Top Stories category, Page 328
Trump wins the White House in a political comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a...
Republican Dave Sunday wins Pennsylvania’s attorney general race
Voters have selected York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, a Republican, to be the state’s next prosecutor, according to a vote-tally early Wednesday from the Associated Press. Sunday, 49, a Republican, emphasized his prosecutorial experience in the campaign against Democrat Eugene DePasquale, a former state representative and two-term auditor general....
Republican incumbent Devlin Robinson retains state Senate seat
Republican Devlin Robinson has staved off Democratic challenger Nicole Ruscitto and retained his seat representing the state’s 37th Senatorial District. According to complete, but unofficial, election results reported by the Allegheny County Elections Division on Election Day, Robinson collected 52.85% of the vote (79,014 votes) to 47.02% for Ruscitto (70,292)....
Bomb threats briefly disrupt voting in swing states as Trump makes baseless Election Day claims
WASHINGTON — A mostly smooth Election Day nationwide was marred in multiple battleground states Tuesday by a series of bomb threats and baseless claims of wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump. The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes, but forced evacuations and...
High pressure election ends with only minor problems at local polls
Given the backdrop of a fiercely contested presidential race, anxiety over voting integrity and tidal waves of social media misinformation, it could have been a lot worse. Tuesday stacked up to be a busy, but largely uneventful, election day in Western Pennsylvania, a region targeted by Democrat Kamala Harris and...
Incumbent Leslie Rossi retains seat in Westmoreland state House race
Garnering nearly 70% of the vote, Republican state Rep. Leslie Rossi will keep her seat representing Pennsylvania’s 59th District, according to unofficial election results. With all of the district’s precincts reporting, Rossi, a Unity Republican who has served in the state House since May 2021, collected 69.68% of the votes...
Reschenthaler heads to landslide win to retain U.S. House seat
Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler is expected to win a fourth term in Congress as vote totals continued to be tallied Tuesday night. According to unofficial results from the district’s five counties, as of 10 p.m., Reschenthaler had received 64% of the vote with Democratic challenger Chris Dziados receiving...
Republicans sweep races for Pennsylvania row offices
Republican candidates, including two incumbents, swept all three of Pennsylvania’s row offices. Attorney General In the race for attorney general, the Associated Press has called the race for York County’s Dave Sunday. Sunday has amassed 51.08% of the votes counted as of 10 a.m., compared to 45.95% for Pittsburgh native...
Westmoreland mail-in vote numbers down from 2020
There were fewer people voting by mail this year in Westmoreland County, compared to the last presidential election. Westmoreland elections bureau Director Greg McCloskey said more than 55,100 mail-in packets were received from voters as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. There were about 59,500 mail-ins in 2020. Still, McCloskey said, because...
Summer Lee apparent winner in 12th Congressional District race
Summer Lee appears to be on her way to a second term in Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 12th District. The Associated Press declared the incumbent Democrat the winner shortly after polls closed. In the unofficial results as of 11 p.m., Lee topped Republican challenger James Hayes with 51% of the vote...
Casey, McCormick locked in tight contest for Pa.’s U.S. Senate race
Republican David McCormick held a slight edge over Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey early Wednesday morning, but the rivals remain locked in a tight battle, and the race for the hotly contested seat remained up for grabs. With more than 95% of the ballots tallied in nearly every Pennsylvania...
2024 Western Pennsylvania election results roundup
Another election is in the books in Western Pennsylvania. Even if all the votes in those books aren’t yet counted. Voters coming out to decide between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for president drove a high turnout at the polls. Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat was also...
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...
