Top Stories category, Page 616
Pa. House OKs bill to move 2024 primary by 1 week in protracted fight
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday passed another bill to give an earlier date for its 2024 presidential primary, an effort that has become drawn out and politically charged in a battleground state still weathering former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about a stolen 2020 election. The bill...
Tarentum man guilty in 2019 fatal stabbing
A jury on Wednesday found a Tarentum man guilty of third-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a woman with whom he had a relationship. Juan H. Hayden, 58, will be sentenced Jan. 16. He also was found guilty of tampering with evidence. Police said Hayden beat, strangled and stabbed...
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee joins resolution calling for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee has joined a group of progressive lawmakers in calling for Congress to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Lee, a Democrat from Swissvale, is a co-sponsor on the Ceasefire Now Resolution that urges “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.” Initial co-sponsors...
Details emerge of Rostraver murder-for-hire plot
A Westmoreland County detective testified Wednesday that a Philadelphia man paid $65,000 to have a business associate shot and killed last November in the parking lot of a Rostraver strip mall. Prosecutors contend Keven Van Lam, 57, ordered and financed the hit on a man who he paid about $800,000...
Tenants speak out about conditions inside, outside Latrobe apartment building
Kara McAdams doesn’t want to come home after work — instead she wants to cry, she said, because of the cockroaches and bedbugs she’s battling there. McAdams, 33, is living in the apartment building at 333 Main St. in Latrobe, where 100 violations of the property maintenance code were found...
Pittsburgh considers peak pricing, more metered parking in Lawrenceville’s business district
Parking has been a problem for Eric Keller since he opened a business on Lawrenceville’s busy Butler Street about seven years ago. Keller said it’s hard for his customers at Lawrenceville Pet Supply to find parking spots in the crowded business district, but he’s hopeful that legislation before Pittsburgh City...
Israel OKs limited aid for Gaza as regional tensions rise following hospital blast
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from President Joe Biden. The president’s visit came after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital. There were conflicting...
Allegheny General nurses vote in favor of potential strike
Nurses at one of Pittsburgh’s largest hospitals are on the verge of strike. There are more than 1,200 nurses and nurse practitioners unionized at Allegheny General Hospital, and they voted Tuesday to deliver notice of a potential strike to hospital ownership if their requests for raises are not met, according...
US vetoes UN resolution condemning all violence against civilians in Israel-Hamas war
UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday to condemn all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying it was too early to craft an appropriate Security Council response to the crisis. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike reaches 1 year with little progress made
A year into a tumultuous strike, negotiations between journalists and workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and management remain at a standstill. Journalists are tired and frustrated, management isn’t budging, and no date is set for a looming decision on a labor ruling that could change the course of the lengthy...
Westmoreland won’t have ballot drop boxes in November
Westmoreland County’s three-member elections board rejected a proposal to install a drop box for mail-in ballots in the courthouse lobby. Common Pleas Judges Tim Krieger and Justin Walsh declined to vote on the pitch from the elections bureau this week to place a single box near the main courthouse entrance...
Rite Aid to close 9 stores in Southwestern Pa.
Rite Aid Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, lost little time in announcing its plans to shutter nine stores in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Stores on the closing list are ones on Stevenson Boulevard in New Kensington; Route 22 in Murrysville; Route 30 in Hempfield; Library Road in Bethel Park;...
GOP’s Jim Jordan fails again to win vote to become House speaker as colleagues seek optionsVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Jim Jordan failed again Wednesday on a crucial second ballot to become House speaker, the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump losing even more GOP colleagues who are refusing to give him the gavel. Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options....
Gaza’s doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage growsVideo
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of...
Biden pledges solidarity with Israelis and suggests ‘other team’ to blame for Gaza hospital blastVideo
TEL AVIV, Israel — President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israel during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital that prompted mass protests in Arab nations apparently was not carried out...
Morning Roundup: Mon Incline out of service; PennDOT seeks snowplow drivers
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Wednesday, Oct. 18: Mon Incline shut down The Monongahela Incline is out of service until further notice to repair damage to a door on the west car, Pittsburgh Regional Transit spokesman Jim Ritchie said Wednesday morning. The Pittsburgh Regional...
Leading off, Re:Build to produce softball bats at new site in New Kensington
Softball bats will be the first thing produced at a new manufacturing plant in New Kensington. Components for satellites are the second. Production for both will begin next year at Re:Build Manufacturing’s facility in the New Kensington Advanced Manufacturing Park, formerly the Schreiber Industrial Park along the Allegheny River in...
Sharpsburg pet shop closes, but rescue operations continue
After five years in Sharpsburg, the pet shop Sara’s Pets and Plants has closed its doors. But the nonprofit rescue associated with the store will continue its mission to aid exotic animals and place them in loving homes. Owner Sara Smith said the cost of operating the for-profit shop became...
Westmoreland 250: 10 things to see in New Stanton, Youngwood
(Editor’s note: To mark Westmoreland County’s 250th birthday this year, we’ve come up with a list of 250 things — 10 things in 25 communities — that we consider to be important to the makeup of our area. This series will appear each week through December. If you have a...
Bullet For My Valentine unleashes intricate heavy metal in Pittsburgh concert
Bullet For My Valentine singer/rhythm guitarist Matthew Tuck wasn’t 100% for Tuesday night’s concert at Stage AE in Pittsburgh. But that didn’t stop the veteran Welsh band from delivering a crowd-pleasing night of melodic metalcore. “So I woke up this morning not feeling too good — not going to lie...
More U.S. ships head toward Israel; 2,000 troops on heightened alert
WASHINGTON — Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the U.S. began moving warships and aircraft to the region to be ready to provide Israel with whatever it needed to respond. On Tuesday, more ships and forces were heading toward Israel, and other troops in the U.S. were...
Police search for driver accused of hitting boy in Carrick
Pittsburgh police are looking for the driver of a vehicle that struck a boy in Carrick on Tuesday morning and left the scene. First responders found the boy on Brownsville Road and E. Agnew Avenue just after 7:15 a.m., and he was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police...
Jeannette man to serve life prison term for friend’s murder
Desiha Davis said her brother’s murder more than two years ago is still being felt by his five children. “This is really hard and I pray to be stronger than I am right now. This was our heart. And now I have to make sure these kids are empowered and...
Springdale zoning officer, council members testify in power plant’s boiler house implosion case
The plant manager of the former Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale, Springdale’s zoning officer and two council members testified Tuesday as the injunction hearing to block an implosion at the boiler house continued in court. Last month, 16 Springdale residents filed an injunction to block the demolition of the boiler...
Mercer County woman known as ‘Pink Hat Lady’ gets nearly 5 years for actions in Capitol riot
The Mercer County woman who became known as Pink Hat Lady following the riot at the U.S. Capitol was ordered Tuesday to serve nearly five years in prison for her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Rachel Powell, who was convicted of encouraging violence against law enforcement and using...
