Regional News category, Page 60
Snowfall impacting morning commutes in Western Pa.
Western Pennsylvanians woke up to a blanket of white this morning. Jeff Verszyla, meteorologist for WTAE, said a round of widespread snow showers will move across the area for the Friday morning commute. Before 5 a.m., a winter weather advisory for Allegheny County was issued by the National Weather Service....
Presbyterian church leader reflects on navigating changes over a dozen years
After almost 12 years as the executive presbyter for the Redstone Presbytery, the Rev. Richard “Skip” Noftzger Jr. has retired. The executive presbyter oversaw 65 Presbyterian churches in four counties. Noftzger had been in ministry 28 years and in addition to administrative duties at two universities. “I feel good about...
Canonsburg man among those injured in New Orleans
A Canonsburg man was among those injured when a man drove a truck around a police blockade and into a crowd of revelers during New Year’s celebrations early Wednesday morning in New Orleans. A family member said Jeremi Sensky, 51, was hurt in what authorities termed a terrorist attack by...
High anxiety: 2024 election takes heavy toll on stressed-out voters
World War III. A crippled economy. Unbridled immigration. Civil war, with American democracy in the crosshairs. These are the apocalyptic scenarios preoccupying supporters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. As election season enters its final hours of the 2024 race for the American presidency, Pennsylvanians find themselves balanced on a...
Young voters in Western Pa. talk issues, candidates ahead of presidential election
The economy. A woman’s right to choose. A divided America. These are issues weighing on the minds of young voters as they ready themselves for the November presidential election between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump. More than half of young voters between 18 and 29 plan...
Experts tell firsthand stories of children harmed by addicted parents
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‘Frightening rate’ of children dying due to parents’ drug abuse
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Ex-congressman: Lawmakers must do more to protect children of addicted parents
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As substance abuse rises, need for additional programs comes into focus, experts say
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‘Frightening rate’ of children dying due to parents’ drug abuse
Four days after Christmas 2020, Hannah Moore felt horror like no other when she awoke to find her 2-month-old daughter’s cold, lifeless body nestled next to her in bed, inches away from her other two children. Traces of blood trickled from Avery Davis’ mouth and nose as Moore frantically dialed...
Nursing home rating system criticized over reliability, accuracy
Tools designed to help families researching a nursing home are obscure and often criticized by industry experts over their reliability and accuracy. The Care Compare website maintained by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services houses detailed data about nursing homes, provides quality-of-care ratings and flags homes for incidents...
Some fear patient care threatened as staffing shortages plague nursing homes
An employee at a Westmoreland County nursing home says the conditions of her job have brought her to tears. Residents regularly have to wait for help and often go hungry because of a lack of people to feed them. A single staffer sometimes is asked to care for 60 residents...
Staffing shortages leave nursing homes overwhelmed, patients vulnerable, experts say
Mary Ellen Cross lived some of the best days of her life each December when she spent hour upon hour baking cookies and wrapping gifts, carefully crafting what she hoped would be the perfect, magical Christmas for her family. The baking began weeks in advance, sometimes with her eclectic playlist...
List of nursing homes cited for abuse can be incomplete, arbitrary, experts say
A review of state nursing home inspection reports reveals no mention of two patients who died about a year ago at Quality Life Services-Chicora after being given fatal doses of insulin. Registered nurse Heather Pressdee, who is charged in the killings, told investigators “she felt bad for their quality of...
Staffing shortages leave nursing homes overwhelmed, patients vulnerable, experts sayVideo
Mary Ellen Cross lived some of the best days of her life each December when she spent hour upon hour baking cookies and wrapping gifts, carefully crafting what she hoped would be the perfect, magical Christmas for her family. The baking began weeks in advance, sometimes with her eclectic playlist...
Black lung: Government, advocates eye new federal silica-dust standard to stem resurgence among coal miners
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Black lung: Advocates eye new federal silica-dust standard to stem resurgence among coal minersVideo
Mark Rankin left the coal mines, but the coal mines haven’t left Mark Rankin. Stocky and broad shouldered, the retired Uniontown-area coal miner trekked to a Washington County health clinic to see if recent coughing and tightness in his chest could be black lung. Rankin worked for years stripping coal...
Left behind: Families that suffer a police death walk a unique path
Left behind: Families that suffer a police death walk a unique path, one marked by an overwhelming loss that often is abrupt, violent and public Each year, roughly 150 law enforcement officers across the country die in the line of duty. They lose their lives in any number of ways....
A town derailed: ‘Shell-shocked’ East Palestine residents seek normalcy after train
For many people in and around East Palestine, Ohio, life changed when a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed Feb. 3 near the Pennsylvania border. The controlled burn of toxic chemicals that followed sent a large plume of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles....
Some say radon legislation in Pa. comes down to politics; others say it’s the money
State Sen. Wayne Fontana didn’t mince words. When it comes to getting a law passed requiring radon testing in schools, “I think it’s going to take a tragedy of some sort,” said Fontana, a Democrat from Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood. He was alluding to a 2019 fatal fire at an Erie...
Most Western Pennsylvania schools don’t test for radon, despite high levels in the state
As a father of four, Tim Briggs considered it common sense that schools would test for radon. As a state lawmaker, he was appalled that every school doesn’t, and he has made it his mission to do something about it. A months-long Tribune-Review investigation found that most schools in Southwestern...
These women effected change to spur radon laws in their states
For Gail Orcutt, what began as a cough and a bit of wheezing ended with a baffling diagnosis of lung cancer one day short of her 57th birthday. She never smoked, always watched her diet and never missed a chance to exercise. While recovering from surgery to remove her left...
For children, concerns over radon outweigh that for adults
In Dr. Ned Ketyer’s opinion, there should be no doubt that schools should test for radon — and test regularly. “The way radon works when it gets in the body is it damages DNA, and so that’s why radon is associated with cancer, especially lung cancer,” said Ketyer, a pediatrician...
Roberto Clemente: Keeping the Dream AliveVideo
Luis Clemente swats at insects as he stands on the edge of a swimming pool filled with stagnant, murky water in this San Juan suburb of 150,000 people. The pool had been a glistening centerpiece of Roberto Clemente Sports City. On this blistering May morning, nearly 50 years after the...
Pa. hospitals wrestle with nursing shortages as pandemic drags on
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