Allegheny County News category, Page 246
Highland Park Bridge ramps to Aspinwall, Sharpsburg closed through May
Motorists who use the Highland Park Bridge ramps to connect to Sharpsburg and Aspinwall will need to allow extra time after the ramps were closed Tuesday for a long-term project. Northbound and southbound off-ramps from Route 28 to Freeport Road are scheduled to be closed through May, PennDOT announced. Crews...
Crews respond to fire in North Braddock
Crews responded to a fire in North Braddock on Tuesday morning. The fire was reported at 6:19 a.m. in the 500 block of Stokes Avenue, an Allegheny County 911 dispatcher said. The dispatcher said no one had been taken from the scene with injuries, though crews were still battling the...
Jury orders West Mifflin School District to pay $2.9M to former superintendent
A federal jury on Monday ordered West Mifflin School District to pay nearly $3 million to former Superintendent Daniel Castagna in connection with his 2019 firing. The jury late last week ruled in favor of Castagna, now acting superintendent at Woodland Hills, on all but one of the claims he...
Man dies after collapsing at Allegheny County Jail
A 26-year-old man died Sunday shortly after collapsing at Allegheny County Jail. A jail spokesman said the man, later identified by family members as Gerald Thomas, exited his cell shortly after noon and asked other inmates for assistance before collapsing. “A medical emergency was called, and life-saving measures were performed...
Dispatcher: Person hurt in Munhall building collapse
One person was transported to a hospital after being injured in a Monday building collapse in Munhall, authorities said. Allegheny County dispatch said the collapse was reported around 4:15 p.m. at 501 E Ninth Ave. It is the home of Steadfast Outreach. Firefighters were still on scene around 6 p.m....
Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank announces Child Hunger Hero Awards winners
It’s often been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, many children often go without it and show up to school hungry. In fact, nearly 100,000 area children go to bed worried about their next meal and one in five live with hunger, according to...
U.S. Steel slapped with $1.8M fine for alleged hydrogen sulfide emissions
U.S. Steel faces a $1.8 million fine from the Allegheny County Health Department because the department said the company emitted too much hydrogen sulfide, the colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs, into the air more than 150 times since 2020. The health department said the Clairton Coke Works plant...
Sewickley Academy assistant head resigns; 4 other faculty, staff members gone
Sewickley Academy assistant Head of Schools Ken Goleski and four other faculty members are no longer working at the private Edgeworth school, academy officials confirmed Monday. The personnel changes are part of the response to a chaotic day in which students and parents attempted to deliver a petition to academy...
Oakmont businesses rattled by pizza shop robbery attempt that left employee critically injured
Business owners and store clerks in Oakmont are feeling jittery in the wake of Sunday’s attempted armed robbery of a pizza shop during which an employee was critically wounded by gunfire. The shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. at the Fox’s Pizza in the 300 block of Allegheny River Boulevard,...
Penn Hills man pleads guilty to 2019 fatal hit-and-run crashVideo
A Penn Hills man pleaded guilty Monday morning to homicide by vehicle and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the death and dragging of a man three years ago. Surron Burch, 24, faces a mandatory penalty of 3 to 6 years in prison when he is sentenced by...
Early-morning fire breaks out in Reserve apartment building
A fire broke out early Monday in a Reserve apartment building. Reserve Volunteer Fire Department said on Twitter that crews battled a one-alarm residential fire in the area of 1900 Mt. Troy Road. The fire began around 4:30 a.m., Reserve Fire Chief Dave Moore said. Everyone was out of the...
Florida woman facing charges after loaded gun found at Pittsburgh International Airport
A Florida woman is facing charges after a loaded revolver was found in her backpack Sunday at Pittsburgh International Airport, according to Allegheny County Police. Transportation Security Administration officers spotted the gun just before 7 p.m. in an X-ray machine at the main security checkpoint. The 22-year-old woman, who was...
Police: Fox’s Pizza employee shot during robbery in Oakmont
An employee at an Oakmont pizza shop was in critical condition Sunday night after being shot during an attempted robbery earlier in the day, according to police. The shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. at Fox’s Pizza on Allegheny River Boulevard, Oakmont police Chief Michael Ford said. The suspect entered...
Ukrainian immigrants have become part of fabric of Western Pa.
They came seeking jobs, determined to escape religious persecution, flee the Russians and provide a better life for their families. The influx of Ukrainian immigrants to the Pittsburgh region covers four distinct waves over the past 150 years. As Russia’s current war in Ukraine rages on, it seems possible that...
Former Brentwood councilwoman challenging state Rep. Jessica Benham for Democratic nomination
Former Brentwood Councilwoman Stephanie Fox is challenging first-term state Rep. Jessica Benham for the Democratic nomination in the 36th State House District. The district encompasses Brentwood, Mount Oliver and several Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Brookline, Beechview, Bon Air, Carrick, Overbrook, Mt. Washington, Arlington, the South Side Flats and the South Side...
Western Pennsylvanians from Ukraine tell their stories
Tears. Helplessness. Heartache. Nightmare. Denial. These are some of the reactions from people of Ukraine living in Western Pennsylvania when they heard about the military assault on Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month. They’ve spent the past 11 days seeing videos and photographs documenting the destruction of their...
Brewhaha craft beer festival returns to Avonworth Community Park
Returning for its sixth year, the annual Brewhaha event is bringing 10 of Pittsburgh’s best craft brewers to Avonworth Community Park on March 26. The beer festival is the marquee fundraiser for the Hollow Oak Land Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting and connecting greenspace in the Pittsburgh area. “We...
Victims identified who died in separate crashes Wednesday in Allegheny County
A White Oak man and a Carnegie woman were killed Wednesday in separate vehicle accidents. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims last Friday. • John D. Semenko, 59, died Wednesday, March 2 in an area hospital as a result of a crash at the intersection of Fifth...
Allegheny County opens applications for alternative transportation grants
Allegheny County said Friday it is accepting applications for its Active Allegheny Grant Program, which doles out funding to communities looking to develop alternative transportation projects. The county said in a news release that eligible projects include those that provide bicycle and pedestrian connections and increase residents’ opportunities for physical...
Sewickley Academy students stage protest following Thursday’s incident
A group of Sewickley Academy students who were turned away when they tried to deliver a petition demanding changes at the private school protested outside of the building on Friday morning. Some 60 students, parents and supporters of the group CARES — Collective Action for Representative Education at Sewickley —...
Man accused of killing Karli Short and their unborn child ordered to stand trialVideo
Percy Quinn Rees said the last time he saw his niece, 26-year-old Karli Short, they were watching television together. Or rather, he said, she was watching television. He wasn’t much interested in the program, but Short always had control of the remote. Rees spoke of those moments Friday during a...
Fitzgerald seeks to appoint former warden to Allegheny County Jail board
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has nominated a man who spent his career in corrections and once served as the county’s interim warden to be a citizen representative on the Jail Oversight Board. The county announced the nomination of William Stickman III to the board last month, and the issue...
Senior School classes canceled after incident at Sewickley Academy administrative offices
Classes at the Sewickley Academy Senior School were canceled Friday following a day of chaos at the school. Police were called to the private school in Edgeworth Thursday after a student group called CARES – Collective Action for Representative Education at Sewickley – and several parents attempted to meet with...
Conservancy hosting program on reversing plight of dwindling bluebird population
The Bradford Woods Conservancy is hosting a program to teach people how they can participate in efforts to restore the dwindling bluebird population by creating nesting boxes. The March 16 program titled “Bluebirds In Bradford Woods” will be presented by Ray Morris and Ken Knapp of the Latodami Nature Center...
U.S. Steel hit with $859K in fines by Allegheny County Health Department
U.S. Steel on Thursday was hit with more than $800,000 worth of fines by the Allegheny County Health Department for alleged pollution and permit violations at the Clairton Coke Works last year. The health department said the violations happened during the second, third and fourth quarters of the year. U.S....
