5 residents displaced by fire at Monroeville apartment complex
Several Monroeville residents were displaced in subfreezing temperatures Wednesday after a fire ravaged their apartments. No injuries were reported in the two-alarm fire at the Cambridge Square Apartment complex along Cambridge Square Drive, said Kevin Bacco, deputy chief of the Monroeville Volunteer Fire Co. No. 4. Emergency responders received the...
Brackenridge woman loved fashion, travel but family was ‘her whole life’
Agnes Monti was the leader of her own life. Whether she was sneaking out as a teenager, going to work at the Allegheny Ludlum steel mill during World War II or hosting Sunday dinners as the family matriarch, she always stayed busy. “She was kind of an independent woman,” said...
Rand Paul awarded more than $580K after neighbor’s attack
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was awarded more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses Wednesday in his lawsuit against the neighbor who tackled him and broke several of his ribs in a dispute over lawn maintenance. A jury in Bowling Green, Ky., deliberated less than two hours before delivering the...
Parole recommended for Manson followerVan Houten
LOS ANGELES — A California panel Wednesday recommended that Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten be paroled after serving more than four decades in prison. After a hearing at the women’s prison in Corona, Calif., commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings found for the third time that the 69-year-old...
Sanders: God wanted Trump to be president
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a Christian television station Wednesday that God “wanted Donald Trump to become president” so he could support “a lot of the things that people of faith really care about.” The early, abbreviated transcript provided by the conservative evangelical station CBN — Christian...
Congress introduces bills to train police to identify child sex traffickers
WASHINGTON — Though the scourge of child sex trafficking may seem like an intractable problem, a program designed by a state trooper in Texas has shown real results: hundreds of children rescued, and hundreds of pimps and kidnappers arrested, by patrol officers on mostly routine traffic stops, both in Texas...
Nurse indicted on charges of raping incapacitated woman
PHOENIX — A nurse suspected of raping an incapacitated woman who later gave birth at a long-term care facility in Phoenix has been indicted on charges of sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult. The document filed Tuesday mirrors charges that prosecutors filed last week against 36-year-old Nathan Dorceus...
Illinois business groups pitch geography-based minimum wage
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Business advocates now resigned to the likelihood that Illinois will soon adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage urged legislators Wednesday to make it a tiered approach based on geography, arguing there are vast cost-of-living differences between Chicago and more rural areas downstate. While Illinois’ statewide minimum wage has...
Report: Toddler bruised after fall into rhino exhibit at zoo
MELBOURNE, Fla. — A toddler who fell into a rhinoceros exhibit at a Florida zoo this month suffered bruises to her chest, stomach, back and behind her right ear after being bumped by two rhinos. A report on the incident released Wednesday shows the 21-month-old girl also had a bruised...
Judge denies Thomas Stanko’s appeal from Unity cemetery assault case
A Unity man who has been identified as a potential suspect in the disappearance of his former girlfriend — whom a judge legally declared dead last week — was questioned in court Wednesday amid warnings that his testimony could eventually be used against him. Thomas Stanko, 48, was in court...
After a month of darkness, the lights are back on at the Apollo Bridge
After the lights went dim on the Apollo Bridge in the last month, Oklahoma Borough officials reported that all of the bridge lights were back on this week. The lights went out sporadically for a couple of months, then in the last month, went completely dim, according to Larry Lizik,...
Seton Hill student battling cancer finds fame on YouTubeVideo
Singing was the last thing on her mind. Erin McElhenny, a junior at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, was at the Cleveland Clinic last week for three days of chemotherapy treatment when an impromptu concert gave her some much-needed music therapy. “It has brought my mood up a lot to do...
E-cigarettes outperform patches and gums in quit-smoking study
WASHINGTON — A major new study provides the strongest evidence yet that vaping can help smokers quit cigarettes, with e-cigarettes proving nearly twice as effective as nicotine gums and patches. The British research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, could influence what doctors tell their patients and...
Pittsburgh is again offering free grass cutting services for seniors and disabled
Pittsburgh for a second straight year will offer free grass-cutting to older residents who can’t mow their lawns and is seeking bids from local contractors to perform the service in 2019. The City Cuts program, sponsored by Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, assisted more than 950 senior citizens and residents with disabilities...
New York middle school strip search claims prompt state investigation
ALBANY, N.Y. — Allegations that four 12-year-old girls were strip-searched for drugs in an upstate New York middle school because they were hyper and giddy raised “serious concerns of racial and gender bias,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, as he directed the state Education Department to investigate the incident. Binghamton...
Some of what’s open despite the freezing cold in Western Pennsylvania
Worried about getting cabin fever as frigid temperatures and winds blow through the region? Several area businesses aren’t letting the weather get in the way of normal day-to-day operations Wednesday and Thursday despite wind chills as low as 22 below. Here’s a list of some places that will remain open:...
Promoted to military captain overseas, Pittsburgh police officer receives 2nd promotion
He waited nearly a year to be sworn in as a Pittsburgh police sergeant, but Robert Connors received another promotion in the meantime. Connors was serving in the Middle East with the Pennsylvania National Guard last year when he was promoted from officer to sergeant, and he could not take...
Norwin basketball games to honor vets
Norwin High School’s boys and girls basketball teams will play special games on Friday at the Knights gymnasium, and not just because the boys will face Greater Latrobe, one of the best teams in WPIAL Class 6A this season. Both contests — the girls against Butler and the boys against...
3 varieties of bats added to Pa. endangered species list
The state Game Commissioners approved reclassifying the status of three types of cave bats from threatened to endangered, which is more protective of the species. During their Tuesday meeting, the Commissioners granted endangered status protection to the little brown bat, northern long-eared bat and tri-colored bat, according to a state...
Feds indict powerful Philly union boss, councilman, others
PHILADELPHIA — A powerful union boss with a tight grip on construction jobs in the Philadelphia region and outsized influence in city and state politics has been indicted in alleged schemes to embezzle more than $600,000 and have a councilman on the union payroll to do his bidding at City...
Westmoreland County firefighters draw on past experiences to deal with subzero cold
As Westmoreland County firefighters prepared to potentially respond to emergencies in subzero temperatures late Wednesday into Thursday, Delmont Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rich Balik said lessons learned at a fatal fire last year in Salem Township assisted in its planning. On Jan. 5, 2018, multiple departments battled subzero windchill as...
Dozens of vehicles in pileup after snow squall in central Pa.
READING — More than two dozen vehicles have been involved in a chain-reaction crash on a central Pennsylvania highway after a snow squall caused whiteout conditions. Wyomissing Police Chief Jeffrey Biehl says about 27 vehicles were involved in the crash just after 1 p.m. Wednesday on Route 222, about 60...
Pittsburgh salt truck driver suspended following sideswipes in Lawrenceville
A Pittsburgh Public Works Department salt truck driver has been suspended without pay and is facing termination after sideswiping three vehicles in Lawrenceville on Jan. 13, a city official said Friday. The driver isn’t the only DPW employee facing discipline, according to Guy Costa, the city operations chief. Two other...
Pittsburgh officials receive death threats from gun ban opponents
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and City Councilman Corey O’Connor said Wednesday that they have received death threats from people who disagree with the city’s proposed gun ban. O’Connor, one of the sponsors of the gun legislation, said he received a telephone voice mail two weeks ago from someone threatening to...
Passport Fairs happening in Western Pa. in February
Some post offices in Western Pennsylvania will host Passport Fairs in February to help people obtain passports. Below is a list of sites that will host a Passport Fair: • Feb. 2: Warren, Pa.; 210 W. Third Ave. 16365. (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.) • Feb. 2: State College, Pa.;...
