Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 54
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...
Middle Eastern man living in Pittsburgh accused of fraud, ID theft in using a dead man’s name for years
Federal authorities have accused a Middle Eastern man of illegally living in Pittsburgh, misusing visas and providing a false name among other related offenses. Mahmoud Almasry, 44, also known as Mohammad Jiham, had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of fraud and misuse of visas,...
Police arrest 2; find large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, crack, marijuana, $15k and a rifle in Penn Hills raid
Two people have been taken into custody following a drug bust in Penn Hills on Friday morning. Their names have not yet been released in connection with the investigation, and the charges against them are pending. Police executed a search warrant at a home in the 300 block of Idlewood...
Gov. Shapiro discusses AI regulation in schools during Carnegie visit
High school students are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence for homework help, advice and even companionship — leaving school administrators wondering where to draw the line. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro brought that discussion to the Carnegie Clubhouse at Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania on Friday, meeting with students...
McCormick visit to Pittsburgh spotlights driverless trucking leader Aurora, liquefied natural gas industry
Aurora Innovation, a Pittsburgh company leading the charge on autonomous trucking in the U.S., is looking for cheerleaders in government to shape regulation of the emerging industry. They may have just found one in U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, who said Friday on a tour of an Aurora manufacturing facility in...
Police investigate reported climb of Gulf Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh police said Friday they launched an investigation after officers detained — but did not arrest — a person who reportedly scaled the Downtown skyscraper that reigned for 40 years as Pennsylvania’s tallest building. A man and a woman, who authorities did not name, were involved in a “reported incident”...
Pittsburgh’s housing authority sets aside $5M to protect low-income tenants in Homewood building
The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh on Thursday earmarked $5 million that could be used to acquire a Homewood apartment building if the city needs to seize it to protect tenants. The 100-unit Homewood House on Frankstown Avenue in Homewood is one of several properties throughout the region...
Carnegie Mellon’s $100M Hazelwood Green robotics center will build the future, officials say
Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood community has always been a place for builders, says Sonya Tilghman. “For generations, families have worked in the mills and powered the region,” said Tilghman, executive director of the Hazelwood Institute. “We know what it means to build things that matter and take pride in skilled work. “So...
Former Greensburg officer Regina McAtee, convicted in drug case, fights to keep city pension
A retired Greensburg police officer convicted in a federal drug trafficking scheme is appealing a decision that rescinded and forfeited a portion of her pension. The lawyer for Regina McAtee claims the Greensburg police pension commission erred this month when it ordered she return more than $75,000 in retirement benefits...
ICE facilities are planned for Pa. Will the Shapiro admin sue to stop them?
This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks. READING — Maryland’s attorney general is suing the federal government to prevent ICE from converting a warehouse into an...
‘It feels amazing’: Immigrants become U.S. citizens in Pittsburgh naturalization ceremonyVideo
”I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United...
