Top Stories category, Page 39

Nearly 500,000 Pennsylvanians could see their health insurance premiums spike next year. Insurers selling coverage on the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, Pennie, want to raise premiums by an average of 19% for customers who buy their own insurance and 13% for small businesses, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department announced Friday....

Several homeowners in Plum were shocked Friday to learn they were listed as plaintiffs in two lawsuits filed a day earlier by insurance companies in connection with a fatal 2023 house explosion in the Rustic Ridge neighborhood. The lawsuits, filed in Alle­gheny County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Erie...

President Donald Trump is the latest occupant of the Oval Office to be dismayed by the physical fitness of American youth. Trump’s approach to the issue is to hearken back to the Cold War and revive the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and the Presidential Fitness Award. He...

When Thomas Lewis, a parking attendant at the lot on the corner of Penn Avenue and Ninth Street, heard gunshots Friday afternoon, his heart started racing. “I heard three shots and walked behind the booth of my job to get out of the line of sight of anything potential and...

President Donald Trump doubled down this week on an accusation that former President Barack Obama and members of his administration committed treason by misleading the public about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. While even Trump acknowledged that such a prosecution is unlikely, political analysts say the president’s explosive rhetoric...

Former Greensburg police chief Shawn Denning is back in Westmoreland County. Denning, 44, of Delmont was transferred this week to the county jail to await a court appearance Monday, when he is expected to consider a possible guilty plea to misdemeanor charges in connection with allegations that he stole evidence...

WASHINGTON — For weeks, President Donald Trump was promising the world economy would change on Friday with his new tariffs in place. It was an ironclad deadline, administration officials assured the public. But when Trump signed the order Thursday night imposing new tariffs, the start date of the punishing import...

WASHINGTON — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural...

Kristina Trent said Friday her father hasn’t been able to be at home much over the last two weeks amid another outbreak of bedbugs at a Jeannette high-rise apartment building. “My dad has to stay with me. He can’t go home to a house where he is still paying rent,”...

Four men are accused in what the state Attorney General’s Office described as a drug and firearms trafficking ring in Westmoreland County. Two of the suspects — Shelton Andrew Payne, 34, of Monongahela, and David Darryle Jeffries, 34, of Monessen — were arrested Thursday. Warrants were issued for two other...

Just moments before taking the podium at a town hall for the State of the Strip 2025 report, Pamela Austin learned that two new restaurants would be opening in the first half of 2026 in the Cork Factory Lofts garage in the Strip District. Austin, president of Strip District Neighbors,...

The Gainey administration on Thursday blamed Pittsburgh’s controller for delays in garbage collection, leading to a squabble on Grant Street over why trash isn’t being picked up in some parts of the city. Olga George, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Gainey, accused Controller Rachael Heisler of not paying the city’s...

Westmoreland County has signed on to the settlement of a federal lawsuit with the makers of Oxycontin. The $7 billion overall resolution to the litigation filed against Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, was approved earlier this year. It is expected to result in $200 million earmarked for...

After the Pennsylvania Game Commission added 10 new Sundays to this year’s hunting season on Monday, local sportsmen say they’re gearing up for more time in the woods come September. The commission voted to instruct its executive director to open up 10 Sundays for hunting starting Sept. 14 and ending...

Evening news anchor Kym Gable and morning news anchor Lindsay Ward were let go by KDKA-TV on Thursday. KDKA news director Shawn Hoder did not respond to a request for comment. E-mail sent to Julie Eisenman, who was hired as KDKA/WPKD general manager earlier this year, bounced back Thursday (email...

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month and Labor Department revisions showed that hiring was much weaker than previously reported in May and June. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%. The unexpectedly weak report raises questions about the health of the job market and the economy...

Pittsburgh police ranks have plummeted to a 20-year low even as the city confronts weekend chaos on the South Side, persistent concerns about Downtown crime, and the need to keep crowds safe during the 2026 NFL Draft. The police bureau employs 755 sworn officers — its fewest since 2005. City...

Debris from a wrecked car helped state police home in on a potential suspect in a Thursday night hit-and-run that killed a Jeannette man who was riding an e-bike. State Trooper Steve Limani said although troopers didn’t immediately have witnesses to the crash, they did find vehicle parts at the...

When the doors to South Side music venue Club Cafe opened to the public for the first time in seven months — promptly at 7 p.m. — on Thursday night, the line of those waiting stretched to the corner of the block. That’s not too surprising, since the reopening night...

The former SCI Greensburg state prison property has caught the eye of potential developers. As a result, Westmoreland County and Hempfield officials don’t think they’ll have much difficulty getting the 94-acre property off their hands once demolition is done. “It’s well-positioned property, it’s a big site,” said Jason Rigone, director...

Lawsuits were filed Thursday on behalf of insurance companies representing three dozen homeowners in Plum whose properties were affected by the fatal 2023 house explosion in the Rustic Ridge development. The two complaints, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, name as defendants Penneco Oil Co.; Peoples Natural Gas; A.O....

For the first time in five years, Westmoreland County has a deputy director of the election bureau. The county commissioners on Thursday announced the hiring of Hannah Lindley, 31, of Bentleyville, Washington County, to serve as second in command of the office that oversees elections in Westmoreland County. Lindley served...

KERRVILLE, Texas — A rural Texas county needed but lacked an updated warning system, local officials testified Thursday, when flash flooding swept away homes and vehicles and left families begging for rescue on the roofs of their homes earlier this month. Texas lawmakers searched for answers during a hearing on...

A Pittsburgh rabbi was brought in to assess claims that a county jail inmate’s religious convictions qualify him to receive kosher meals while incarcerated, the Westmoreland County commissioners said. The lawyer for Kort Noel Eckman, who is awaiting trial in the attempted murder of his mother, said jail officials have...