Top Stories category, Page 16
911 calls from Texas floods reveal chaotic and desperate pleas for rescues
KERRVILLE, Texas — In an instant, frantic voices overwhelmed the two county emergency dispatchers on duty in the Texas Hill Country as catastrophic flooding inundated cabins and youth camps along the Guadalupe River. A firefighter clinging to a tree who watched his wife be swept away. A family breaking through...
As budget deadline looms, pressure mounts on Pittsburgh council to reject Gainey spending plan
There’s a rebellion underway in Pittsburgh’s city hall. Frustrated with outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey’s 2026 budget proposal, City Council members are increasingly plotting how to blow up his spending plan. Gainey’s budget avoids tax increases and layoffs. But critics have derided it as dishonest and “sloppy.” As Pittsburgh barrels toward...
Man killed in Upper Burrell vehicle crash
An Allegheny Township man died Friday morning in a two-vehicle crash in Upper Burrell. Brian Edward McCormick, 60, was driving a Nissan Sedan at 6:56 a.m. Friday near the intersection of Manchester Hill Road and Route 780 when he collided with another vehicle, according to the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office....
Supreme Court will decide whether Trump’s birthright citizenship order violates the Constitution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices will hear Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling...
Public health experts pan vote to change hepatitis B vaccination guidance
Public health experts told TribLive on Friday they fear a federal panel’s advice to stop giving most babies hepatitis B shots immediately after birth will fuel infection rates and erode confidence in vaccines more broadly. The advisory committee voted 8-3 Friday that pregnant women who test negative for the virus...
Grand jury transcripts from abandoned Epstein investigation in Florida ordered released
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Friday ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from the federal sex trafficking cases of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said a recently passed federal law ordering the release of records related to the cases overrode...
Former Ligonier Valley police chief John Berger faces drug, theft charges after grand jury probe
Former Ligonier Valley police Chief John Berger is accused of using his position to acquire prescription pills from an alleged dealer and pocket narcotics from the department’s drug take-back box while on duty. Berger, 53, of Ligonier Borough, and a second defendant, Michael D. Hootman, 42, of Ligonier Township, turned...
Former Leechburg police chief sees latest felony charge dropped
Former Leechburg police chief Michael Diebold’s most recent felony charge, claiming he had not reported all of the internet sites and apps he had been using, has been dismissed. After pleading guilty in December 2018 to soliciting sex online from a state trooper who was posing as a 14-year-old girl,...
Chartiers Valley girl, family sue district over alleged sexual abuse by fellow pupil in 3rd grade
The family of a student at Chartiers Valley School District is suing the district for negligence claiming officials there failed to protect their daughter from sexual harassment — and then sexual abuse — by a fellow third-grader. The abuse, according to the complaint filed Friday in Allegheny County Common Pleas...
Upper Burrell teen’s project to fill ‘significant gap’ in Holocaust education
An Upper Burrell teenager’s efforts to educate the younger generation about girls’ roles during the Holocaust is coming to fruition. Lily Sassani, 18, will launch her Holocaust Education Patch from 5 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Chatham University’s Mellon Board Room, 5799 Chapel Hill Road, Pittsburgh. The two-year initiative was...
Wall Street flirts with its all-time high
NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market is flirting with its all-time high on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was on track earlier in the day to squeak past its record closing level, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 164 points, or...
Former Highlands teacher charged with sexually assaulting, extorting 2 minors
A former Highlands School District teacher is charged with sexually assaulting and extorting two young students at his Brackenridge home. Sean M. Dicer, 53, is accused of assaulting the boys, who are now 16, when they were 11 and 12 years old, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. One...
Bomb squad sweeps Pittsburgh Symphony’s chartered plane in response to threat
Allegheny County Police on Thursday investigated a security threat impacting a plane chartered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A note “that was deemed to be potentially threatening” was found at Pittsburgh International Airport around 10:35 a.m. Thursday, Jim Madalinsky, a county police spokesman, said Friday. The county’s bomb squad swept...
U.S. vaccine advisers say not all babies need a hepatitis B shot at birth
NEW YORK — A federal vaccine advisory committee voted Friday to end a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are...
Realtor: North, South Hills real estate markets have more similarities than you’d think
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania. Twenty-six years ago, Bob Topich broke the age-old social norm of Pittsburgh suburbanites — departing his native South Hills for a home north of the city. Topich, 65, of Franklin Park, has never...
Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired property listed for $1.5M in Upper St. Clair
Dr. Allen Axelson is preparing to bid farewell to his beloved, nature-infused home, which he designed himself in the 1970s in Upper St. Clair. Axelson drew from his lifelong admiration of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build a contemporary home on seven acres for his growing family. “I’m a...
Trump ventures deeper into anti-immigrant language by calling people from Somalia ‘garbage’
He said it four times in seven seconds: Somali immigrants in the United States are “garbage.” It was no mistake. In fact, President Donald Trump’s rhetorical attacks on immigrants have been building since he said Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border during his presidential campaign announcement a decade ago....
Western Pa. falls just short of breaking coldest temperature record
Western Pennsylvania was just one degree short Friday morning of breaking the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded on Dec. 5. Matt Brudy, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Moon, said measurements bottomed out at 13 degrees. The temperature to beat is 12 degrees, which was set Dec....
Corey Comperatore Foundation will honor fallen firefighter, aid first responders, family says
About a year and a half after Corey Comperatore was slain during the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at a political rally in Butler County, the former firefighter’s family plans to start a foundation in his name. The Corey Comperatore Foundation will be a 501(c)3 nonprofit aimed at financially...
Greensburg begins public survey to improve downtown safety, walkability and business mix
If you live, work or shop in downtown Greensburg, Nancy Ligus wants to hear about your experience in the city. The Greensburg Community Development Corp., led by Ligus, is seeking survey responses regarding the public perception of the city — specifically its downtown district. It’s part of a program the...
Even in digital era, in-person shopping is still a part of the holiday experience
In an era when people can buy gifts with the click of a mouse or push of a button, in-person retail shopping is still an important part of the American holiday shopping experience. A study from JLL, a real estate services company, found that only 16.3% of consumers plan to...
Owner wrestles for control of box truck stolen in Downtown Pittsburgh; suspect in custody
Police took a suspect into custody Thursday, stemming from the theft of a box truck in Downtown Pittsburgh. City police responded shortly before 1 p.m. to a reported fight at Liberty Avenue and 11th Street. They discovered two men restraining a third for allegedly stealing the truck. The truck’s owner...
U.S. military conducts strike on another suspected drug boat as probe into 1st strike begins
WASHINGTON — U.S. Southern Command announced that it had conducted another strike against a small boat Thursday in the eastern Pacific Ocean, following a pause of almost three weeks. It is the 22nd strike the U.S. military has carried out against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean...
Pittsburgh police seek help to ID robbery suspect
Pittsburgh police seek help identifying a robbery suspect. A man wearing a black tossle cap, white mask, black peacoat and a yellow safety vest reportedly broke into a home around 1:30 p.m. Nov. 29 in the 1600 block of Beechwood Boulevard. Public Safety spokeswoman Emily Bourne said two youths were...
Residents get glimpse of proposed ambulance service authority in Harrison, Tarentum, Brackenridge
A consultant for the proposed Alle-Kiski Emergency Service Authority said the tentative cost for property owners would be comparable to a monthly Netflix subscription or two cups of Dunkin coffee. The plan to create a paid authority by merging Eureka Community Ambulance in Tarentum and Citizens Hose EMS in Harrison...
