Local category, Page 2620

Michael Amorino told a Westmoreland County judge that his niece lived a troubled, isolated life with her mother that was marked by mental illness and abuse, all factors that led to the August 2017 beating inflicted on his elderly mother during a dispute over the volume of a Pittsburgh Steelers...

Tarentum is getting $226,000 in state funds to pay for traffic improvements at the intersection of East 10th Avenue and Corbet Street, officials announced this week. The money comes from PennDOT’s Automated Red Light Enforcement Transportation Enhancements Grant Program (ARLE Funding Program). It will be used to upgrade the intersection’s...

About 80 children from Harmar participated Saturday in the third annual “Shop with a Cop” event organized by township police. Each child had about $100 to spend, courtesy of the Target store in Harmar. Many of the children thought of others before themselves. “Many of them bought things for other...

A third sentencing hearing for the youngest member of group of former Greensburg roommates convicted in the 2010 torture killing of a mental disabled woman has been delayed as state appeal courts continue to weigh the legality of life prison terms for juvenile offenders. Angela Marinucci, now 27, has been...

Harrison plans to take on blight in a big way next year. The township is counting on a $500,000 grant from the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. Harrison has up to 100 abandoned homes it would like to demolish, 30 in the Natrona section of the township. Township Manager Rich...

The number of Kiski Area High School students taking Advanced Placement tests is nearly nine times higher than it was three years ago, and students are passing four times as many tests, according to data the district shared this week. The high school also offers AP courses to far more...

A Woodland Hills School District teacher who holds advanced degrees in administration and educational leadership is suing the district and alleging he wasn’t hired as an assistant principal because of his race. Charles Kost, of McDonald has been a teacher at Woodland Hills for 15 years. He has a master’s...

Westmoreland County commissioners could vote Thursday to hike property taxes for the first time in 15 years. Commissioners Gina Cerilli and Charles Anderson said Tuesday they have yet to commit to the proposed 2.4% tax hike as part of a finance package that includes adoption of a 2020 budget and...

Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved Mayor Bill Peduto’s $608 million operating and $108 million capital spending plans for 2020 but noted the numbers could change, depending on the outcome of ongoing contract negotiations with the police union. The operating budget represents a $33 million increase in spending over this...

Entrepreneurs who want to open a business in Trafford next year will have a shot at a $600 matching grant for improving their storefront’s facade, though there is a catch. The money is available to any business owner who has designs on sprucing up their storefront in Trafford “as long...

A research paper that studied how “puppy dog eyes” evolved to help dogs communicate with humans was ranked as one of the top 100 most influential studies of 2019. The paper, co-authored by Anne Burrows, a biological anthropologist in Duquesne University’s Department of Physical Therapy, ranked 27th in the Altmetric...

The future of Hempfield school district’s controversial tax assessment appeal program will be decided in 2020, after board members debated the process this week. The program, adopted in 2015 to target under-assessed commercial and industrial parcels, essentially raises property taxes to what they would be if officials did a countywide...

A Mt. Pleasant man is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old over 14 months, according to borough police. Jarrod Rochat, 27, was charged Monday with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse causing serious bodily injury, indecent assault, corruption of minors and child endangerment. Police said the child described during an interview this...

Want to see a card trick? Hempfield high school students have one, and it takes over 20 different steps to execute. Performed by a student-built contraption named “Ab’rube’cadabra,” Hempfield students clinched the top spot last week for the magic trick at the annual Chain Reaction Contraption competition held at the...

Big Burrito Restaurant Group continues to expand. The company announced Tuesday it planned to opened a second Alta Via restaurant in McCandless and had another eatery in the works for Lawrenceville. The first Alta Via, an Italian restaurant, opened in April in O’Hara. The second location will be at 5300...

New Kensington will switch garbage haulers in 2020, but residents won’t pay more for trash collection. City council awarded the contract to County Hauling, a division of Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill of Rostraver. The company will replace Waste Management, which has been the city’s hauler for several years. The cost to...

When Debi Hall’s daughter, Kelly, saw the Christmas decorations at the former Greengate Mall in Hempfield years ago, she thought she was at the North Pole. Each year, the mall was decorated with a towering Christmas tree set up near the Lazarus department store, curtains of string lights flowing from...

A baby was in good health after being found on a porch in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood early Tuesday morning. According to police, officers went to a residence in the 1900 block of Termon Avenue around 12:30 a.m. A woman told officers she heard knocking on her door for several...

The Mon Wharf parking area will be closed Wednesday because of flooding, the Public Parking Authority of Pittsburgh announced Tuesday. All vehicles will have to be removed from the lot by 7 p.m. Tuesday, the authority said. The wharf will be closed until further notice. A flood advisory for the...

For South Hills residents living without a car, simple tasks like getting to the grocery store or doctor’s office can be a challenge. Access to transportation in the area is a steady problem, local leaders say, and they’re hoping a new pilot program will help chip away at the issue....

Lyft will offer free rides for unemployed Pittsburghers to and from job interviews, job training programs and the first two weeks of a new job, company officials announced on Tuesday. Lyft’s Jobs Access Program aims to close short-term transportation gaps for unemployed people who need rides to jobs and job...