TribLive stories, Page 1653

All lanes of Interstate 79 have been reopened near Zelienople, Butler County, after a multi-vehicle crash with injuries shut the roadway down in both directions early Friday morning, according to state police. The wreck occurred in the northbound lanes shortly before 6 a.m. between the Zelienople and Portersville/Prospect exits, according...

This week marked the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, landmark legislation that helped to expand civil rights and combat systemic racism at the ballot box. As President Lyndon B. Johnson and activists affirmed, voting access is a central pillar of our democracy. Unfortunately, the VRA was needed because...

When the spring high school sports season was canceled, the Norwin Knights thought they missed out on a chance to contend for a WPIAL baseball championship. Nothing that happened in the Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League playoffs could have possibly changed their minds. Irwin, with a roster full of Norwin...

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As if the Lebanese haven’t suffered enough. For months, they have been caught between an economic meltdown, crumbling public services and a surging pandemic. Now they must count the dead and survey the extensive damage to their capital after two giant explosions on Tuesday. The blasts, especially the second, were...

The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board is taking initial steps to review how discipline is meted out at the facility to ensure that all inmates are treated fairly. The decision to begin that process came Thursday evening after an initial motion on the matter made by Allegheny County Councilperson-at-large Bethany...

A New Kensington detective is credited with saving an elderly woman’s life by rescuing her from her burning home, according to city fire Chief Ed Saliba Jr. Detective Sgt. Matt Saxman spotted flames coming from the house at 222 Valley St. shortly after 4:20 p.m. He called the fire in...

Glenshaw Century Club is taking orders for to-go chicken dinners to help raise money for scholarship grants for Shaler Area High School seniors. The dinners, cooked by Heavenly Cuisine Custom Catering, include a marinated grilled boneless chicken breast, rice pilaf, six-bean salad, tossed salad with homemade Italian vinaigrette, roll and...

Gov. Tom Wolf’s most recent and well-intentioned approach to covid-19 mitigations in the operations of restaurants and bars addresses an important health safety concern but unnecessarily creates other problems. Like other governors, his goal is to halt the increase in spread of covid-19, which has been heading in the wrong...

Gov. Tom Wolf is unlawfully scheming to circumvent the Pennsylvania General Assembly and, by his own estimates, impose a $2.36 billion tax on fossil fuel-fired electric generation plants in Pennsylvania over the next 10 years. Wolf’s goal is for Pennsylvania to join the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) —...

I agree with letter-writer Robert Ebitz (“Veterans should always count,” July 20, TribLIVE). I know there are many who want to be true veterans, but veterans are only those of us who served. I proudly served in the 9th Infantry Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam in 1966-67. Thank...

Five more Port Authority of Allegheny County employees have tested positive for covid-19, spokesman Jim Ritchie said. The new cases bring the number of covid-19 cases involving Port Authority employees to 37. Last week, Port Authority recorded three covid-19 cases. Three of this week’s cases involved bus drivers based in...

When Blacks kill Blacks in Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit, don’t they matter? Where are the marches, the daylong memorials? When a white cop is killed by a Black man, when a young girl is raped and killed by an illegal, where is the wall-to-wall TV outrage, day after day after...

Valley Forge, Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Belleau Wood, Normandy/Iwo Jima, Pusan, Khe Sanh, Baghdad, Gamsir. It is safe to say the nation’s youth that found themselves in those places would have preferred to have been somewhere else that was safe or “in the rear with the gear.” Yet...

To further give credence to William Hite’s letter “Books about Trump are must-reads” (July 25, TribLIVE), why is it that the more President Trump spews lies, the more his supporters approve of his behavior, which I find boorish and disgusting? Plain and simple, this man has proved time and again...

You’ve got to be kidding! I will never vote for Sen. Pat Toomey again. Where is his loyalty? Where is his determination to denounce the whole Democratic Party for the last several years — Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, et al.? I believe they are all thieves, liars and heathens;...

As a Pittsburgh infectious disease physician, I applaud Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina’s covid-19 surveillance approach, which he outlined in a July 3 New York Times opinion piece and at microbe.tv/#640. He endorses a cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test. While it will miss some infections, it will be fewer than...

Follow @VNDStroller on Twitter for a daily link to The Stroller. Small Acts of Kindness Did your neighbor call and check on you, or bring a face mask or groceries? The Stroller wants to recognize those around us who are performing small acts of kindness for others during this stressful...

Say what you mean. Mean what you say. It’s a good rule of thumb for everyone, but it’s especially important for elected officials. Politicians get — and keep — their jobs by what they say. Their words shape laws and policies. They send us to war and broker peace. In...

The Lazy River earned its name this summer. The Sandcastle Waterpark attraction, where guests float along a quarter-mile on inner tubes, took its time and waited until the final few weeks of the season to start flowing again on Wednesday. “We appreciate everyone’s patience while we completed necessary work,” said...

Local battery mates became postseason award winners in the Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League. Pitcher Hayden Ford and catcher Josh Spiegel, key players for Paul Carpenter Capital Advisors, the regular season champion of the league, will bring home hardware from their summer league. Both players graduated from Penn-Trafford. Ford, a crafty...

A Washington County woman accused of locking her adult sister in a cage is wanted on a bench warrant for allegedly skipping a court hearing, Tribune-Review news partner WPXI reported. Leona Biser, 51, originally was charged in January by the state Attorney General’s Office. She allegedly kept her 53-year-old sister...

TOKYO — Japan’s tally of coronavirus infections is shooting up faster than ever, and support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is sinking to new lows. While Japan’s total death toll remains close to the number the United States sees in a day, the public fears Japan may be sitting on...

WASHINGTON — A key player in the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn testified that President Barack Obama and his deputies focused solely on national security, not anti-Trump politics, in discussing what to do about Flynn’s dealings with Russia’s ambassador. “Something like that would have set off alarms...