Top Stories category, Page 694
It’s official: Harrison has a new police chief
Harrison police Sgt. Brian Andrew Turack officially is the department’s new chief. Turack was sworn in at Monday’s commissioners meeting. He has been serving alongside retiring Chief Michael Klein since May, when commissioners appointed Turack to the chief’s post. Klein has been the chief for the past 29 years. His...
Experts debate brain imaging of Pittsburgh synagogue shooter
An MRI of Robert Bowers’ brain shows an unusually large number of white matter lesions that could be indicative of schizophrenia, an expert testified Tuesday. But those types of lesions also can be caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure, migraines or heavy smoking, the expert said. Dr. Murray A. Solomon,...
Hills Snack Bar food truck gets OK from health inspector
The return of the Hills Snack Bar is now one step closer to becoming reality. Just last year, Jason Powell of Aliquippa revealed he was bringing back a version of the famed snack bar from Hills department stores in the form of a food truck. On Tuesday, Powell announced that...
‘June Boötid’ meteor shower will peak in Pittsburgh area tonight
The annual June Boötid meteor shower will stick around until July 2, but its peak — and the best chance to catch a glimpse — will be tonight. In the Pittsburgh area, the shower will be visible from dusk well into the night. But what is it, and why is...
State teacher’s union blasts proposed school voucher scholarships
Pennsylvania’s teachers union is protesting a proposed program that would shift funding from public to private schools. The initiative would provide state-funded “lifeline scholarships” to eligible students at schools identified as “low-achieving.” The program could come to a vote in the Senate this week amid the state budget approval process....
Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law is upheld again, as court rules against Republican challenge
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state court on Tuesday rejected the latest Republican effort to throw out the presidential battleground state’s broad mail-in voting law that has become a GOP target following former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud. It is the latest of several refusals by a state...
Supreme Court makes it more difficult to convict someone of making a threat
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to make it more difficult to convict a person of making a violent threat. The case could make it harder for prosecutors to convict certain people who threaten elected officials, including the president. The high court ruled in a case that involves a...
Supreme Court rules state courts can play role in policing federal elections
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that North Carolina’s top court did not overstep its bounds in striking down a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan under state law. The justices by a 6-3 vote rejected the broadest view of a case that could have transformed elections for...
Industrial development agencies finalize venture to redevelop New Kensington park
Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. and the Regional Industrial Development Corp. finalized a joint venture to redevelop the New Kensington Advanced Manufacturing Park. Westmoreland County commissioners and IDC directors Sean Kertes, Doug Chew and Gina Cerilli Thrasher approved the partnership with RIDC, which has agreed to the terms. “We’re extremely...
Lordstown Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Commercial electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection nearly two months after it warned that it was in danger of failing. In early May electronics company Foxconn wavered on a $170 million investment in Lordstown. The Ohio company said in a regulatory filing at...
Breeze Airways adds low-cost flights from Pittsburgh to Tampa
One of the newest airlines operating out of Pittsburgh International Airport plans to add flights to Tampa early this fall. Breeze Airways, which launched service in Pittsburgh in July 2021, announced that it will begin offering nonstop flights between Pittsburgh and Tampa International on Oct. 5. Round-trip flights will be...
Morning Roundup: Penn Hills police seek 2 suspects who shot at Amazon driver
Here are some of the latest news items from Tuesday morning: Penn Hills police seek 2 suspects who shot at Amazon driver Penn Hills police are searching for two men who they say attacked an Amazon driver and fired a shot at him while the driver was making deliveries. Police...
Man fatally shot in Pittsburgh’s East Hills
A man was killed Monday night in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood, according to police. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert around 9 p.m. in the 2200 block of Wilner Drive and found with a man with a gunshot wound to his neck, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the...
Westmoreland officials pledge to reopen juvenile detention center
Westmoreland officials on Monday pledged to reopen the county’s juvenile detention center upon the conclusion of state investigations launched this month when two youths were injured at the Hempfield facility. “As soon as the investigations are done, we hope to be up and running. As soon as we can get...
With increased interest in self-defense classes, instructors focus on situational awareness
Fourth-degree black belt Bob Makowski doesn’t mind scaring students in his self-defense classes. The harder he grabs their attention, he said, the better chance they learn tools that can thwart danger. “About 65% of assaults occur with someone you know and also happen indoors,” said Makowski, owner of a martial...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh’s Zoe wins ‘Baking Championship;’ locals on ‘Bachelorette,’ ‘Jeopardy!’Video
She won! Mt. Washington’s Zoe Peckich, pastry sous chef at Ritual House in Downtown Pittsburgh, won Food Network’s “Summer Baking Championship” Monday night, pocketing the $25,000 grand prize and setting up the potential for future Food Network show appearances. It was actually a double win for Peckich, who grew up...
Tape has Trump discussing ‘highly confidential’ document with interviewerVideo
An audio recording from a meeting in which former President Donald Trump discusses a “highly confidential” document with an interviewer appears to undermine his later claim that he didn’t have such documents, only magazine and newspaper clippings. The recording, from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster, N.J.,...
Hempfield to purchase former state prison site, demolish buildings
Hempfield will buy the former SCI Greensburg state prison and plans to work with the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation to demolish the complex. Supervisors on Monday approved spending $3.5 million to buy the 96-acre property on Route 119 between Youngwood and Greensburg. The medium-security prison was originally built to...
Prosecutors seeking death penalty against man accused of slaying of 4 University of Idaho students
BOISE, Idaho — Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year. Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the Moscow, Idaho,...
Pittsburgh woman guilty of involuntary manslaughter in stabbing death of husband
An Allegheny County Common Pleas judge found a Brighton Heights woman guilty but mentally ill on Monday for fatally stabbing her husband in December 2020 and wrapping his corpse in garbage bags and duct tape. Janet L. Winbush, 53, a North Side resident who grew up in Grove City, Mercer...
Former Highmark Health employee accused of draining thousands from health savings accounts
Authorities are seeking a former Highmark Health employee in South Carolina who they say used her job with the health care giant to withdraw or attempt to withdraw nearly $90,000 from eight victims’ health savings accounts. Zakayah A. Scott, 23, of Columbia, S.C., has been charged with nine counts of...
Putin thanks nation for unity after aborted rebellionVideo
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the nation on Monday for unity after an armed rebellion over the weekend was aborted less than 24 hours after it began. Earlier in the day, the mercenary chief defended his short-lived insurrection in a boastful statement. In his first appearance since the rebellion ended,...
Pa. hunters experience long lines virtually, in person on 1st day of Game Commission license sales
Dorothy Mutter, a cashier at Hepler’s Hardware in Youngwood, was met with a line of hunters waiting for the shop to open when she came to work Monday morning. It was the opening day of hunting license and doe tag sales, and hunters across Pennsylvania eagerly waited, either in line...
Civil rights icon James Meredith turns 90, urges people to fight crimeVideo
JACKSON, Miss. — James Meredith knew he was putting his life in danger in the 1960s by pursuing what he believes was his divine mission: conquering white supremacy in the deeply, and often violently, segregated state of Mississippi. A half-century later, the civil rights leader is still talking about his...
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial enters death-penalty eligibility phase
Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal couldn’t read or write. They couldn’t process complicated situations. Loud noises scared them. Dan Stein, at age 71, was soon to get hearing aids, and getting up and down was so difficult that he was never able to play with his 7-month-old grandson on the...
