Top Stories category, Page 234
Emboldened Trump signals long court fight to expand power
President Donald Trump has ramped up his fight with the judiciary as he racks up losses in court over his administration’s efforts to reshape the U.S. government and its approach on everything from immigration to federal spending. Two months into his term, Trump is already fighting more than 150 lawsuits...
Missing opioid pills at Hempfield senior home investigated as theft
State police are investigating a report of missing opioid pills at a Hempfield assisted living home. The potential theft was reported after an inventory audit by staff at Mountain View Senior Living revealed 24 oxycodone pills were missing. The pills were taken from the home on Nature Park Road sometime...
No injuries reported as house collapses in Troy Hill fire
No one was injured Sunday when a fire destroyed a house in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, public safety officials said. The blaze was reported around noon at the intersection of Herman and Adair streets, near Lowrie Street. The main building collapsed. Heavy smoke poured out of the building, widely visible...
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel has struck the largest hospital in the territory’s southVideo
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s military struck the largest hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing one person, wounding others and causing a large fire, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The strike hit the surgical building of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the ministry said,...
New Kensington man arrested for terroristic threats while packing gun during IUPatty’s
Indiana Borough police arrested a New Kensington man accused of assault and making terroristic threats while displaying a gun Saturday evening during the IUPatty’s student celebration held annually in the community. Police said Adisun Lee Jackson, 22, who is not a student at local Indiana University of Pennsylvania, refused to...
Pope Francis back home after 5-week hospital stay for life-threatening double pneumoniaVideo
VATICAN CITY — A frail Pope Francis returned to the Vatican on Sunday after a five-week hospitalization for life-threatening double pneumonia, and he made a surprise stop at his favorite basilica on the way home before beginning two months of prescribed rest and recovery. The 88-year-old pope sat in the...
Bishop Kulick of Greensburg joins gathering to see Pope Francis released from hospital
Bishop Larry J. Kulick of the Diocese of Greensburg was among a crowd of hundreds that gathered Sunday outside Gemelli Hospital in Rome for Pope Francis’ first appearance since he was hospitalized on Feb. 14 for life-threatening double pneumonia. The pope gave a short blessing to the crowd, who cheered...
Tim Benz: Pirates hopes of winning ‘in the margins’ is easier said than done
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton laid out the key to his team’s 2025 improvement on a 76-86 record a year ago. “I think you win in the margins, very much so,” Shelton told reporters in Bradenton, Fla. “We have to win those margins.” Exactly how wide are these “margins” we...
Process underway to rehab former Newport Business Institute property in Lower Burrell
The future isn’t clear for the former Newport Business Institute property in Lower Burrell, but officials say it is bright. Brian Lawrence, executive director of the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority and Land Bank, said the property is in the land bank’s “preparing for sale” status after the agency acquired it...
2 veteran Hempfield Area school board members decide not to seek reelection
Hempfield Area school board will see at least two new faces next year, as veteran members Paul Ward and Diane Ciabattoni are opting not to run for reelection. Board President Jerry Radebaugh and Vice President Scott Learn will seek another term, according to Westmoreland County records. The former Westmoreland County...
Murrysville church will host ‘Orange Heart’ ceremony for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange
Jerry Deible of Murrysville can remember standing on the ground at a Vietnam firebase in the early 1970s, staring up at a massive C-130 airplane passing overhead. He craned his head back and snapped a photo of the plane as liquid streamed down from tanks strapped to its sides. The...
Uncle Charley’s quiet exit from Parks Township leaves behind 1 man and a cache of sausage-making machines
Uncle Charley’s Sausage once had about 60 employees at its Parks Township processing, packing and shipping facility. Now, it has one — an affable, mustached maintenance supervisor named Randy Braden. A veteran of the food manufacturing business, he came on about 2½ years ago after the soup cannery in Pittsburgh’s...
Pandemic led to radical, lasting changes in health care industry
When covid-19 struck, Natalya Rodriguez, fresh out of nursing school, watched as a flood of overwhelmed colleagues abandoned the health care field. Nothing had prepared nurses in the U.S. for a pandemic — or the death and fear it brought. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing estimated 100,000...
3 candidates vie for state House in Mon Valley special election race
A special election in the Mon Valley will determine control of the state House. The chamber has been gridlocked, with 101 Democrats and 101 Republicans, since the January death of state Rep. Matt Gergely, D-McKeesport. Gergely had represented the 35th Legislative District for just under two years. Looking to fill...
Some protest Musk’s DOGE efforts while others celebrate them outside North Hills Tesla dealer
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has too much power as he advises President Donald Trump and spearheads efforts to slash the size of the federal government through his DOGE Service, Isaac Elias said Saturday. It’s the reason Elias, 43, of Baden in Beaver County, helped organize a series of protests outside...
3 killed, 15 injured in shooting at park in New Mexico’s Las Cruces
Three people died and 15 others were injured after an altercation broke out at a park in the desert city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, police said Saturday. Police and fire crews arrived at just after 10 p.m. Friday onto a chaotic scene at the city’s Young Park, where an...
Fayette County man killed when car strikes pole, catches fire
A Fayette County man was killed in a crash early Saturday in Redstone Township, state police said. Kristopher Michael John, 31, of Republic, was pronounced dead at the scene of the single-vehicle wreck on Route 166, according to county Coroner Dr. Bob Baker. Police said John was driving south at...
Homer City plant’s implosion marks ‘downfall of coal’ as plans for natural gas plant remain on track
Six and a half out of seven structures came toppling down Saturday morning as crews imploded four smokestacks and three cooling towers of the shuttered Homer City power plant in Indiana County. The structures at the former coal-fired plant fell to the ground in succession beginning at 7:30 a.m., but...
Legal experts weigh whether Trump has triggered constitutional crisis
President Donald Trump has long sought to flex the power of the presidency. Now that he is, some scholars say, Trump’s vision of a muscular executive branch has forced the nation into a constitutional crisis — or at least brought it to the brink of one. Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading...
Homeland Security revokes temporary status for 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans
MIAMI — The Department of Homeland Security said Friday it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month. The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United...
Penguins welcome Butler County native Marc Fogel to game
During Friday’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets, Marc Fogel, a former teacher from Oakmont who spent more than three years in a Russian prison, was recognized on the video board. The presentation took place at the midpoint of the first period. Fogel wore a No. 71...
Teen gets at least 4 years in state prison for shooting near Westinghouse Academy
A Clairton man who was just 16 at the time he shot four people near Westinghouse Academy in Homewood will serve four to nine years in state prison. James Pritchard, now 18, pleaded guilty on Thursday to four counts of aggravated assault and was sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas...
Despite looming ‘fiscal cliff,’ Westmoreland Transit isn’t eyeing cuts, director says
Those riding Westmoreland County’s transit system are not in danger of massive service cuts like the ones facing those who rely on Pittsburgh Regional Transit, county transportation officials said this week. “We are not there. I don’t think we’re at that point yet,” said Alan Blahovec, executive director of the...
ACLU demands University of Pittsburgh lift suspension of student group supporting Palestine
A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh’s Students for Justice in Palestine called for the immediate revocation of the chapter’s interim suspension. The letter, addressed to Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel, stated that the university violated SJP’s First Amendment rights by...
Cleveland crowd embraces Robert Morris in thrilling 1st round battle with Alabama
CLEVELAND — Robert Morris led for just 30 seconds of its 90-81 loss against No. 2 Alabama in the NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon, but the Colonials grabbed the attention of the college basketball world for two hours during a thrilling East Region first-round matchup. That was especially the case...
