Local category, Page 1104

A homeless man faces charges after, police say, he took drugs and hypodermic needles into Latrobe’s Adams Memorial Library. According to police, Alexander Kimmick, 24, locked himself in the library bathroom with the drug paraphernalia on Monday. Library staff told Kimmick to leave to no avail. Kimmick continued to refuse...

A Blairsville man faces charges after police say he burglarized a Latrobe home and stole a laptop from it. Thursday morning, a man told police that someone entered his Spring Street home and stole his MacBook, backpack and several other items. Using security cameras, Latrobe police found that Vincent Skillings,...

Pittsburgh police in the city’s Zone 3 said they plan to use survey results to improve relations with residents. Starting Monday, police in Zone 3 will launch a trial of AXON My90, a program that uses brief surveys to allow community members to provide feedback on police interactions. “The anonymous...

FORT STEWART, Ga. — The Army has charged a 28-year-old soldier with murder in the fatal shooting of a sergeant at a Georgia base. Officials at Fort Stewart identified the suspected gunman Friday as Spc. Shay A. Wilson of Cambria Heights, New York. He has been charged in a military...

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has issued a notice of violation against Shell’s multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, which became fully operational last month. Shell was hit with the violation notice on Wednesday after the DEP said it exceeded the emission standards set between the company and...

An online fundraiser has been set up to help the three young daughters of a New Kensington man who was found shot to death in the parking lot of his apartment building. The GoFundMe page was established for the children of James Michael Hayes, 31, who was found shot to...

The Westmoreland County Election Board this week issued a final certification of results from five voting precincts subjected to a court-ordered recount. Voters from precincts in Salem, Hempfield, Loyalhanna, Lower Burrell and Ligonier Borough petitioned the courts to recount votes cast as part of the Nov. 8 general election for...

Chartiers Valley Middle School has been named a PA Don Eichhorn Schools: “Schools to Watch.” The designation recognizes the level of academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structures and processes at the school. “What an honor to be recognized for our outstanding team and their commitment to helping...

Apollo police accused a man whose criminal history prohibits him from possessing a gun with pointing a pistol at a woman and threatening her. Roberto J. Santiago-Cruz, 35, of the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue was charged with a felony count of illegal possession of a firearm along with reckless...

Penn Township commissioners will vote on a proposed 2023 budget Dec. 21 that includes a host of capital improvement construction projects. The $10.3 million spending plan does not raise any taxes or cut any services, according to township finance director Colleen Gain. Most notable in the budget, Gain said, are...

Tarentum residents will pay the same for garbage collection in 2023 but will no longer have unlimited service. Council was notified in October that Waste Management was not able to extend the borough’s current contract that provides unlimited service because of a lack of drivers. The borough advertised for bids...

Leet zoning hearing board members have called for a special meeting to consider appealing an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge’s ruling regarding a proposed high school. Senior Judge Joseph James issued his six-page opinion on Nov. 28 overturning the township’s zoning board decision, which in March refused to grant a...

Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday approved payments totaling $45,000 to settle two federal lawsuits. One case involved a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2017 by a deputy sheriff who claimed the department’s drug-sniffing dog was removed from his care as retaliation for speaking with state investigators probing suspected election law violations by...

A Texas man was granted bail Thursday after spending two weeks behind bars in connection with a Hempfield hit and run that left a man seriously injured. District Judge Joseph DeMarchis set $100,000 bail for Quantae Beavers, 25, of Dallas. DeMarchis previously denied bail after Beavers’ Nov. 30 arrest in...

‘Tis the season for holiday music, theater and partying and, from the classics to prog rock to on-screen hilarity, Pittsburgh is filled with it this weekend. Trans-Siberian Orchestra The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is back in Pittsburgh for 2022 with the return of “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve: The Best of TSO...

Christmas classics Westmoreland Performing Arts will stage these holiday shows on Friday in Science Hall Theater at Westmoreland County Community College, 145 Pavilion Lane, Hempfield: • “A Christmas Carol,” 6 p.m. WPA’s Home and Cyber School Theatre Troupe will present an adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ classic through a series...

Some Pine-Richland parents say the district violated the First Amendment’s religious provisions and side-stepped parental medical decisions after eighth-grade students participated in a week of “mindfulness” lessons created by Allegheny Health Network. In November, the district hosted the “Chill Mobile” — a mobile mental health clinic launched by AHN and...

Pine-Richland School District will welcome some new faces and say farewell to a familiar one in the next few months. The district’s director of student services and special education, Noel Hustwit, who has been with the district since 2012, is retiring in March. Initially hired as the director of special...

Beth Samuel Jewish Center Shabbat Morning Services are held every Saturday at 10 a.m. in person and on Zoom. Kabbalat Shabbat Services (via Zoom), 7 p.m. Dec. 16. Torah Yoga, 8:45 a.m. Dec. 17. Join Jennifer Ferris-Glick via Zoom for mindful yoga and meditation. Free for all ages. Annual Chanukah Party...

A North Huntingdon corporate executive pleaded guilty Thursday to forging a judge’s name on a fake court record as part of a plot police said was designed to convince his lover to continue an extramarital affair. Dennis George Durmis Jr., 50, was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and perform...

The Pittsburgh Zoo will start the new year with a new, but not unfamiliar, name. PPG and the PPG Foundation will relinquish their naming rights to the aquarium at the zoo, the Zoological Society of Pittsburgh and PPG announced. Beginning Jan. 1, the name will return to Pittsburgh Zoo &...

It seems as if — at least this holiday season — what was old is new again at Westmoreland Mall. On a December afternoon, the mall is buzzing with happy shoppers, hungry food court patrons and cheerful Christmas tunes. Children wave to their parents from the Christmas train, a kiosk...

An Apollo man who served four years in state prison for strangling a 5-year-old has been accused of hitting a 10-year-old in the face so hard that bruises were still visible two days later. Leland Joseph Latscha, 31, of Thorn Street was charged with felony counts of endangering the welfare...

Greensburg Council this week finalized a 2023 city budget of about $13 million without increasing taxes. City property owners will continue to pay real estate taxes totaling 27.05 mills. That amount includes 1 mill each to help support the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library and to cover public safety expenses that...