Top Stories category, Page 6

Starbucks Workers United is launching a strike authorization vote Friday amid stalled talks for a first contract between union baristas and the coffeehouse chain. Baristas are also planning 70 “practice pickets” in 60 cities as the vote unfolds to draw attention to their demands for better staffing, pay and working...

People are having children later in life — a trend that’s especially pronounced in Western Pennsylvania. The average age of first-time mothers who gave birth in 2024 at an Allegheny Health Network labor and delivery unit was 31.1 years old — three years higher than the national average, according to...

Donald Trump will not deploy federal agents to San Francisco, the U.S. president and the California city’s mayor said in separate social media posts on Thursday, a surprising stand-down as Trump pressures Democratic-led cities around the country to step up enforcement against crime and illegal immigration. San Francisco Mayor Daniel...

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. Sign up for our free newsletters. As federal vaccine policies and messaging shift under the Trump administration, pediatricians across Pennsylvania are working to maintain proven...

The Springdale Zoning Hearing Board has been left to mull more than a half dozen requests from developers of the proposed data center in the borough after a lengthy meeting Wednesday night. Board Solicitor Charles Clark said he expects the board to render a decision within 30 to 45 days....

President Donald Trump’s administration is quadrupling the country’s low-tariff imports of Argentine beef in his attempt to lower grocery store beef prices, a White House official said Thursday, evoking fury from the nation’s cattle ranchers. Raising the tariff rate quota on Argentine beef to 80,000 metric tons will let the...

Starbucks baristas’ union said on Thursday it would vote on whether to authorize an unfair labor practice strike at unionized locations to demand that the company return to the negotiating table. Contract talks between the coffee-chain giant and the union, which represents more than 12,000 baristas, began last year, but...

After nearly two decades sitting on exclusive rights to develop the Lower Hill District site that once housed the Civic Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins have lost their stake, drawing derision for taking so long to create so little. A 2007 agreement with Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Sports & Exhibition...

WASHINGTON ‒ The Senate is set to vote Thursday on a Republican-backed bill to pay some federal workers who are working through the government shutdown as the shutdown rolls into Day 23. The bill, known as the Shutdown Fairness Act and sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, would pay employees...

NEW YORK — The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in two cases alleging sprawling criminal schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, authorities...

Workers have demolished much of the 83-year-old East Wing in preparation for President Donald Trump’s planned $250 million ballroom at the White House. Demolition work began without prior public notice on Oct. 20, when workers took down the entrance to the East Wing. Dismantling continued the next day when much...

A program that helps low-income Pennsylvania residents pay heating bills will be delayed because of the federal government shutdown. The commonwealth’s Department of Human Services on Wednesday announced the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will begin Dec. 3, a month later than usual. The start date was pushed back...

Hempfield raked in $180,500 in proceeds from an online auction of 116 pieces of surplus equipment. More than 66,000 people looked at what Hempfield had for sale through Anderson Auctioneers, including trucks, firefighting equipment, traffic signals, kitchen appliances, chairs and reflector lamps. “That’s impressive,” said township Supervisor Jay Anderson. “There’s...

Amy Smidga says if she doesn’t receive her monthly SNAP benefit for purchasing food in November, it could sabotage her efforts to control her diabetes. “I get SNAP of $265,” she said. “It’s going to hurt me because it does help with what I need. Without the SNAP benefit, it’s...

Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators — Republican Dave McCormick and Democrat John Fetterman — voted Thursday to pay some federal workers during the government shutdown, but the GOP measure failed to get enough support in the Senate. Democrats tried to push through a measure of their own that would have paid...

A Braddock man filmed himself on a cellphone video accusing a “childhood friend” of plotting to “do something to me” moments before police say that friend fatally shot him outside a Pittsburgh bar last month. In six expletive-laced videos, Kevin Venson, 55, insulted and threatened Sean Carter on Sept. 12...

The United States hit Russia’s major oil companies with sanctions on Wednesday and accused the Russians of a lack of commitment toward ending the war in Ukraine, as Moscow conducted a major training exercise involving nuclear arms. The new sanctions were introduced one day after plans for a summit between...

Residents were left unimpressed Tuesday night after Deer Lakes School Board members voted to table a motion that would set a policy that would require all school bus stops to be at least 300 feet away from any Megan’s Law offender’s residence. The motion comes after state Rep. Jeremy Shaffer,...

A Jeannette man will serve two years of probation for illegally possessing a loaded handgun while playing blackjack in a Westmoreland County casino. Kenneth J. Czarnecki, 26, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of carrying a firearm without a license while gambling at Live Casino Pittsburgh at Westmoreland Mall in...

U.S. Steel is restarting one of two batteries damaged by a deadly explosion in August at its Clairton Coke Works. Battery No. 14 will go back online Thursday after about two months on hot idle, the company announced Wednesday. The battery needed substantial repairs after an Aug. 11 blast that...

An Allegheny County jury on Wednesday found a McKeesport woman not guilty of homicide in the shooting death of another woman following a bar fight. The jury deliberated about six hours before finding Gabrielle Parker, 38, not guilty of killing Ericka Stevens on June 18, 2020. Parker was found guilty,...

An Aliquippa man who admitted to fatally punching another man outside a Beaver County bar was sentenced to two to five years in prison and ordered to pay $3,000 toward the victim’s funeral, prosecutors said. “We hope this guilty plea offers a measure of justice to the victim’s loved ones...

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders completed their remapping of the state’s U.S. House districts on Wednesday, intent on picking up one more seat for President Donald Trump’s push to retain GOP control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. The boundaries approved by the state House aim to...

Friends and family of Cherrie Mahan believe law enforcement is zeroing in on the location of the young girl who disappeared in 1985 near a rural bus stop in Winfield. Hopes have skyrocketed one day after state police and FBI conducted a search along River Road in South Buffalo, about...