Top Stories category, Page 481
URA taps last of $9M federal fund to boost Downtown Pittsburgh affordable housing
Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board on Thursday approved millions of dollars to help developers convert empty Downtown buildings into affordable housing. The move came amid persistent concerns about how Downtown has rebounded since the covid-19 pandemic and widespread shifts to remote work that left many offices empty. By authorizing $4.8...
New Vandergrift ATI line secures jobs, future for company
The son of a steelworker, Vandergrift Mayor Lenny Collini grew up in a house overlooking ATI’s Vandergrift plant. Back then, it was owned by U.S. Steel and was a major employer for the borough and surrounding area. Now, it continues to be a big piece of the borough’s economy and...
Filings show top conservative donor Jeffrey Yass gave $800K to PAC attacking Summer Lee
A political group behind recent ads attacking U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, received $800,000 from Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire and conservative donor in the Philadelphia area, federal filings this week show. The group, called Moderate PAC, has spent more than $586,000 in the Pittsburgh area, running a series of ads...
‘HELP’ spelled out in palm leaves leads to island rescue in Pacific
It sounds like a tale straight out of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” or a plotline in the “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Three men were stranded on a remote Pacific islet for more than a week after the outboard motor on their 20-foot open skiff stopped working, as reported by...
Job demand, good pay spur growth in nursing programs
Chelsey Strickland grew up watching her single mom work long shifts as a nurse at UPMC St. Margaret hospital to provide for her family. That’s what led the Tarentum resident to enroll in nursing school at 25, despite, two years earlier, having earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the...
Innamorato taps new medical examiner, development director for Allegheny County
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato filled two top positions in her administration Wednesday just as her tenure eclipsed 100 days. Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt is the new medical examiner. Lauren Connelly was named the director of Allegheny County Economic Development. She will start next month. Goldschmidt, 45, of Squirrel Hill, takes...
O.J. Simpson, legendary football player and actor brought down by his murder trial, dies at 76
LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson, the football star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76. The family announced on Simpson’s official X...
Hempfield house with 20 acres and lake listed for $1.25M
An easily recognizable home with a private lake surrounded by acres of woodlands near Hempfield Area High School is on the market for $1.25 million. “This home was designed for entertaining,” said Scott Ludwick, the listing agent and associate broker for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Unity. The four-bedroom, four-bath...
New rule will require more gun dealers to run background checks on buyers
WASHINGTON — Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers when selling at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores, according to a Biden administration rule that will soon go into effect. The rule aims to close a loophole that has...
Morning Roundup: Pittsburgh SWAT situation; high-speed chase; Mon Wharf reopens
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Thursday, April 11: Man in custody after SWAT situation in Crawford-Roberts Police and SWAT were on scene in Pittsburgh’s Crawford-Roberts neighborhood Wednesday night for a man who barricaded himself inside a residence. Pittsburgh Public Safety said that a SWAT...
‘Ghost bike’ memorial triggers talk of bike, pedestrian safety in Pittsburgh
A mountain bike culled from the junk bin of a North Point Breeze shop — its brakes stripped and its frame and wheels spray-painted white — emerged as a symbol Wednesday night for bike and pedestrian safety in Pittsburgh. As rain flickered on and off Downtown after commuting traffic had...
GOP lawmakers offer alternative to Gov. Shapiro’s higher ed plan
Senate and House Republican lawmakers have crafted a college affordability plan that seeks to make Pennsylvania more competitive for both in-state and out-of-state students in high-demand fields in exchange for a requirement that they remain in the state after graduation. The Grow PA proposal introduced on Wednesday also establishes a...
Post-Gazette settles strike with Teamsters
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Wednesday night it has settled its long 18-month strike by Teamsters Local 211/205, a newspaper executive confirmed. Tracey DeAngelo, Post-Gazette president and general manager, confirmed the settlement through a spokesperson as she was returning from Toledo, Ohio, where Block Communications Inc., owner of the Pittsburgh newspaper,...
Pennsylvania’s $10M student teacher stipend program to launch
Anyone planning to do their student teaching in 2024-25 better set their alarms on Thursday to be ready around 9 a.m. when applications for stipends through Pennsylvania’s new $10 million Student Teacher Support Program become available. The stipends will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The process begins with...
Trial in killing of Swissvale mom, daughter focuses on voice ID of accused shooter
The day after Megan Campbell and her 7-year-old daughter, Lyla, were shot to death in their Swissvale apartment last year, homicide Detective Nicole Grimm visited the victims’ family. Grimm explained to Sean Campbell and his mother, Joan, that she was going to play a recording of a 911 call that...
Pittsburgh Muslims celebrate Eid and reflect on Ramadan
Muslims around the world celebrated Eid on Wednesday, including those in Pittsburgh. Salaah Brooks, Imam of the First Muslim Mosque, al-Masjid al-Awwal, in the Hill District, celebrated the Eid holiday on Wednesday with his congregation, in accordance with the tenets of orthodox Sunni Islam. “We began our day with a...
Why independents can’t vote in the 2024 Pa. primary, and the slow-moving push to change that
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Millions of voters are expected to cast ballots during Pennsylvania’s April 23 primary, choosing candidates to represent the Democratic and Republican parties in...
Weekend closure planned for northbound Boulevard of the Allies starting Friday night
A full weekend closure of the northbound Boulevard of the Allies in Pittsburgh is planned for Friday night through Monday morning as part of a construction project, PennDOT officials announced. The northbound (inbound) lanes of the boulevard will close between Craft Avenue and Jumonville Street from 8 p.m. Friday through...
Storms bring floods, damaging wind to states across the South; 1 dead in MississippiVideo
NEW ORLEANS — Strong storms flooded New Orleans streets and demolished buildings in one of the city’s suburbs Wednesday, part of a severe weather system that pounded communities across much of the South, killing one in Mississippi. In Slidell, Louisiana, northeast of New Orleans, multiple people were injured and first...
Bolivar man subdued after courtroom suicide threat following sexual assault conviction
Just moments after a jury convicted a Bolivar man of sexual assault on Wednesday he threatened to kill himself and lunged toward the windows of a second-floor courtroom in the Westmoreland County Courthouse. He was quickly tackled by two deputy sheriffs. Deputies spent more than a minute attempting to subdue...
3 shot and 5 in custody after gunfire disrupts Philadelphia Eid event, police sayVideo
PHILADELPHIA — A joyful celebration of the end of Ramadan devolved into panic Wednesday in Philadelphia after rival groups exchanged gunfire, leaving at least three people injured and hundreds of parents and children to flee in search of safety. The annual Eid al-Fitr event, held outside a large mosque in...
Frazer Olive Garden to pay $30,000 to settle disability discrimination claim
The parent company of the Olive Garden at the Pittsburgh Mills complex in Frazer will pay $30,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged the restaurant’s management discriminated against a man by not hiring him because of his disability. GMRI, operator of the Olive Garden at Pittsburgh Mills, and the...
Marijuana legalization measure fails in central Pa. borough
A small central Pennsylvania borough on Tuesday night rejected a measure that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. The North York Borough Council upheld a veto by the mayor, who had opposed the measure from the beginning and last month vetoed it immediately after council had approved...
Slain Brackenridge police chief, McKeesport officer to be included on Washington, D.C., memorial
Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire will be memorialized this month in Washington, D.C., with a bittersweet honor for fallen officers. “We remember him and carry him in our hearts every day,” Mayor Lindsay Fraser said. “We memorialize Chief McIntire in how we can and do treat each other and in...
Pittsburgh lauds Steelers’ Cameron Heyward, NFL Man of the Year, for serving city ‘with distinction’
Pittsburgh Steelers star Cameron Heyward was recognized Wednesday by city leaders after he won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, considered the league’s highest honor. Appearing during a City Council meeting Downtown, Mayor Ed Gainey said he wanted to recognize the towering defensive lineman for “serving Pittsburgh...
