Top Stories category, Page 1595
Transit authority on track to start running Westmoreland bus service in January
Staff at the Westmoreland County Transit Authority has grown by more than 600% over the last month as the agency continues to gear up for its takeover of bus and paratransit services on Jan. 2. What was once primarily an administrative organization with 18 employees, the authority has transitioned to...
Santa Ski Day at Boyce Park raises money for ALS researchVideo
Boyce Park hosted its first Santa Ski Day on Saturday and its organizers hope it continues to grow as word spreads across the area. Skiers and snowboarders who came dressed as Santa could ski at the Four Seasons Lodge after paying a $10 donation to the Boyce Park Ski Patrol....
Vo-tech schools serving Westmoreland, A-K Valley districts get nearly $82K in grants
Three vo-tech schools that serve 11 school districts in Westmoreland County and the Alle-Kiski Valley have received close to $82,000 in grants from the state Education Department. Lenape Technical School received $40,675, Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center received $49,999, and Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center received $16,930. The...
Organ transplants using live donors soar at UPMC
A shortage of organs from deceased donors has prompted UPMC to shift its focus to transplants using live donors, a surgery some experts consider risky but others view as giving patients better survival odds. Deceased-donor transplants — once the bread and butter of UPMC’s internationally known transplant program — have...
Irwin native pushed for early prosecution of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Fallout from the teen sex trafficking scandal of the late Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted pedophile who hanged himself in a New York City jail cell, continues to plow a path of destruction. Manhattan jail guards face federal criminal charges related to Epstein’s death and an alleged subsequent...
Super Saturday brings holiday shoppers out in droves at Westmoreland Mall
The last Saturday before Christmas, typically the biggest shopping day of the year, was expected to attract nearly 148 million consumers online and at brick-and-mortar stores this year. The National Retail Federation projected that increase over last year’s Super Saturday turnout of about 134 million because of this year’s abbreviated...
Hundreds turn out for Pittsburgh fraternity’s 26th annual Christmas toy giveawayVideo
Hundreds of families gathered Saturday in a line outside of the fraternity center of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s annual Christmas party and toy giveaway. The event has been hosted by the Iota Phi (Pittsburgh) chapter of the international fraternity for 26 years. The party in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood included...
Hempfield man suffers burns in fire that destroyed garage
A Hempfield man suffered minor burns to his hands while attempting to remove equipment from his burning garage Saturday morning, firefighters said. The block building, which contained woodworking equipment, was a total loss, according to Midway-St. Clair Fire Chief Rich Kepple. A township fire investigator will look into the cause...
2019 winter solstice arrives, bringing shortest day, longest night of the year
Shortest day. Longest night. Regardless of how you look at it, Saturday marks the 2019 winter solstice — the official beginning of winter (astronomically, at least) and the day the sun makes its briefest appearance of the year. 4:56 p.m. Official time of sunset in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Varies depending...
‘Make Yourself at Home Bandit’ suspected of robbing Harmar betting parlor linked to 12 robberies in 7 states
The masked man who forced an employee to empty the safe of a Harmar off-track betting parlor last month may be wanted in connection to at least dozen robberies across seven states, police said Friday. Lloyd Eugene Rhodes, 57, who has warrants out for his arrests from the FBI and...
New Ken-Arnold student left on W.L. Roenigk bus, 2nd pupil in 10 days
A New Kensington-Arnold School District special needs student was left alone on a W.L. Roenigk school bus at the Clairview School in Greensburg on Friday, school and bus company officials said. The driver was immediately fired, a Roenigk official said. It was the second time in 10 days that a...
Deadlines loom for getting holiday packages, cards in the mail
Neither snow nor rain nor the annual crush of holiday packages and cards slows the U.S. Postal Service from making the rounds. “We’ve had carriers out since 6 a.m. delivering packages just to keep up with the volume, and we’ve been out seven days a week,” said Tad Kelley, the...
Strip District street to close for 30 months
A portion of Pittsburgh’s Waterfront Place, a street paralleling the Allegheny River between 11th and 21st streets, will close for more than two years beginning in January for a second phase of a $400 million residential development known as Riverfront Landing. The city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure and The...
Allegheny County awards Familylinks $1 million contract to combat homelessness
Allegheny County has chosen an East Liberty human services provider to oversee a homeless prevention project. The county’s Department of Human Services is providing Familylinks with about $1 million to prevent homelessness among families in the county’s child welfare system. “This award represents recognition of the many hears that Familylinks...
Pittsburgh’s longest-serving crossing guard caught off guard by mayor’s honor
Pittsburgh crossing guard Supervisor Elaine Alter has been dodging traffic for 43 years to safely guide children across busy streets on their way to school. But Mayor Bill Peduto on Thursday caught Alter completely off-guard when he presented her with the Mayor Sophie Masloff Employee of the Month Award during...
Pittsburgh cousins charged in fentanyl ring tied to raid that sickened 18 SWAT officers
A pair of Pittsburgh cousins were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in connection to an investigation into a drug trafficking ring that led to the sickening of 18 SWAT officers during a series of raids two years ago, prosecutors said Thursday. Lynell Guyton, 30, of the city’s Elliott...
Woman claims North Braddock officer arrested her for filming traffic stopVideo
A North Braddock woman is suing North Braddock Borough and four police officers in federal court for allegedly violating her civil rights after her arrest for filming an Aug. 19 traffic stop. Keaira Booker, 23, said that she was wrongly arrested when a North Braddock police officer spotted her filming...
Dollar Bank network issues resolved, accounts are current, spokesman says
Dollar Bank has resolved its network issues that caused its online and mobile banking services to go down Thursday night and resulted in direct deposits not posting until Friday afternoon, a bank official said. “We apologize to all our customers for this inconvenience and appreciate their patience,” said Joe Smith,...
Police: North Versailles man hid drugs in mouth, buttocks
When police arrested a North Versailles man in Manor on Thursday after an apparent drug deal, they found the suspect had drugs hidden in his mouth and clenched between his buttocks, according to court papers. Damian Igles, 22, is charged with drug offenses, criminal use of a communication facility and...
Members of international malware ring who targeted Western Pa. prosecuted
Three members of an international malware cybercrime syndicate have been sentenced in what U.S. authorities are calling a “borderless response” that has involved police agencies in America and Europe. Krasimir Nikolov, 47, of Varna, Bulgaria, was sentenced Monday in Pittsburgh by U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer to time served...
3 cars damaged in crashes on icy stretch of Route 910 in HarmarVideo
Two vehicles were heavily damaged Friday morning in a head-on crash on an icy stretch of Route 910 in Harmar, but the two drivers involved managed to walk away unhurt, Harmar police said. Also damaged in the crash was an unoccupied third vehicle that had been disabled on the side...
Steelers safety Kameron Kelly charged after alleged South Side bar tussle with police
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Kameron Kelly fought with police after he was thrown out of a South Side bar early Friday morning when he became irate at the jukebox selection, according to charges filed against him. Kelly, 23, is charged with two counts of making terroristic threats and one count of...
Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner to stand trial again on Detroit charge
Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner will go to trial again in Detroit next year on a charge of obstruction during a March 2019 incident at a hotel with her husband, according to the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. A Detroit jury last month found Wagner not guilty of disturbing the peace...
United pulls 737 Max until June, adding to Boeing woes
NEW YORK — United Airlines says the Boeing 737 Max has been pulled from its flight schedule until June, the latest in a string of troubling news plaguing the airplane manufacturer. The developments follow Boeing’s announcement Monday that it would halt Max production in January. It did not say when...
A tale of 3 Santas: They’re making the holidays extra special
What makes Santa Claus, well, Santa? Beyond the red suit, sack full of gifts and general jolliness, it may come down to how he relates to the smallest among us. If children look past the generous belly, twinkling eyes and white beard and believe, truly believe, then Santa is Santa....
