TribLive stories, Page 688
In brief: Herald area events for the week of Jan. 1, 2024
Foxwall EMS board meeting set for Jan. 16 Foxwall EMS will have its annual board meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at the station along Hemlock Hollow Road. The meeting is open to the public. Acting Chief Gino Mollica said the board meets in January for the purposes of electing...
Ian Ziering goes off on ‘hooliganism on our streets’ after biker brawl leads to battery reportVideo
LOS ANGELES — Actor Ian Ziering was involved in a battery incident in Los Angeles on Sunday during what appeared to be a street brawl involving several people on mini bikes. Although the “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum said he was “completely unscathed,” the New Year’s Eve altercation left him concerned...
Elwood Watson: Generation X is almost 60
Latchkey kids. Slackers. Caffeine lovers. Grunge. That’s how a lot of people have referred to Generation X, the 46 million Americans, like myself, who were born between 1965 and 1980. We were a generation that has been perennially pegged as cynical, self-indulgent, aimless, contrarian and often peripheral when it comes...
Noah Feldman: The New York Times has an edge in suit against OpenAI
The lawsuit filed by the New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement pits one of the great establishment media institutions against the purveyor of a transformative new technology. Symbolically, the case promises a clash of the titans: labor-intensive human newsgathering against pushbutton information produced by artificial intelligence....
Jason Opal: Even as American colonists defied the British, they understood the importance of the rule of law
The dominant storyline of our American Revolution is about patriotic defiance — refusing to pay taxes, dumping tea into the Boston Harbor and shooting redcoats once we saw the whites of their eyes. It’s about virtuous lawbreaking in the name of freedom. There is plenty of evidence to support this...
Zillow files antitrust suit against real estate listing services
Seattle-based Zillow is suing real estate listing services across the United States, arguing the services are forcing out a Zillow subsidiary to maintain illegal monopolies. If you’ve used Zillow to schedule a home tour recently, you’ve likely accessed a widely used, Zillow-owned scheduling platform called ShowingTime. That platform is now...
Millennial Money: I saved $800 in 5 months by eating more plants
I tried going vegetarian once when I was in high school. My best friend was a vegetarian, and I was curious. I lasted only about four days. My downfall: a buffalo chicken sandwich. Since that ill-fated attempt, I’ve never tried to curb my meat consumption. It’s just too dang tasty....
New year means a pay raise for Gov. Josh Shapiro, his Cabinet and judges
The arrival of 2024 brings a 3.5% pay raise for Gov. Josh Shapiro and other executive branch officials and judges across Pennsylvania. Under state law that provides for automatic pay hikes for the governor and other top officials, Shapiro’s salary will increase to $237,679 - about $8,000 more than he...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland County tax increase and commissioner raises
Regarding the article “Westmoreland commissioners blame past fiscal neglect in approving 32.5% tax hike” (Dec. 21, TribLive): Dear Westmoreland County commissioners: How dare you! Raise property taxes 32.5%? Give yourself a 3.5% raise? I will not be getting a cost of living raise. When I have a debt to pay,...
Letter to the editor: Space pigs on PRT buses
On Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses, the first two seats behind the driver and the first three seats by the door entrance have the back toward the windows. The first two seats on each side that face the front, along with those first five seats, have one thing in common —...
Editorial: Humans over machines — New York Times seeks to protect journalism in suing OpenAI, Microsoft
The New York Times is not content to let OpenAI and Microsoft get rich using the newspaper’s web content for artificial intelligence like ChatGPT without paying and sued this week in federal court. We don’t know if the pun on the word “content” is particularly funny or if an AI...
The Stroller, Jan. 2, 2024: 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. HomExpo to return to Pittsburgh Mills Mall The Alle Kiski Strong...
2024 look-ahead: News to watch in the upcoming year
From the presidential election to school construction projects, Western Pennsylvania has plenty on tap in the year ahead. TribLive compiled a look at notable storylines to keep an eye on in 2024. Politics Southwestern Pennsylvania is expected to be at the epicenter of national politics. As was the case in...
Letter to the editor: From Reaganomics to Bidenomics
After 40 destructive years of supply-side Reaganomics, the vulture capitalism that President George H.W. Bush called “voodoo economics,” where big donors are enriched and budget deficits are increased, finally we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to the American people, no matter what religion, race,...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 1
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 1....
90 dogs rescued from Bedford County home in ‘unimaginable scene’
State police were called to Bedford County home Sunday where they found 90 dogs, most packed in kennels stacked on top of each other in an “unimaginable” scene, officials said. Volunteers from eight humane societies were called to help rescue the dogs, which included breeds from Pomeranians to Beagles to...
India to study black holes with first satellite launch after U.S.
India launched its first satellite Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year. The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India’s main spaceport of Sriharikota,...
College releases its annual list of banished words: Is it cringe-worthy? Or iconic?
Wait for it: At the end of the day, hacks need to slay 10 cringe-worthy words and phrases, according to an iconic list from a Michigan university. The 2024 Lake Superior State University Banished Words List, released Sunday, is: hack, impact, at the end of the day, rizz, slay, iconic,...
High school sports schedules for Jan. 2, 2024
High schools Basketball Boys Tuesday’s schedule Class 6A Section 1 Pine-Richland at Central Catholic, 7:30 p.m. Seneca Valley at Butler, 7:30 p.m. Section 2 Canon-McMillan at Norwin, 7:30 p.m. Mt. Lebanon at Baldwin, 7:30 p.m. Upper St. Clair at Hempfield, 7:30 p.m. Class 5A Section 1 Ringgold at Bethel Park,...
Detroit records 252 homicides in 2023, lowest since 1966
Detroit recorded 252 homicides last year — its lowest total since 1966 — while nonfatal shootings declined for the fourth straight year, according to preliminary statistics released Monday by Detroit police. Overall, violent crime in Detroit fell 1.6% from 2022-23, with carjackings dropping 33.5% to a level unseen since the...
Iran says prospect for talks over nuclear deal ‘still exists’
Iran said it is open to fresh talks around its nuclear program with world powers that had been overshadowed by the deadly war in Gaza. “The diplomatic environment to hold a new round of talks still exists,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a press conference...
Pennsylvania ‘porch pirating’ measure, New Jersey ‘Seinfeld Bill’ among laws taking effect in 2024
NEW YORK — The new year begins with a series of new laws going into effect Monday throughout the Eastern U.S. Perhaps most notable is New Jersey’s bipartisan “Seinfeld Bill” requiring Garden State telemarketers to provide the name, mailing address and telephone number of the company for which they’re working...
Husband in case of Uniontown woman’s death taken into custody in Las Vegas
A woman reported missing last week was found dead Monday at her Uniontown home and police said they are charging her husband with criminal homicide and aggravated assault, according to TribLive news partner WTAE. Nicole Zambrano, 26, was reported missing by coworkers at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort after she had not...
Books we read in 2023 to prepare us for the future
It has been an overwhelming 12 months in the technology world. Rapid developments in artificial intelligence, which went into overdrive in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, have generated countless column inches, panel discussions and political debate. For those who want to contribute to the discourse, understanding the core...
Powerball jackpot hits $810 million for tonight’s drawing
Lottery money is rolling into 2024. A Powerball jackpot went without a big winner Saturday, with the next drawing scheduled for New Year’s Day with an estimated $810 million jackpot. It is expected to be the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the 10th-largest U.S. lottery jackpot, according to a Powerball...
