Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 39
Jeannette native Jasmine Jones returns home with Olympic bronze
Jasmine Jones, the Jeannette native who competed in this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy, remembers the moment a childhood dream 15 years in the making came true. Jones, 29, was on her first Olympic journey last month with the U.S. women’s bobsled team. German athletes were dominating the first three...
3 U.S. troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
WASHINGTON — Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the U.S. attacks on Iran, the military announced Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that President Donald Trump said could likely lead to more losses in the coming weeks. U.S. Central...
What to know about the latest U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran
The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggered retaliatory strikes on multiple countries in the region and is reverberating around the world. Related violence expanded Sunday to a growing number of places, with a rising death toll. Israeli strikes targeted Tehran. Iran fired drones...
Trump, the self-declared peace president, goes to war seeking regime change
(News Analysis) WASHINGTON — When he first ran for president in 2016, Donald Trump disavowed the military adventurism of recent years, declaring that “regime change is a proven, absolute failure.” He promised to “stop racing to topple foreign regimes.” When Trump ran for president in 2024, he boasted of starting...
Shapiro vows to block ICE detention centers, warns of devastating impact on local Pa. communities
This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. READING — Gov. Josh Shapiro says he will use “every tool at his disposal” to stop planned ICE detention centers in Berks and Schuylkill Counties, though he stopped short of discussing what levers his...
At least 22 people killed in Pakistan as protesters try to storm U.S. Consulate
KARACHI, Pakistan — Violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and in the country’s north left at least 22 people dead and more than 120 others injured as demonstrators supportive of the Iranian government attempted to storm a U.S. Consulate on Sunday, authorities...
Iran vows revenge after the killing of its top leader and trades strikes with Israel in widening war
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran vowed revenge Sunday after the killing of its supreme leader and traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by a surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment a day earlier. Blasts in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky...
Man who climbed to top of Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh caught after returning to get hoodie, police say
A Beaver County man who recorded himself atop the Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh returned the next day to get a hoodie he left behind, according to police. Pittsburgh police charged Austin Gene Seik, 27, of Frankfort Springs and Mariah Lynn Barnes, 33, of Munhall on Friday with felony counts...
Suspect in Texas shooting wore ‘Property of Allah’ clothing and Iranian flag emblem
AUSTIN, Texas — The gunman who killed two people early Sunday at a bar in Texas in a mass shooting that left 14 others wounded was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and another shirt with an Iranian flag design, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press....
Israeli strikes rock Tehran as Iran’s counterattacks widen after the killing of its supreme leader
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as Israel said it would carry out “non-stop strikes” against its leaders and military. Iran meanwhile fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states in retaliation for the killing of its supreme leader in the surprise U.S. and...
What to Know About the U.S. Attacks on Iran
Joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader for almost 37 years, the Iranian government said Sunday, raising the prospect of a power vacuum in an already turbulent region. The Iranian state news agency confirmed the supreme leader’s death as another wave of U.S. and...
Who could take over for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Before the American and Israeli bombs started falling Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the authoritarian center of the theocratic regime for nearly 40 years, had planned for a transition of power in the event of his death. Khamenei, 86, had led Iran since 1989, and held sweeping powers...
Woman dies in 3-vehicle crash on Liberty Bridge
A three-vehicle crash on the Liberty Bridge early Sunday morning killed a passenger in one of the cars. According to Pittsburgh Police, officers responded to the crash just before 1 a.m. One of the three vehicles was engulfed in flames with three people pinned inside, police said. Officers put out...
Trump’s ‘America First’ campaign battle cry gives way to military strikes abroad
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to the top of the Republican Party, risks becoming ensnared by that very type of conflict. The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday cemented Trump’s decade-long transformation from a candidate who in 2016...
Islamic group calls Iran strikes illegal; Pennsylvania expats in Israel weather counterattack
A Jewish social worker who called Pittsburgh home for 32 years spent most of Saturday sheltered behind a steel door and reinforced-concrete walls waiting for Iranian missiles to strike. Carri Golden, who raised her two children in the city’s Greenfield neighborhood before emigrating to Israel during the pandemic, heard the...
From weave poles to world stage: Agility dogs vie in Latrobe for European Open
As a wily border collie named Rose zipped above a fake-grass-covered ring in Latrobe on Saturday, the 6-year-old agility competitor appeared to rarely touch the ground as she glided through an obstacle-laden, 230-yard course. She cleared 2-foot-tall hurdles without hesitation. It took her about 4 seconds to effortlessly zigzag between...
Warm, sunny day draws large crowd to 5th annual Saxonburg Winter Festival
That it didn’t look or feel much like winter Saturday was a boon for the fifth annual Saxonburg Winter Festival. Brilliantly sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s helped draw the best crowd The Little Shops of Saxonburg had yet for its food and vendor fair, said Nancy Alberth-Johnston. Owner...
What to know about U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran
The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday in what President Donald Trump said was a massive operation to destroy the country’s military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon. He urged Iranians to “take over your government.” Iran launched counterattacks, firing drones and missiles at...
QAnon faithful see validation in the Epstein files
The theory at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory was simple, even if the details were not: A global cabal of elites was running a child sex-trafficking ring. The latest release of files about Jeffrey Epstein has the QAnon faithful crowing that they were right. The documents revealed that...
Police: Woman rammed cruiser, nearly struck police dog before North Side crash
A Pittsburgh woman was arrested Friday after repeatedly ramming a police cruiser, nearly striking a police dog and leading authorities on a car chase from McKees Rocks to Pittsburgh’s North Side. McKees Rocks police said they were dispatched around 6 p.m. for a disturbance on Washington Street. A resident called...
Medical examiner: Woman found dead in Perry North home died of ‘homicidal violence’
A woman’s death in December that Pittsburgh police deemed “suspicious” has been ruled a homicide. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office late Friday said Michelle Sturdivant was killed as a result of “homicidal violence with multiple blunt force injuries and extensive burns.” First responders found the Pittsburgh woman, 44, unconscious...
Iran’s supreme leader is dead following major attack by U.S. and Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died following a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. President Donald Trump announced the death...
Lori Falce: Constitution Under Construction: 2nd Amendment a study in balanceVideo
Editor’s note: This is the third column in a series exploring the history and legacy of amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In architecture, a keystone is the wedge-shaped stone set at the top of an arch. It is placed last. The stones on either side lean inward, pressing against it....
Joe Starkey: She sculpted the Bill Mazeroski statue — and hardly anybody knows
Every so often, Susan Wagner will visit PNC Park to see those powerful Pirates legends statues. Last weekend provided such an occasion, albeit a sad one. Bill Mazeroski died. Dozens journeyed to his bronze likeness at the end of the cul-de-sac on Mazeroski Way, near the right-field entrance, in front...
Breaking into the trades: 4 blue-collar women from Western Pa. share their storiesVideo
When the explosion thundered through the U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, Renee Hough thought her life was over. She was about 500 feet away when the blast went off in August. The experience left her in therapy for her mental health. Nearly 30 years ago, her job in the male-dominated...
