Top Stories category, Page 1752
Police: Wrong-way driver seriously hurt in Route 22 crash in Salem
An Export man was seriously hurt Monday after crashing head-on into another vehicle while driving west in the eastbound lanes of Route 22 in Salem Township, according to state police. Troopers said David J. Foti, 71, started driving in the wrong direction near the intersection of routes 819 and 22...
Urn with Pa. man’s ashes stolen after funeral
YORK — Family members say someone stole an urn with a man’s ashes after his funeral in Pennsylvania. A service for 42-year-old Sam Abreght was held over the weekend at the Salvation Army in York. His cremains were divided into three urns, one of which was to go to his...
Trump EPA rolls back Obama rule on coal-fired power plants
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a...
Fort Pitt Bridge celebrates 60 years as part of Pittsburgh’s grand entranceVideo
In a place that has more bridges than any other city in the world, it’s hard to pick one that stands out from the other 445. The ornate Smithfield Street Bridge, built in 1881, is the oldest through-truss bridge in the United States. The Sixth Street Bridge, now called the...
Man wounded by gunfire overnight in Carrick
Pittsburgh police are searching for suspects after a man was shot overnight in Carrick. Officers from Zone 3 and city emergency medical services responded to a call for shots fired in the 100 block of Birmingham Avenue at about 1:45 a.m., according to a police spokeswoman. Police say the victim,...
McCandless nursing home employees charged after patient injured during disputeVideo
Two McCandless nursing home employees have been arrested after a 75-year-old patient was injured during an argument, according to police. McCandless police charged laundry attendant Lily Asubonteng, 19, of Pittsburgh with aggravated assault for allegedly pushing the patient to the ground during an argument at about 2 a.m. on June...
The death of Antwon Rose: 1 year later
Three gunshots on a late-spring evening in 2018 continue to echo throughout the region a year after they left Antwon Rose II dying in a grassy East Pittsburgh lot. Wednesday marks one year since the 17-year-old and another teen, Zaijuan Hester, ran from the traffic stop conducted by then-East Pittsburgh...
Syrian refugee charged with plotting to bomb Pittsburgh church
Federal investigators arrested a Syrian refugee living in Pittsburgh on charges of plotting to bomb a church in the city’s North Side next month to support the terrorist group ISIS, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, who resided in a Northview Heights housing complex and...
Fatal Penn Hills pedestrian accident victim not ID’d, no relatives found
The identity of a man who died after being hit by a car in Penn Hills last week has not be released because authorities can’t find any relatives to notify. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said the 66-year-old Penn Hills resident was struck and killed while crossing Saltsburg Road...
County Council selects Pittsburgh attorney Paul Zavarella to fill District 8 seat
Allegheny County Council voted 11-1 Tuesday to select Pittsburgh attorney Paul Zavarella to fill the vacant District 8 seat. “I thank county council for showing confidence in me,” Zavarella said by phone Wednesday, adding that he’s looking forward to working with council and other county officials. Councilman DeWitt Walton, of...
3 killed in Fayette County crash
A man, a woman and a 4-year-old child were killed Tuesday afternoon when their pickup truck collided with a tri-axle truck along Route 21 in Fayette County, state police said. Officials weren’t able yet to identify the victims, but Fayette County Coroner Phillip Reilly indicated they were related, including an...
Highmark-insured seniors who use UPMC could get another chance to switch plans
Highmark-insured seniors and people with disabilities who use UPMC hospitals and doctors may get another chance to decide which insurance plan they want to have for the remainder of 2019. U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar informed U.S. Sen. Bob Casey by phone that the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services...
Greensburg woman serving life sentence claims she can’t leave prison for appeal hearing
Westmoreland County prosecutors argue a former Greensburg woman serving a life prison sentence for her role in the murder of a former boyfriend in 2006 should appear in person for her upcoming appeal hearing. Jennifer Vinsek, 37, contends she should receive a new trial based on allegations that her former...
Clairton Coke Works fire renews residents’ concerns over air quality
Some Mon Valley residents are once again wondering if their air is safe to breathe after another fire this week at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. “It’s really scary actually, because it’s summertime, and we like to be outside,” Clairton resident Tonya Carroll, 29, said Tuesday. Carroll, who has two...
Over 16 tons of cocaine intercepted at Philadelphia port in one of the largest busts in U.S. historyVideo
PHILADELPHIA — U.S. authorities seized 33,000 pounds, or 15,000 kilograms, of cocaine from a ship at Philadelphia’s port in what they described as one of the largest drug busts in American history. They said the haul could have been worth more than $1 billion on the street. The U.S. attorney’s...
Parole, probation violations crowd Pennsylvania, U.S. prisons, report says
About half of those committed to a Pennsylvania state prison in 2017 were jailed because of a probation or parole violation, according to figures released Tuesday. Around 7,400 people are in state prisons on any given day for a supervision violation, amounting to an annual cost of $334 million for...
Owners begin to pull classic cars from Etna warehouse destroyed by fire
The 1954 Ford Crestline convertible was like a member of the family to Dick Fischerkeller. The Shaler man watched Tuesday as the car, now speckled with ash, was driven onto a flatbed tow truck and hauled away from the STORExpress location in Etna, nearly six weeks after a massive May...
Cops: Woman ran up $17K in online purchases on ex-husband’s tab
The ex-wife of an 80-year-old Derry Township man was arrested Tuesday for using a credit line and bank accounts to defraud him of $17,464 since August, state police allege. Theresa L. Kinney, 48, of White Township, Indiana County, was arrested by state police at Kiski on charges of theft, access...
OpenTable shares tally of top-rated Pittsburgh area restaurants
A restaurant booking service has revealed their monthly tally of best reviews in the Pittsburgh area. OpenTable says they analyzed more than 400,000 new diner reviews to arrive at their top ten recommendations and they break them down by category. These have been voted the best of Diners’ Choice. The...
Work on $60M Rivers Casino hotel to begin soon on North Shore
High rollers and others visiting Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore will soon not have to leave to rest between bets. The $60 million Landing Hotel Pittsburgh will be attached to the casino and will face the Carnegie Science Center on the east facade of the casino, Rivers announced Tuesday....
Vatican to consider ordaining married men as priests
A document released by the Vatican on Monday proposes that the Roman Catholic Church will consider ordaining married men as priests. The New York Times reports the move is being considered to address the dire pastoral need in some areas of the Amazon. However, the document states that only “viri...
Authorities ID body found near Fox Chapel Yacht Club as Kenneth Himes
DNA testing helped authorities identify a man whose body was found in the Allegheny River in late March as 70-year-old Kenneth Himes, state police said Tuesday. Himes was reported missing from his brother’s home along Cadogan-Slate Lick Road in South Buffalo at about 2 a.m. Dec. 26. Police said he...
Pennsylvania woman bitten by venomous snake while doing laundry at home
MOUNT PENN — Officials say a Pennsylvania woman was bitten on the arm by a venomous snake when she went to her basement to do laundry. The Reading Eagle reports that the Mount Penn woman called 911 Tuesday morning to report that she’d been bitten by a rattlesnake. Authorities say...
Photographer on Dallas gunman: ‘He’s going to look at me around that corner’ and shoot
DALLAS — Veteran Dallas Morning News photojournalist Tom Fox said he thought he “was gone” when he hid in an alcove from a heavily armed masked man at the downtown federal courts building Monday morning. “I just kept thinking, ‘He’s going to look at me around that corner and he’s...
Bill for Rosfeld trial cost $1.5 million for Pittsburgh Public Safety
The Michael Rosfeld homicide trial cost Pittsburgh over $1.5 million, the bulk of which was spent on police overtime, according to information provided by public safety officials to the Tribune-Review on Tuesday. The city paid police $1.37 million in overtime during a month-long span from early March until after the...
