Florida felons rejoice after regaining their right to vote
ORLANDO — The normally humdrum bureaucracy of registering to vote brought tears to the eyes of some Floridians on Tuesday when most felons regained their right to vote under a state constitutional amendment. “I’ll be a human being again. I’ll be an American citizen again,” Robert Eckford said, choking up...
Nied’s Hotel in Lawrenceville closes after 78 years
The handwritten sign attached to the front doors of Nied’s Hotel on Butler Street in Lawrenceville reads “Closed for repairs” in stocky black letters. But Nied’s is indeed closed for good, owner Jim Nied told the Tribune-Review on Tuesday. The Pittsburgh institution closed its doors for the last time Dec....
Paul Manafort shared polling data with Russian during presidential campaign, filing asserts
WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, apparently shared polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business partner in Ukraine who allegedly has ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing released Tuesday. It’s unclear whether the information involved internal campaign data or...
St. Vincent-Carlow to offer collaborative nursing program
Add Saint Vincent College to the growing list of Westmoreland County institutions hosting undergraduate nursing degree programs. Saint Vincent, which offers a master’s and doctorate program for nurse anesthetists in conjunction with Excela Health System, will partner with Carlow University beginning this fall to offer a bachelor of science in...
Will the government shutdown affect your next flight?
The nation’s airports continue to operate, even as parts of the government remain shut down: air traffic control workers and airport security officers remain on the job. But as the shutdown moves into its third week, some fear it’s only a matter of time before the nation’s air traffic system...
Murrysville divers recover body from Fayette pond
A Murrysville dive team recovered the body of a Confluence man who was submerged in an icy Henry Clay Township pond Monday near his pickup truck, authorities said. Patrick Keating, 30, was found in the pond along Sickle Ridge Road about 45 feet from where his truck was pulled from...
Pittsburgh considers renaming portion of riverfront trail after former Mayor Murphy
Pittsburgh plans to rename the North Side portion of the Three Rivers Heritage Tail in honor of former Mayor Tom Murphy, who led efforts during the 1990s to create riverfront parks and trails. City Council on Tuesday introduced a resolution for renaming the trail, running from the former SCI Pittsburgh...
U.S. medical marketing reaches $30 billion, drug ads top surge
Ads for prescription drugs appeared 5 million times in just one year, capping a recent surge in U.S. medical marketing, a new analysis found. The advertisements for various medicines showed up on TV, newspapers, online sites and elsewhere in 2016. Their numbers soared over 20 years as part of broad...
London’s Heathrow briefly halts flights due to drone report
LONDON — London’s Heathrow Airport briefly halted departing flights on Tuesday after a reported drone sighting — a development that came just three weeks after multiple reports of drone sightings caused travel chaos at nearby Gatwick Airport. The suspension of takeoffs from Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports, was...
Pennsylvania’s opioid disaster plan turns 1. Time to celebrate?
On Jan. 10, 2018, Gov. Tom Wolf dusted off the state’s disaster declaration manual, usually reserved for marshaling government resources for a natural calamity, to tackle a man-made crisis: opioid addiction, overdoses and deaths. On Monday, members of the Democratic governor’s administration gathered at the Harrisburg headquarters of the Pennsylvania...
Ward joins state Senate GOP leadership
State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, was named to the GOP Senate leadership Tuesday as the Republican Senate caucus regrouped for 2019. The appointment came a day after Ward, now in her third term, was named chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, announced...
Missing Michigan cat found 2 months later in Florida
DETROIT — A cat who went missing from suburban Detroit for two months turned up more than 1,000 miles away in Florida. Dearborn resident Judy Sanborn was shocked when she received a call in December from BluePearl pet hospital in Tampa, The Detroit Free Press reported . Staff told her...
Truck driver in Humboldt Broncos crash that killed 16 pleads guilty
MELFORT, Saskatchewan — The driver whose transport truck crashed into a hockey team bus in Canada, killing 16 people, pleaded guilty Tuesday to all charges against him. Thirteen others were injured when Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s truck loaded with peat moss collided with the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus in rural...
Trib appeals decision to delay release of juror names from Sheriff Held’s public corruption trial
The Tribune-Review on Tuesday filed an appeal of a judge’s order delaying the public release of the names of jurors who served in last month’s public corruption trial of Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held. Senior Common Pleas Judge Timothy Creany in late December ruled the names will remain private until...
Westmoreland happenings: Jan. 10 and beyond
Church events • Orders are being taken through Monday for soups to be picked up Jan. 19 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 101 N. Fourth St., Youngwood. Choice of soups: vegetable beef, chicken noodle, and bean with ham. Cost: $5 quart. Orders: 724-837-1647. • Bingo, with early bird, 12:30...
Man in custody after hours-long standoff in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair Village
An hours-long SWAT situation Tuesday in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair Village neighborhood ended peacefully, authorities said. The situation began about noon when detectives were serving a warrant at a home on Kohne Street, according to Public Safety spokeswoman Alicia George. The man inside, wanted for aggravated assault, refused to come out,...
Samuel Snipes, lawyer for 1st blacks in Levittown, Pa. dies
MORRISVILLE, Pa. — A lawyer who held off an angry mob while representing the first black family to move into the all-white development of Levittown, Pennsylvania, has died. Samuel Snipes was 99. His family says Snipes died Dec. 31 at his family farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. In 1957, Snipes represented...
Alaska guide pleads guilty to herding grizzly bears toward clients
NOME, Alaska — A master hunting guide from Alaska had his license revoked for life after pleading guilty to using employees on snowmobiles to herd grizzly bears toward clients. Alaska State Troopers say in a statement that Brian Simpson of Fairbanks was charged in 2017 with two counts of “aiding...
Fact check: Do ex-presidents actually support Trump’s border wall?
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s recent claim that his predecessors endorsed his idea of a wall at the Mexican border got no support from the ex-presidents’ club. Trump stated in a Rose Garden news conference Friday: “This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me. And...
Pros and cons of mail-order pharmacies
CVS does it. Walgreens does it. Now Amazon is getting in on the act. They’re all dispensing drugs by mail. With nearly 3 in 5 American adults taking at least one prescription drug, odds are your health insurer has steered you toward a mail-order pharmacy. And, if they haven’t, they...
Winter storm blasts Europe; 13 dead amid heavy snow, gusts
BERLIN — Deadly winter weather blasted Europe for yet another day Tuesday, trapping hundreds of people in Alpine regions, whipping up high winds that caused flight delays and cancellations and raising the risks of more deadly avalanches in the mountains. At least 13 people have been killed in weather-related accidents...
New York meteorologist fired after appearing to say racial slur on air
Was it jumbled words or a racial slur? A meteorologist at a Rochester, N.Y., television station was fired after appearing to insert a derogatory term for black people between Luther and King when describing the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. WHEC chief meteorologist Jeremy Kappell claims he didn’t...
Westmoreland County commissioner Anderson won’t seek re-election
Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson announced Tuesday he will retire at year’s end and will not run for re-election this year. Anderson, a Hempfield Republican, was first appointed to commissioner in 2008 and served a four-year stint as board chairman until the GOP lost its majority in 2015. “I’ve been...
Oceania cruise crewman smuggled cocaine in his pants and sandals, feds say
MIAMI — Federal agents noticed something was weird with the way a crew member walked off Oceania Cruises’ Riviera cruise ship at the Port of Miami the day after New Year’s Day. Wilford Thobourne had a “stiff gait as he walked on the dock” that was likely caused by the...
Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr. charged in unrelated case
NEW YORK — A Russian lawyer who became a focal point of the investigation into whether there was collusion between Russians and President Donald Trump’s election campaign was charged with obstruction of justice Tuesday in an unrelated case in New York. Natalya Veselnitskaya was accused in an indictment of submitting...
