Top Stories category, Page 1218
George Floyd’s cause of death, ex-cop’s force will be keys at trial
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis police officer was swiftly fired and charged with murder after bystander video showed him pressing his knee into George Floyd’s neck, ignoring the Black man’s cries that he couldn’t breathe. But even with that powerful footage, legal experts say the case isn’t a slam dunk. Jury...
Police: Shots fired from several cars along Route 28, 2 people hit
State police are investigating a shooting along Route 28 that left two people hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Police said the incident occurred Saturday around 3:30 p.m. near the Route 8 exit in Sharpsburg. When troopers arrived, Pittsburgh police were on the scene with a vehicle “which had several indications of...
Want to see 80,000 snow geese? No problem for Harrison photographer at Middle CreekVideo
A Harrison couple recently witnessed one of the state’s most dramatic natural spectacles — tens of thousands of migrating snow geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster and Lebanon counties. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which manages Middle Creek, reports large crowds visiting to see the massive migration of...
Workers worry about safety, stress as states ease mask rules
JACKSON, Mississippi — Leo Carney worries that bigger crowds and mask-less diners could endanger workers at the Biloxi, Mississippi, seafood restaurant where he manages the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who earns $9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s cook in Houston, can’t afford to get sick and frets co-workers will become more...
PennDOT to begin Tarentum Bridge repairs, no traffic disruptions — yet
PennDOT will begin preservation work on the Tarentum Bridge from March 15 to mid-April. Crews will replace deteriorating concrete in the structure underneath the bridge, said Yasmeen Manyisha, PennDOT spokeswoman. No traffic disruptions are planned. However, some traffic restrictions are expected later this year when PennDOT works on other bridge...
U.S. states look to step up wolf kills, pushed by Republicans
BILLINGS, Mont. — Payments for dead wolves. Unlimited hunting of the animals. Shooting wolves from the air. Wolf hunting policies in some states are taking an aggressive turn, as Republican lawmakers and conservative hunting groups push to curb their numbers and propose tactics shunned by many wildlife managers. In Montana,...
Casting a wide intrusion net: Dozens burned with single hack
BOSTON — The SolarWinds hacking campaign blamed on Russian spies and the “grave threat” it poses to U.S. national security are widely known. A very different — and no less alarming — coordinated series of intrusions also detected in December has gotten considerably less public attention. Nimble, highly skilled criminal...
Biden marking ‘Bloody Sunday’ by signing voting rights order
WASHINGTON — A new executive order from President Joe Biden directs federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote voting access, a move that comes as congressional Democrats press for a sweeping voting and elections bill to counter efforts to restrict voting access. His plan was being announced...
Kiski Area Upper Elementary sixth-grader brightens Fridays with his dance movesVideo
An autistic pre-teen with a big heart and even bigger dance moves is causing a stir at school. Cash Malobicky, a sixth-grader at Kiski Area Upper Elementary School, is a featured dancer each week during the schoolwide video announcements broadcast. “My parents named me after the singer Johnny Cash,” said...
1 year later: The coronavirus response, missteps and what we have learned
Think about one year ago. On Feb. 2, the Super Bowl was played in front of more than 62,000 fans packed into Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. A month later, 18,548 watched the Penguins play the Carolina Hurricanes on March 8 at PPG Paints Arena. A few days after that, the...
Doing what’s right: Inside restoration begins on tomb of Sutersville founderVideo
Frank Barbera knew if he was going to get inside the Suter mausoleum at West Newton Cemetery, it wasn’t going to be through the bricked-over front door. Instead, the former Sutersville mayor in November removed bricks covering the windows and shimmied his way into the structure that entombs Sutersville’s founder,...
Another ex-aide calls Cuomo’s office conduct inappropriate
NEW YORK — Another woman who worked for Gov. Andrew Cuomo is describing conduct she felt was inappropriate for the workplace. Ana Liss, 35, told The Wall Street Journal in a story published Saturday that when she worked as a policy aide to the governor between 2013 and 2015, Cuomo...
Editorial: Keep on rolling up sleeves for the vaccines to beat down covid
The coronavirus pandemic has been a yearlong war. There have been front lines and battle plans, equipment deployed and troops activated. There have been far too many casualties. It has been approached as a national security issue because that is exactly what it is — a catastrophic event that threatens...
Leechburg church partners with Lower Burrell area charity to bolster food distributions
A Leechburg church has partnered with a Lower Burrell- area nonprofit to ensure food supply is not a problem in future free distributions. Twice last month, volunteers from Kiski Valley Community Church had to turn away families who waited for hours at the Leechburg Fire Hall for boxes of food....
Westmoreland County posts 61 more coronavirus cases
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Saturday reported 61 new cases of the coronavirus in Westmoreland County, as the area continues to stay below triple digit case counts. The county last saw a triple-digit count Feb. 3, and 18 of the 31 days since then have remained below 75 new...
Editorial: Total testing for covid at Allegheny County Jail is worthy goal
Jails check for a lot of things when processing someone who has been arrested. Suspects are checked for weapons or other potentially dangerous items. They are checked for contraband such as drugs. They are photographed, fingerprinted, patted down and looked over. During the course of a stay in jail, there...
Cleveland rocker, radio star Michael Stanley dead at 72
CLEVELAND — Michael Stanley, a Cleveland-based rocker who with his namesake band reached the Top 40 in the 1980s with the hits “He Can’t Love You” and “My Town” before going on to a long career as a radio disc jockey, has died. He was 72. Stanley died Thursday after...
1 year after covid hit Pa: nearly 1 million cases, more than 24,000 deaths
Pennsylvania health officials on Saturday reported 2,789 new coronavirus cases, exactly one year after the virus was first discovered in the Keystone State. Two people were reported quarantined on March 6, 2020 in the eastern part of the state after they were presumed positive to have contracted covid-19. Saturday’s data...
Biden, Dems prevail as Senate OKs $1.9T virus relief bill
WASHINGTON — An exhausted Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill Saturday as President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums. After laboring all night on a mountain of amendments — nearly...
Allegheny County reports 276 new covid cases, 3 deaths
Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 276 new coronavirus cases, as case counts and hospitalizations continue to decrease in the area. Reports haven’t reached 500 cases in nearly seven weeks and the county hasn’t reported any 1,000-case days in the past nine weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health...
Senate Dems strike jobless aid deal, relief bill OK in sight
WASHINGTON — Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam that had stalled the party’s showpiece $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill. The compromise, announced by the West Virginia lawmaker and a Democratic aide, seemed to clear the...
Altoona police arrest Pittsburgh man they say is connected to October murder in Indiana County
A man wanted in connection with a murder in Indiana County last fall has been arrested in Altoona. Terrion Gates was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and officers with the Altoona Police Department, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. Gates was wanted on homicide, robbery and...
Westmoreland County gets $12.9 million for emergency rental aid for needy
Westmoreland County residents who are behind on their rent and facing possible eviction or unable to pay huge heating bills and fearing a utility shutoff can seek help through a $12.9 million federally funded program for emergency rental aid. “We’re seeing an increase in demand for rental assistance across the...
Some UPMC St. Margaret patients may have had health information ‘inappropriately disclosed,’ officials say
Health information of some UPMC St. Margaret hospital patients might have been “inappropriately disclosed” after an employee sent a medication administration report to an outside organization without a business need, UPMC officials disclosed Friday. According to a release from the health care network, officials learned of the the breach Aug....
‘We’ve had enough’: 95% of United Steelworkers support striking against ATI
A whopping 95% of 1,300 United Steelworkers agreed to authorize a possible strike against Allegheny Technologies Inc. after more than a year of stalled contract negotiations, union officials said. The vote included more than 420 members who cast their ballots at the union hall on Brackenridge Avenue by 5 p.m....
