Allegheny County News category, Page 44
Pleasant Hills VFC presents inaugural citizens fire academy
Plenty of youngsters dream of donning helmets, flame-resistant suits and other necessities for battling blazes. Some adults apparently do, too. And Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company is providing a hands-on opportunity for them to give the basics a try. “I am learning a lot,” Amber Kramer said. “I got to...
Owl good now: McCandless cop frees animal trapped in family’s badminton net
An officer from McCandless spent a recent morning performing an interesting rescue. Officer Todd Ray received a call that a great horned owl was trapped. “It was an unusual type of call. We never know what to expect,” Ray said. It was McCandless resident Janine Solomond’s dog, Gilligan, who found...
Longtime garden market in Penn Hills seeks public’s assistance
A Penn Hills vendor market housing 110 businesses is turning to the public for help to continue being a home for local artisans to showcase their wares. Jayme Visnesky, 48, and Darcy Kennedy, 54, co-owners of the Steel Goat Marketplace, have created a GoFundMe and set out a donation box...
Bracing for the worst: Allegheny County agencies, nonprofits fear further federal cuts
Already hamstrung in numerous ways by the Trump administration, state and local government agencies as well as nonprofits are bracing for the worst in the upcoming federal funding bill. “Everything has been destabilized with the work that we do,” Jordan Golin, president and CEO of Jewish Family and Community Services...
Shaler Area High School assistant principal starts work month ahead of formal hiring approval
The Shaler Area School Board approved hiring an assistant principal for the district’s high school about a month after he started working. While the district says it followed “standard protocol” in hiring the administrator, it’s a practice that should not be, says Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania...
Millvale to celebrate 3 years of revamped Free Fridge and Pantry with costume giveaway
An upcoming celebration just got better. A birthday party for the Free Fridge and Pantry is being coupled with a Halloween costume giveaway from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 11 behind Millvale Community Library, 213 Grant Ave. The Millvale Free Fridge and Pantry is a year-round community resource in Millvale...
Jury convicts Munhall man who shot girlfriend 17 times of 1st-degree murder
An Allegheny County jury on Monday found a Munhall man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of his girlfriend. The jury deliberated for about five hours on Friday afternoon and Monday morning before convicting Darion Abel of first-degree murder, burglary and carrying a gun without a license....
North Allegheny survey scores high on district quality, falls short on respect among students
More than 90% of students and parents of North Allegheny would recommend their school district to others, but there’s still a concern with student respect, according to the results of an annual survey. A summary of the North Allegheny School District’s annual online survey given to parents and students in...
Kennywood employee dies after being hit by vehicle outside of park
A Kennywood employee was hit by a vehicle near the West Mifflin park early Sunday morning and died at the scene. TribLive news partner WTAE reports that fire officials and police were called to the area of Kennywood Boulevard and Hoffman Boulevard for the crash that occurred at 5:46 a.m....
Drone flown over Ross Park Mall in effort to find abandoned and orphaned wells
An effort to find abandoned and orphaned gas wells in parts of Southwestern Pennsylvania took to the sky Sunday morning over Ross Park Mall. The flights, conducted before the mall opened, marked the start of field work to survey parts of Ross and Shaler along with areas of North Fayette...
Morning Roundup: Man stabbed in Carrick; Sewickley library closed due to water damage
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Saturday, Sept. 20: Man in stable condition after stabbing A man is recovering after being stabbed in the neck in Carrick. Pittsburgh police were dispatched around 2:10 a.m. Saturday to the 2300 block of Brownsville Road for reports of...
Health Department, CMU experts release findings of air report after deadly explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works
No immediate health risks were measured following the Aug. 11 explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, according to preliminary air monitoring results released Friday by the Allegheny County Health Department. Two workers were killed and 10 others were taken to area hospitals after a trio of explosions damaged Clairton...
6 North Allegheny students taken to hospital after buses crash on Pa. Turnpike in Plum
Two school buses transporting the North Allegheny marching band were involved in a crash Friday evening on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Plum while traveling to an away football game. A message was sent to all high school parents following the accident by Superintendent Brendan Hyland, who said while there were...
Closing arguments in Munhall murder trial focus on intent to kill
A prosecutor on Friday offered multiple arguments to back up her claim that Darion Abel made a conscious choice when he kicked in the door of his girlfriend’s Munhall home in 2018 and shot her 17 times. Mental illness, though, played no role, she told jurors, countering the claims of...
Civic Arena, Roberto Clemente to be memorialized with historical markers
The old Civic Arena is one of several historic sites to be commemorated with new blue historical markers, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission decided Thursday. Nearly 2,600 cast-aluminum markers found throughout the state— including 163 throughout Allegheny County — tell the stories of Native Americans, colonization, politics, athletes, entertainers,...
Unmanned vehicle drifts, striking Ross woman
A Ross woman was hospitalized after suffering injuries from an unmanned car drifting into her. A driver got out of her car, believing she had put it in park, police said. However, she forgot to apply the break and her vehicle began drifting backwards along Wellesley Avenue in Ross. A...
Tu Y Yo café in Sewickley offers Latin American coffee, small bites and sweets
Tu Y Yo means “You and I” in Spanish. It’s the moniker of the newest café in Sewickley, offering Latin American coffee, small bites and sweets. “This is my newest journey,” said owner Grace Betancourt Jones, who lives in Fox Chapel. “I talked with my husband, my children, my mother...
Testimony undermines mental illness claim by Munhall homicide defendant
During opening statements on Monday, Darion Abel’s attorney asked a jury to find his client guilty but mentally ill of shooting his girlfriend 17 times in her Munhall home. But on Thursday, Abel’s own expert psychiatrist testified that the defendant has no mental illness of any kind. No diagnosis. No...
Shaler Area plan calls for closing elementary school, changing where some grades are housed
The Shaler Area School District has prepared a plan that calls for closing the district’s elementary school and changing where some grade levels are housed. The district announced Thursday that it will present the plan, called “Building for Tomorrow,” during a community forum beginning at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29,...
He died from pneumonia 17 years after being shot. Now it’s a homicide case.
The December death of a man who was shot more than 17 years ago in North Braddock has been ruled a homicide. William Loughner had been drinking iced tea at Crud’s Bar on Brinton Avenue on June 27, 2008, when a pair of masked gunman stormed in and demanded money,...
Pirates’ Paul Skenes joins Gary Sinise Foundation to serve lunch, give aid to local first respondersVideo
Paul Skenes is usually serving up fastballs, not baked beans. But the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher swapped his rosin bag for an apron and serving spoon on Thursday morning, helping members of the nonprofit Gary Sinise Foundation present a grant and serve lunch to firefighters and paramedics in Monroeville at the...
‘We will miss u’: Memorial grows to Castle Shannon teen who died in arson
Lakyn Shelleby lived loudly. Friends and neighbors adored her, recalling an upbeat, fierce-willed young woman described by her boss as a “ball of energy.” The 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, sometimes photographed sporting a nose ring or strands of blue hair, died Sunday, an alleged homicide victim trapped...
Pittsburgh airport’s traveler satisfaction likely to rise with new terminal, survey says
Pittsburgh International Airport has ranked 13th for medium sized airport in this year’s North America Airport Satisfaction Study, just ahead of the unveiling of the new terminal project. A travel intelligence expert says the new terminal could help to improve Pittsburgh’s rankings. Mike Taylor, senior managing director of travel intelligence...
McCandless Community Day doubles its attendance with longer day, more offerings
Warm weather and pleasant skies welcomed visitors to the annual McCandless Community Day, held Sept. 13 in and around Town Hall along Grubbs Road. While it’s difficult to know for sure, Manager John Schwend estimated the number of attendees was between 2,000 and 2,500, doubling last year’s crowd. “We heard...
State budget impasse prompts Allegheny County hiring, spending freeze
Allegheny County is freezing hiring and spending because of a state budget impasse that has left funding in limbo. The county is losing out on about $75 million per quarter until the state adopts a budget. The county has a $3.1 billion budget, which has been under increasing pressure. The...
