TribLive stories, Page 2158

It will be a Section 1-3A convention of sorts Thursday for a WPIAL Class 3A boys basketball doubleheader to kick off quarterfinals weekend. In the opener, Aliquippa faces Neshannock at 6:30 p.m. followed by Lincoln Park facing Beaver Falls at 8 p.m. in the third meeting of the season between...

WASHINGTON — The annual Munich Security Conference is usually a somnolent affair, a ritual renewal of vows between the United States and its European allies. This year was different. Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, finally said what she thinks of President Trump. Without using Trump’s name, she described his “America...

High Schools Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Quarterfinals Saturday’s schedule Pine-Richland (20-2) vs. Peters Township (16-7) at North Hills, 3 p.m.; Upper St. Clair (19-3) vs. Butler (18-4) at Canon-McMillan, 1:30 p.m.; Latrobe (18-2) vs. Canon-McMillan (15-8) at Norwin, 3 p.m.; Mt. Lebanon (19-3) vs. Fox Chapel (16-7) at...

Every Wednesday during the 2018-19 WPIAL basketball season, the TribLive High School Sports Network releases Power Rankings during the WPIAL Roundball Report at 6:30 p.m. Then, after the show, the Trib Ten is posted online at TribHSSN.TribLive.com. These rankings have zero classification boundaries. Here are the rankings for the Week...

America’s surging shale oil production shows little sign of abating, despite industrywide spending cuts, as explorers learn to do more with less. Almost all the independent producers have reduced their budgets for 2019, but many still expect to deliver double-digit growth in production this year, fourth-quarter earnings reports show. Growth...

Pleasant Hills leaders are looking to fill a vacancy on borough council, after Regis Brown resigned effective Feb. 28. Council members accepted Brown’s resignation at their meeting on Feb. 19. Anyone interested in filling the vacancy should submit a letter of interest or resume by March 4. In his resignation...

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has been charged with disorderly conduct after he allegedly filed a false police report about an attack he said occurred as he walked to his apartment building in the Streeterville neighborhood last month. The charge, a felony, was announced by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office...

The people have the right to know. The people have the right to care. The people have the right to question. And in most cases, the government doesn’t have the right to say, no. Highlands School District does not have the right to shadowy decision-making. In January, the school board...

La Roche pitcher Tre Thomas had a 2018 season many of his peers would envy. Then a sophomore, the Ambridge grad went 9-1 with a 1.47 ERA, earned honorable mention All-American honors from D3Baseball.com and was the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Pitcher of the Year. But Redhawks coach Chase Rowe...

Riddle me this: In today’s paper it was reported that Westmoreland County may have to spend $7 million to upgrade its voting machines to make them more secure (“Commission recommends Pennsylvania security measures for elections,” Jan. 29, TribLIVE) — but not one word about doing something to help make the...

The 2019 primary election season is fast approaching, and the spring always promises us daffodils, weeds and yard signs. Regardless of your party, you will be choosing between candidates for local positions. Our choices are not always clear, as many candidates are inexperienced and have no record, or experienced and...

Are politicians really working for us? Can there be no compromise? Is the revelation that a governor put on a black face or white sheet, more than 30 years ago, really more offensive than the bill he backs that legalizes the murder of an infant in the late third trimester?...

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro held an hour-long forum at North Hills Middle School on Feb. 14 as part of his new state-wide anti-bullying listening tour. Throughout the coming year, he will visit five different schools across the Commonwealth to hear about students’ experiences with bullying and listen to their...

Pine-Richland High School students organized and led the school’s first-ever hackathon called “Hack the Ram” on Feb. 9. Seniors Arjan Guglan, Lauren Juncal and Justin Waltrip, and junior Daniel Krill developed, organized and launched the event. Teacher Val Klosky served as the sponsoring teacher. In all 80 students participated in...

Last month, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) celebrated its 20th “birthday” in the South Hills with a free open house for the community offering cupcakes and snacks, an open fitness center, family and kid crafts and open gymnasium and swim sessions. The first JCC was opened in Squirrel Hill. Starting...

Shaler Area Middle School eighth-grader Allison Ai has been planning this surprise for a year. During the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, the middle school student council sells candygrams — a Hershey’s kiss with a personal note attached — to be delivered on Valentine’s Day. After last year’s drive,...

A new Brexit agreement is already being hammered out in Brussels, according to Spain’s foreign minister, as the bloc seeks reassuring language that can convince British members of Parliament to back the deal. Prime Minister Theresa May is heading back to Brussels on Wednesday, seeking changes to the divorce agreement....

For once, file away the doom and gloom. Well, at least for the time being. This NASCAR season, more than any other in recent history, is pivotal. The sport’s iconic stars — including Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick — are mostly, if not all, gone. TV ratings...

Mike Tirico tells aspiring broadcasters to take chances and get out of their comfort zone. On Wednesday night, Tirico took his own advice. Tirico called his first NHL game on NBCSN when the Detroit Red Wings played host to the Chicago Blackhawks. Hall of Famer Mike “Doc” Emerick, NBC’s lead...

The Canon-McMillan boys basketball team trailed by 10 points after three quarters of a WPIAL Class 6A first-round playoff game against North Allegheny. That’s when the Big Mac attack came to life. No. 7-seeded Canon-McMillan rallied to tie the game at the end of regulation and held the edge in...

High Schools Basketball Boys WPIAL playoffs Class 6A First round Tuesday’s results Butler 57, Connellsville 48 Canon-McMillan 61, North Allegheny 59 (OT) Fox Chapel 58, Seneca Valley 45 Peters Township 74, Penn-Trafford 56 Byes: Pine-Richland (20-2), Latrobe (18-2), Mt. Lebanon (19-3), Upper St. Clair (19-3) Quarterfinals Saturday’s schedule Times, sites...

STATE COLLEGE — Lamar Stevens scored 16 of his 29 points in the first half, and Penn State pulled away from Nebraska, 95-71, on Tuesday. Rasir Bolton scored 21, and Mike Watkins and Josh Reaves added 10 apiece for the Nittany Lions (10-16, 3-12 Big Ten), who have won three...

SAN DIEGO — The Padres did far more than change the narrative for a team and a city when news leaked Tuesday about the drying ink on infielder Manny Machado’s reported $300 million deal. Once complete, the seismic, unprecedented undertaking will amount to the richest free-agent deal in the history...

WASHINGTON — The top federal ethics watchdog has rejected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s 2017 financial disclosure form. The Office of Government Ethics declined to certify Ross’s latest financial disclosure because after reporting that he had sold off his shares in BankUnited Inc. that year, he actually sold the stock in...

PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia homicide detective was arrested Tuesday and accused of grooming and sexually assaulting male witnesses during criminal investigations, then intimidating them to keep them silent — part of what prosecutors concluded was a pattern of misconduct during nearly a decade in one of the Police Department’s...