Top Stories category, Page 7
Charges held against man accused of shooting, killing his brother outside New Ken Elks Lodge
Criminal charges against the Arnold man accused of shooting his brother outside the New Kensington Elks Lodge in December were held for court following a preliminary hearing Thursday. District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. held charges to court against Steffon Ballard, 38, including criminal homicide, attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault...
O’Connor fills top roles, installs Jason Lando as acting Pittsburgh police chief
Jason Lando is serving as Pittsburgh’s acting police chief as Mayor Corey O’Connor fills top roles in his administration and waits for City Council to vet and approve certain positions. After O’Connor was sworn in Monday, he submitted to council various appointments to fill key posts, mayoral spokeswoman Molly Onufer...
Pittsburgh police locate 2 girls after being last reported in the Vandergrift area
Pittsburgh police have located two missing Pittsburgh girls who had been missing for almost 24 hours. Angela Beer, 14, and Roxy Petruzzi, 10, were found safe Thursday night. They were reported last seen in their Beechview neighborhood on Wednesday at 10 p.m., police said. According to a Thursday Facebook post...
House passes bill to extend health care subsidies in defiance of GOP leadersVideo
WASHINGTON — In a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation Thursday, 230-196, that would extend expired health care subsidies for those who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act as renegade GOP lawmakers joined essentially all Democrats in voting for the measure. Forcing the issue to a...
Hemingway’s Cafe in Oakland to close
Hemingway’s Cafe, the popular bar along Forbes Avenue known for its cheap pitchers and lively trivia nights, is closing after more than four decades in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. The business will wind down in May, owner John Elavsky said in a social media post Thursday afternoon. He did not give...
Jury finds Monessen parents not guilty of child endangerment
Felicia Dugan embraced a friend and sobbed Thursday afternoon outside a Westmoreland County courtroom after a jury found her and her former boyfriend not guilty of endangering their 2-year-old twins in their Monessen home in 2024. “I am so happy. I’m getting my kids back, and that’s all that matters,”...
Shapiro formally launches reelection campaign in Allegheny County
Gov. Josh Shapiro promised to be “a governor for all Pennsylvanians” as he formally announced his reelection campaign Thursday in a Pittsburgh suburb. “Most Pennsylvanians want the same few things,” Shapiro told a crowd of officials and supporters at the Carpenters Union Local 432 building in Collier, six miles southwest...
Hotel tax revenues doled out to help promote Westmoreland tourism
Dwight Brown knows that word of mouth isn’t enough to sustain business growth. Brown opened Great Scott Escape in November 2020, a Scottdale business that has grown over the last several years to include three separate rooms for gaming enthusiasts. He wants to see it continue to grow, and said...
TV Talk: Why an NFL playoff game on Monday?Video
A Monday night Steelers playoff game might seem like a novel concept, but it’s not new to the NFL. In 2021, ESPN signed a five-year agreement to broadcast Monday night games following the first weekend of the NFL playoffs. That’s how the Steelers wound up being scheduled to play the...
No arrests yet in Greenfield shooting, abduction
Allegheny County Police confirmed that a man shot in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood on Wednesday night was the victim of a kidnapping earlier that evening. But police say the kidnapping did not happen in Plum, as originally reported. Instead, police say, preliminary information shows the victim traveled to an undisclosed location...
Burrell: No concern following bomb threat, evacuation of high school
No immediate concern was found following a bomb threat and evacuation of Burrell High School on Thursday morning, according to district officials. A statement from Superintendent Shannon Wagner said there was a message posted on a high school bathroom wall that read, “I am going to bomb this school.” The...
Senate pushes back on Trump’s military threats against Venezuela with war powers vote
WASHINGTON — The Senate advanced a resolution Thursday that would limit President Donald Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela, sounding a note of disapproval for his expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. Democrats and five Republicans voted to advance the war powers resolution on a 52-47 vote and...
New charges filed against Latrobe man arrested after manhunt, police say
Additional charges were filed Thursday against a man who, according to investigators, ran from police attempting to serve an arrest warrant this week and was armed with a knife when authorities apprehended him at a home in Latrobe. The manhunt started Tuesday night when Latrobe and Rostraver police teamed up...
Anger, outrage spills onto Minneapolis streets after ICE officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good
MINNEAPOLIS — As anger and outrage spilled out onto Minneapolis’ streets Thursday over the fatal shooting of a woman the day before by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a new shooting by federal officers in Oregon left two people wounded and elicited more scrutiny of enforcement operations across the...
Josh Shapiro to run for 2nd term as Pa. governor, trailed by talk of a 2028 White House bid
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will run for a second term in the pivotal battleground state after a first term that put him on the Democratic Party’s radar as a potential presidential contender in 2028. He plans to make the formal announcement Thursday at events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia....
McKeesport man gets 2 life sentences for murdering his mother and her friend
Pennsylvania state law required an Allegheny County judge Wednesday to sentence a McKeesport man to life in prison without parole in the 2024 killing of his mother and her friend. Prosecutors and pair of mourning families, however, asked Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Satler to do more — and acknowledge “the...
Don’t blame this Franklin Regional grad for hoping the Steelers lose Monday. It’s his job
Nate Leopold used to sit in the yellow seats at Heinz Field — before it became Acrisure Stadium — twirling a Terrible Towel and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers. When they played “Renegade,” he stood up and yelled like the 68,000-plus going crazy around him. “The first year I remember...
Many Alle-Kiski homeowners paying more in taxes, service fees this year
After a year of school district tax hikes, Alle-Kiski Valley residents largely got a break from their municipalities, most of which avoided tax increases for 2026. That doesn’t mean they’re paying less to live in the Valley, though. While only four of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s municipalities raised taxes for this...
New year means jump in tax rates for multiple communities in Western Pa.
For a number of communities across Southwestern Pennsylvania, 2026 is arriving with higher property tax bills. Those cities, boroughs and townships have hiked their millage rates for the new year to contend with rising infrastructure costs, inflation and the exhaustion of pandemic-era federal subsidies. In Westmoreland County, many municipalities are...
‘Long overdue’: Tenaska power plant faces hearing on emissions, monitoring
From his Mendon Road horse farm, Eric Metz watches white clouds billow daily from the 940-megawatt natural gas power plant looming over South Huntingdon. “It’s really not a problem,” Metz said of the emissions drifting from the Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station over his property. The health of the 23 horses...
TV Talk: Renewed for season 3, ‘The Pitt’ returns for excellent 2nd season; Shaler native on ‘Traitors’
Watching season two of “The Pitt,” which HBO Max renewed for a third season late Wednesday, it’s so clear that this is a series made by TV veterans who understand that to keep a show going it needs to be both the same and different. “ER” veterans John Wells and...
Fire kills 6 dogs at North Huntingdon kennel
Six dogs were killed Wednesday night in a fire that destroyed a wood-frame kennel in North Huntingdon, a fire chief said Thursday. The kennel at Bowser’s Dog Services was in flames when firefighters arrived at the scene at 3031 Baker School Road, Larimer fire Chief William Hardy said. A neighbor...
Pittsburgh police: Kidnapping in Plum related to Greenfield shooting
Police believe an armed kidnapping in Plum is connected to a shooting in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood on Wednesday night. Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Eliza Durham said the department learned of the armed kidnapping reported to Plum police at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday. A family member told Plum police that his brother had...
3 men shot in Arnold gunfight, part of a domestic dispute, officials say
Three men were taken to the hospital after they were shot in Arnold on Wednesday night. Mayor Shannon Santucci said the incident stemmed from a domestic dispute. A report of shots fired came in just after 7 p.m. Wednesday in the 2100 block of Leishman Avenue. Chief Rob Haus said...
Trump invites Colombian president to White House days after threatening it with military strike
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he’d even invited the leader of the South American country to the White House. “It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of...
