Top Stories category, Page 1284
$3 million lottery scratch-off sold in Beaver County
A Pennsylvania Lottery player beat the odds in Beaver County this week, winning $3 million on a $30 scratch-off ticket. The odds of winning the grand prize in the Pennsylvania Lottery’s $3 Million Extravaganza scratch-off game are 1 in 1.44 million. The lucky ticket was sold at Caivano’s Discount Tobacco...
UK investigates possible allergic reactions to covid-19 shot
LONDON — U.K. regulators said Wednesday that people who have a “significant history” of allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine while they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program. Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the National Health...
Norwin sees more covid cases; 57 since Thanksgiving
Norwin continues to a see a surge in covid cases, as another five students and staff reported being infected with the virus, pushing the post-Thanksgiving count to 57, the district said Tuesday. The school district said it learned Tuesday that two high school students, one Hillcrest Intermediate School student and...
Arizona Supreme Court denies GOP bid to inspect more ballots
PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has rejected a request from the state’s GOP chairwoman to inspect more ballots in her lawsuit that seeks to undo Democrat President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Republican President Donald Trump in Arizona. The decision Tuesday upheld a lower-court’s dismissal of Chairwoman Kelli Ward’s lawsuit...
Biden expected to pick Marcia Fudge for housing, Tom Vilsack for USDA
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions. Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just...
Contact tracing and case investigations in Pa. remain a struggle in fight against covid
Even as covid-19 cases skyrocket across Pennsylvania and case investigators prioritize who they will call, state officials on Tuesday urged everyone to please answer the phone and cooperate when investigators and contact tracers reach out to them. “In order to effectively contact trace, we need Pennsylvanians to participate in case...
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump’s campaign to overturn Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’
PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Pat Toomey said Tuesday that it’s “completely unacceptable” for President Donald Trump to pressure state lawmakers to overturn Pennsylvania’s election result, a rare rebuke from a Republican elected official as Trump continues his effort to subvert the will of the voters. “It’s completely unacceptable and it’s not...
Drive-up food distribution event at Pittsburgh Mills mall continues to help people in needVideo
Woody Main started crying when asked how he felt about a drive-up food distribution event held Tuesday afternoon at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer. The 50-year-old from Elizabeth was at the distribution to pick up food for his two sister-in-laws. He goes to food banks for them because one...
Western Pa. officials, businesses brace for possible covid restrictions
Western Pennsylvania officials and businesses expect an announcement from the state soon, detailing new pandemic restrictions for businesses and gatherings. “I think we’re moving in that direction,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Tuesday. “The numbers indicate that’s the proper strategy to employ. … I do anticipate, if not tomorrow...
‘We cannot turn our back on it’: Opioid crisis rages alongside covid pandemic in Pa.
Amid a global pandemic killing thousands across the state, country and world, health officials in Pennsylvania warned that the opioid epidemic continues to leave thousands dead in its wake as well. “We know that with the holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and various others approaching, it can be a difficult...
High court rejects GOP bid to halt Biden’s Pennsylvania win
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground. The court without comment refused to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory and the state’s 20...
14 Fort Hood soldiers fired, suspended over violence at baseVideo
WASHINGTON — The Army on Tuesday said it has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, and ordered policy changes to address chronic failures of leadership that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assault and harassment. In a sweeping condemnation of...
Some residents seek 50% cut to Pittsburgh police budget; city council members say that’s illegal
Pittsburgh City Council members listened for about two hours Tuesday as some three dozen speakers criticized the city’s 2021 budget proposal, asked for a 50% cut in the police department’s budget and wanted to see increased spending on social service programs. Most of the 45 people who signed up to...
Rare Babe Ruth card found by Altoona-area woman sells for $342,000
A collection of very old baseball cards turned out to be a treasure trove for an Altoona-area woman who works on the front lines of the pandemic. The woman, who did not want to be identified, was going through her late grandfather’s belongings when she found a rare 1916 Babe...
U.S. Supreme Court denies Republican injunction request in Pa. mail-in ballot challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon denied an attempt by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and other Republicans to challenge Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system. The denial likely puts an end to the Trump campaign’s efforts to throw out the state’s election results that declared President-elect Joe Biden the winner. The...
Allegheny County reports 693 new covid cases, 6 deaths
Allegheny County reported 693 new covid-19 cases Tuesday, according to the county Health Department. There were six new coronavirus-related deaths also reported. Total cases and total deaths now stand at 34,814 and 585, respectively. The seven-day new case average is now 830 and seven-day case total is 5,807, both records....
FDA posts early positive review of Pfizer data
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators say in their initial review that the vaccine from Pfizer is 95% protective against covid-19. The review posted online Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration offers the world the first detailed look at the evidence behind the shot, which was co-developed with BioNTech. The...
UPMC expects to receive covid vaccine soon, distribute to health care workers after authorization
Pending emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, UPMC hopes to have the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine distributed to all of its front-line workers by the end of January, leaders in the hospital system said Tuesday. The system anticipates arrival of its first allocation of Pfizer vaccine doses in...
Pennsylvania reports 10,170 new covid cases, 169 new deaths
Pennsylvania reported 10,170 new covid cases and 169 new deaths Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health. Total cases and total deaths in the state now stand at 436,614 and 11,542, respectively. Thus far in December, the state has reported 75,150 covid cases and 1,159 deaths. The seven-day average...
Westmoreland County reaches 250 covid deaths; 80% have come since September
With new covid-19 deaths reported, Westmoreland County reached a milestone Tuesday. The eight new coronavirus-related deaths reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health bring the county’s total to 250 deaths. To put deaths in Westmoreland County in perspective, it took from March 19 (when the county’s first cases were reported)...
Greensburg man cited after outburst in store over mask, social distancing
A Greensburg man who became enraged after being told to leave a store for failing to wear a mask and social distance is accused by city police of making threats against employees and knocking over merchandise as he departed. Police on Tuesday charged Derek P. Hart Jr., 21, with multiple...
Dozens of Allegheny County Jail inmates, employees test positive for covid-19
A covid-19 outbreak in the Allegheny County Jail is now affecting more employees along with dozens of those housed in the jail awaiting trial or serving sentences, officials said Tuesday. Two weeks after Warden Orlando Harper announced that 10 ACJ employees had tested positive for the virus, the number of...
Westmoreland County Commissioner Sean Kertes, Clerk of Courts Bryan Kline test positive for coronavirus
Two Westmoreland County elected officials said Tuesday they tested positive for coronavirus. Sean Kertes, chairman of the county commissioners, and Clerk of Courts Bryan Kline both said they are experiencing symptoms of the virus and both are at their respective homes in isolation. “I had a 100-, 101-degree temperature and,...
Levin to buy back 5 stores from Michigan firm, rebuild furniture chain
Robert Levin is getting closer to rebuilding his family’s namesake furniture chain, which nearly fell to ruin after a century in business following a sale and the tumult of a messy bankruptcy proceeding. “I feel this is like a Christmas gift for all of us, customers and employees,” Levin said...
Families, friends mourn Port Authority drivers who died of covid
Patrick Hazlett and Marlon J. Lucas had a combined three decades of service with the Port Authority of Allegheny County, and they both leave behind wives and children and a union family grieving its first losses to covid-19. Hazlett, a 34-year-old bus driver who’d worked for eight years with the...
