annual Labor United Celebration, a two-day festival that featured everything from carnival rides and an ice cream truck to a sprawling flea market and a petting zoo featuring goats, donkeys and puppies at the Allegheny Township park. The two-day event boasted...

Political maneuvering has overtaken disease as the greatest threat to national and global health, three public health experts told TribLive. The experts, Drs. Amesh Adalja, Paul Offit and Syra Madad, are among those sounding alarms after the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was fired by...

A Pittsburgh-area native leads the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese, where gunfire during a back-to-school Mass Wednesday killed two students and injured more than a dozen others. Archbishop Bernard Hebda grew up in Brookline. His counterpart in Pittsburgh, Bishop Mark Eckman, offered prayers for Hebda and everyone else reeling from the latest...

With enrollment seemingly stabilizing after a post-pandemic dip, the superintendent the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s schools said there are no plans for school closures on the table in the near future. “As of right now, we are pretty stable and happy where we are,” said Superintendent Lauren Martin. Martin was...

Since Cracker Barrel cleaned up its logo a week ago, it has been dressed down by those averse to the change. The restaurant and gift shop, a staple of roadside rest stops throughout the homeland, prides itself on a homey atmosphere that’s emblematic of an episode of “The Waltons.” Locally,...

William Ronald Todd was more than a football coach and teacher in the Washington, Pa. School District. “Ron Todd was a great guy. He’s going to be dearly missed,” said one of his colleagues, Mike Bosnic Sr. The elder Bosnic, like Todd, is on the Prexies coaching staff led by...

As Labor Day looms, it’s time to take stock of summer. Beyond the big-ticket activities — like trips south to the Outer Banks, Gulf Coast or Disney — are staples of the season that fill the memories of Pittsburghers. They’re things as simple (and sumptuously satisfying) as hot Potato Patch...

Blessings to each and every one with allergies. And tissues. And nasal spray. And eye drops. And neti pots. And Claritin or Zyrtec or Allegra. Or if sleep is desired, Benadryl. “‘Tis the season,” said Dr. Thomas Mertz of Allergy and Asthma Associates of Pittsburgh, a practice based in Harmar....

The latest threat to the southern border has wings and lays eggs that hatch into flesh-eating maggots that can kill people. At least five Central Americans have died from myiasis of the New World Screwworm this year. Myiasis is the term used when maggots infest human flesh and cause an...

There’s a hot ticket this weekend at PNC Park. Nope, it isn’t Bob Nutting bobblehead night. Nor is it Beyoncé to make up for the canceled August 2023 show. It’s not the Pirates, who are on the road for a series at Fenway Park in Boston. While they’re away, it’s...

A Plum resident’s fever, malaise and digestive trouble since mid-July was confirmed to be the first human case of West Nile this year, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. The person’s name and gender were not released, but the health department said the person is recovering at home. West...

The way lions, tigers, bears and eagles hunt, kill and ultimately eat their prey can be a grisly, brutal business that some humans prefer not to think about. When these animals are kept captive in zoos and animal parks, they aren’t exactly spoon-fed meals. In Denmark, people can donate their...

Coke is the fuel used to generate the 2,912-degree heat needed to melt iron ore to make steel. Making coke requires coal to be superheated to nearly 2,000 degrees itself so it becomes pure carbon. U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works is the largest producer of high-grade metallurgical coke in the...

Local leaders and officials expressed concern and support following Monday’s explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. Emergency teams are engaged in rescue operations as the situation continues to unfold. Here’s what they said: “My team and I are aware of the tragic explosion at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke...

About 2,300 people combined to donate more than $100,000 to help 16 people who were taken into custody after federal agents raided two of Emiliano’s four Mexican restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. “We stand by our team. We are working with legal experts and community partners to support the people...

The first weekend in August was the most violent weekend of the summer in and around Pittsburgh thus far, a TribLive analysis found. There were six separate shootings: four in Pittsburgh, one in Scott and one in Monroeville. “Isolated incidents of violence are tragic, but do not define a neighborhood...

President Donald Trump is the latest occupant of the Oval Office to be dismayed by the physical fitness of American youth. Trump’s approach to the issue is to hearken back to the Cold War and revive the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and the Presidential Fitness Award. He...

“Unfettered” — described by its publisher as an unapologetic account of the unconventional life of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, as written by Fetterman — will become part of the canon of the literal Library of Congress when it comes out on Veterans Day. It’s Fetterman’s maiden memoir, but the second...

The surefire way to know whether it’s a sweat bee or a corn fly buzzing around is if it stings. The halictid bee stings, but the corn fly, also called a hover fly, does not. “They’re mimics of bees, just annoying as all get-out,” said Michael Skvarla, a Penn State...

When federal agents use unmarked vehicles and wear masks during raids that are part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, it violates basic civil rights and contradicts democratic principles, two members of Congress wrote U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a letter released Friday. The letter was...