Top Stories category, Page 157
Witnesses link New Kensington man to 2020 murder of Arnold drug dealer
A New Kensington woman testified Tuesday that her former boyfriend confessed to his role in a fatal shooting of an Arnold drug dealer nearly five years ago. Shawnti Lee told a Westmoreland County jury that Letresse Williams made a frantic call to her in the late afternoon of Jan. 15,...
Giant Eagle partners with billionaire Mark Cuban to slash some drug prices
Billionaire Mark Cuban’s drug company has partnered with Giant Eagle pharmacies to make certain medications more affordable. As of Friday, customers across Giant Eagle’s five-state pharmacy network may be able to fill their prescriptions for less money through Cost Plus Drug’s Team Cuban Card. The company buys drugs directly from...
Federal judge rules Trump administration cannot reallocate billions meant for disaster mitigation
BOSTON — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from reallocating $4 billion meant to help communities protect against natural disasters. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston granted a preliminary injunction sought by 20 Democrat-led states while their lawsuit over the funding moves ahead. The states...
Pa. budget impasse reaches 36 days, with sides still at odds on several key issues
As Pennsylvania’s budget impasse reached 36 days Tuesday, the highest-ranking Republican in the state Senate said lawmakers should consider adopting a six-month spending plan that maintains last year’s funding levels for many essential services while negotiations continue on thornier budgetary issues. “If we can’t come to agreement (on an overall...
Eastbound Parkway East reopens, westbound remains closed
A closure of the Parkway East was beginning to end early Sunday evening. PennDOT announced around 6:30 p.m. that a single lane of eastbound Interstate 376 had reopened. The westbound interstate remained closed. The westbound lanes should reopen before 5 a.m. Monday, a spokeswoman said. A reopening by midnight was...
Stowe carjacking arrest leads police to suspect in Pittsburgh shooting
One of the two men arrested Monday in connection with a carjacking and high-speed chase that shut down a Pittsburgh bridge was wanted for shooting someone last week. The man police identified as the passenger in the stolen vehicle — Vaughn Hall, 34, of Pittsburgh — was charged with an...
Fire crews fish truck out of Allegheny River in Harmar
When firefighters arrived at the Deer Creek Boat Ramp in Harmar on Monday, it wasn’t a boat they found in the Allegheny River. The crews instead found a white Chevy Colorado pickup mostly submerged in the water, according to Allegheny Valley Fire Chief Jay Zangrille. The driver, who escaped without...
TV Talk: ‘The Pitt’ Season 2 release date, cast and plot details
Pittsburgh-set HBO Max ER drama “The Pitt” may not have earned the most Emmy nominations last month, but it did well for what is in many ways an elevated broadcast network drama on a streaming service. While Apple TV+’s “Severance” is the front-runner for best drama with 27 nominations, “The...
House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files and depositions with the Clintons
WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday for files in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation and is seeking depositions with the Clintons and former law enforcement officials, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to President Donald Trump and former...
Netanyahu hints at expanded war in Gaza but former Israeli military and spy chiefs object
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at wider military action in devastated Gaza on Tuesday, even as former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs called for an end to the nearly 22-month war. The new pressure on Netanyahu came as Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll had...
Most popular meteor shower, full moon to peak soon over Pennsylvania. Here’s when to look
A full “sturgeon” moon will peak soon over Pennsylvania, and residents can also enjoy viewing the peak of a popular meteor shower soon after. This month’s moon is referred to as the “sturgeon moon” because of the abundance of fish typically found in late summer, according to the Farmers’ Almanac....
Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board opens summer whiskey lottery
Nine whiskey lotteries are now open for Pennsylvania liquor connoisseurs. The lottery, run by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, allows consumers to enter into a drawing for the opportunity to purchase special liquor with limited quantity but high demand. Among the bottles up for grabs are two varieties of Blanton’s...
Victim identified in fatal Coraopolis hit-and-run
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified the pedestrian killed in a hit-and-run crash in Coraopolis as Ulises Montalvo. Paramedics pronounced Montalvo, 61, of Coraopolis dead at the scene at 8:41 p.m. Sunday, the medical examiner said. Montalvo was hit by the vehicle at the intersection of Main...
Rolling Rock Town Fair debuted at Westmoreland Fairgrounds 25 years ago todayVideo
If you grew up in Western Pennsylvania during the rise of alternative and grunge rock in the ’90s and early 2000s, there’s a good chance you recall hearing radio commercials for the annual Rolling Rock Town Fair. For a handful of years, some of the biggest names in modern rock...
Voting machines rarely malfunction during Pa. elections, new data show
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat’s free newsletters here. Pennsylvania voters encountered only scattered voting-machine malfunctions that rarely affected their ability to cast ballots in recent elections, according to a Votebeat...
NASA Acting Chief Duffy issues directive to speed up moon reactor plans
NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy plans to accelerate the construction of a nuclear reactor that could be used on the moon and alter the way NASA will partner with industry to replace the aging International Space Station. The plans, outlined in directives distributed inside NASA and seen by Bloomberg on...
Jeffrey Epstein victims express disgust, fear at handling of filesVideo
NEW YORK — A pair of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims blasted the Trump administration and the Justice Department for their attempts to unseal grand jury testimony in the criminal case against the late financier, saying government officials haven’t listened to the voices of people who were harmed by his actions. The...
Retrial begins in 2020 New Kensington fatal shooting
For the second time in 14 months, Westmoreland County prosecutors will attempt to convince a jury that Letresse Williams killed a suspected drug dealer during a botched robbery attempt. Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli said the Jan. 15, 2020, fatal shooting of Anthone Williams warrants a second-degree murder conviction. (Letresse...
Police arrest 2 in Stowe carjacking after chase shuts 31st Street Bridge
Two carjacking suspects were arrested Monday afternoon after crashing the vehicle police said they stole and trying to run from authorities — triggering a manhunt that shut down the 31st Street Bridge and snarled traffic on nearby Route 28. Stowe police reported a carjacking around 3 p.m. and called in...
Feds take down drug ring dealing meth in Western Pa.
Ten people from California, Michigan and Pennsylvania, including three from the Pittsburgh area, are charged in federal court with trafficking methamphetamine and other hard drugs in Western Pennsylvania. Christopher Love, 28, and Calil Francois-Moon, 20, both of Homestead, and Jonathan Toledo, 25, of Turtle Creek, were indicted last month on...
Judge says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs must stay in jail until he is sentenced
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs can’t go home from jail to await sentencing on his prostitution-related conviction, a judge said Monday, denying the rap and style mogul’s latest bid for bail. Combs has been behind bars since his September arrest. He faced federal charges of coercing girlfriends into having...
Barrage of weekend violence not a bellwether for Pittsburgh or region, officials say
The first weekend in August was the most violent weekend of the summer in and around Pittsburgh thus far, a TribLive analysis found. There were six separate shootings: four in Pittsburgh, one in Scott and one in Monroeville. “Isolated incidents of violence are tragic, but do not define a neighborhood...
Probe into fatal East Hills fire that killed girl, 2, remains open
A 2-year-old girl killed when a December fire gutted a Pittsburgh apartment died from thermal injuries and breathing in carbon monoxide, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Monday. Firefighters pulled Praise Lemons from the blaze that broke out at Maple Ridge Apartments in the city’s East Hills neighborhood around...
Man who killed cousin, terrorized North Braddock pastor, pleads guilty but mentally ill
Derek and Bernard Polite Jr. were cousins, but Derek always treated the younger man like a son, regularly welcoming Bernard into his North Braddock home when he needed a place to stay over the last 15 years. That, their family said on Monday, is what makes it so much harder...
Final member of trio charged in fatal Pittsburgh drug robbery heads to trial
Police say Sammie Lane Jr. executed Tayrod Ford in August 2022 during a drug robbery in Pittsburgh’s East End and then fled several hours later aboard a Greyhound bus. It would take nearly three years for authorities to track Lane down. They found him in March in a Lancaster County...
