Top Stories category, Page 1259
Coronavirus infections top 90 million confirmed cases
BALTIMORE — Coronavirus infections have now surpassed 90 million confirmed cases around the world, as more countries braced for wider spread of more virulent strains of a disease that has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide. The number of infections worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a...
Unity sports bar allowed to reopen following shutdown because of covid violations
John and Jamie Huemme were delighted Friday when a state inspector reversed an order that would have forced Sharky’s Cafe and Pier, one of the region’s largest sports bars, to close during Sunday’s Steelers-Browns playoff game. The landmark sports bar and eatery, located along Route 30 in Unity, was ordered...
Apollo teen songwriter finds success in national competitions
Music always came naturally to Jessa Pontier. The 18-year-old Apollo resident said she started singing when she 2 while banging on a toy piano. She could play a real piano by the time she was 6, and taught herself to play guitar around 10 or 11 — never taking any...
Schwarzenegger compares attack on Capitol to Nazi violenceVideo
Arnold Schwarzenegger likened this week’s siege of the U.S. Capitol to Nazi attacks on Jews in Europe ahead of World War II in a scathing video in which the former California governor also called President Trump “the worst president ever.” Schwarzenegger wasn’t yet alive when Nazis rampaged through Germany and...
Vaccine rollout confirms public health officials’ warnings
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Public health officials sounded the alarm for months, complaining that they did not have enough support or money to get covid-19 vaccines quickly into arms. Now the slower-than-expected start to the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history is proving them right. As they work to ramp up...
Vandergrift man was drunk when he flipped car, found walking barefoot in Apollo, police say
A Vandergrift man has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after police say he crashed his car while drunk on Friday in Kiski Township. Police said Ryan Lee Nelson, 20, had a blood alcohol content of 0.147% when police found him walking barefoot along the road in...
Sens. Toomey, Murkowski urge Trump to resign; impeachment gains support
WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators now say Donald Trump should resign and a third says the president should be “very careful” in his remaining days in office as the House prepares to impeach Trump in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday joined...
In wake of Capitol riot, Americans struggle for answers
This past week, Americans watched as the hallowed chambers of the Capitol were overrun and defiled, not by some foreign enemy of democracy but a mob of their fellow citizens. And then they tried to make sense of it. In letters to the editor and posts on social media, they...
Parler squeezed as Trump seeks new online megaphone
President Donald Trump has been kicked off of most mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ siege on the U.S. Capitol. But it remains to be seen how fast or where — if anywhere — on the internet he will be able to reach his followers. The far right-friendly Parler...
Trump legacy on race shadowed by divisive rhetoric, actions
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed in the final months of his presidency — and without a trace of irony — to have done more for Black Americans than anyone with the “possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln. He boasted that the African American unemployment rate dropped to record lows...
McKees Rocks man dead in shooting in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Police are investigating the shooting death of a McKees Rocks man Saturday night. According to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office, Blake Green, 41, was found with gunshot wounds at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on the 1400 block of Chicago Street in Pittsburgh. Green was transported to Allegheny General Hospital...
2020 brings increase in Westmoreland overdose deaths
There appears to be a slight uptick in the number of people who died from a drug overdose in Westmoreland County in 2020 after two consecutive years of decreases. County coroner statistics show that 102 people died of a drug overdose last year and 19 more cases are suspected. That...
Estimated $2.4 million renovation in progress at Hartwood Acres stablesVideo
About $2.4 million in renovations will convert the former Hartwood Acres stables into a wedding and special events center. The upgrade includes a new $1.4 million slate roof and nearly $1 million in other renovations that will convert what was an equestrian complex built in 1927 for Mary Flinn Lawrence...
Pennsylvania Republicans weigh the party’s future post-Trump
Republicans and party leaders are wondering what direction the GOP in Pennsylvania will take in the era of the post-Trump presidency and in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of President Trump’s supporters. Will the party return to its more moderate roots as...
Sports card appraiser looking at Greensburg collection says sell valuable cards now
Collectors holding onto cards of star football, basketball or baseball players as a financial investment should consider selling them now, according to a vintage sports card and memorabilia appraiser who plans to evaluate a Greensburg-area collection this week. “Now is a good time to sell. Prices have exploded higher than...
Western Pa. residents among virtual presenters set for 2nd Pa. Veteran Farming Conference
The inaugural Pennsylvania Veteran Farming Conference drew a standing-room-only gathering of about 75 to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg last February. This year’s conference, open to the public as well as military members, veterans and their families, was to have occurred at a larger venue. But, because the covid-19...
From high school dropout to $3M venture, Derry native launches gamer coaching platformVideo
When Josh Fabian dropped out of high school in Derry and moved out of his parents’ home all before the age of 18, he wasn’t expecting a career in web design to fall into his lap. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be heading up a gamer coaching company that’s attracted...
Police investigate shooting in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood
Police are investigating an apparent shooting early Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood. Shortly before 3 a.m., authorities received a ShotSpotter alert of gunshots fired in the 200 block of Estella Street, Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said. Police officers from the city’s Zone 3 station arrived to find “a...
Editorial: Making companies immune from misconduct is sick
When we think about immunity, we usually think about being resistant to a disease. Immunity is the ability to shrug off an infection, to ignore a virus. It’s an idea that has occupied us for much of the last year. The possibility of being immune to covid-19 because of having...
Dems’ momentum builds to impeach Trump; Pelosi hits rioters
WASHINGTON — Momentum built among Democrats on Saturday for a fresh and fast push to impeach President Donald Trump, even as the House speaker accused his backers who violently invaded the Capitol of choosing “their whiteness over democracy.” Nancy Pelosi’s remark came as Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., one of the...
Toomey calls on Trump to resign, says it’s what’s best for countryVideo
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is calling on President Donald Trump to resign for what Toomey says would be the good of the country after the Capitol riot that was carried out by supporters of the president. Toomey says resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get...
Western Pa. officials prep for possible violence prior to Biden’s inauguration
Public safety leaders and police in Western Pennsylvania are preparing for possible demonstrations and violence in the Pittsburgh area in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden as Twitter warns of a potential “secondary attack” on the U.S. Capitol. Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich confirmed...
Norwin adds 16 covid cases this week; 32 since holiday break
Norwin School District officials said they were notified of 12 more coronavirus cases among students and staff on Friday, raising the total number of cases to 32 since the holiday break began Dec. 22. Two students each from the high school, middle school, Hillcrest Intermediate, Stewartsville Elementary and Sunset Valley...
Suspect in McKeesport police shooting returned from West Virginia
PITTSBURGH — A man who police say was handcuffed when he allegedly shot a police officer three times with a gun police didn’t know he had before fleeing to West Virginia is back in Western Pennsylvania to face charges. The Allegheny County sheriff’s office said 22-year-old Koby Lee Francis of...
AP Explainer: Who has been charged in the deadly Capitol riot?
Dozens of people have already been arrested and prosecutors across the U.S. have vowed to bring to justice those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, sending lawmakers into hiding as they began their work to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia...
