TribLive stories, Page 649
2023 WPIAL and City League all-conference football teams
After the dust has settled and the championships have been won, area high school football coaches take the time to identify the top performers in 17 WPIAL conferences as well as the City League. Here is a list of those teams: 2023 All-Conference Football Teams Class 6A Class 6A Conference...
Rich Fitzgerald: Reflecting on 12 years of service
As I near the end of my third and final term, it provides a perfect opportunity to say thank you to Allegheny County residents. It has been the privilege of my life to serve in this position, and to represent you as county executive. Together, we have accomplished a great...
Automatic pay raises boost Pa. lawmakers’ base salary to over $106K
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers’ base salary recently rose to more than $106,000, prompting a fresh round of criticism about the annual automatic pay bump. Here’s...
Kelly McKinney: Are we as a nation ready for the next big threat? What Oct. 7 and the pandemic have taught us
I was stunned by the early morning headline that appeared in my email. According to The New York Times, Israeli officials had known about Hamas’ plan for more than a year before it launched its Oct. 7 attacks. This could not be true. The Israel that I have come to...
Letter to the editor: AI, digital dollar will destroy us
So here we are in year 3 of the most senseless government the U.S. has ever had. The funny thing is everyone is going along with their stupidity. Let’s have a little checklist. I think Bidenomics is a lie; not abandoning our soldiers — a lie; making your life better...
Westmoreland happenings: Bus trip to performance of ‘Daniel’; holiday fun day
Arts • West Newton Church of God will sponsor bus trips April 15 and May 2 to see the stage production “Daniel” at Sight & Sound Theatres near Lancaster. Cost: $180, includes bus transportation, show ticket and lunch. The bus will leave from the Christian Church parking lot in Turkeytown....
Pa. dog license fee hike takes a nip out of owners’ wallets to pay for more wardens
The new year could bring the return of more frequent canvassing of neighborhoods by state dog wardens, checking to make sure dogs have current licenses and rabies vaccinations. That is only one change the new year will usher in as an updated dog law, intended to keep pets and the...
Letter to the editor: Vegan New Year’s resolution benefits all
It’s that time again. Millions of people around the world will make New Year’s resolutions that they plan to keep. Some decide it’s time to lose a few pounds or maybe make the decision to unplug from social media. One of the more popular resolutions is choosing to go vegan....
Editorial: What mattered to readers in 2023?
Every day in this space, we try to open a conversation. The idea isn’t to tell you how to think or what to think. It’s to take the stories that are breaking across the other pages and explore them. Are there questions you want answered? Are there angles that should...
The Stroller, Dec. 27, 2023: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Publicize your non-profit’s community events, fundraisers and club meetings for free in The Stroller. Send information at least two weeks in advance to vndnews@triblive.com or The Stroller, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Free weekly program for veterans offered in Lower Burrell The Lower...
Letter to the editor: Consumers would pay bills for carbon regulation
The Dec. 14 op-ed “Legislators should come to table for Pa.’s energy future” (Dec. 14, TribLive) offers “a form of cap-and-invest carbon regulation for the power sector” as an alternative to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). However, cap-and-invest is just a scheme by another name to impose costs on...
Gettysburg College director killed in crash after hitting a tractor-trailer, coroner says
A woman who was killed when her car struck a tractor-trailer Friday afternoon on Route 15 was a Gettysburg College administrator, according to the school’s student newspaper. The Adams County coroner on Tuesday also provided additional details about the collision in Latimore Township, which killed Sara Gifford, 35. The crash...
Inside the Pa. court case pitting a genealogist against Ancestry.com
This story first appeared in The Investigator, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring the best investigative and accountability journalism from across Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here. What began in 2022 as a one-paragraph public records request has morphed into a full-blown court fight over who owns digital copies...
Teen tourist sisters stabbed in random attack at Grand Central Station
Two teen sisters visiting New York from South America were stabbed in a random attack at Manhattan’s Grand Central Station on Christmas morning, police said Tuesday. The two girls, ages 14 and 16, were eating with their family at Tartinery Cafe in the station’s dining concourse when workers asked Steve...
Bobby Ghosh: Pro pickleball’s woes won’t dent the sport
In the great national divide over pickleball, one side is enjoying a serving of schadenfreude over the news that the sport’s professional league is in trouble. Those who view the sport as an abomination — and they are legion — will take heart from the fact that Major League Pickleball,...
Pennsylvanians ‘should brace for a costly winter,’ warns report
While winter forecasts predict mild weather mixed in with snow, cold temperatures at night will prompt many a household to turn up their thermostats. While how much one pays for heat depends on the type of energy one uses, a recent report has found how Pennsylvania is among the states...
1 taken to hospital after Christmas Day fire in Tarentum
One person was taken to a hospital after a fire broke out Monday night above The Buzz smoothie bar in Tarentum. The call came in about 10 p.m. Monday, said Robert Stoebener, president of Highland Hose Volunteer Fire Company. It took crews about two hours to extinguish the blaze, he...
Hampton Eat’n Park celebrates reopening
On a sunny, unseasonably mild Friday morning, Eat’n Park lived up to its longstanding name. Empty spaces for vehicles were few and far between in the lot, and the folks inside seemed to enjoy partaking of the menu items. For patrons of the Eat’n Park on Route 8 in Hampton,...
USC’s JuJu Watkins is poised to step in as the next big star of women’s college basketball
LOS ANGELES — Caitlin Clark — the current Associated Press national player of the year — is in what may be her final season at Iowa. She could stay one more year as the result of the covid-19 pandemic, as could Angel Reese of national champion LSU. Regardless of their...
Letter to the editor: Which party is looking out for seniors?
The writer of the letter “Who’s going to help senior citizens?” (Nov. 2, TribLive) seems to forget that seniors got an 8.7% cost of living adjustment (COLA) in Social Security payments in 2023, the largest increase in 40 years. While this was not nearly enough for struggling seniors on a...
Editorial: Why Biden can’t convince voters he has beaten inflation
Economic happy talk doesn’t lower mortgage payments. It’s one reason Bidenomics remains deeply unpopular. President Joe Biden wants the public to believe the economy is doing great. At a recent campaign event, Biden bragged that he had overseen “record job creation, historic economic growth (and) among the lowest inflation rates...
The Stroller, Dec. 26, 2023: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Publicize your non-profit’s community events, fundraisers and club meetings for free in The Stroller. Send information at least two weeks in advance to vndnews@triblive.com or The Stroller, 210 Wood St., Tarentum PA 15084. Please include a daytime telephone number. Nominations sought for Allegheny Valley SD Alumni Hall of Fame Allegheny...
Letter to the editor: Only Trump can save us
For the last 50 years we have been warned about the dire consequences of “global warming.” I believe this is one of the primary vehicles America-hating globalists are using to destroy our country: It was never about saving the planet, but about exercising control over the population. Here’s how: Scare...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Dec. 25
Editorial cartoons for the week of Dec. 25....
Kicking Trump off the ballot won’t be easy — here’s why
WASHINGTON — The argument that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution bars Donald Trump from the ballot has rapidly gone from obscurity to the top of the political agenda. In August, when I wrote about why the 14th Amendment needed to be taken seriously and how it had the potential...

