Top Stories category, Page 1136
Man dead in New Stanton crash of classic car
A 72-year-old man was killed Sunday morning when a classic car ran off a winding road near New Stanton, state police said. According to Westmoreland County 911, rescue crews were dispatched at 8:14 a.m. to South Center Avenue near Sandworks Road in response to a report that a person had...
Alzheimer’s drug stirs hope for patients, worry for doctors
In the weeks since a new Alzheimer’s drug was approved, hopeful patients have bombarded Dr. Alireza Atri with calls and emails about a treatment that has sparked both excitement and skepticism. They want to know if the drug might be right for them. Like many physicians, Atri has no easy...
Before building collapse, $9 million in repairs needed
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Nearly three years before an oceanfront building collapsed near Miami, an engineering firm estimated that major repairs the building needed would cost more than $9 million, according to newly released emails. The email from the firm of Morabito Consultants was among a series of documents released...
Families of the missing visit site of Florida condo collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Families of the missing visited the scene of the Florida condo building collapse Sunday as rescuers kept digging through the mound of rubble and clinging to hope that someone could yet be alive somewhere under the broken concrete and twisted metal. The death toll rose by just...
Alle-Kiski Valley restaurateurs contend with new challenges as they struggle to survive pandemic
Restaurants were hit hard by the pandemic and restrictions meant to curb the spread of covid-19 — and, for many restaurateurs, the struggles aren’t over yet. Navigating a pandemic — and the related rules and restrictions — has been a challenge April Platt never imagined she’d have to overcome. Platt...
Overcoming challenges, Alle-Kiski Valley businesses continue to recover
Alle-Kiski Valley businesses are beginning to emerge from the incredible challenges caused by last year’s covid-19 pandemic. Many small-business owners said they’ve experienced a significant loss of income, stress and hardship during the shutdown and subsequent covid restrictions placed on their businesses. A 2020 U.S. Census Bureau Small Business Survey...
Westmoreland County restaurants lean on combination of self, government helpVideo
After eight years of co-owning and operating J&M Export Deli, Michelle Gilson feels like it’s her first year all over again. Gilson, with co-owner Jennifer Minnick, was forced to make several cost-saving changes to the Export-based deli over the past year — like reducing the staff by three employees and...
Drone program offers job skills to Westmoreland, Fayette studentsVideo
Hannah Sutton said flying drones runs in the family. The Uniontown native, who graduated last month from Laurel Highlands High School, wants to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps that saw him serve in the U.S. Air Force and later earn a license to pilot a drone. Sutton, 18, like her...
Experts: Impact of Chauvin case on policing yet to be seen
Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin ‘s conviction and lengthy prison sentence in George Floyd’s murder could lead to better police hiring and training, law enforcement experts say. It could spur more effort to build trust among officers and communities. And it might have made the public — and future...
Report showed ‘major’ damage before Florida condo collapse
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The ground-floor pool deck of the oceanfront condominium building that collapsed near Miami was resting on a concrete structural slab that had “major structural damage” and needed to be extensively repaired, according to a 2018 engineering report that also uncovered “abundant cracking and spalling” of concrete...
Connellsville man killed on Armstrong County road
A Connellsville man was killed early Saturday when he was struck by a vehicle in Armstrong County. Pennsylvania State Police in Kittanning said Alan Lipscomb, 29, was laying in the middle of State Route 422 near Worthington Slate Lick Road shortly after 2:30 a.m. when he was hit by an...
DA Peck takes over Cassandra Gross case, says missing Unity woman ‘has not been forgotten’
Kathe Gross sat on a bench outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse surrounded by friends and family, as passing cars honked in support. Despite the outpouring of support from her closest relatives, she couldn’t help but be painfully reminded of the one family member who was missing — her only daughter,...
How Indiana Normal School dropout Nellie Bly became the world’s best-known woman
INDIANA — When Nellie Bly completed her globe-circling journey in 1890, the New York World hailed the intrepid journalist as “the best-known and most widely talked-of young woman on earth today.” But had she not dropped out of Indiana Normal School a decade before, no one would have ever heard...
Westmoreland struggles to give away pandemic cash grants to bars, restaurants, hotels
Like many in the hospitality industry, it was a rough year for Brady’s. The family-owned Acme restaurant that has operated in the Laurel Highlands since 1964 was closed for a while during the pandemic lockdown last year and has operated under pandemic restrictions for most of the latter part of...
Body found in Ohio River ID’d as South Side man who went missing 5 months ago
A body found in the Ohio River earlier this week was identified Friday as a man who went missing in Pittsburgh’s South Side in January. William Casale, 62, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. Monday in Kilbuck, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office reports. His body was pulled from the...
Suspect charged in fatal shooting of 17-year-old boy in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood
A teen was arrested and charged with homicide in connection to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy last month in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood, officials said Friday. Clinton Miller, 18, was booked at Allegheny County Jail on homicide and gun charges, court records show. Miller was found and detained by...
Pitt recommending but not requiring covid-19 vaccine
The University of Pittsburgh is encouraging students and staff to be vaccinated against covid-19, but the school won’t require vaccination. In a Board of Trustees meeting Friday morning, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher announced the university will not mandate vaccines, also acknowledging having an unvaccinated population on campus “will complicate our responsibility...
Fairfield man jailed; police say he stomped on woman’s head while wearing steel-toed boots
A Fairfield man is being held without bond after state police say he stomped on a woman’s head after a Christmas dinner last year, according to court papers. Zachery Allen Collier, 26, was charged Friday with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, stalking and related offenses. Troopers said Collier went to a...
Penn-Trafford linebacker raises money for police department in final season
Penn-Trafford linebacker Jack Jollie has been playing football for eight years, but his focus extends beyond the field in his final season with the Warriors. To give back to the community, the rising senior is gathering sponsors to donate money for each tackle he makes this season. The funds will...
Republican lawmakers send Wolf election bill he’s vowed to veto
HARRISBURG — A bill to require voter ID and make a host of other changes to Pennsylvania election law passed the state Senate on Friday on party lines and is on its way to the Democratic governor, who plans to veto it. Senators voted on party lines, 29-21, for the...
Congregation asks new U.S. Attorney General to strike plea deal with accused synagogue shooter
Leaders of Dor Hadash, one of three Jewish congregations that lost members during the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue, have again asked the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to strike a plea deal with gunman Robert Bowers, a move they say will offer justice that falls in line with...
Driver crashes through fence onto Los Angeles airport
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles International Airport police are investigating a driver who drove through a fence and onto the airfield. The intrusion forced a sudden closure of some of the runways Thursday evening, authorities said. A statement by the Los Angeles Airport Police Division said the car went through...
TSA: West Virginia man ‘forgot’ he had loaded gun in baby stroller at Palmer airport
A West Virginia man told Transportation Safety Administration agents he forgot to remove a loaded handgun from his child’s baby stroller when he brought it through a security checkpoint Thursday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. “Our TSA officers physically inspect strollers when they are too large to sit...
Rescuers focus on detecting sounds of survivors in rubble of Miami-area condo collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Search and rescue teams worked through the night, encountering rainstorms and small fires in the rubble, hoping to detect any sounds coming from survivors following the collapse of a beachside condominium complex near Miami. The crews, which include some 130 firefighters working in teams, are approaching the...
Crash delays reopening of Tarentum Bridge
The Tarentum Bridge from New Kensington to Tarentum is expected to reopen at 6 a.m. Monday, PennDOT announced Friday. That side of the bridge over the Allegheny River was scheduled to reopen by midnight Sunday. The reopening was delayed after a car crashed in the work zone last Saturday and...
