Top Stories category, Page 1213

Westmoreland County elections officials Wednesday morning started counting more than two dozen provisional ballots cast in November but just recently discovered by staff during routine inspections of voting equipment. Elections bureau staffers, serving as appointed members of a reconstituted provisional board, reviewed and qualified 20 ballots cast in North Huntingdon...

There have been lots of prayers for relief from the coronavirus pandemic coming from the nuns at Caritas Christi in Hempfield. “I’ve been praying every night and every morning,” said Sister Mary Agnes Kirsch, 85. A bit of hope came to the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Seton...

A shortage of federal funding has caused Pennsylvania to scale back a critical program for assisting long-term care facilities battling covid-19, officials said Wednesday. State officials introduced a new program called Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams, or RCATs, to support long-term care facilities. It replaces the state’s Regional Response Health...

Westmoreland County topped 500 deaths related to the coronavirus Wednesday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The state added 11 new deaths to the county’s total, bringing it to 502. Westmoreland became the 12th county in the state to reach 500 deaths. The county’s death rate per 100,000 residents...

State Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, was sworn in Wednesday morning to his third term serving the 45th Senate District. Brewster, 72, took the oath from Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David Spurgeon in a brief ceremony in Harrisburg with no fanfare or objection — unlike the chaos that ensued last...

Allegheny County added 74 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday but attributed the large number to a data backlog at the state level. Those deaths bring the county’s total to 1,178. The deaths ranged from Dec. 4 to Jan. 8, with 73 of them from December. The state data includes information imported...

HARRISBURG — A legislative panel on Wednesday narrowly approved a proposal to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to elect state appeals court judges by zone, a movement largely motivated by Republicans’ anger over recent rulings from the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court. The House Judiciary vote was 13-12, with two GOP members...

When Eliza Jane Bowman volunteered at a bottling event at East End Brewing Co. in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood several years ago, she noticed cases of barleywine sitting in the warehouse. Owner Scott Smith said it had gone flat and wasn’t worth anything. She saw a value to it. “I told...

A Virginia man is being held without bond after being accused of driving a tractor-trailer that fatally struck an Ohio man working on a disabled vehicle on Interstate 70 this week, according to state police. Hosea Holcomb IV, 27, was arrested after the 7:30 a.m. Monday crash in Fallowfield Township,...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Lottery players will have a shot Friday night at the fifth-largest jackpot in U.S. history after no tickets matched all the numbers in the latest Mega Millions drawing. The jackpot for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions was $625 million and lottery officials say it’s rising to an...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is on the verge of being impeached for a second time in an unprecedented House vote Wednesday, a week after he encouraged a mob of loyalists to “fight like hell” against election results just before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly siege. While...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A Kansas woman was executed Wednesday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put to death a female inmate. Lisa Montgomery, 52, was pronounced dead at 1:31...

Nashville police arrested a second suspect in the killing of Caitlyn Kaufman, a Butler County native who was shot on her way to work as a nurse at a Tennessee hospital. James Cowan, 28, was arrested at a Nashville area apartment complex, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. BREAKING:...

WASHINGTON — A group of moderate House Republicans has introduced a resolution to censure President Donald Trump for his role in last week’s attack at the Capitol and for “attempting to unlawfully overturn the 2020 presidential election.” The group, led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County, said in a...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House rushed ahead Tuesday toward impeaching President Donald Trump for the deadly Capitol attack, taking time only to try to persuade his vice president to push him out first. Trump showed no remorse, blaming impeachment itself for the “tremendous anger” in America. Already scheduled to leave...

Carnegie Mellon University officials on Tuesday issued a harsh statement condemning speech that may have incited last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, as debate over comments by some of its leading scholars raised eyebrows in academic circles across the country. In a letter issued to the university community, a...

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump denied responsibility for the U.S. Capitol riot that left five people dead and the FBI vowed to prosecute hundreds of his supporters who took part in the attack, the No. 3 House GOP leader announced she was voting for impeachment. It marked the starkest...

Westmoreland County’s Democratic Committee called on two local Republican congressmen to resign in response to their votes last week objecting to Pennsylvania’s presidential election results following the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol. Committee chairwoman Tara Yokopenic said in a statement released late Monday that Reps. Guy Reschenthaler and John...

Federal agents in Pittsburgh said they are not aware of any violent threats in the region as rumors circulate online about attacks before the presidential inauguration in specific cities. In addition, an individual in the Pittsburgh area was named in the weekend’s federal report that warned of possible further violence,...

Going over current events is one of Barak Naveh’s favorite parts of teaching. It’s an honor and a privilege, he said, to be able to help his history students at Pittsburgh Obama Academy understand the world in the context of the past, to show them how history is relevant in...

A special election to fill the vacancy in the state House 59th District left by the sudden death of Rep. Mike Reese will be conducted May 18. Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, announced Tuesday the special election will be held along with the regularly scheduled primary the same day....

New interactive dashboards announced Tuesday by state officials allow users to find open Pennsylvania restaurants, which are offering takeout and those accused of violating covid-19 mitigation measures. The Covid Inspection Dashboard allows users to search restaurants by name, county, city or ZIP code. The dashboard lists whether any violations have...