Top Stories category, Page 1144
Pittsburgh programs among MacKenzie Scott’s $2.7 billion charity donations
MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist known for her impromptu multi-billion dollar donations to charities and racial equity causes, announced Tuesday that she has given $2.7 billion to 286 organizations. It is the third round of no-strings-attached, major philanthropic gifts Scott has made, which together rival the charitable contributions made by...
Nearly all Allegheny County seniors at least partially vaccinated against covid, health official says
Almost all senior citizens in Allegheny County are at least partially vaccinated against covid-19, a virus that ravaged the older population, including those in care facilities, both locally and nationwide, officials said. Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen noted the milestone after a tour of UPMC’s vaccine and testing...
Water steps on Pittsburgh’s North Shore still dry
Usually by this time of the year, water is cascading down a set of North Shore steps and children are splashing around. The Water Steps, a popular destination at the North Shore Riverfront Park near PNC Park, have not been filled to flow — yet. According to the Sports &...
Mt. Washington man gets 5 years in prison for having gun that killed 3-year-old girl
A defense attorney argued on Tuesday that her client should be sentenced based on the crime he’d pleaded guilty to — not ones committed in the past, or one he might have committed but was never charged with. A prosecutor countered, telling the judge that he needed to look at...
Users give Mammoth Park slides thumbs-up after reopeningVideo
After a 10-month moratorium on rides at the Giant Slide complex in Mammoth Park, it took teenager Mary Janetka only about 10 minutes Tuesday to give the slightly recontoured, re-signed and reopened slide facility her seal of approval. “Oh yeah, it’s fun!” said Janetka, 15, who was accompanied in the...
U.S. covid-19 deaths hit 600,000, equal to yearly cancer toll
The U.S. death toll from covid-19 topped 600,000 on Tuesday, even as the vaccination drive has drastically brought down daily cases and fatalities and allowed the country to emerge from the gloom and look forward to summer. The number of lives lost, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater...
GOP’s major election overhaul advances in Pa. House as Democrats call it a ‘farce’
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. SpotlightPA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Republicans in the state House advanced their...
Panel approves Pa. House GOP bill to ban employer vaccine mandates
HARRISBURG — A ban on employers mandating vaccines for their workers inched ahead in the state House on Tuesday with a committee vote supported by all Republicans and opposed by every Democrat. The main sponsor, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, called it “a very simple question of workers’ rights.” Diamond has...
Trib talks with Brazilian music pioneer Sergio Mendes about new PBS documentaryVideo
The 1960s are remembered as a decade with dramatic cultural changes taking place to a rock music soundtrack. But psychedelic rock wasn’t the only music shaking up the U.S. pop scene in the swinging ’60s. Perhaps Eartha Kitt said it best when she introduced a pioneering Brazilian jazz musician and...
Feds award $19.3M to rapid bus line project linking Downtown Pittsburgh to Oakland
A rapid bus line linking Downtown Pittsburgh to its Oakland neighborhood will receive another $19.3 million in federal funding. The allocation was announced last week by the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Port Authority of Allegheny County as part of $250 million in funding made available under the American...
Suppression motion denied in federal gun case against man suspected in Unity woman’s disappearance
Search warrants in a federal weapons case against Thomas George Stanko were legally obtained, a judge ruled in denying a motion to suppress evidence against Stanko. Authorities had probable cause to search a storage unit Stanko rented and Unity property he owned based on coded conversations he had with family...
Saturday Night Market returns to Pittsburgh
For the next five months, Saturday evenings of music and shopping will once again fill Market Square in Pittsburgh. The Night Markets return Saturday — after missing last year because of the pandemic — through Oct. 30. The 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. event features music and shopping, with a...
Duquesne Light, West Penn Power work to restore electric service
Crews with Duquesne Light and West Penn Power are continuing to work to restore electric service to customers affected by storms that came through the Pittsburgh area on Sunday and Monday. As of about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Duquesne Light was reporting about 2,300 customers without power. By 6 a.m., the...
Teen dies after being found shot on Brookline sidewalk
A boy died after being found shot in Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood late Monday night, police said. Officers responded to reports of multiple shots fired in the 1100 block of Creedmoor Avenue around 11 p.m. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the victim as Christian Redinger, 15. Police said he was...
Videos of violent arrests sparked by vaping stir criticism in Ocean City, Md.Video
OCEAN CIY, Md. — Videos showing Ocean City police officers kneeing one Black teen and Tasing another on the Boardwalk of that beach community in separate confrontations that began over vaping are stirring criticism of the department’s use of force in such cases. On June 6, police tried to stop...
Senate votes to confirm Biden pick for D.C. appeals court
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday confirmed the first appellate court judge of President Joe Biden’s tenure, elevating a judge with strong prospects of landing on the president’s short list should a Supreme Court vacancy arise. Senators voted 53-44 to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Court of...
Republicans aim again to block Gov. Wolf’s climate strategy
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are reprising a fight from last year, passing legislation Monday to require Gov. Tom Wolf to go through them if he wants to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The bill passed 35-15 in the Senate, a veto-proof majority...
Natural gas price drop means less money for towns
Pennsylvania will distribute about $46 million less in natural gas impact fees this year to the state’s counties and municipalities because of the drop in natural gas prices in 2020. That’s bad news, especially for rural townships in Marcellus shale-rich regions of Southwestern Pennsylvania already coping with pandemic-related income losses....
Patient flown by medical helicopter following Hempfield crash
At least one patient was transported by medical helicopter from the scene of a single-vehicle crash Monday afternoon in Hempfield. Emergency officials responded to the intersection of Baltzer Meyer Pike and Hurst Road just before 4 p.m. for a report of a car that had gone off the roadway with...
Investigation continues into fatal crash into North Side plasma clinic
Biomat USA on Pittsburgh’s North Side remained boarded up on Monday, two days after an SUV slammed into the plasma clinic at a high rate of speed, killing two employees and one person inside the car. Pittsburgh police provided no updates on the investigation, and it remained unclear what caused...
Allegheny County police investigating deaths of 3 people found in Carnegie home
Allegheny County police are investigating three deaths reported at a home in Carnegie on Saturday. The two men and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene in the 500 block of Main Street at 7:10 a.m., according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiners’s office. The victims were identified as...
Illinois chemical plant explosion, fires prompt evacuationsVideo
CHICAGO — An explosion at a northern Illinois chemical plant Monday morning sparked massive fires that sent flames and huge plumes of thick black smoke high into the air and debris raining onto the ground, prompting evacuations. After 7 a.m., emergency crews rushed to the scene of the fire near...
Penn Township negotiating with turnpike commission in advance of bridge removal
Penn Township commissioners will vote this week on drafting an agreement with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as the Harvison Road bridge will be demolished in preparation for a $30 million widening project of the toll road. Township secretary, manager and director of finance Mary Perez said the commission determined it...
Train hits pickup truck carrying watercraft on Cheswick railroad tracks
A pickup towing a Sea-Doo watercraft was struck by a Norfolk Southern freight train at a railroad crossing in Cheswick shortly after 11:30 a.m. Monday. No one was injured, but trains were stalled for about three hours. The truck and the watercraft were totaled. The GMC pickup was parked unoccupied...
$3M Pennsylvania Lottery scratch-off ticket winner is furloughed Indiana County steelworkerVideo
Two weeks after winning $3 million on a scratch-off Pennsylvania Lottery ticket at a Giant Eagle in Ligonier, Randy Lytle, a furloughed steelworker, still can’t believe his lottery luck. Lytle, 30, of Robinson, Indiana County, won the top prize on a Monopoly 100X scratch-off May 31. He said Monday during...
