Top Stories category, Page 1396

NEW YORK — U.S. Roman Catholic bishops said Thursday that the church tallied 4,434 sex abuse allegations against clergy in the 2018-19 audit year, triple the number seen the previous year, with much of the increase stemming from a wave of lawsuits and claims by survivors of decades-old molestation. In...

A Butler man was arrested Thursday and accused of aggravated assault and other crimes in connection with the May 30 protests in Downtown Pittsburgh. Jordan Erdos, 20, was apprehended and taken to the Allegheny County Jail, police said. Erdos is charged with riot, recklessly engendering another person, aggravated assault and...

Nothing happens along 10th Street in Oakmont. “That’s why I live here. I have two children,” said resident Melissa Kwiatkowski. “This just makes you want to hold them a little closer.” Kwiatkowski, 52, was expressing shock Thursday over the death of 3-year-old Bella Seachrist, who lived in the same block...

Three police officers and a Mad Mex employee have tested positive for covid-19 in Monroeville. This was confirmed Thursday by municipal officials and the restaurant’s Facebook page Thursday. Monroeville Manager Tim Little said via email that the municipality “is following all Center for Disease Control guidelines with respect to positive...

Port Authority of Allegheny County on Thursday reported that another of its employees has tested positive for covid-19. Fifteen employees have tested positive for the coronavirus since the first case was reported on March 26, spokesman Adam Brandolph said. This is the first case involving a Port Authority employee since...

The lawyer for suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez said evidence collected by police during an investigation into sexual assault allegations were the product of an illegal search and should be barred from use by prosecutors in an upcoming trial. Vazquez, 28, has been in jail since September, when he...

Comcast will keep its public Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspots open to everyone, including non-Xfinity customers, for the remainder of the year, the company said Thursday. The provider in March announced it would open access to its 1.5 million hotspots to anyone amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We saw a huge jump in...

Pittsburgh’s landmark Allegheny Commons Park in the North Side is about to receive a $1.1 million historical facelift. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy on Thursday announced plans for restoration of the North Promenade, a path paralleling North Avenue and running almost the length of the park. Plans call for a paved,...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible. Thursday’s estimate is roughly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been...

Westmoreland County commissioners have had enough of paying out large sums of money to settle lawsuits filed against other elected officials. “We’re sending a letter to all of our row officers and elected officials telling them we want to hold them accountable,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes. Those comments came Thursday...

Financial companies led stocks broadly higher on Wall Street Thursday as traders welcomed news that the Federal Reserve and other regulators are removing some limits on the ability of banks to make investments. The S&P 500 climbed 1.1% following a jumpy day of trading. At one point, the index was...

Pittsburgh’s Point State Park fountain is flowing. Park Manager Jake Weiland said the fountain’s annual winter hibernation ended on Wednesday when staff turned on the pumps after about four weeks of prep work. “Lots of people think it’s as simple as turning on switches,” he said. “We’ve been working on...

Pittsburgh doctors found a potential connection between covid-19 and the onset of the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barré Syndrome, according to a case study from Allegheny General Hospital. The neurologists, among the first in the country to document this link, published findings in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Neuromuscular...

A scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report two years in the making blasted the state departments of Environment Protection and Health, alleging years of turning a blind eye to complaints against the oil and gas industry left residents exposed to harmful water and air pollution that caused nosebleeds, mysterious sores and...

Although many public Fourth of July celebrations have been canceled because of crowd size restrictions, fireworks will light up the skies in various places around Western Pennsylvania. The area’s largest show, over Point State Park in Pittsburgh, is off for this year, but here are some alternatives: Beaver County Beaver...

The owner of a Wilkinsburg coffee shop is suing a Pittsburgh radio station over a story last year that contained allegations of sexual misconduct. Joseph Davis, owner of Biddle’s Escape, a popular indie coffee joint in the Regent Square neighborhood, claims in a lawsuit that the story was defamatory and...

Allegheny County health officials reported 37 new covid-19 cases, six new hospitalizations and no new deaths on Thursday. Covid-19 cases have been rising locally this week. The county on Wednesday reported 45 new cases, matching the number of new cases reported on Monday. The 45 cases reported Monday and Wednesday...

Carnegie Science Center is extending its popular Mummies of the World exhibition as the museum reopens after closing March 14 in the coronavirus shutdown. Mummies of the World had been scheduled to end in April. The show, presented in the center’s PPG Science Pavilion, displays 125 mummies and related artifacts...

HOUSTON — A coronavirus resurgence is wiping out two months of progress in the U.S. and sending infections to dire new levels across the South and West, with hospital administrators and health experts warning Wednesday that politicians and a tired-of-being-cooped-up public are letting a disaster unfold. The U.S. recorded a...

The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association on Wednesday issued a statement supporting police-reform legislation passed by the state House and Senate. “As troopers, we believe our Call of Honor is nothing less than a sacred oath. Every trooper must memorize it. In particular, it includes this line: ‘It is my duty...

A new alert system installed across Pittsburgh’s firehouses will streamline responses and cut down on stress that wears on firefighters from listening to every call every moment they’re in the station, Public Safety officials said in introducing the system on Wednesday. Dispatches are only heard by the station or stations...

While mile-long lines of cars outside the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank are not the norm these days, the need to provide food to struggling families in Southwestern Pennsylvania remains. “We’ve been in response mode to the crisis for the last three months, and we continue to see a higher...