Allegheny County News category, Page 51
Penn Hills students return for 2025-26 school year
Penn Hills students donned their backpacks and pencil cases as they returned to the locker-lined halls on Aug. 19. Elementary, middle and high school students were greeted with open arms following a series of back-to-school welcome events leading up to the first day, including a PHamily Fun Fest on Aug....
Movie producer pleads guilty to stabbing, stalking wife in South Fayette
An actor and movie producer pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to stabbing his wife nearly three years ago at her South Fayette home. John Mowod, 61, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas E. Flaherty on Nov. 19 on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment....
Penn Hills officials appoint acting police chief
On the heels of Ronald Como’s retirement from the Penn Hills police chief position, municipal officials have appointed an acting police chief. Officer Jason Bonace was called upon for the position. “Penn Hills has the largest municipal police force outside of the city of Pittsburgh. We have the largest municipality...
Rosedale Beach Club prepares for 9th annual Rosedale Fall Festival
Dani Scott was raised at the Rosedale Beach Club in Penn Hills. “My parents moved to Rosedale 54 years ago. … I swear my mom picked the house because of the pool,” said Scott, 51. After being on the board for 15 years, she now serves as the Rosedale board...
South Fayette Township School District starts police force
The South Fayette Township School District has created its own police department and hired Michael Ziemianski as its first officer. Ziemianski, 41, of Canonsburg, is a major in the Army National Guard and has served for the past year as a resource officer with the Fort Cherry School District. He...
Shaler fire company suspends 3 of 5 members accused of answering call while drunk
Three members of a Shaler volunteer fire department are suspended following allegations they were part of a crew that responded to a call under the influence of alcohol earlier this month. A total of five members of the Undercliff Volunteer Fire Company were involved in the Aug. 2 incident. Of...
PennDOT cancels weekend closure of southbound 62nd Street Bridge in Etna, Pittsburgh
Editor’s note: PennDOT announced Wednesday, Aug. 20 that this scheduled closure has been postponed. A new date has not yet been determined. PennDOT has postponed a planned weekend closure of the 62nd Street Bridge in Etna and Pittsburgh. The closure was scheduled to run from 9 p.m. Friday to 5...
Allegheny County Jail guard union seeks to overturn ban on use of leg shackles for medical visits
When Allegheny County voters approved a referendum in 2021 eliminating the use of solitary confinement at the county jail, they also barred use of leg shackles by corrections officers there. As a result, jail staff cannot restrain the legs of incarcerated people being transported to the hospital for medical appointments...
Carlynton to restrict student cellphone use during school day
This school year, Carlynton Jr.-Sr. High School will implement a policy restricting personal cellphone use for students. District officials say the policy follows a yearlong research and community engagement process. They say the policy will foster stronger student focus, mental health and academic engagement. “This initiative reflects our commitment to...
Chartiers Valley bolsters security, safety initiatives
Chartiers Valley School District has implemented new safety and security initiatives across all of its buildings for the new school year. Marc Hubert, the district’s safety and security coordinator, provided an update on the plans during the school board’s Aug. 12 meeting. “Every initiative we proposed was done through a...
2nd driver in high-speed crash that killed Serra Catholic teen gets prison time
A man who police said was racing another driver across a Dravosburg bridge nearly two years ago, leading to a crash that killed a Serra Catholic High School student, will serve at least 16 months in state prison. Andrew Voigt, 56, of Penn Hills was taken into custody immediately following...
Community the theme of Carlynton’s back-to-school celebration
Members of the Carlynton School District community kicked off the school year the best way they know how: a celebration. The district’s third-annual back-to-school celebration was held Aug. 15 at Honus Wagner Stadium in Carnegie. “Tonight’s celebration is about more than just the start of a new school year —...
Police say Wilkinsburg care worker stole $64,000 from woman with dementia
An in-home care worker is accused of stealing $64,000 from an elderly woman with severe dementia by making fraudulent check deposits, according to Allegheny County Police. Brittany Miller, 37, of Wilkinsburg was a caretaker for a 70-year-old woman whose condition had rendered her nonverbal and dependent on around-the-clock care, according...
Shaler approves policies on vendors, metal detecting in township parks
Shaler commissioners have approved two policies affecting township parks. One regulates outside vendors in the parks, while the other prohibits the use of metal detectors. Commissioners approved each at their Aug. 13 meeting. Under the policy on vendors, organizations wishing to have an outside vendor at an event are required...
Authorities name Pittsburgh man fatally shot last month in Penn Hills
A man who was fatally shot in Penn Hills last month has been identified as a 31-year-old resident of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday publicly identified the victim as Austin Lamont Turner. He was found by police on July 7 in the 11000 block...
Allegheny County Health Department confirms first human West Nile case of year
A Plum resident’s fever, malaise and digestive trouble since mid-July was confirmed to be the first human case of West Nile this year, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. The person’s name and gender were not released, but the health department said the person is recovering at home. West...
Man arrested in connection with Shaler Area School District threat
A 28-year-old man’s threats to kill two men and students at Shaler Area Elementary School prompted the district to delay the start of the new school year. Allegheny County Police charged Daniel White, 28, of Turtle Creek with three misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats. He was arraigned Monday night and...
English teacher at Shaler Area High School spends summer researching August Wilson archives for new lesson plan
English teacher Anne Loudon knew of the late 1990s feud between playwright August Wilson and theater critic Robert Brustein through her knowledge of Wilson’s 1996 “The Ground on Which I Stand” speech that sparked the dispute. What she didn’t know — but discovered during her summer research — were the...
3 injured when 2 women get stuck on hill at Shaler’s Fall Run Park
Three people suffered minor injuries Sunday after two women got stuck on a hill in Shaler’s Fall Run Park. Shaler police Chief Sean Frank said police, firefighters and emergency medical services went to Fall Run Park just before 1 p.m. to help two women in their 20s who became stuck...
Bloody fight in West Mifflin leads to death of 1 man, homicide charge for another
A West Mifflin man has been charged with criminal homicide in a bloody fight Saturday night that resulted in the death of another man who was staying at his home. Allegheny County police said Mario Alejandro Perez Santos, no age given, was pronounced dead at the trailer home in the...
Clairton Coke Works, site of deadly explosions, stirs both pride and pain
Brian Doyle remembers the explosion that hurled him to the coke plant’s floor — but little else from that day. It was a Wednesday — July 14, 2010 — and Doyle, a steamfitters union member and contractor for Power Piping, was inside the Clairton Coke Works getting ready to repair...
‘Inherent dangers’ seen as ever-present in steel industry
Rich Lattanzi knows all about safety in U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley facilities. At age 26, decades before he was elected in 2010 as mayor of Clairton — a city built, largely, to run the coke works — the former plumber started a three-decade U.S. Steel career by toiling in the...
Paving work on westbound Parkway East finishes early
Paving on the westbound Parkway East scheduled to run from Friday night to Monday morning has finished much earlier. PennDOT announced late Saturday afternoon that the work in Monroeville, Penn Hills and Wilkins was completed and restrictions were lifted. The work saw westbound I-376 reduced to a single lane between...
2-year I-79 Wexford interchange project scheduled to begin
Work on a $46.5 million, two-year project to improve the Wexford interchange on Interstate 79 is scheduled to start Monday, PennDOT announced. Crews from Golden Triangle Construction will begin to mobilize equipment and prepare staging areas in the area of the interstate and Route 910 in Franklin Park and Marshall....
Expect traffic jams — and use caution — as Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, other colleges have move-in days
Pittsburgh officials want to reminded motorists to be extra aware of their surroundings this month due to college move-ins and potential closures this weekend. Travelers should prepare for significant traffic jams in and around Oakland as college students prepare for a new semester at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon...
