Top Stories category, Page 1372

It’s official: No Tom Brady in Pittsburgh in 2020. No Drew Brees, either. No Pittsburgh Steelers late-summer trip to the shadow of the Big Apple. And no installment in the annual preseason “rivalry” with the Carolina Panthers. In fact, no August football at all this year. The 2020 NFL preseason...

Former Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge ripped his former agency’s current actions in Portland, saying it is not the office’s mission to act as domestic law enforcement. Ridge, a two-term Republican governor from Pennsylvania and President George W. Bush’s first head of DHS, said Tuesday the Trump administration’s decision...

As schools across the region continue to finalize arrangements for a return to class next month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has added his voice to the debate. In a letter this week to district superintendents, Shapiro threatened to intervene on behalf of schools should the federal government withhold money...

A second inmate at Westmoreland County Prison has tested positive for coronavirus. Warden John Walton said Tuesday that routine testing of newly booked quarantined inmates confirmed the positive result on July 17, a week after that person entered the Hempfield facility. “This person was asymptomatic,” Walton said. Prison officials confirmed...

A woman whose body was found May 4 in a refrigerator stowed in the hallway of a McKees Rocks apartment building was slain, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office said Tuesday. The woman, Kristy Jefferson, 38, of McKees Rocks was inside a refrigerator that was sitting in a second floor...

West Virginia University will require students to get a covid-19 test and complete an education module on the virus prior to returning to campus next month. Those who fail to meet those requirements could be fined $250, school officials warned Tuesday. Like colleges across the region, WVU has published a...

Leaders with Congregation Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha took another step toward rebuilding with the hiring of two consulting firms that will help with logistics of getting back inside the Squirrel Hill synagogue. “It’s a next step to returning physically and spiritually to the building,” said Barb Feige, the congregation’s executive...

The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is traveling a different road this year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the annual event that encompasses most of Schenley Park “shifted gears,” according to organizers. There will be some smaller happenings on various roads in the region instead of the large 10-day gathering, which...

A Port Authority of Allegheny County light rail train and a car collided Tuesday afternoon in Dormont, officials said. The car and the train crashed at about 1:45 p.m. at the Red Line crossing near the Hillsdale crossing in the 1500 block of Hillsdale Avenue in Dormont, according to Port...

A fair in Eastern Pennsylvania was criticized this week for perceived mocking of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine in a dunk tank. At the Columbia-Montour County Fireman’s Relief Carnival, hosted by the Bloomsburg Fair, a man wearing a dress and wig sat on the dunk pedestal, claiming to resemble Levine....

PennDOT plans to close the Tarentum Bridge for several weekends while preservation work is being done. The work is scheduled to start in the fall, stop for the winter, continue in the spring and be finished next summer, PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said Tuesday. About 30,000 vehicles cross the bridge...

Pittsburgh police are asking for help in locating a missing man. Willis Morris, 78, was last seen July 16, police said. He is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs around 150 pounds. He has gray hair and brown eyes. He frequents Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood and South Side neighborhoods and Homestead,...

Turnpike travelers who have not made the switch to E-ZPass will face a hefty increase in the cost of tolls beginning next year. The 45% average increase for drivers who use the toll-by-plate option is necessary to cover the high cost of collecting those tolls, Pennsylvania Turnpike Chief Executive Mark...

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,027 new coronavirus cases and 20 new deaths Tuesday. Tuesday’s reported cases represent the second time in the last six days that cases surpassed 1,000 cases, as 1,032 cases were reported Friday. However, cases in the 700 range were reported four times in that...

It’s billed as “the tea party to end all tea parties” — only it’s more of a cocktail party. Figuring the middle of pandemic is as good a time as any to go down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, the team behind The Wizard’s Den and Beyond...

A former state senator from Lebanon County was sentenced to one to two years in prison for possessing child pornography and related offenses, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday. Mike Folmer was charged in September 2019 after an online tip led investigators to discover images of child pornography on...

A northeastern Pennsylvania man is accused of spitting in the face of a fellow shopper inside a Wayne County Walmart after she asked him to follow the store’s mandatory mask policy. The incident happened Monday when Evan Spangenberg and his girlfriend were shopping in the Texas Township store without face...

A New Kensington councilman claims city residents would be willing to pay more for garbage collection if it meant getting better service. Councilman Todd Mentecki said people from across the city have complained about problems with the city’s new garbage company, County Hauling. After more than six months it hasn’t...

Tuesday marked the fourth consecutive day the Allegheny County Health Department reported fewer than 200 new coronavirus cases. In addition to the 139 new covid-19 cases, there were 8 new hospitalizations and 1 new death reported in the county. The new cases come from 1,501 test results that span June...

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh will not reopen to the public until January. “Social distancing guidelines have had a tremendous impact on the creative, hands-on learning experiences that are a hallmark of the Children’s Museum and MuseumLab, and more recent restrictions on indoor gatherings have further impacted our ability to...

Gregg Kander doesn’t know when to stop. Just ask those working on his newest project, the rehabilitation of Braddock’s historic Ohringer Furniture building. By late summer, it is expected to house a hand-picked, diverse community of artists living in a space designed to catalyze creativity. The basement will house communal...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal officers’ actions at protests in Oregon’s largest city, hailed by President Donald Trump but done without local consent, are raising the prospect of a constitutional crisis — one that could escalate as weeks of demonstrations find renewed focus in clashes with camouflaged, unidentified agents outside Portland’s...