Top Stories category, Page 755
Westmoreland at 250: Celebrations marking county’s milestone anniversary planned throughout year
Westmoreland County’s origins date to 21⁄2 centuries ago when local pioneering settlers wanted their own courthouse instead of having to trek to Bedford to settle legal disputes. Sunday marks the 250th anniversary — or semiquincentennial — of when the county officially was formed from a portion of Bedford County. It...
Westmoreland at 250: Unity farm owners keeping history alive
Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series marking the 250th anniversary of Westmoreland County’s founding. Workers have been busy repairing the roofs on several of the 17 outbuildings that fan out from the historic Sewickley Manor farmstead. Calvin Pollins Jr. is the seventh generation of his family to...
Burning bush, privet species added to Pennsylvania’s noxious weeds list
Burning bush shrubs may appear pretty in the fall, when their leaves turn a blazing bright red. But they also are pretty invasive, and this year they earned a spot on Pennsylvania’s list of noxious weeds. For the past few years, the list has seen the addition of several plants...
Experts: Senate job not to blame for Fetterman health concerns
The eyes of the country were watching Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman as the former Braddock mayor and Pennsylvania lieutenant governor took office in January, just months after his recovery from a life-threatening stroke. Just weeks into the job, Fetterman checked himself into the hospital in early February for tests...
Salutes, not sobs: Concert honoring Brackenridge Chief McIntire benefits several Alle-Kiski Valley departments
Loni Hutchens choked up remembering how her knees buckled when she heard that Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire was gunned down. Kim and Dale Davis explained that whenever an officer is shot, they agonize over whether it’s in Pittsburgh, where their son patrols on the midnight shift. And Lisa Ingle...
Fire sprinkler rupture forces Pittsburgh Playhouse evacuation, shows canceled
A ruptured fire sprinkler caused an emergency alarm to go off forcing a mid-performance evacuation of the Pittsburgh Playhouse on Point Park University’s Downtown campus Friday night. It happened in the middle of a performance of Disney’s Newsies, a musical. “A piece of scenery fell to the stage and a...
Pittsburgh Faison teacher accused of sexually assaulting student
Pittsburgh police have put out an arrest warrant for a Pittsburgh Public Schools teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student. According to the criminal complaint, James Ziegler, 41, is a teacher at Pittsburgh’s Faison K-5. Court documents said Ziegler allegedly forced the student to perform sex acts during lunch detentions....
North Huntingdon developer adds franchise division to attract businesses
Sought-after local and national franchises could be coming to Westmoreland County as North Huntingdon- based Colony Holding Companies adds a division aimed at attracting those types of businesses, according to Don Tarosky Jr., developer and partner. First up is a location in North Huntingdon that will combine a coffee shop...
Proposal would allow 15-year-olds to get their driver’s licenses
Pennsylvania teenagers could get their driver’s licenses a year early if a proposal from two lawmakers, including state Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield, gets approval. Nelson and state Rep. Stephen Kinsey, a Philadelphia Democrat, are seeking co-sponsors for legislation that would lower the age of eligibility for a junior driver’s license...
Lower Burrell home that was recently sold catches fire as old owners remove their items
Officials have determined that a kerosene heater caused a fire Friday night that severely damaged a house in Lower Burrell that had recently been sold. After an investigation that ended shortly before midnight, city Fire Co. 3 Chief Brennan Sites said Saturday that he and a state police fire marshal...
I-79 crossover express lane reopens with safety improvements
PennDOT has reopened the southbound I-79 crossover after closing down the left-hand express lane last Monday night and implementing a 45 mph speed limit in the work zone. The crossover reopened at 4 p.m. Friday in Glenfield, Sewickley Hills, and Frankin Park and Ohio and Aleppo townships. After several crashes...
Brockovich steals show at train derailment seminar in Ohio
EAST PALESTINE, OHIO — It started with a joke, though the message behind the evening was anything but. “My name is Erin Brockovich, not Julia Roberts,” quipped the environmental advocate who Roberts played in the 2000 film bearing her name Friday night in an auditorium here — the site of...
Agents bust large-scale fentanyl ring in Alle-Kiski Valley
A more than yearlong investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office and the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force has disrupted a large-scale fentanyl trafficking organization in the Alle-Kiski Valley. In court paperwork filed Friday, agents said they made controlled buys of fentanyl between January and March 2022 in Arnold, New...
AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh in peril as Warner Bros. Discovery intends to exit regional sports
Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, wants to exit the regional sports network business — and soon — in a move that could potentially leave the Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins without a primary TV home. The Wall Street Journal first reported that WBD informed the professional sports teams...
Police: Teens get in shootout over scam involving drug-laced candy bar
Police say an 18-year-old man was jailed after getting into a shootout with a 17-year-old Mt. Pleasant Township boy on Wednesday after the victim was duped into paying $100 for a candy bar — on the false premise it was laced with mushroom-based chemicals. The suspect, Joseph A. Greep Jr....
After Ohio train wreck, Biden orders door-to-door checks
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday directed federal agencies to go door-to-door in East Palestine, Ohio, to check on families affected by the toxic train derailment that has morphed into a heated political controversy. Under Biden’s order, teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency...
Teens charged after leading state police on high-speed chase down Route 30
Three teens were taken into custody after state police said they escaped from Adephoi Village and led law enforcement on a high-speed chase Thursday night along the Route 30 eastbound corridor. State troopers initially responded to a report around 10 p.m. that an employee’s vehicle had been stolen at Technimark,...
Female suspect shoots at police, who return fire and kill her in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair neighborhood
A woman was shot and killed by police Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair neighborhood after she fired at police, authorities said. Allegheny County 911 said police were called to the area around 3 p.m. for a call concerning a suspicious person in the 500 block of Engstler Street. Pittsburgh’s...
Did dioxins spread after the Ohio train derailment?
After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment. Last week, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state’s environmental protection agency expressing...
Unionized Pitt faculty members protest pace of contract talks
About 200 University of Pittsburgh faculty members represented by the United Steelworkers rallied outside Friday’s board of trustees meeting to protest the pace of negotiations aimed at securing the union’s first labor pact there. Chanting at times as they held up signs that read “Fair Pay = Emotional Well-Being,” the...
Biden ready to run, U.S. first lady says
NAIROBI, Kenya— U.S. first lady Jill Biden gave one of the clearest indications yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview on Friday that there’s “pretty much” nothing left to do but figure out the time and place for...
Medical examiner: BB gun victim died from accidental drug overdose
A man who police said was repeatedly shot with a BB gun by four city teens while he was unconscious in a Downtown alley in November died from a drug overdose, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday. Christopher Gaylor, 50, of Cadiz, Ohio, died Dec. 1 at UPMC...
Child sex abuse lawsuit window again gets Pa. lawmakers’ OK
HARRISBURG — Victims would be able to sue over otherwise outdated claims of child sexual abuse under two pieces of legislation passed Friday by the Pennsylvania House, but it’s unclear whether the state Senate will take them up. The legislation to temporarily waive the statute of limitations for sex abuse...
DA: Police justified in killing man who ambushed Brackenridge Chief Justin McIntireVideo
The last thing Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire ever saw, as shown by video taken from the taser he held in his hand, was the man he’d been chasing — aiming at him with a .40-caliber handgun. Aaron Swan Jr., dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans after he dumped...
Final vote on controversial Oakland zoning package expected next week
Pittsburgh City Council is expected to take a final vote next week to approve what has been a heavily debated zoning package for the Oakland neighborhood. City Council had initially planned to vote on the zoning package in December after a lengthy public hearing where residents, developers and officials from...
