Editor's Picks category, Page 409
Carnegie Museum researchers discover new reptile genus, species
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History might be closed to the public right now, but its staff is still busy with research — including the discovery of a reptile from the Late Paleozoic period that had a crucial role in shifting its species’ diet from eating insects to eating plants....
Allegheny County map shows where free food is being distributed
Allegheny County has created a map to assist those who may be seeking free food distributions during the coronavirus pandemic. The map breaks down the distributions into groups, including some that serve only students or only seniors. The map can also be filtered to include specific results. It includes school...
Analyst: Egg prices jump as demand increases during pandemic
The price of an 18-pack of large eggs was $2.59 Monday at the Giant Eagle in the Edgewood Towne Centre. On Sept. 21, 2019, a similar package of eggs from the same store was $1.99. Nationwide, sales of eggs have doubled since January. People are buying more when they shop...
Adapting: Greensburg nursing home staffer helps residents adjust
Editor’s note: Adapting is a regular series spotlighting the ways a global pandemic is changing the everyday lives of people in Western Pennsylvania. Excitement fills the halls of Greensburg Care Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays as bingo numbers are called over the loudspeakers, residents checking their cards while sitting in...
Pittsburgh couple’s virus song goes viral on YouTubeVideo
A Pittsburgh couple used their housebound time to fight back at coronavirus with a parody song. Claire and Mel Vatz based their “We’re All Home Bound” on the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Homeward Bound.” The couple sent the video to about 35 friends and family Sunday night. The YouTube video...
Holocaust Center to host virtual events for Genocide Awareness Month
In a time of social distancing, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is promoting a national series of virtual events for the month of April, Genocide Awareness Month. April 1 is the start of #TogetherWeRemember, including 30 days of free, all-digital content and workshops from leaders around the country in the...
Former WYEP ‘Soul Show’ host Stephen Chatman dies of covid-19
Stephen Chatman was a different kind of radio host. His former colleagues at WYEP remember him as easygoing at the microphone — never formal. He spoke to listeners like he was talking with friends, casually and unhurried. “It was that really personal aspect that he brought,” said Michael Canton, WYEP’s...
‘Masks for all’ movement grows while medical officials still recommend targeted use
The debate over who should wear a face mask is continuing as some health experts and lawmakers urge the public to wear a mask when they go out to run an errand or visit a communal space. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends that anyone who is...
Hundreds of cars line up for help from Pittsburgh food bankVideo
Hundreds of cars lined up Monday waiting to receive boxes of food from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank amid the covid-19 crisis. Unlike last week, the cars were not lining up to get into the Kennywood parking lot but across the street from the food bank’s headquarters in Duquesne....
Western Pa. clergy send signs of hope to their communitiesVideo
As churches refrain from holding gatherings during this time of coronavirus precautions, we asked clergy for messages they would like to send to their parishioners. Rev. James Arter of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Leechburg, Msgr. Michael Begolly of Mount Saint Peter in New Kensington and Rev. Greg Spencer of...
Macy’s to furlough majority of its 130,000 workers
Macy’s says it will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chain closed its stores in response to collapsing sales during the pandemic. The majority of its 130,000 employees, including stock people and sales clerks, will still collect health benefits, but the...
Police seize liquor in Erie in probe of illegal sales
Pennsylvania State Police liquor enforcement officers seized 59 bottles of liquor during a search on Saturday afternoon of an east Erie residence in a probe of possible illegal alcohol sales. A 24-year-old man accused of offering the bottles for sale on social media will face criminal charges in the incident,...
Editorial: Helping each other in pandemic
Bad situations can bring out the best in people. It can also bring out the worst. People are scared and unsure in the coronavirus pandemic. They don’t know what’s coming next on the economic roller coaster, and they are nervous about grocery shopping and opening doors. And let’s just admit...
Artist transforms Uptown tiger into ‘Tiger King’ portrait of Joe Exotic
Pop culture is a big part of Jeremy Raymer’s art, and he knows the value of having a finger on the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist. So when a friend mentioned the old tiger’s head, painted on a wall near the intersection of Moultrie Street and Tustin Street behind the...
Covid-19 pandemic provides ‘haunting’ parallel to deadly 1918 global flu infectionsVideo
Hauntingly similar. A little more than a century after a global influenza epidemic that cut a deadly path across Western Pennsylvania, that’s how Thomas Soltis describes the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading rapidly through much of Pennsylvania — having already killed 34 people in the state and more than 30,000...
Highland Park family escapes Slovakia as borders close due to coronavirus
John McCarthy was thrilled when he found out he had been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Slovakia this year. It was the professional opportunity of a lifetime for the Robert Morris University history professor. McCarthy, 44, and his wife Ann, 41, looked forward to life in Bratislava. He...
97-year-old Latrobe woman livestreams baking lessons on FacebookVideo
Back in the day, mothers and grandmothers passed down their culinary knowledge to daughters and granddaughters side-by-side in the kitchen, waiting to mix in an egg or lick extra icing from the spoon. On Sunday, 97-year-old Lucy Pollock, of Latrobe, will do the same. The only difference is that her...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland County, we will be OK!
My wife always tells my children, “I would jump in front of a bus to save your life.” Westmoreland County, I want you to know that the doctors, nurses and first responders of this county will jump in front of a virus to save your lives! Every day health care...
Adapting: Harrison family livestreams concerts from their living room to cope with pandemic
Editor’s note: Adapting is a regular series spotlighting the ways a global pandemic is changing the everyday lives of people in Western Pennsylvania. Christa Beck could not stop sharing music. It’s what she has always done as an instructor with Kindermusik, a children’s music education program. The covid-19 pandemic and...
Average U.S. gas price falls below $2 a gallon
The national average price of gasoline has fallen below $2 a gallon for the first time in four years, price-watching service GasBuddy announced Friday. The last time the U.S. average was $1.99 a gallon was March 23, 2016. In Pennsylvania, the top 10 lowest prices ranged from $1.55 to $1.79...
Experts: Little worry about groceries transmitting coronavirus
Relax, your food isn’t trying to kill you — probably. While grocery stores have increased sanitation measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, some consumers are worried they have more cleaning to do when they get their goods home. Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician Dr. Amesh Adalja doesn’t think shoppers...
Baby Shark returns to help you wash your hands — doo, doo …Video
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet. Baby Shark is back. This time, Pinkfong takes its infectious — er, maybe bad choice of words — its earworm song and made it all about hand washing. And the result? After listening to “Wash Your Hands...
Pennsylvania now leaves it up to those with covid-19 to warn others about exposure
An auto parts store in New Kensington. A Derry Township skilled nursing center. Colleges from Greensburg to Pittsburgh. All have reported positive coronavirus tests in recent days. And all are on their own to let others know about potential exposure. State officials no longer perform that service. The Pennsylvania Department...
Home internet jammed up? Try these steps before upgrading
With so much of the U.S. workforce — and its families — now cooped up at home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s not a huge surprise that home internet is showing the strain. If you’ve had a business videoconference stutter while your teenagers play Call of...
Comcast offering free on-demand content during outbreak
Comcast announced Thursday it is opening up some of its premium content and some on-demand offerings for free to customers to help them deal with being stuck at home during the coronavirus outbreak. In a release, the company said the content is available for Xfinity X1 and Flex customers and...
