Top Stories category, Page 555
Harrison EMT struck by car is on the mend, determined to return to job
Citizens Hose EMT Kelly Jackson calls herself a walking miracle. The Tarentum woman was critically injured Jan. 6 while working traffic control on Harrison’s Burtner Road during a snowstorm. A vehicle lost control and struck Jackson, throwing her about 30 yards. Jackson suffered a brain bleed, torn aorta, broken bones...
Homestead woman, 44, ID’d as West End bridge hit-and-run victim
The woman killed in a hit-and-run crash Saturday on the West End bridge is Faye McCoy, 44, of Homestead, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. Police were still looking for the driver of the car involved in the crash, believe to be a dark-colored sedan with silver wheels....
House GOP takes party-line vote toward Mayorkas impeachment as border becomes 2024 campaign issueVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted along party lines after midnight Wednesday to move toward impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for a “willful and systematic” refusal to enforce immigration laws as border security becomes a top 2024 election issue. The Homeland Security Committee debated all day Tuesday and well into...
Raises rejected for retired Westmoreland County employees
For the first time in 13 years, Westmoreland County’s 1,400 retired government employees will not receive cost-of-living increases. “This is a very difficult budget, and one where we couldn’t afford to do a COLA this year. Difficult decisions had to be made,” Commissioner Ted Kopas said. Retirees received 8.1% cost-of-living...
Some ‘choosing to live outside’ after flooded Mon Wharf homeless encampment cleared, official says
Many of the homeless people who were living in an encampment wiped out by flooding on the Mon Wharf opted to move to other encampments instead of accepting repeated offers of shelter, Pittsburgh officials said. “These are people who are choosing to live outside. They won’t necessarily take shelter,” said...
NYPD officers will have to record race of people they question after council overrides mayor’s veto
New York City police officers will be required to record the apparent race, gender and ages of most people they stop for questioning under a law passed by the City Council, which overrode a veto by Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday. The issue was thrust into the national spotlight in...
Latrobe social worker pleads guilty to sex crimes against teen clients
Victims and their supporters stood and cheered Tuesday as a former Latrobe social worker was led out of a Westmoreland County courtroom in handcuffs. Gregory P. Miscik, 63, pleaded guilty to 13 charges stemming from seven separate cases involving 10 victims. The charges involved sex crimes against teenage clients dating...
Pitt graduate workers request union recognition
Graduate workers at Pitt are asking for voluntary recognition of their union, claiming majority support for collective bargaining. Hundreds of graduate workers, United Steelworkers organizers and unaffiliated supporters gathered on the first floor of the Cathedral of Learning Tuesday to deliver a letter to Chancellor Joan Gabel with a request....
Jim Rogers Taser case did not merit homicide charge, Zappala says
A Pittsburgh police officer was “wrong” but didn’t commit homicide when he repeatedly shocked a homeless man with a Taser, which preceded the man’s death, the officer’s termination, and a $8 million civil lawsuit settlement with the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Tuesday....
10th Street Bypass reopens after flooding in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s 10th Street Bypass reopened Tuesday after it had closed due to flooding, according to PennDOT. The 10th Street Bypass between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and the Fort Duquesne Bridge and I-279 had closed after Downtown Pittsburgh’s riverfront began to flood Sunday. The flooding spurred road closures at the bypass and...
Bloomfield community group joins appeal to revive housing, grocery store development
A large development proposal for Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood that stalled out last year is gaining an ally in a local community group. The Bloomfield Development Corporation joined in this week on the appeal of a zoning rejection for a plan to build a large housing and grocery store development at...
DA files criminal charges against Century III, calls former mall a ‘monument to blight’
The owners of the blighted Century III Mall were charged Tuesday in a move by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala to seize ownership and demolish the once-mighty 1.3-million-square-foot building in West Mifflin. The district attorney’s office charged Century III Mall Pa. LLC with causing or risking a catastrophe, a...
Viral ‘sleepy girl mocktail’ promises improved night’s rest. Does it work?
If you’re having trouble falling asleep, some TikTok users argue there’s an elixir called the “sleepy girl mocktail” that could provide a solution. The drink is a combination of tart cherry juice, magnesium powder and a fizzy drink like sparkling water or prebiotic soda that allegedly promises a better night’s...
Report highlights ongoing racism at 10 Pa. State System universities
More than one Black university student recalled being compared to an animal. Another found a Confederate flag on his dormitory door. Others spoke of white peers saying, “I hate Black people.” And there was this anecdote which, like the others, was shared with a Pennsylvania senator traveling the State System...
Morning Roundup: Fayette man shot in moving vehicle during fight with wife
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Tuesday, Jan. 30: Fayette man shot in moving vehicle during fight with wife A man was shot twice in the thigh in a moving vehicle Monday morning in a domestic dispute with his pregnant wife in Fayette County, according...
Leechburg minister to co-pastor churches from different denominations
A Leechburg pastor is prepping for double ministerial duty at Protestant churches that cross denominational lines. With The Rev. Sue Washburn preparing to leave her post as interim pastor of Leechburg’s Cross Roads Community Presbyterian Church in mid-February, church leaders on Sunday approved naming the Rev. James Arter as part-time...
Amelia Earhart plane wreckage may have been found in PacificVideo
A South Carolina exploratory team claims it may have found the plane Amelia Earhart was flying when she disappeared in July 1937. Robotic company Deep Sea Vision (DSV) said in a press release that a sonar image it recorded “in a swath of the Pacific untouched by known wrecks” could...
Ex-IRS contractor gets 5 years in prison for leak of tax return information of Trump, rich people
WASHINGTON — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who pleaded guilty to leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people was sentenced to five years in prison Monday. Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., gave data to...
SoCal in New Kensington closes indefinitely; owner seeks new restaurant partner
SoCal Mexicali Grill in New Kensington has closed, but the owner said he’s looking for a new business partner in hopes of reopening. “The volume didn’t come through,” said owner Sean Watson. “We had a great products and people loved it, but traffic wasn’t there to keep it going.” SoCal...
Plans for new Derry-Ligonier power line spark property owner concerns over potential impacts
An idyllic Ligonier Township homestead where a young couple are living the life bucolic by raising exotic fowl and keeping honeybees could be bisected by a high voltage power line proposed by FirstEnergy. The proposed power line “would slice directly through the center” of the eight-acre property on Orme Road...
Strike averted: Union approves new contract with Westmoreland County
More than 500 Westmoreland County courthouse and nursing home employees ratified a union contract Monday. Approval of the three-year deal averted a strike that would have started Friday if a deal wasn’t reached. Rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare PA overwhelmingly voted to accept...
Westmoreland register of wills faces more questions about office’s handling of filings
Westmoreland County Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton conceded Monday her office has been scrambling to keep up with its workload. “We understand it is an issue, and we are making progress slowly and we will do whatever we have to do to make it happen,” Hamilton said after another...
Shapiro proposal would steer extra $40M a year to Pittsburgh Regional Transit
Southwestern Pennsylvania’s largest transit agency could see a needed boost of about $40 million annually thanks to a budget proposal unveiled Monday by Gov. Josh Shapiro. If passed, it would be the first funding increase for Pittsburgh Regional Transit in years, an agency spokesman said Monday. Transit agencies across the...
Enemy drone that killed U.S. troops in Jordan was mistaken for a U.S. drone, preliminary report suggestsVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces may have mistaken an enemy drone for an American one and let it pass unchallenged into a desert base in Jordan where it killed three U.S. troops and wounded dozens more, officials said Monday. Details of the Sunday attack emerged as President Joe Biden faced a...
Tarentum man pleads no contest in Route 28 fatal crash
A 79-year-old Tarentum man faces up to five years in prison for killing his front-seat passenger in a single-car crash on Route 28 in 2021. Frederick Fattman pleaded no contest Monday to involuntary manslaughter in front of Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Satler, his attorney, Alexander Lindsay, told TribLive. The plea...
