Regional category, Page 86
Despite rising salaries, there’s a shortage of qualified superintendents. Politicized school boards and covid fallout have contributed
Superintendents of two of the largest school districts in Westmoreland County — Hempfield Area’s Tammy Wolicki and Norwin’s Jeff Taylor — announced last week they would be leaving their posts. Their departures come on the heels of Leechburg Area Superintendent Tiffany Nix’s resignation. She announced in December that she would...
Ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship couldn’t win a Senate seat with the GOP. He’s trying now as a Democrat
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former West Virginia coal executive Don Blankenship, who lost by a wide margin when he ran for a U.S. Senate seat as a Republican in 2018, filed paperwork Friday to run as a Democrat for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Blankenship’s entrance into...
Bill decriminalizing drug test strips in opioid-devastated West Virginia heads to governor
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill that would decriminalize all strips used to test drugs for deadly substances in West Virginia, the state with the nation’s highest overdose rate, is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice. Justice hasn’t said publicly if he supports the bill, which has received...
Shapiro’s higher education overhaul plan and $1,000 tuition proposal draws intrigue, skepticism
Already there are questions about the cost to cap tuition and fees for many state university students at $1,000 a semester and who would pay — not to mention bringing state universities and community colleges under one umbrella. There are regulatory, legal and logistical hurdles, all in a state whose...
Mysterious notes reported in food items, state parks, trails across Pennsylvania
Cryptic notes have been popping up all around Pennsylvania in various cereal boxes and state parks — and it looks like they’re moving west. Originally dubbed the “Schuylkill Notes” by Reddit users investigating, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, some of the messages are said to have a sinister quality...
1 killed in Peters Township house fire
A woman was killed in a fire in a Peters Township house Thursday, according to Peters Township Fire Department. Firefighters were dispatched to Spruce Drive for a house fire at 2:25 p.m., officials said. When they arrived, a woman in the front yard told responders that there was a fire...
Gov. Shapiro pitches plan to restructure state-owned universities, community colleges
Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday will propose uniting Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities and its 15 community colleges under a new governance structure to make higher education in the state more efficient and affordable. The move is part of a blueprint for reform that emerged from a working group Shapiro assembled...
Men who poisoned protected birds found guilty — 15 months after trial
Two men who killed dozens of protected birds in 2020 by spreading poisoned corn around a pond in Lawrence County have been found guilty in federal court. The verdict Wednesday for Robert Yost, 52, of New Galilee, Beaver County, and Jacob Reese, 27, of Enon Valley, Lawrence County, came more...
Penn State branch campuses face large share of $94M in proposed budget cuts
Penn State University branch campuses — their enrollments down sharply — face the largest share of $94 million in universitywide spending cuts intended to erase an operating deficit and create what President Neeli Bendapudi calls “a more sustainable future.” The 20 campuses, including those in Western Pennsylvania, would absorb a...
Summer Lee’s campaign rakes in $1M in last quarter, her best showing
Preparing for what could be a tough primary election, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said she raised $1 million in the last quarter of 2023, putting her on solid financial footing to take on her multiple challengers. It was Lee’s best fundraising quarter to date and one of the highest...
Morning Roundup: 1 injured in Brentwood fire; teen unloading groceries shot at in Marshall-Shadeland
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Thursday, Jan. 25: 1 injured in Brentwood fire One person was taken to the hospital after a fire Wednesday night in Brentwood. The house fire was reported around 10:30 p.m. along Windsor Road, according to TribLive news partner WTAE....
Western Pa. resident loses more than $1 million in widespread money laundering scheme, 2 men sentenced
Two California residents have been ordered to pay nearly $4.5 million combined in restitution as part of their federal sentences connected to an international money laundering scheme that impacted some Western Pennsylvania residents. Thien Phuc Tran, 34, and Ton Huynh Bui, 30, of Santa Ana, scammed people across the country,...
North Strabane man to plead guilty to fatally shooting bald eagle
A North Strabane man has agreed to plead guilty to fatally shooting a bald eagle last year in Washington County, court records show. As part of the plea deal, attorneys said Rodney Thomas, 51, will forfeit an air rifle and suppressor and pay $9,800 in restitution to the Pennsylvania Wildlife...
New report sees a boost in undergraduate enrollment on college campuses
Research released Wednesday suggests fall undergraduate enrollment on college campuses across most of the nation rose for the first time since before the covid-19 pandemic, ending a slump that has strained many institutions. But while more than two-thirds of states saw overall gains, others — including Pennsylvania — continued as...
Morning Roundup: 2 Pittsburgh officers injured after shots fired in Garfield
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Wednesday, Jan. 24: 2 Pittsburgh officers injured after shots fired in Garfield Two Pittsburgh police officers were injured Wednesday morning after responding to a ShotSpotter notification in the city’s Garfield neighborhood. Police were dispatched to the 5300 block of...
Coroner identifies Indiana County fire victims
Two people who were killed in an Indiana County house fire over the weekend have been identified. Merle Robinson, 81, and Janet Bloom, 75, died from inhalation of combustible products, according to county Coroner Jerry Overman. State police said firefighters were called to Fox Road in East Wheatfield, east of...
PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil with coin toss
The animal rights group PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil, the iconic Groundhog Day weather forecaster, with a gold coin. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s president Tom Dunkel urging him to swap out Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog for a gold...
Western Pa. sets record for organ, tissue, cornea donations for 5th straight year
The Center for Organ Recovery & Education on Monday announced that the Western Pennsylvania area broke its record for the number of lives saved and healed through organ, tissue and cornea donations for a fifth consecutive year. There were 404 organ donors in 2023 in an area including Western Pennsylvania,...
20 people rescued from ice floe in Lake Erie, Coast Guard says
PORT CLINTON, Ohio — Twenty people were rescued from an ice floe in Lake Erie, the Coast Guard said Monday. The Coast Guard’s Ninth District Great Lakes station said it received a report about 10:20 a.m. that the people were stuck on a mile-long floe about a half-mile off Catawba...
Morning Roundup: 3 injured in 2 fires in McCandless and Fayette County; car crashes into home in Ross
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, Jan. 22: 1 person injured in McCandless fire One person was injured in a fire early Monday morning in McCandless. The blaze broke out just before 4 a.m. on the 9900 block of Parkland Drive, according to TribLive...
Teen found dead in Mercer County
A 16-year-old boy was found dead Sunday in a stairwell in Sharon, Mercer County. His body was discovered within the 100 block of North Irvine Avenue around 1:20 p.m., according to TribLive news partner WTAE. Sharon Police identified him as Zachariah Croom, of Youngstown, Ohio. The coroner will perform an...
AI changes the game in college culture wars, experts say
Plagiarism detectors powered by artificial intelligence are emerging as a new and controversial weapon in the pitched campus culture wars between the political left and right. Some say the technology has the potential to unearth academic misconduct that previously might have gone unnoticed. Others warn it could unfairly upend careers,...
Goodwill YouthWorks program aims to help address truck, bus driver shortage
Charles Burke still gets emails asking if he’s interested in trucking jobs, even though he’s been semi-retired and driving a bus for the Penn Hills School District for several years now. “Bonuses are going up and up as places are looking for people to do commercial truck driving,” said Burke,...
2 dead in Indiana County house fire
State police said they are investigating the cause of a house fire early Saturday in Indiana County that killed two people. Authorities said the six departments were called out at 5:23 a.m. to respond to the fire at a residential structure on Fox Road in East Wheatfield. The bodies of...
JetBlue, Spirit say they will appeal ruling that blocked merger
NEW YORK — JetBlue and Spirit Airlines said Friday they will appeal a federal judge’s ruling this week that blocked their plan to combine into a single carrier. The airlines said they filed a notice of appeal with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following the terms of their...
