Regional category, Page 191

In response to wildfires spreading across northern and western Canada, officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared Tuesday a Code Orange air quality action day for several areas of the state, including parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. According to a news release from the department, light winds...

State police investigated a murder-suicide Saturday in Fayette County that left two men dead. Troopers said they were dispatched to a shooting on East End Road in Bullskin just before noon and found Chad William Lowry, 34, of Connellsville, dead. The suspect fled in a truck, police said. While investigators...

As businesses have taken “closed indefinitely” signs out of their windows and reopened their doors, the landscape of a post-pandemic workforce is changing and depending on an unexpected demographic — teens. Teenagers have become one of the largest segments of the working population. The Associated Press reported that, in May,...

The family of a Connellsville woman launched a fundraising campaign to help cover the cost of a double organ transplant. The family of Rebecca Rowan, 26, started the GoFundMe page following an incident while Rowan and her brother were hiking in Arizona. Family members say the Fayette County siblings went...

Throughout the height of the covid-19 pandemic, it seemed as if the opioid epidemic had come to a sudden halt — largely because coronavirus headlines dominated newsstands, television broadcasts and everyday conversation. The latest overdose death figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, convey a starkly opposite...

The University of Pittsburgh’s faculty members will be able to vote starting next month on whether they want the United Steelworkers to represent them in contract negotiations. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board decided the secret-ballot vote for about 3,000 employees will be conducted from Aug. 27 to Oct. 12, the...

Woodland Hills High School is losing a principal, and the Aliquippa School District is gaining a new superintendent. On Wednesday, the Aliquippa School Board unanimously voted to hire Phillip K. Woods, who grew up in Aliquippa, as its superintendent. He replaces Superintendent Peter Carbone. Woods has been principal at Woodland...

A Wexford woman who worked as a wildlife associate at Nemacolin Wildlife Adventure is suing her employer after a Himalayan black bear almost killed her while performing a trick with it two years ago for a tour group. Megan Alborg, 24, had just started working at Nemacolin, when, on July...

HARRISBURG — Penn State will impose its first tuition increase for incoming in-state undergraduate students since the 2017-18 school year, under a plan approved by trustees on Thursday. Incoming Pennsylvania resident students will see a 2.5% tuition increase at all campuses for the 2021-22 school year. At the University Park...

A Harrisburg woman testified Tuesday afternoon that she “felt disrespected” when she ran over and killed her boyfriend with her minivan at a busy city intersection nearly two years ago. “I was upset, frustrated. I felt disrespected and ignored,” Dolly Hendrickes said during the second day of her Dauphin County...

In their first move toward building a consolidated mega school comprising California, Clarion and Edinboro universities, the board of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education has named Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson interim president of Cal U. Her appointment Wednesday places Pehrsson, who joined the State System as president of Clarion University...

Catholics in Pennsylvania will soon again be required to attend Mass. Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Thursday along with bishops across the state that a special dispensation issued during the covid-19 pandemic will be lifted on Aug. 15. During normal circumstances, Catholics are obligated to...

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission on Thursday reported on social media that the invasive New Zealand mudsnail has been found in several popular southcentral Pennsylvania trout streams, including those in Cumberland County. The commission said the mudsnails were found in Trindle Spring Run, Big Spring Creek and LeTort Spring...

Pennsylania’s system for issuing hunting licenses has experienced a slowdown. According to Game Commission officials, the new system for issuing state licenses, including antlerless deer licenses, has operated slowly during peak sales periods. One such period began Monday, when the system began accepting applications for antlerless licenses. “While the new...

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education will move forward to consolidate California, Clarion and Edinboro universities into a single university in Western Pennsylvania, the state schools’ board of governors decided unanimously Wednesday. Work also is underway to combine Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities into a single unit in...

Over 1.5 million Pennsylvania students rely on bus drivers to get to and from school, sporting events and other activities — but the industry is struggling to overcome a driver shortage. The Pennsylvania School Bus Association (PSBA) — which consists of over 300 school bus contractors and industry partners —...

The Richard King Mellon Foundation is looking to invest $1 million in three companies whose members can pitch the best ideas for making a social impact in areas like economic development, economic mobility, health and well-being and environmental conservation. The social-impact investment competition will ask for-profit companies to submit ideas...

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is lifting fishing restrictions beginning Saturday at the Upper Pond in Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County to clear out as many fish before draining it. Anglers can take fish, starting Saturday, of all seasons, sizes, and creel limits in the Upper Pond...

The cost of Pitt education is increasing this fall as the university prepares to resume routine operations after more than a year of pandemic restrictions. The increases, adopted Tuesday, call for a 2.5% bump to the lowest base tuition at Pitt’s Oakland campus, taking the cost for Pennsylvania residents from...

A Somerset County man died after crashing his pickup truck early Tuesday, according to state police. Lucas D. Hayman, 20, of Berlin, was driving a Ford Ranger on Route 31 near Ringler Road in Stonycreek just before 6 a.m. when he crossed the center line and slammed into a building,...

Everyone can be an artist July 24-25 in Somerset as the annual Chalk the Block festival returns for its fifth year. Art will cover the sidewalks of Uptown Somerset, courtesy of professional chalk artists, competitions for emerging and youth artists, a mini-mural from Laurel Arts and an open art-making space...

Duquesne University’s long-planned college of medicine received a financial boost Tuesday with a $2 million gift from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. University officials said the grant will help build the foundation of a new college of medicine designed to graduate primary care doctors to help alleviate the shortage of...

The Beaver County coroner was called to the scene of a shooting Monday night in which at least three people were injured, according to a Beaver County 911 dispatcher. Crews responded to the 900 block of 10th Avenue in Beaver Falls shortly before 9:30 p.m. for reports of the shooting....

They’re smoking again in Pennsylvania casinos after a temporary ban during the pandemic left them smoke-free for about a year. When the state’s mask mandate lifted June 28, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which oversees casinos, allowed the gaming sites to once again permit its guests to smoke. The temporary...