Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 65
Jury verdict: 2 guilty of first-degree murder in St. Clair woman’s shooting death
A Westmoreland County jury convicted Melissa Fox-Beacom and Matthew Bates of first-degree murder Friday in the 2023 shooting death of her mother. Jurors decided that even though Fox-Beacom and Bates didn’t fire the shots that killed Alice Robson on Dec. 11, 2023, their actions leading up to the shooting made...
Aurora’s driverless trucks soon to be a common sight across the Sun Belt
Aurora Innovation plans to have more than 200 driverless tractor-trailers on the road by the end of the year as part of a rapid expansion across the Sun Belt. The anticipated growth would mark a new era of commercialization for the company, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, after...
Mysterious metal shards still a tire terror in Harrison, Tarentum and beyond
Shana Daly has been a victim of the social media-dubbed “Shardnado” twice. The Tarentum resident got a flat tire weeks ago while driving along Route 28 to Harmar and then again Feb. 6. Both times, a thin metal shard was the culprit. The mysterious fragments have been found on local...
‘They’re trying to break him’: Springdale man remains jailed after ICE detainment
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials regarding their reason for detaining Randy Cordova-Flores. A Springdale man arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Tuesday is struggling to remain positive while being held in a West Virginia jail. “They’re playing...
Mark Madden: Cam Heyward’s silence speaks loudest in Steelers’ podcast saga
As Pittsburgh Steelers past and present re-enact “Mean Girls” via podcast — I stole that from X — it’s easy to overlook the hidden schmuck in Porter vs. Roethlisberger. It’s the fearless leader, Cameron Heyward. Heyward sat there, a lump of silence, while Joey Porter excoriated Ben Roethlisberger, called him a...
Feds: Carnegie Mellon receives 2nd most foreign funding of any U.S. college
Federal data released this week shows Carnegie Mellon University receives the second-highest amount of foreign funding among U.S. universities. The data, which spans 1986 to 2025, shows CMU disclosed $3.9 billion in foreign gifts and contracts, according to the U.S. Department of Education. CMU trailed only Harvard University, which received...
As electricity costs rise, everyone wants data centers to pick up their tab. But how?
HARRISBURG — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence. But that might...
Here are 5 things to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: Feb. 13-15
Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? Be honest. Did you procrastinate making reservations or buying a gift? No worries. Here are some events where you can take someone special for the holiday weekend. Symphony Dances from ‘West Side Story’ The classic musical “West Side Story” is based on the tragic...
Police say ex-Rankin manager, Woodland Hills president, unlawfully used borough credit card
Former Rankin manager Terri Lawson racked up nearly $10,000 in unauthorized purchases on a borough credit card, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. Court papers accuse her of using the First National Bank card more than 130 times between August and the start of December at restaurants, grocery stores,...
Western Pa. dairy farmers welcome return of whole milk to school cafeteriasVideo
The recent passage of the federal Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act marks a strategic effort to reverse a decade-long decline in dairy consumption. By rolling back 15-year-old guidelines to let schools put whole and 2% milk back on menus, the law is aimed at providing a long-sought economic boost...
Paper ballots OK’d for Westmoreland voters at $18K price tag
Westmoreland County voters will again be able to cast paper ballots at the polls during this year’s primary and general elections. Republican commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew on Thursday approved a contract with an estimated price tag of $18,275 to supply paper ballots at each of the county’s 306...
Lori Falce: Who do you play for?
I did not watch “Miracle” the other night just because of the Olympics. Yes, it was offered up to me by my streaming service, I am sure, because of the amount of golden and glorious dreams in the air right now. As a lover of both hockey and inspirational sports...
Faces of the Valley: O’Hara runner makes Three Rivers Heritage Trail a better place
When Keith Arner committed to running the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2023, he hit the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Millvale regularly. Fast-forward three years, and the O’Hara resident is still running. But now he spends more time on the trail making sure it’s at its best for other walkers and...
Shapiro unveils plan to address Pa. housing needs
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a plan Thursday to boost housing construction and affordability over the next 10 years. “For too many families in Pennsylvania, housing prices are rising faster than their paychecks and the American dream of owning a home no longer feels possible, but it doesn’t have to...
Pittsburgh Police investigate armed robbery at Bloomfield bar
Pittsburgh Police say two armed men robbed a Bloomfield bar Thursday morning, making off with an unknown amount of cash. Officers were called to the scene around 10 a.m. at the 600 block of South Millvale Avenue, according to a statement from Pittsburgh Public Safety. The only bar in that...
Pirates great Elroy Face, Baron of the Bullpen and pioneer of closer role, dies at age 97
Known as the “Baron of the Bullpen,” Elroy Face was a pioneer for modern-day closers in baseball who made the forkball famous and played a vital role for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 World Series champions. A three-time All-Star, Face owns Major League Baseball’s career record for most wins in relief,...
Local lawmakers question ICE’s detention of Springdale father
Though local officials have mostly remained silent,the Alle-Kiski Valley’s lawmakers are seeking more details after a traffic stop in Springdale ended with a local father in ICE custody on Tuesday. Randy Cordova-Flores, 36, remains in custody at Northern Regional Correctional Facility and Jail near Moundsville, W.Va., according to ICE records....
Gunman in St. Clair woman’s slaying testifies ‘a light switch flipped inside me’, saying others convinced him to kill
Robert Jack was standing in the driveway of a St. Clair home when he was asked to kill the woman who lived inside. The request from friend Matthew Bates caught Jack, 20, by surprise, he testified Thursday. Jack thought he was at the Furnace Lane home to hang out with...
Fire tears through home in Plum’s Logans Ferry HeightsVideo
About a dozen fire companies rushed to the scene of a fire that gutted a home in Plum on Thursday afternoon. The blaze was reported just after 3:15 p.m. on the 200 block of Dombroski Avenue in the borough’s Logans Ferry Heights neighborhood. It was about a half-mile away from...
Allegheny County Council members concerned about employees working with ICE
Allegheny County Council members during a Thursday meeting raised concerns that some county employees may be cooperating with U.S. Customs and Immigration enforcement. Six council members last month sponsored a bill that would prohibit the county from cooperating with ICE. The bill comes amid an uptick in ICE actions and...
Game commission releases ‘bonus’ pheasants across southwestern PennsylvaniaVideo
Five minutes after the Pennsylvania Game Commission released a couple hundred pheasants into the wild near Loyalhanna Creek on Thursday morning, the crack of the first gunshot echoed across the meadow. Each year, commission staff release “bonus” pheasants, left over from their annual breeding program. In anticipation of losing pheasants...
Westmoreland commissioner calls sheriff’s partnership with ICE invalid
An agreement signed last year by Sheriff James Albert that allows his deputies to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is invalid and cannot be enforced, a Westmoreland County commissioner said Thursday. “Did the sheriff have the authority to do this unilaterally? The (answer) is unequivocally no. He did...
Multifamily housing could sprout from a 13-story former office building in Downtown Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is seeking a new buyer to take over its former Downtown office building. The URA moved out of 200 Ross St. about five years ago. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and several city departments who used the building have since left, too, all...
Casa San Jose to move into new building in Beechview
Casa San Jose is working virtually amid an uptick in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions — but when they return to in-person programming, they’ll have a new facility. The nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization is buying a building on Broadway Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood — which has a significant...
Homeland Security shutdown seems certain as funding talks between White House and Democrats stall
WASHINGTON — A shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security appeared certain Thursday as lawmakers in the House and Senate were set to leave Washington for a 10-day break and negotiations with the White House over Democrats’ demands for new restrictions had stalled. Democrats and the White House have traded...
