Top Stories category, Page 1004
Cruise ship changes course after U.S. judge orders seizure
MIAMI — A cruise ship that was supposed to dock in Miami sailed to the Bahamas instead after a U.S. judge granted an order to seize the vessel as part of a lawsuit over unpaid fuel. Cruise trackers show Crystal Symphony currently docked in the Bahamian island of Bimini. Passengers...
Some South Carolina Black Dems want Biden to ‘try a little bit harder’
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Joe Biden’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination was all but declared dead as he headed to the South Carolina primary in late February 2020. He had finished fifth in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa. Still, Biden advised skeptics to withhold judgment until a state with...
Pope calls for day of prayer for peace for Ukraine
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his concern over “rising tensions” in Ukraine that threaten peace, and called for political talks that put at the center “human brotherhood instead of partisan interests.” “I am following with concern the rising tensions that threaten to inflict a new blow to...
Taxpayers face overloaded IRS as filing season opens Monday
WASHINGTON — Count 30-year-old Ethan Miller among that subset of Americans who are actually eager to file their taxes once income tax filing season opens on Monday. The financial planner who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, is looking forward to claiming the new deductions that will come from buying a...
Pittsburgh police: Woman dead after being struck by a vehicle, man shot
Police investigating a shooting in Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood Sunday morning found a female victim who was pronounced dead after being struck by a vehicle. At a Sunoco station in nearby Esplen, a male victim with a gunshot wound to the head told officers he’d been shot in Sheraden. He was...
Owner of Lock 3 Bait & Tackle shop puts ‘gone fishing’ sign out for final time
Lee Murray didn’t do market research or create a formal business plan when he opened the Lock 3 Bait & Tackle shop on Freeport Road in Harmar in March 1986. But the avid fisherman knew that, like him, there were other people who value the personal service that comes with...
Westmoreland officials favor congressional map that unifies county
Westmoreland County could be consolidated into one congressional district or see some of its western and northern communities split off into another that includes parts of Pittsburgh and the city’s eastern suburbs under proposals that redraw the map determining Pennsylvania’s representation in Washington, D.C. The state will lose one seat...
Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies growing in popularity as ATMs sprout up across Pittsburgh region
A different kind of ATM is popping up in stores, supermarkets and malls across Southwestern Pennsylvania. These, however, are not intended to spit out dollars. They offer cryptocurrency — a decentralized, digital currency that has no government backing or regulation. Its value is volatile, fluctuating like a stock. It relies...
Pittsburgh region under winter weather advisory for Sunday, 2-4 inches of snow expected
Don’t let Saturday’s eye-popping sunshine fool you. By Sunday morning, Western Pennsylvania will be under a winter weather advisory that will blanket the region with 2 to 4 inches of snow and make driving conditions hazardous. The National Weather Service in Moon Township issued the winter weather advisory for 7...
Cold temperatures, Ligonier Diamond provide perfect setting for icy menagerie
Visitors flocked to Ligonier on Saturday to admire a pair of giant chickens and 59 other figures sculpted from ice. After a bone-chilling night, temperatures rose into the 30s by mid-morning, making ideal conditions for viewing the town’s 31st annual Ice Fest. Although the sun was out in full force...
Blaze at Penn Hills apartments displaces dozens, donations being accepted
Dozens of residents were displaced by a fire early Saturday at the Rodi Arms apartments in Penn Hills. Officials told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV no one was injured in the blaze that began as a kitchen fire shortly after midnight and spread to the attic of the three-story building in...
Victim identified in fatal Avalon shooting, Hopewell man charged with homicide
Allegheny County police have arrested a Hopewell man in the shooting death of a man early Saturday in Avalon. Samuel Lee Tolfa, 32, is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, carrying a firearm without a license and fleeing police. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the victim as Jorden...
Burnin’ love: Wood-fired pizza at Gus Franco’s of Lower Burrell is hot itemVideo
Orders at Gus Franco’s Pizza should be made in advance because the artisan pies are hot — real hot. Boasting a top-of-the-line, wood-fired pizza oven from Italy, Gus Franco’s sizzles dough with an air temperature reaching 900 degrees, which is more than 100 degrees higher than many commercial pizza ovens....
All 100 lab monkeys accounted for after several escape crash
DANVILLE — The last of the escaped monkeys from the crash of a truck towing a trailer load of 100 of the animals was accounted for by late Saturday, a day after the pickup collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania highway, authorities said. Several monkeys had escaped following...
Weber Grills apologizes for ill-timed meat loaf recipe email
Weber picked the wrong day to suggest grilling meat loaf. The outdoor grill maker apologized on Friday for sending a recipe-of-the-week email earlier that day featuring instructions on how to prepare “BBQ Meat Loaf.” The email coincided with news of the death of Marvin Lee Aday, best known as rock...
1 NYPD officer killed, 1 severely injured in Harlem shooting
A New York City police officer was killed and another critically wounded Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son, officials said, making four officers shot in the city in as many days. Just three weeks into their jobs, Mayor Eric Adams...
Federal judge rejects request to reinstate universal masking in Upper St. Clair School District
A federal judge Friday afternoon denied a request by parents suing the Upper Saint Clair School District to reinstitute a mandatory masking policy. In a 32-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Williams S. Stickman said that the families of five medically fragile children in the district who sought the temporary restraining...
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO gets raise, $184K bonus
The Allegheny County Airport Authority board on Friday granted a major pay raise and bonus for CEO Christina Cassotis. The board unanimously voted to give Cassotis a 23% salary increase over what she was expected to earn in 2022, bringing her annual salary this year to $534,000. She also was...
Hempfield ice fisherman says of pursuit: ‘It’s addictive’
On a bitter cold day when most people would rather be inside, Ryan Parker of Hempfield not only wants to be in the elements, but he patiently sits out in them. Parker is one of that breed of angler who do not put away their rod and reel when winter...
Norwin teacher, husband in court over participation in ‘Frozen Jr.’ performance
Lawyers for a Norwin middle school teacher and her husband on trial for charges they did not comply with child safety laws told a Westmoreland County jury on Friday no crimes were committed. Tobitha Sasso, 42, and Brad Geyer, 39, both of Greensburg are on trial for misdemeanor charges related...
Former football coach Eric Kasperowicz drops lawsuit against Pine-Richland, hopes to reclaim job
Former Pine-Richland football coach Eric Kasperowicz is dropping his defamation lawsuit against the school district and its administrators in hopes of reclaiming his coaching job. Kasperowicz in August filed a federal lawsuit against the district and several top officials claiming they damaged his reputation by publicly accusing him of knowing...
Pa. covid-19 data follows recent trends in South Africa, U.K., but hospitals remain busy
While Allegheny County’s numbers still are headed in the wrong direction, covid-19 figures posted throughout Pennsylvania are in line with predictions that the U.S. could be nearing the downward curve of the recent surge brought on by the omicron variant. In Allegheny, the weeklong average in hospitalizations is up about...
Police continue search for suspects in killing of Pittsburgh high school studentVideo
Police on Friday continued to search for two suspects connected to the killing of a 15-year-old waiting in a school van in Pittsburgh. Marquis Campbell was sitting in the van waiting to go home after school about 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday outside Oliver Citywide Academy. The school, in Marshall-Shadeland, is...
Booster shots needed against omicron, CDC studies show
Three studies released Friday offered more evidence that covid-19 vaccines are standing up to the omicron variant, at least among people who received booster shots. They are the first large U.S. studies to look at vaccine protection against omicron, health officials said. The papers echo previous research — including studies...
Frigid temps don’t stop outside work, though some escape to sunny Florida
Mother Nature threw a bit of shade over Western Pennsylvania early Friday, with cloud cover warming up temperatures to a balmy 8 to 12 degrees in most places – well above what was expected to be closer to zero. “If we would have stayed clear last night with the snow...
