Top Stories category, Page 297
Republican Jim Justice flips U.S. Senate seat from West Virginia after Manchin retirement
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jim Justice won a U.S. Senate race from West Virginia on Tuesday, flipping a seat to the Republican Party after Joe Manchin decided not to seek reelection. Justice, who boldly predicted victory long before the election, defeated Democrat Glenn Elliott, a lawyer and former mayor of the...
Unexpectedly, news outlets wind up having a relatively traditional election night experience
For all the concerns about a tumultuous process that could leave Americans waiting for days to learn who its next president would be, news outlets instead experienced an election night that hewed close to tradition. Fox News Channel was the first to declare Donald Trump had reclaimed the presidency at...
Prosecutors say Rostraver woman was ‘killed because she was driving too slow’ as trial opens
Holly Vadella insisted on going to her Rostraver home after ringing in 2022 with her mother. The pair spent New Year’s Eve together, along with their dogs, at Dolores Coulson’s Fayette County home. Coulson testified in Westmoreland County court Tuesday she repeatedly asked her daughter to spend the night instead...
Clemente family split over Roberto Jr.’s endorsement of Trump
The family of Pittsburgh Pirates icon Roberto Clemente appears to be divided over one of his son’s endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “That action does not represent the total thought of the family,” Luis Roberto Clemente, one of Clemente’s three sons, said in a video posted on his...
The AP has called winners in elections for more than 170 years. Here’s how it’s done
WASHINGTON — One question will be asked over and over on election night: Who won? The Associated Press will answer that question for nearly 5,000 contested races across the United States and up and down the ballot, from president and state ballot measures to a variety of local offices. The...
Republicans take Senate majority for first time in 4 years
WASHINGTON — Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate late Tuesday after flipping Democratic held seats, holding onto GOP incumbents and wresting away the majority for the first time in four years. The unexpected battleground of Nebraska pushed Republicans over the top. Incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer brushed back a...
Allegheny County judge orders removal of signs with false information at polling places
An Allegheny County judge on Tuesday afternoon ordered that signs outside of polling places in the state 44th legislative district targeting a Democratic candidate be removed, finding that they contain false information. “I’m going to order that the sign be removed or modified,” said Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John...
Taxes would jump 11.4% under proposed Mt. Pleasant budget
Mt. Pleasant council is proposing an 11.4% property tax hike but still will need to draw money from the borough’s reserve fund to help support a tentative 2025 budget of about $1.5 million. With the 2 mill hike, to 19.5 mills, the borough would plan to draw almost $9,500 from...
Steelers acquire WR Mike Williams, OLB Preston Smith ahead of NFL trade deadline
Mike Tomlin acknowledged before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline that the Pittsburgh Steelers were active in trade discussions, warning that wide receiver wasn’t the only position they were interested in addressing. The Steelers, Tomlin said, were looking at all positions. “I just think that’s normal, prudent business for us,” Tomlin said,...
Cambria County election results slow to come in after scanning glitch, voting extended
Election results in Cambria County are slow to come in after voters were given until 10 p.m. Tuesday to cast their ballots because of issues with scanning machines, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. As of Wednesday morning, no results had been added to the county’s website. County officials...
Victim identified as Harrison man in Sheldon Park shooting; suspect in custody
A man was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in Harrison’s Sheldon Park neighborhood, according to Allegheny County Police. The victim was identified as Jaysen Randall, 20, of Harrison, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office. Mike Vogel, chief of police for the Allegheny County Housing Authority, confirmed one person was...
Election Day voting unfolds generally smoothly with some scattered issues and delays
WASHINGTON — Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday with only scattered reports of delays from extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems. Most of the hiccups occurring by midday were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of...
Southwestern Pa. sets record high of 81 degrees on Election Day
As voters turned out to polling locations across Southwestern Pennsylvania, unseasonably warm weather graced the region. Temperatures reached 81 degrees in the Pittsburgh area about 3:15 p.m., beating the previous 80-degree record high temperature for Nov. 5 set in 1948, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Kennedy. “It’s been warm...
The Home Stretch: Here’s the election news for Nov. 5, Election Day
Today is the day! Right now we’re the calm before the storm, but as we wait with bated breath for tonight, we’re the ones who have work to do. Here’s what’s in the news today — but most importantly, go out and vote! Where is everyone? After a final day...
Pittsburgh man guilty of killing 3 in Homewood
The evidence, the judge said, was “compelling and uncontradicted.” Video, blood and ballistics put Ronald Steave inside the Hamilton Avenue home early on the morning of Dec. 31, 2021. And then, when he fled, the judge continued, there was more evidence of “flight, concealment and elimination.” “While not elaborate and...
Western Pa. voters cast their ballots amid expected record voter turnout
Polling places are closed for in-person voting across Pennsylvania, a swing state that will play a pivotal role in determining who will be the next president. Officials expected a record turnout of voters Tuesday amid a National Weather Service forecast of sunny skies with a high in the low 80s....
Harris and Trump make final pushes in Pittsburgh stops
The next American president rallied Pittsburgh-area voters Monday as a contentious campaign comes to a close. Both candidates — Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic heir to President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump, who has transformed the Republican Party with his bombastic, populist rhetoric — visited the region...
Editorial: It’s your turn to change the world
OK. That’s it. The 2024 election cycle might be the longest and the shortest ever. In some ways, it feels like it’s been going on since Donald Trump announced his Republican candidacy in 2015. In some sense, it might be dated to 2021, when the former president suggested he would...
Controversial Mt. Pleasant Halloween parade entry not a hate crime, officials say
An entry in Mt. Pleasant’s annual Halloween parade that disturbed many people with an apparent depiction of Democratic Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris handcuffed and tethered to a golf cart did not rise to the legal definition of a hate crime, according to borough officials. Borough Solicitor Leslie...
Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. Why that’s unlikely
Former President Donald Trump is stepping up his demands that the winner of the presidential race be declared shortly after polls close Tuesday, well before all the votes are counted. Trump set the pattern in 2020, when he declared that he had won during the early morning hours after Election...
Pennsylvania election officials weighing in on challenges to 4,300 mail ballot applications
HARRISBURG — More than 4,000 mail ballot applications have been challenged across 14 Pennsylvania counties, leaving election officials to decide voter eligibility during hearings that will extend well past Election Day. State elections officials say the “mass challenges” focused on two separate groups — people who may have forwarded their...
Arnold man pleads guilty to killing pedestrian with car in North Braddock
An Arnold man will serve two to four years in state prison after pleading guilty Monday to homicide by vehicle in a crash that killed a 75-year-old Braddock man. Tyrell Jimmie Knight, 37, was charged in the Nov. 9, 2023 death of Harry Harold King. According to Allegheny County Police,...
McKeesport man gets 15 to 30 years for shaking infant son to death
A McKeesport man who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for fatally shaking his infant son will serve at least 15 years in prison. Michael Barber, 31, pleaded guilty on Aug. 5 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Satler. On Monday, she ordered him to serve 15 to 30 years...
National Weather Service warns against outdoor burning, game commission prohibits camp fires as dry conditions linger
Exceptionally dry weather and wind gusts have created an increased brush fire danger, the National Weather Service warned in a special weather statement. It has been nearly a month since the Pittsburgh region has seen a “wetting” rain of at least one-tenth of an inch, meteorologist Bill Modzelewski said. The...
Judge mulls verdict in Homewood triple homicide after closing arguments
In the hours before prosecutors said Ronald Steave killed two women and a 12-year-old boy, videos showed the three adults having sex together. During Steave’s nonjury homicide trial Monday, the prosecution presented still images and video from late Dec. 30, 2021, into early New Year’s Eve that showed Nandi Fitzgerald...
