Western PA Local News category, Page 1298
Hempfield book challenge policy could mirror one used for websites
The process for reevaluating challenged books and materials in Hempfield Area School District libraries could soon become more stringent after board members indicated they would like to model the policy after one used for Chromebooks. Rather than going through a process of informal and formal challenges, board members are hoping...
Youngwood’s Hospaws merging with similar program for pet care during human medical emergencies
Hospaws is ending its operations, but the Youngwood-based organization’s mission of providing temporary foster homes or assistance to pets whose owners are in need of medical care will continue, president Valerie Hoegel said. Many of the nonprofit’s volunteers and foster homes are going to work with a similar program managed...
Washington Township police charge man awaiting trial with trying to intimidate witness
Washington Township police say a man who is in jail awaiting trial on multiple felony counts was charged with another felony after he tried to intimidate a witness. Harold Michael Franks, 40, 300 block of Route 356 is in the Westmoreland County jail awaiting trial on felony charges filed in...
Norwin director objects to book on inclusion, diversity used in second grade classroom
A Norwin School Board member has criticized a children’s book read to some Norwin second graders because he claimed it celebrated sexuality while emphasizing diversity and inclusion, with drawings of same-sex couples with children, interracial couples and rainbow-colored items, which could symbolize gay and lesbian pride. “I feel it is...
Sheldon Park’s Pink Out proceeds benefit Highlands students’ Change for Cancer effort
Sheldon Park hosted a Pink Out celebration Thursday at the Lloyd D. Hayden Center, where people packed the facility to raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer. Residents Council President Sydney Hayden said fundraising efforts brought in nearly $500 to be donated to Highlands High School’s Change for Cancer...
In brief: News from Fox Chapel, O’Hara and Sharpsburg
Cooper-Siegel Community Library is hosting a weekend art studio 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 29. The program is designed for youths ages 5-11 to explore different art media. The studio is open every Saturday. Materials will be provided. Registration is recommended. Contact Megan Fogt at fogtm2@coopersiegelcommunitylibrary.org or call 412-828-9520,...
Aspinwall officials exploring having charging stations in the borough
Aspinwall officials are in the early stages of exploring whether to create an official borough charging station for electric vehicles. Borough Manager Melissa O’Malley said several residents have their own charging devices, but there is no public station in town. “The environmental committee has met with Duquesne Light about their...
City Council, activists call for $10 million ‘food justice fund’ from federal covid money; mayor says money isn’t available
In a public hearing this week, Pittsburgh City Council members and activists called for the creation of a $10 million “food justice fund” using American Rescue Plan Act dollars, though the Mayor’s Office said that federal funding isn’t available for such an initiative. Councilwoman Deb Gross late last year sponsored...
North Allegheny student wins bus poster trophy
Ananyasri Boddupalli, a first-grader at Franklin Elementary, won second place in the Pennsylvania School Bus Safety poster contest. Ananyasri submitted the poster on her own when she was in kindergarten last spring and she was one of nine winners throughout the state. The contest was held by the Pennsylvania Department...
Pittsburgh airport security confiscates 5th gun in past 8 days
For the fifth time in eight days, a handgun has been confiscated from a passenger at Pittsburgh International Airport, authorities said. On Friday night, a California man was arrested at the airport when security officers found a carefully concealed Sig Sauer 9mm handgun in a passenger’s duffel bag at the...
Penn Hills man dies following Crescent Gardens Drive shooting
Police investigated a fatal shooting late Friday in Penn Hills in which someone shot two unoccupied cars in a driveway before shooting into a house, killing a 31-year-old man. Allegheny County Police reported that the incident took place shortly after 8:30 p.m. in the 300 block of Crescent Gardens Drive....
Pittsburgh man arrested in connection with August shooting
Pittsburgh police said a Spring Hill man has been jailed in connection with the shooting of a man in that neighborhood in August. Juan Still, 30, is accused of shooting the man in the chest and lower extremities around 9 p.m. Aug. 28 in the 1100 block of Brabec Street....
50th anniversary of The Tomb celebrated with gathering in Arnold
Daniel Crenner was among the first to walk through the doors of The Tomb in Arnold on Friday evening for a gathering celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Christian coffeehouse. Crenner, 69, who had lived in Arnold and Washington Township, made the trip back from his home in Sugarcreek in...
Kiski Junction Railroad Trail party attracts officials from state, region
The estimated 225 visitors Friday afternoon in Schenley celebrating the new Kiski Junction Railroad trail was about four times greater than the population of the village in Gilpin. Federal, state and local officials attended, including Cindy Adams Dunn, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; state Sen....
Scarecrows vie for votes as decades-long fall tradition continues in Ligonier
“Halloweena the Ballerina“ strikes a demi-seconde pose in her purple-and-black tutu, with arms stretched out and downward as she greets people walking near Ligonier’s central Diamond intersection. Creating her as a figure to enter in the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce’s annual scarecrow contest was a natural for the staff...
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey announces measures to make neighborhoods safer
Pittsburgh is nixing a requirement that crossing guards have driver’s licenses. The city is also moving ahead with plans to install traffic calming measures in the city’s Glen Hazel neighborhood. The measures, which Mayor Ed Gainey said aim to create safer neighborhoods, were spurred in part by a community meeting...
Squirrel Hill residents concerned about intersection near Fern Hollow Bridge
Some Squirrel Hill residents are petitioning Pittsburgh officials to temporarily hold off on reconfiguring a dangerous intersection in their neighborhood. City officials, however, claim the proposed work needs to be done quickly because money for it is included in the $25.3 million of federal funding being used to pay for...
Fawn man found guilty of sexually assaulting 2 children
A Fawn Township man who was arrested in 2019 is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting two young children. Douglas Charles Simoncic Jr., 31, of Iron Bridge Lane was found guilty Oct. 11 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to two counts each of involuntary deviate...
Westmoreland transit halts drug testing of administrative staff
The Westmoreland County Transit Authority board has eliminated a requirement for members of the agency’s administrative team to be subjected to random drug testing. The board signed off on a request after officials said the requirement was unnecessary. Its elimination also could save money, officials said. “No one has ever...
11-year-old hit by car in Pittsburgh
An 11-year-old girl was hospitalized after being hit by a car Friday afternoon near a school in Carrick. The girl, who was identified as a Pittsburgh Southbrook School student, was meeting a younger sibling who attends Pittsburgh Concord School when the incident occurred, school spokesperson Ebony Pugh said. The girl...
Allegheny County election officials announce Tarentum polling site changes
Some Tarentum voters will visit new sites in November to cast their election ballots. The Allegheny County Department of Elections announced changes Friday to two polling locations in the borough. Residents of Ward 1 will vote at First United Presbyterian Church, 913 Lock St. People who live in Ward 3...
Pa. Supreme Court rejects appeal seeking parole eligibility for 2nd-degree murder on jurisdictional grounds
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said this week that a challenge to the constitutionality of sentencing people to a mandatory life-without-parole prison term for second-degree murder must be handled through individual appellate proceedings, not Commonwealth Court. Six people serving life without parole for what is known as felony murder — the...
North Huntingdon police make another arrest in undercover drug sting
North Huntingdon police made an arrest Thursday after an undercover drug buy of 1,000 stamp bags of suspected heroin/fentanyl, which was at least the second such arrest in eight days in the township. Keith E. Blackman, 30, who lists addresses in Jeannette and North Versailles, was being held at the...
Alabama man accused of using cellphone during fatal crash with New Kensington motorcyclist
New Kensington police accused an Alabama man of looking at his cellphone while driving when he ran a red light in September 2021 and crashed into a motorcycle, killing the rider. Jim Robert Adamson, 59, of Goodwater, Ala., is charged with a felony count of homicide by vehicle along with...
Out & About: Seton Hill gallery shows artwork of area art students, educators
When she got the invitation, Shannon Pultz thought she was too busy to participate in a student-teacher art exhibition at Seton Hill University. It took a sixth-grader at Pittsburgh CAPA, where Pultz is chair of the visual art department, to change her mind. Their work is showing in “Cultivations: Art...
