Editor's Picks category, Page 398

The lights stayed on. The lines stayed open. And 1999 ended with a whimper rather than a bang. I wrote those words in a news story for the Tribune-Review at the end of my shift as the calendar turned from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000. It had been...

It’s New Year’s Eve — time once again to make a resolution to do something better in the new year. Starting with Halloween candy, continuing with the Thanksgiving feast and finishing off with holiday indulgences in December, it’s no wonder that many of our resolutions have to do with getting...

Even celebrities sometimes have trouble finding a date. Award-winning actress Sharon Stone, best known for starring in “Basic Instinct” in 1992, got bumped from dating app Bumble after users thought her account was fake. But turns out it was actually her. Stone shared on her official Twitter page Monday that...

Barack Obama included a Pittsburgh gem in his list of top books from of the year. The former president and avid reader shared via Twitter 19 titles that impressed him. One of his sports favorites was Jim Rooney’s “A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl...

The Pennsylvania Sea Grant has developed an app for the public — primarily anglers, boaters and other users of waterways — to identify and report aquatic invasive species. These invasive species can harm natural resources and impact public use of waterways. According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, some...

An East Deer family of six left homeless after a Friday morning fire is expected to move into a new place in the township Monday. The Red Cross initially assisted Aaron Ciccanti, his fiancee, Andrea Small, and Small’s four children, two boys and two girls, with a temporary place to...

A community is rallying in support of an East Deer family who lost everything in a Friday morning fire. The Red Cross is assisting Aaron Ciccanti, his fiancee, Andrea Small, and their four children with a temporary place to stay, clothing and food after their home at 405 Freeport Road...

The Vandergrift Improvement Program is beginning to make progress on renovating the town’s historic J.C. Penney building at 134 Grant Ave. after years of saving and struggle. The building has sat vacant for more than a decade. The Vandergrift Improvement Project owns the building. VIP recently invited Patton Engineering to...

RALEIGH, N.C. — A 66-year-old man who demanded money from a North Carolina bank isn’t being charged with a crime, officials say. The man was at a Wells Fargo in Wilmington on Thursday when he handed a teller a note with his request, according to police spokeswoman Linda Thompson. But...

Pittsburgh police are once again reminding New Year’s Eve revelers that celebratory gunfire is illegal and officers will monitor the city’s gunshot detection system to track down violators. Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said in a statement that police will keep an eye on ShotSpotter alerts throughout the city and...

A state legislator has introduced a bill in Tennessee that would require state-funded elementary and secondary school student-athletes to compete as the gender stated on their original birth certificate. HB 1572 states that any school found violating the law would be “immediately ineligible to continue to receive public funds of...

A research trip to Cambodia prompted a University of Pittsburgh graduate to change his career trajectory and create an international nonprofit organization aimed at helping people get soap. In a remote village where he was studying climate change, Samir Lakhani watched a woman bathing her newborn son, scrubbing his skin...

Captured by the Tribune-Review visuals staff, this collection of our most visually compelling images from 2019 reminds us of the most intriguing news, sports and cultural events of the year....

At a time of partisanship, polarization and rancor, Christmas comes along to smooth the hard edges of our divisions. Acts of kindness somehow come more naturally this time of year. But by the time February rolls around, everybody’s grouchy again. Does kindness have any staying power? Perhaps because kindness may...

When Americans were asked to name the rudest cities in the country, Pittsburgh landed about in the middle. The Steel City ranked 23 out of the top 50 metro areas, according to a new Business Insider survey of 2,092 adults. Poll respondents were asked in October and November to choose...

SAN FRANCISCO — A new cafe culture is brewing in the San Francisco area, where a growing number of coffee houses are banishing paper to-go cups and replacing them with everything from glass jars to rental mugs and BYO cup policies. What started as a small trend among neighborhood cafes...

A dancer born with one hand is the first person with a visible disability ever hired by New York’s famed Radio City Rockettes. “I don’t want to be known as the dancer who has one hand, and not because that’s a bad thing,” Sydney Mesher, who joined the Rockettes this...

A lot of crazy things have washed up on the shores of the Outer Banks. But it’s rare to have something show up that baffles the locals. What’s this strange object? A 3½-inch-long yellowish seashell. Of course, it’s not just any seashell. Turns out, it’s one that the National Park...