Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1227
Victims ID’d in Penn Township double homicide, police find stolen vehicle 5 miles away
A man and woman were fatally shot at a Penn Township home Monday, and a Toyota Tacoma taken from the scene was found abandoned in Manor hours later, according to investigators. Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck identified the victims as Jacob R. Erdeljac, 41, and Mara Casale, 27. They...
Pittsburgh Fourth of July fireworks show returning
Pittsburgh’s Independence Day celebration will return this year, and other summertime events may also resume as coronavirus restrictions are eased, the city announced Monday. The traditional gathering at Point State Park will include patriotic music and food vendors from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with the fireworks starting at dusk....
Supreme Court to weigh rollback of abortion rights
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it would hear a major challenge to the reach of the landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling and decide whether states may bar nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of a pregnancy. The justices said they had voted to hear an appeal from...
Covid relief continues: Here’s how parents can get a monthly tax payment this summer
WASHINGTON — Eligible parents can get up to $300 per child from Washington as a monthly tax payment starting July 15, the Treasury Department said Monday. That means the 2020 tax return that’s due to be filed by the end of Monday with the Internal Revenue Service now could determine...
Republican Lou Barletta to run for Pennsylvania governor
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the Republican Party’s Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, is running for governor of Pennsylvania. Barletta, 65, becomes the most prominent figure to enter a 2022 governor’s race that Republicans have won every time in the past half-century when there is an outgoing Democratic...
Gun malfunction kills 1 at Pa. shooting range
One man is dead and another man has been injured after a handgun malfunction Saturday at a shooting range in Lackawanna County. Robert Hamm, 61, of Berwick handed his handgun to another man to shoot at the State Game Lands Shooting Range in Archbald, WNEP is reporting. The other man...
Western Pa. universities weigh covid vaccine requirements for fall
Leaders at colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania are grappling with how to safely restart classes in the fall — specifically, if requiring covid vaccination should be part of that strategy. Carnegie Mellon University announced last week that it would require students to get a vaccine before returning to campus....
Highlands students rally behind English teacher battling brain cancer
Kurt Landsberg holds a long list of titles: husband, father, longtime soccer coach and beloved English teacher at Highlands High School. He recently added another: cancer patient. Landsberg, 47, of Springdale, was diagnosed in late March with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. After Landsberg began experiencing issues with...
Second Amendment sanctuaries facing 1st court test in Oregon
SALEM, Ore. — The first court test of whether local governments can ban police from enforcing certain gun laws is playing out in a rural Oregon county, one of a wave of U.S. counties declaring itself a Second Amendment sanctuary. The measure that voters in the logging area of Columbia...
AP’s top editor calls for independent investigation into Israeli airstrikeVideo
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press’ top editor on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, saying the public deserves to know the facts. Separately, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders asked the...
Victim of Homewood fatal shooting identified as 17-year-old from Verona
Authorities have identified the victim of a fatal shooting in Homewood on Sunday afternoon. Police responded to a reported shooting at around 3:40 p.m. on the 7900 block of Frankstown Avenue on the border of the city’s Homewood and East Hills neighborhoods, according to a Tweet from Pittsburgh Public Safety....
New bishop presides at first maskless Mass at Saint Vincent Basilica
In yet another sign that the world is beginning to reopen from the covid-19 pandemic, Bishop Larry Kulick of the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg celebrated Mass without a mask Sunday for the first time in more than a year. The occasion was a visit to the Saint Vincent Basilica Parish...
As GOP restricts voting, Democrats move to expand access
Last year, for the first time in more than a quarter-century, Democrats in Virginia took control of the statehouse and the governor’s mansion. Since then, one priority has become clear: expanding voting rights. Once home to the capital of the Confederacy, Virginia has made Election Day a state holiday, repealed...
CDC’s big mask change went from science to secret to surprise
WASHINGTON — For a nation mired in a pandemic for more than a year, the biggest step toward a return to normal came suddenly, even to President Joe Biden. After warning the country on Monday to stay vigilant amid the threat of coronavirus variants, the president found himself three days...
Afghan cease-fire ends amid calls for fresh peace talks
KABUL, Afghanistan — A three-day cease-fire marked by violent attacks — most claimed by the Islamic State group — ended Sunday in Afghanistan amid calls for renewed peace talks between the government and Taliban. Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the negotiating teams of the government and the Islamic Emirate,...
Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes on Gaza CityVideo
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City early Monday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers would rage on. Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes...
Police: Coraopolis man falls to his death on West Carson Street
Pittsburgh police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a man’s fatal fall early Sunday morning on the South Side. Authorities say they responded to a report of a fall about 4:20 a.m. in the 1200 block of West Carson Street. The man was identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office...
Fire destroys landmark Murrysville restaurant
Spaghetti & Steakhouse, a landmark on Route 22 in Murrysville for more than 50 years, was destroyed Sunday in an early morning fire. The restaurant that has fed generations of local families and survived the pandemic was a total loss. A dispatcher for Westmoreland 911 said a caller reported the...
Help wanted: Western Pa. businesses hurting from lack of worker interest to fill open jobs
Dino’s Sports Lounge is in the same boat as so many other employers — competing to attract workers in a market made all the harder by covid-19 and an extra $300 a week in benefits being pocketed by eligible jobless workers. “I can’t get people to apply,” said Dino DeCario,...
Is extra $300 in federal unemployment assistance stopping people from applying for jobs?
With about 56,000 people in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties reporting they are without a job, businesses still find themselves scrambling to fill vacancies. One reason cited for the challenge is the extra $300 a week in federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance that people have collected since the end of December....
Trib Total Media names Luis Fabregas as next executive editor
A veteran, award-winning journalist and longtime Trib Total Media editor has been named the company’s next executive editor. Luis Fabregas will assume the role Sept. 16, succeeding Executive Editor Susan McFarland, who announced she will retire in the fall. “I am so pleased that we have someone with Luis’ talent,...
Cheswick hunter nails triple trophy for big game
Nathan Sipes of Cheswick not only bagged three big-game animals during the 2020-21 hunting season, but he also nailed two of them on Sundays. Sipes, 24, has been hunting since he was 11. Like many hunters, he never had such a sensational season. He harvested an eight-point buck in Upper...
Mural project in New Kensington meant to inspire community, invite participation
Organizers of Murals on a Mission were expecting as many as 100 people to turn out Saturday for the first of several events promoting the painting of six murals in New Kensington over the next few months. Held at the Voodoo Brewing Co. on Fifth Avenue, Saturday’s event offered a...
Israeli strike destroys Gaza building with AP, other media
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of the Associated Press and other media outlets. AP’s president said the agency was “shocked and horrified” at the strike. AP staffers and other tenants safely evacuated the...
Allegheny County surpasses 100,000 covid-19 cases, half-million residents fully vaccinated
Allegheny has become the second county in Pennsylvania to surpass 100,000 cases of coronavirus. In its covid-19 report released Saturday, the Allegheny County Health Department reported 186 new cases of the virus. That brings the county’s total since the pandemic began to 100,039. Only Philadelphia, with 146,238 cases, has more....
