Top Stories category, Page 1095
Hostile school board meetings have members calling it quits
A Nevada school board member said he had thoughts of suicide before stepping down amid threats and harassment. In Virginia, a board member resigned over what she saw as politics driving decisions on masks. The vitriol at board meetings in Wisconsin had one member fearing he would find his tires...
Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America’s longest warVideo
WASHINGTON — The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service...
Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid
NEW ORLEANS — Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought hundreds of people trapped by Hurricane Ida’s floodwaters to safety Monday and utility repair crews rushed in, after the furious storm swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat. Residents living amid the...
Western Pa. doctors encourage flu shots ahead of potential ‘twindemic’
As health experts implore people to be vaccinated against covid-19, they’re also reminding everyone to get an annual flu shot. Flu shots — which are safe to get in conjunction with covid-19 vaccines or boosters — could help keep flu cases low this year, health experts said, though some worry...
Mt. Washington teen dies after being shot in Homewood South
A Mt. Washington teenager died soon after being shot multiple times just before midnight Sunday in Pittsburgh’s Homewood South neighborhood, officials said. Robert Cade, 18, was pronounced dead shortly before 1 a.m. Monday, less than an hour after he was injured amid more than a dozen rounds of gunfire in...
IAEA: North Korea appears to have resumed nuke reactor operation
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears to have restarted the operation of its main nuclear reactor used to produce weapons fuels, the U.N. atomic agency said, as the North openly threatens to enlarge its nuclear arsenal amid long-dormant nuclear diplomacy with the United States. The annual report by the...
Police: 2 people in custody after unprovoked fight on South Side
Police say the attack on a family leaving a South Side sushi restaurant Sunday appears to have been unprovoked. The assault happened just before 7:30 p.m. as a couple their 60s, their son and his girlfriend were leaving Nakama at the intersection of East Carson and South 18th streets. Family...
White House: U.S. has capacity to evacuate remaining AmericansVideo
WASHINGTON — The United States has the capacity to evacuate the approximately 300 U.S. citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline, senior administration officials said, as rocket fire in Kabul and another U.S. drone strike against suspected Islamic State militants underscored the grave...
Mask, vaccine mandates have broad support, polls show. But some Pa. Republicans are campaigning against them
Bill McSwain, the former prosecutor turned potential gubernatorial candidate, went after the “radical left” for “ignoring science by forcing kids to wear masks at school.” Facebook ads paid for by Jeff Bartos’ Senate campaign feature an image meant to mock President Joe Biden’s call for a grassroots vaccine education campaign...
Man who died in Lower Burrell motorcycle crash identified
A 20-year-old Plum man who died in a motorcycle crash Saturday in Lower Burrell has been identified. Westmoreland County Coroner Kenneth Bacha said Sunday the man’s name is Adam J. Garvin. He was driving a 2015 Yamaha motorcycle, going east on Route 366, when a 2007 Ford Fusion pulled out...
Ed Asner made his mark in Pittsburgh with ‘The Soap Myth’Video
Ed Asner was no stranger to Pittsburgh. The seven-time Emmy winning actor, who died Sunday at the age of 91, appeared in the Steel City just over two years ago in a staged reading of Jeff Cohen’s play “The Soap Myth.” Asner played a cantankerous Holocaust survivor named Milton Saltzman...
White House rushes to booster doses as CDC advisers bide timeVideo
U.S. public health advisers are moving slowly toward considering the nationwide plan for booster doses of covid-19 vaccines to ward off the fast-spreading delta variant, even as the Biden administration seeks a Sept. 20 kickoff. While the booster plan laid out earlier this month had targeted individuals who received their...
Some businesses are hiring 14- and 15-year-olds to address staffing shortages
Businesses that have grappled with labor shortages during the covid-19 pandemic are hiring younger workers than ever before. The businesses have lowered their minimum hiring age from 16 to 14 in an effort to meet staffing needs and keep their businesses afloat. “I wouldn’t be open without my teen employees,”...
Western Pennsylvania trailblazers enjoy St. Vincent College’s rare equestrian program
Horseback riding enthusiast Teresa Klapchar and her horse, Annie, both experienced jitters Sunday morning as they cautiously approached a glittery New Year’s Day-decorated pulley obstacle erected along an equestrian trail in Unity. Klapchar was among 75 horseback riders from throughout Western Pennsylvania participating in a Saint Vincent College Equestrian Program...
Actor Ed Asner, TV’s blustery Lou Grant, dies at 91
LOS ANGELES — Ed Asner, the burly and prolific character actor who became a star in middle age as the gruff but lovable newsman Lou Grant, first in the hit comedy “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later in the drama “Lou Grant,” died Sunday. He was 91. Asner’s representative...
Person extricated from vehicle after 2-vehicle crash in Penn Hills
One person had to be extricated from their vehicle after a two-vehicle crash Sunday in Penn Hills, according to an Allegheny County dispatch supervisor. The crash occurred about 8:55 a.m. along the 200 block of Stotler Road. Fire crews extricated one person from one of the vehicles that had rolled...
U.S. says drone kills suicide bombers targeting Kabul airport
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. drone strike Sunday struck a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul’s international airport, American officials said. There were few initial details about the incident, as well as a rocket that struck...
Biden pays respects to U.S. troops killed in AfghanistanVideo
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — In hushed reverence, President Joe Biden stood witness with grieving families Sunday under a gray sky as, one by one, the remains of 13 U.S. troops killed in the Kabul suicide bombing were removed with solemnity from a military aircraft that brought them home....
1st death from Hurricane Ida; power out across New OrleansVideo
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida blasted ashore Sunday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the Louisiana coast into one of...
Red Cross volunteers from Pittsburgh headed to Louisiana to assist in Hurricane Ida relief
Two volunteers from the Red Cross in Pittsburgh are among 14 volunteers from across Pennsylvania heading to Louisiana Sunday to aid in Hurricane Ida relief efforts. Volunteers Charlie Williamson and John Breitweiser will depart from the Red Cross office on Liberty Avenue just before noon Sunday, according to Red Cross...
Police: Man found with multiple gunshot wounds in South Side Flats
Pittsburgh police detectives are investigating a shooting early Sunday that critically injured a man in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood. Police reported just prior to 2 a.m., police officers from Zone 3 responded to a ShotSpotter alert in the 80 block of S.13th Street and reports of a gunshot victim...
‘I wasn’t getting better’: Fox Chapel woman endures battle with long haul covid
More than a year and a half after she contracted covid-19, Andrea Berlin almost feels completely normal. The Fox Chapel native-turned-Londoner said she fell ill with the virus in March 2020 — early in the pandemic by most standards — and she thinks she probably picked it up on the...
Schools prepare for a mixed bag as kindergarten enrollment numbers bounce back
Nicole Roberts Bitar was encouraged to see the numbers ramping up for kindergarten registration in the New Kensington-Arnold School District this summer. Last year, the district was among many across the U.S. that saw kindergarten enrollment decline unexpectedly as families weighed their options: Should they send their 5- and 6-year-olds...
Tarentum holds 1st craft beer festival to benefit fire and ambulance crews
Judging from the crowd enjoying the beer, bands, food and the arts at Dreshar Stadium, the first Tarentum Borough craft beer festival was a success. The festival, benefiting Tarentum’s three volunteer fire departments, was scheduled to run from 3 to 10 p.m. As of 7 p.m., an estimated 300 to...
Biden: Another attack likely, pledges more strikes on ISIS-K
President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. Another terror attack, he said, is “highly likely” this weekend as the U.S. winds down its evacuation. The Pentagon said...
