Top Stories category, Page 691
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is making a long-awaited trip to China
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel Thursday to Beijing as part of an ongoing Biden administration effort to thaw U.S.-China relations, a senior Treasury official said Sunday. Yellen, who has called the notion of an economic decoupling from China “disastrous,” has frequently said in the past year that...
Officer-involved shooting leaves 1 person dead in Ligonier Township
A Ligonier Valley police officer shot and killed an unidentified man Sunday at a township residence, authorities said. Police responded to a Gravel Hill Road home about 3:50 p.m., which led to the shooting, Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole W. Ziccarelli said in a news release. She did not elaborate...
Excessive heat warnings remain in many areas of US through MondayVideo
Excessive heat warnings remain in place in many areas across the U.S. and are expected to last at least through Monday. In Arizona’s largest metro area, Phoenix and surrounding communities flirted with a high of 115 degrees on Sunday. The National Weather Service in Phoenix is forecasting 116 degrees for...
Elon Musk imposes daily limits on reading posts on Twitter
SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter owner Elon Musk has limited the number of tweets that users can view each day — restrictions he described as an attempt to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data from the social media platform. The site is now requiring people to log on to view...
Police say Pittsburgh bar owner hired locksmith to open padlocked nuisance property
A Penn Township man who owns a Pittsburgh bar that was padlocked Friday was arrested over the weekend after authorities said he hired a locksmith and entered the building, according to court papers. Derrick Hemby, 60, was released on his own recognizance Sunday on felony charges of trespass and solicitation....
Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. Scientists call it the ‘new abnormal’
It was a smell that invoked a memory. Both for Emily Kuchlbauer in North Carolina and Ryan Bomba in Chicago. It was smoke from wildfires, the odor of an increasingly hot and occasionally on-fire world. Kuchlbauer had flashbacks to the surprise of soot coating her car three years ago when...
Are you confronting a big medical bill? Attack it with a plan — and these tips
An enormous medical bill can trigger a wave of panic, but try to resist. That startling invoice that arrived in the mail may not be what you wind up paying. Errors or slow insurance payments may have inflated the total. Even if it’s accurate, financial aid or other assistance might...
Baltimore block party shooting victims include more than a dozen minors, police sayVideo
BALTIMORE — Gunfire erupted Sunday at a block party in Baltimore — killing two people, wounding 28 and leaving an extensive crime scene that marred the U.S. holiday weekend, police said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition and more than a dozen were under 18. The shooting took...
Pittsburgh man charged after police chase, crash in Moon Township
An arrest warrant was issued for a man who reportedly led state troopers on a chase and then crashed in Moon. Police said Ryan Chapman, 30, of Pittsburgh, was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries. Chapman fled from police in a Chevrolet Camaro on Ewing Road and Business...
Cleats and call-ups: Today’s Pirates earned their stripes with the Curve
ALTOONA — Over the years, Altoona Curve fans have gotten a chance to see talent like Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen, Endy Rodriguez and, recently, Oneil Cruz before they got called up to play for the Pirates. Henry Davis, who began the season with Altoona before moving on to the Pirates’...
Altoona Curve’s PNG Field is just like the big leagues — only more affordableVideo
ALTOONA — Taking the family to a Pittsburgh Pirates game can be a costly endeavor. From tickets to parking to meals and snacks inside the stadium, the price tag can run into the triple digits in short order. Less than two hours away, baseball fans can buy any ticket at...
Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor-league affiliate Altoona Curve offers idyllic baseball settingVideo
ALTOONA — A couple of hours before first pitch, it’s easy to see the appeal of PNG Field, home of the Altoona Curve. On a gorgeous June afternoon under clear skies, the Allegheny Mountains rise south of the Blair County ballpark, which is bookended by wooded hillsides. Over the right-fielder’s...
4th week of Pittsburgh synagogue attack trial focused on mental health
Defense experts used words like psychotic, paranoid, illogical and delusional to describe Robert Bowers. Prosecutors used other words: methodical, calculated, premeditated, intentional. Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, was found guilty last month of killing 11 people as they worshipped at a Squirrel Hill synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. Before Bowers can be...
Downtown Pittsburgh is rebounding, but less smoothly than some would like
Downtown Pittsburgh is a neighborhood of contrasts. Since the start of the pandemic, Western Pennsylvania’s busiest business district has seen tens of thousands of workers disappear as many companies have shifted to remote work, but it has gained thousands of residents. Violent crime arrests Downtown are dropping, but shootings and...
Being a furry in Pittsburgh takes money, time and planning
Being a furry in Pittsburgh is not as easy as it might appear. It involves more than just showing up, putting on an animal costume, and walking in a parade. For example it takes a considerable financial investment to become what is known in furry circles as a “high dollar...
Unusual arts, crafts showcased at Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival
An idea and a leap of faith led business partners Tina Fink and Ron Johnson down a new career path — creating jewelry and other items from vintage flatware and coins. Fink said it’s been rewarding to find unique pieces and then a new home for them. One customer who...
Appeals court rejects Thomas Stanko’s bid to lower federal prison sentence
A federal prison sentence was upheld by appeals court judges who considered an appeal from a Unity man serving time in a gun case. Three Third Circuit judges last month rejected an appeal from Thomas G. Stanko, 52, who was sentenced in July 2022 to seven years and three months....
Ohiopyle ‘Hobbit House’ rental entices visitors to outdoor adventure
Whether Gollum haunts the premises remains to be seen, but Gandalf greets visitors at the Ohiopyle Hobbit House. The “Lord of the Rings”-themed vacation rental property is newly open amidst 60 wooded acres southwest of the popular Fayette County adventure destination. A larger-than-life-size statue of the wizard character of J.R.R....
Officials stop in Greensburg to urge fireworks safety, burn prevention
Fireworks were blamed for causing a Memorial Day house fire in Penn Township, a scenario local officials are hoping won’t be repeated somewhere else over the Fourth of July holiday. “You can ruin what is supposed to be a happy occasion through the careless use of fireworks,” cautioned Greensburg Mayor...
McKeesport homicide-by-car accusations headed to Allegheny County Court
A Pittsburgh man is headed to court on charges he repeatedly attacked a McKeesport woman with his car, killing her in front of a member of her family. Brandon K. Pendleton, 31, of the city’s Sheraden neighborhood, waived his preliminary hearing Friday morning, court records show. District Judge Kim Berkeley...
Munhall funeral home director accused of leaving corpse to decompose headed to Allegheny County Court
An area funeral director is headed to trial for leaving a dead man’s body unrefrigerated for more than a week after the man’s family argued about funeral home fees. District Judge Patrick D. Campbell sent the case of Michael Aldrich, 75, of West Mifflin, to Allegheny County Court following a...
Penn State, Pitt, others get hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds, but tracking it is a challenge
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — Each year, Pennsylvania’s legislature sends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to...
Pittsburgh man sentenced to prison for DUI crash that injured 3 women on South Side
An Allegheny County judge sentenced a Pittsburgh man to 1 to 7 years in prison in connection with a 2021 drunken driving crash on Pittsburgh’s South Side in which three injured women had to be cut from a vehicle. In addition to being sentenced on a DUI charge, Andre Perkins,...
3-year-old shot in Robinson
A 3-year-old boy was shot in the 100 block of Village Drive in Robinson Township, according to Allegheny County Police . Police found the boy with what appeared to be a graze wound from a gunshot to his leg around 2 p.m. Friday. The boy was taken to UPMC Children’s...
New Kensington police seeking Ohio man in double attempted homicide
An arrest warrant has been issued for an Ohio man who New Kensington police say shot at two people last Sunday. City police charged Iven Cashua Miller Jr., 36, of Cleveland with two counts of attempted criminal homicide, two counts of attempted aggravated assault, one count of person not to...
