Top Stories category, Page 359
New home placements in Monessen help address ‘dire need’ for revitalization
Five houses that could be in place this fall in Monessen may be a harbinger of how Westmoreland County communities can move forward after clearing out abandoned homes. Westmoreland Community Action is embarking on the project that executive director Mandy Welty Zalich hopes will grow. Both county Commissioner Sean Kertes...
Hidden report reveals how workers got sick while cleaning up Ohio derailment site
The creeks around East Palestine, Ohio, were so badly contaminated by last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became sick during the cleanup. Workers who reported headaches and nausea — while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, which releases chemicals from the sediment and water — were...
Innamorato nominates ex-Peduto staffer for Allegheny County manager position
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato on Wednesday nominated John Fournier — the deputy city administrator for Ann Arbor, Mich. — to serve as county manager. Fournier previously spent a decade living in Pittsburgh and worked as deputy chief of staff for former Mayor Bill Peduto. Allegheny County Council must approve...
Plunge, scoop, repeat: ‘Industrial-strength’ cleanup of Pittsburgh’s rivers yields stinky, silty treasure
The demolition claw — its dirt-brown metal fingers guided by an excavator’s gray 50-foot-long arm — plunged Tuesday afternoon into the cloudy, brownish-green surface of the Allegheny River in search of discarded pieces of Pittsburgh. Chained to a rusty-bottomed 32-by-120 foot barge, the excavator sent its arm diving over and...
Longtime Buffalo Township movie theater set to close, reopen under local ownership
One of the few remaining movie theaters in the Alle-Kiski Valley is set to close, but only for a few weeks as new ownership takes over. The AMC Classic South Pike 10 cinema complex is scheduled to shutter its doors Thursday, according to Buffalo Township Supervisor Mike Oehling Jr. and...
Ernesto becomes a hurricane after pummeling northeast Caribbean and knocking out power in the region
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday as it dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and left half of all customers in the U.S. territory without power as it threatened to become a major storm en route to Bermuda. The storm was located about 180 miles...
Morning Roundup: Penn Hills playground improvements vandalized
Here are a few news items for Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024: Penn Hills playground damaged Penn Hills fire officials are looking into vandalism and damage at the newly improved Rosedale VFD Memorial Park. Fencing around the park was discovered ripped down on Tuesday. “We’re discouraged to see this damage performed,”...
Turtle noodler: Irwin man continues family legacy of catching turtles with bare handsVideo
Joe Clemens of Irwin has a dangerous hands-on hobby. Clemens is a fourth-generation turtle noodler, a pursuit where one catches snapping turtles with their bare hands from underwater holes in the banks of freshwater rivers, creeks and ponds. “I’m pretty much one of the last ones left around here in...
2 dead in Homestead shooting
Allegheny County Police are investigating the death of a man and woman found Tuesday in Homestead. Police were called to the 100 block of West 15th Avenue shortly after 4 p.m., responding to a report of shots fired. They received no response when hailing residents at the home, and a...
Firm suggests closing 16 Pittsburgh Public schools, opening 2 new ones
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have received recommendations to close more than a dozen schools and potentially merge Carrick and Brashear high schools. A consultant hired by the district said, through a facility use report, that the urban school system should close 16 of its schools and open two new ones,...
Harris, Walz announce Pennsylvania bus tour to launch in Pittsburgh
Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are set to kick off a Pennsylvania bus tour Sunday in Pittsburgh. In their bid to keep a Democratic administration in the White House, the pair plans to make multiple stops in the state over the course...
Western Pa. police dog programs can be costly, but are worth the investment, trainers say
Police departments say they can be more creative in their approach to law enforcement when there is a dog on their squad. They also need to be creative when figuring out how to pay for it. Donations are often sought to help cover the purchase and ongoing costs of a...
Man shot in arm in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood
A man was hospitalized in stable condition Tuesday after being found shot in the arm. Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Emily Bourne said police continue to investigate the shooting in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood. Officers were dispatched for two ShotSpotter alerts at about 2:45 p.m. near the intersection of Lincoln Avenue...
Michelle Peduto, former superintendent of Pittsburgh Catholic schools, dies
Michelle Peduto, the former superintendent of the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, died Tuesday. Peduto served Catholic schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh for more than 21 years, according to the diocese. She became superintendent in 2019 and stepped down in June to spend time with family. A...
Defendants in federal Rent-A-Vet scheme get probation
The judge’s words to the defendants were harsh. Their crimes were serious, said U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV. They weren’t a momentary lapse in judgment but a decade-long criminal enterprise. The defendants misappropriated the identity of a disabled American veteran to earn government contracts, something akin, the judge...
2 injured when bus crashes into house in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood during police chase
Two injuries were reported Tuesday afternoon when a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus crashed into a home in the city’s Homewood neighborhood. PRT said in a social media post that the bus driver and another person were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not thought to be...
Critics: Proposed ballot referendum in city is antisemitic, illegal
A pro-Palestinian group wants Pittsburghers to decide whether to bar the city from doing business with entities that work with Israel, but opponents to the proposal on Tuesday called the measure antisemitic and challenged the effort in court. A petition to add a referendum to November’s general election ballot, filed...
TikTok candy melting trend sends Fayette County boy to hospital
When a 9-year-old Fayette County boy attempted to follow a TikTok trend, creating what is known as a Jolly Rancher Grape, he tripped while carrying a bowl of molten candy liquid and suffered severe burns. “He tripped, and that’s when the boiling hot candy coated his whole hand and his...
Tropical Storm Ernesto batters northeast Caribbean, aims at Puerto Rico as it strengthensVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Ernesto battered the northeast Caribbean on Tuesday as it took aim at Puerto Rico, where officials closed schools, opened shelters and moved dozens of the U.S. territory’s endangered parrots into hurricane-proof rooms. Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane overnight Tuesday as the...
Wall Street rallies to one of its best days of the year as a result of inflation report
NEW YORK — Stocks rallied to one of their best days of the year Tuesday after the first of several highly anticipated reports on the economy this week came in better than expected. The S&P 500 jumped 1.7% for its third-best day of 2024 after the U.S. government reported inflation...
Biden announcing $150 million in research grants as part of his ‘moonshot’ push to fight cancerVideo
NEW ORLEANS — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on the policy goals closest to his heart now that he’s no longer seeking a second term, visiting New Orleans on Tuesday to promote his administration’s “moonshot” initiative aiming at dramatically reducing cancer deaths. The president and first lady Jill Biden...
New Stanton man to serve jail term for sexual assault at Hempfield Halloween party
A New Stanton man was ordered Tuesday to serve nearly two years in jail for the sexual assault of a Mt. Pleasant woman during a 2020 Halloween house party in Hempfield. Anthony Edward Lucas, 29, was convicted following a jury trial in January of lesser charges of sexual assault and...
Want a Pa. liquor license? 20 available in PLCB auction
A stockpile of 20 expired restaurant liquor licenses in Pennsylvania are up for auction. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board opened bidding on Tuesday as part of its 13th auction since the passage of Act 39, a 2016 law that made sweeping changes to liquor sales in the state. The auction...
J.D. Vance set to campaign at Lower Burrell VFW, but event is by invitation only, Post 92 says
Vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance will make a campaign stop in Lower Burrell on Thursday. Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, will speak at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 92 on Wildlife Lodge Road at 10 a.m., his campaign announced Tuesday. VFW Post 92 posted on Facebook on Tuesday evening...
Investigation into Plum house explosion could take years, officials sayVideo
It could take years to determine a cause of the deadly house explosion in Plum’s Rustic Ridge neighborhood, officials said Tuesday. “These can be very, very lengthy investigative processes,” said Matthew Brown, chief of Allegheny County’s Department of Emergency Services. “The key is to actually, definitively, get to what the...
