North Huntingdon woman saw Pittsburgh’s transformation from `Smoky City’
Lois June Drexler grew up on Mt. Washington in the 1930s and 1940s, when Pittsburgh was known as the “Smoky City.” The steel mills were belching out smoke on both sides of the Monongahela River — the South Side and Hazelwood — and homes like the one young Lois Bressler...
Alabama man dies when gun in diaper bag goes off outside Chuck E. Cheese
VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — An Alabama man has died days after he was accidentally shot outside a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant when a gun discharged inside a baby’s diaper bag. Al.com quotes the Jefferson County coroner’s office as saying Tuesday that 22-year-old Timothy Roshun Smith Jr. has died. Police in...
What the public will not see in the Mueller reportVideo
WASHINGTON — The special counsel’s Trump-Russia report will be out on Thursday for all to see. But not all of it. The Democrats’ demands for a full, unredacted version of Robert Mueller’s report are likely to prompt a political and legal battle that could last for months, if not much...
Eastern hellbender voted Pennsylvania’s official amphibian
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is getting an official amphibian, a nocturnal salamander that can grow to be more than two feet long. The House voted 191-6 on Tuesday to grant the honor to the Eastern hellbender, and Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said he plans to sign it. The path to legislative...
United Way of Southwestern PA to honor donors
The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania will toast donors Tuesday who have helped make the organization’s initiatives benefiting local families a reality. Those being honored at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh are: Kim and Curt Fleming; Becky and John Surma and the Ryan Memorial Foundation. “Through the commitment...
Deputies: Kentucky substitute teacher downed vodka, endangered kidsVideo
GEORGETOWN, Ky. — A substitute teacher in Kentucky has been jailed for allegedly endangering middle school students by teaching while drunk. WKYT-TV reports 32-year-old Brook Ellen West was arrested Monday on charges of public intoxication and endangering the welfare of a minor. Scott County Sheriff’s deputies say she told authorities...
Fox draws nearly 2.6 million viewers for Bernie Sanders town hall
NEW YORK — Sen. Bernie Sanders took heat from some Democrats for holding a town hall meeting on Fox News Channel. But it turned out to be the most-watched town hall of the campaign season so far. The Nielsen company estimated that 2.55 million people watched the Sanders event on...
USDA revamps website to help
farmers manage loans, hire workersVideo
Farmers looking for help with their loans or with hiring foreign workers need look no further than the newly-revamped website Farmers.gov. The website, launched in 2018 by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, recently added features to help farmers manage their farm loans and navigate the application process for H-2A...
Notre Dame University pledges $100,000 toward Paris cathedral renovation
The University of Notre Dame in Indiana will donate $100,000 toward the renovation of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following a devastating fire, the university president said Tuesday. The Rev. John Jenkins announced the donation a day after the fire destroyed the cathedral’s spire and roof. Jenkins says the bells...
Report: U.S. consumed more energy in 2018 than ever before
The United States consumed more energy in 2018 than ever before, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. Primary energy consumption in the U.S. reached a record high of 101.3 quadrillion British thermal units in 2018, up 4% from 2017 and 0.3% above the previous record set in 2007....
Ex-Mass. Gov. Bill Weld to challenge Trump for 2020 Republican nomination
Bill Weld is giving President Donald Trump a run for his money. The former Massachusetts governor and perennial political candidate announced Monday he’s going to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination in 2020, becoming the first and likely the only Republican to do so. “In these times of great political...
Scottdale chiropractor dedicated to his profession
An early encounter with chiropractic medicine is what planted the seed that would become a lifelong career for Dr. Ralph Geary. As a boy, he had a medical problem doctors said could not be corrected — until he was taken to a chiropractor, said Betty Jean Geary, his wife of...
Poland, U.S. close to deal to build ‘Fort Trump,’ sources say
Poland is nearing a deal with the United States to establish an American military base in the former Communist bloc country, according to people familiar with the matter — an outpost the Poles see as a deterrent to Russian aggression and that the Kremlin would likely consider a provocation. If...
Workers finish making replacement parts at idled GM plant
LORDSTOWN, Ohio — A union official says a small contingent of workers has finished making replacement parts for the Chevy Cruze at a General Motors plant in Ohio where production of the compact sedan ended in March. The Warren Tribune Chronicle reports UAW Local 1112 President Dave Green says GM...
An art critic mourns the cultural tragedy of Notre Dame
In October 1793, anti-royalist citizens of Paris stormed the cathedral of Notre Dame, grabbing ropes and pulling down stone sculptures from the monumental facade. The mob mistook the royally garbed biblical kings of Judah for ancestors of the French monarchy, and they had had enough. The Catholic Church held the...
Bill would hike smoking, vaping age from 18 to 21 in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The minimum age for Floridians to possess tobacco and vaping products that deliver nicotine would rise from 18 to 21 under legislation approved by a state House committee. The measure that cleared the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday would also establish 21 as the minimum age for...
Police: Texas man offered $200 to beat transgender woman
DALLAS — Dallas police say a man was offered $200 to beat a transgender woman in an attack that was recorded as a crowd gathered to holler and watch. A police affidavit released Monday says the woman accidentally backed into a vehicle before the driver of that vehicle pointed a...
Russian support for Stalin surges to record high, poll shows
Respect among Russians for Josef Stalin has surged to the highest level of President Vladimir Putin’s era, with 70 percent saying his rule had been good for the country, according to a poll tracking attitudes toward the Soviet dictator. A record 51 percent viewed Stalin positively in March, up from...
Donations flow in as crews assess damage to Notre Dame Cathedral
PARIS – France on Tuesday was confronting the scorched remains of Notre Dame Cathedral as officials announced they had extinguished the inferno that partly damaged a symbol of the nation. Authorities said their first investigations suggested that the fire started by accident, perhaps in connection with much-needed renovations that left...
Officials: Man accused of throwing boy off Mall of America balcony had history of accosting women
A man accused of throwing a 5-year-old boy from a balcony at the Mall of America on Friday had been “looking for someone to kill,” authorities say. Emmanuel Aranda, 24, has been charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder and is set to make his first court appearance on Tuesday afternoon....
From ‘adorable’ to ‘plausible,’ Pete Buttigieg gauges progress in presidential race
Pete Buttigieg, 37, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has become the buzziest candidate of late in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, offered his own take Tuesday on his rapid rise. “I think I’ve gone from being viewed as, you know, adorable six weeks ago to now...
Dog rescued while swimming 135 miles off ThailandVideo
BANGKOK — A dog found swimming more than 135 miles from shore by workers on an oil rig crew in the Gulf of Thailand has been returned safely to land. A worker on the rig belonging to Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Vitisak Payalaw, said on his Facebook page that...
Connecticut police solve decapitated-chicken mystery
WESTPORT, Conn. — Police have captured a man they say has been leaving decapitated chickens outside a Connecticut home. Westport police say a resident called at about 11:30 p.m. Friday to say someone had just dropped a bag containing two headless chickens and a headless pigeon on his property, then...
French president wants Notre Dame Cathedral rebuilt within 5 years
PARIS — The Latest on the fire that swept through Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral (all times local): 8:20 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to see the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral to be rebuilt within five years. Macron said Tuesday in a televised address to the nation that...
Trump keeps attacking as redacted Russia report due Thursday
WASHINGTON — The president isn’t waiting. As Washington counts down the final hours until publication of the redacted special counsel report — now expected Thursday — Donald Trump stepped up his attacks in an effort to undermine potential disclosures on Russia, his 2016 campaign and the aftermath. He unleashed a...
