Top Stories category, Page 698
Allegheny Valley school directors push for football season at Veterans Memorial Field
The Allegheny Valley School District plans to stay the course and play its football games at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Springdale despite an issue with a leaning wall at the field. At a meeting Tuesday, board members discussed the field, where part of a wall is leaning toward the stadium...
Pittsburgh City Council considers $45M, 10-year contract for police cameras, Tasers, other equipment
Pittsburgh City Council is considering a proposed $45 million, 10-year contract for city police to buy and upgrade body and vehicle cameras, Tasers and related equipment and software. The proposed contract would be with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Axon Enterprise. Pittsburgh police now use Axon for their body-worn cameras and tasers, but...
Overgrown Herr Chapel Cemetery full of hidden history
There’s no telling how many Union soldiers and prominent local figures are buried beneath the dense overgrowth at Herr Chapel Cemetery. Many monuments are sunken, caked in moss or eroded beyond legibility. Others appear to simply be half-buried rocks, and may or may not indicate a grave. Without the worn,...
UPMC partners with Florida company to develop cancer medicines
UPMC is partnering with a Florida pharmaceutical company to build a manufacturing center in Oakland to create novel medicines that could be a new way to treat cancer and other diseases. The Pittsburgh health care system is collaborating with PharmaLogic Holdings Corp. to develop radiopharmaceuticals, an emerging field in health...
Report: Justice Alito accepted Alaska resort vacation from GOP donorsVideo
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accepted a 2008 trip to a luxury fishing lodge in Alaska from two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom repeatedly had interests before the court, and he did not disclose the trips on his financial disclosure for that year, ProPublica reports. A story...
Trump-Russia special counsel John Durham at center of political clash as he appears before CongressVideo
WASHINGTON — The special counsel who investigated the FBI’s probe of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign found himself at the center of a heated political fight as he appeared before a congressional committee Wednesday, with Democrats denouncing his inquiry and Republicans arguing that its findings helped prove...
Tax credits for Pa. families worth billions of dollars are on the table this budget season
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania families across the income spectrum could receive more than $2.5 billion in tax breaks by 2028 under two...
Capitol rioter who shocked police officer with stun gun is sentenced to over 12 years in prison
WASHINGTON — A California man who drove a stun gun into a police officer’s neck during one of the most violent clashes of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison. Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led out of...
Some Pittsburgh City Council members question URA’s city-funded affordable housing plan
Pittsburgh City Council members expressed concerns Wednesday over a proposal that would put city taxpayers on the hook for $62.5 million in bond repayments to support Urban Redevelopment Authority affordable housing programs. Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration and the URA have provided few specifics on how the money would be spent,...
North Huntingdon OKs settlement on officer’s racial discrimination suit
North Huntingdon officials narrowly approved a settlement of a lawsuit a police officer filed against the township and a former manager over alleged racial discrimination when a new chief was named in 201 and what he contended was a hostile work environment. Commissioners Jason Atwood, Eric Gass, Richard Gray and...
Former Steelers Super Bowl champion linebacker Clark Haggans dies at age 46
Clark Haggans, a starting outside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl XL championship team in 2006, died Monday in Fort Collins, Colo., at age 46. According to the Larimer County coroner’s office, an autopsy was performed Wednesday. Officials said cause and manner of death are pending further investigation, but...
Summer solstice in Pittsburgh region delivers over 15 hours of daylight
Fifteen hours, 4 minutes. That’s how much daylight the Pittsburgh region will see Wednesday during the summer solstice — the official start of summer and longest day of the year, when the sun takes the northernmost path through the sky. The result is short nights, early dawns and late sunsets....
‘You are destroying your life,’ judge tells Jeannette man at sentencing hearing
The lawyer for Jeannette man convicted for his part in what prosecutors described as a major drug distribution ring told a Westmoreland County judge his client’s turbulent upbringing and future potential warranted a mitigated prison sentence. Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger disagreed when he sentenced Damone A. Morton to five...
Morning Roundup: Sports standout Sam Clancy to be honored; North Braddock chief resigns; 1 injured in shooting
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Wednesday, June 21: Two-sport star to be honored by Pittsburgh A former star Pitt basketball player who went on to play in the NFL will be honored Saturday by the City of Pittsburgh with a celebration and the naming...
Farm fresh? Yes, but farmers markets offerings are months in the making
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the days, times and location for the Central Westmoreland Farmer’s Market near Greensburg. Kira Karpinski’s farmers market offerings in June take root six months earlier in a sun-drenched room in her house. Not a greenhouse — her actual house. “I start...
Westmoreland 250: 10 unique things in Murrysville
(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...
Search area for lost Titanic-bound submersible deepens, doubles in size as oxygen dwindles
Rescuers on Wednesday rushed more ships and vessels to the area where a submersible disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in an increasingly urgent mission. Crews were scouring an area twice the...
Review: Indie supergroup boygenius lives up to hype in Pittsburgh show
Can there be such a thing as an indie supergroup? Well, if any band could stake that claim, it might be boygenius. After all, the band’s members — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — have released critically acclaimed solo albums. They’ve had a song prominently featured in “The...
Pitt students frustrated after being told following commencement they were short of degree requirements
College students trying to understand what precise combination of courses they need to graduate generally take it on faith that if they follow a campus adviser’s instructions, they will get their degree. But what if the adviser gets it wrong? What if they needed more courses than they were told...
Allegheny County Council overrides Fitzgerald veto, enacts county-worker minimum wage
Allegheny County employees will have a new minimum wage starting next year and that wage will eventually increase to $20 an hour. The law will set $20 an hour as the minimum wage for county workers by 2026. There would be incremental increases to $18 an hour next year and...
Sheetz eyes new store location on Greensburg’s East Pittsburgh Street
Greensburg soon could have another Sheetz store. The Altoona-based company is proposing to build a new convenience store and gas station at 770 E. Pittsburgh St., near the intersection of Humphrey Road at the city’s eastern border. The city zoning hearing board on Wednesday is expected to consider a request...
DA, ethics panel back judge in Donald Trump hush-money case, finding no evidence of bias
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s tempestuous views aside, Manhattan prosecutors say neither the former president nor his lawyers have shown any evidence to support their claims that the judge in his hush-money criminal case has an anti-Trump bias. They urged him to reject defense demands that he step aside from...
I-95 will open this weekend in Philadelphia, Shapiro says
About two weeks after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia, the heavily trafficked freeway should reopen to traffic. Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that three lanes in each direction will reopen this weekend, about a week ahead of the originally projected timeline, and well...
Officials ID man pulled from Allegheny River
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified the man whose body was pulled out of the Allegheny River as Charles Palermo. Palermo, 67, whose hometown is unknown, was pulled from the river near Washington’s Landing in Troy Hill on Monday morning. He was pronounced dead at 7:07 a.m.,...
Blood-red crickets invade Nevada town, residents fight backVideo
ELKO, Nev. — Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash. The ground surrounding Elko’s stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood. As the red color shifted and moved, she realized instead it...
