Top Stories category, Page 777
China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks
BEIJING — China, a firm Russian ally, has called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Moscow and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict. The plan issued Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on...
Pa. Senate committee hears 5 hours of testimony on East Palestine derailment
Lives were at stake and timing was crucial when Pennsylvania officials deferred decision-making authority to Norfolk Southern in the aftermath of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, according to testimony Thursday at a state Senate committee hearing in Beaver County. About 50 Norfolk Southern cars, including 10 with hazardous materials,...
70s temps set weather record in February
February isn’t over yet, but it’s already made weather history for Southwestern Pennsylvania. The high temperature reached a record-tying 70 degrees at Pittsburgh International Airport in Moon Township on Thursday, National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Frazier said. It was the third time this month that the high has reached 70...
Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty in shooting, can still work
Actor Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie and waived his first formal court appearance, in court documents filed Thursday. Baldwin and a weapons supervisor were charged last month with felony...
$11.5M preservation of Heinz Memorial Chapel’s spire planned
Generations of Pittsburghers know it as an exquisite wedding and worship space, a limestone cathedral that has 23 imposing yet beautiful stained-glass windows and an organ with 4,272 pipes. But that’s not what is drawing the most attention at the University of Pittsburgh’s Heinz Memorial Chapel these days. It’s the...
Route 65 study to focus on reconnecting Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhoods
Pittsburgh was awarded $1.4 million on Wednesday to study whether it should alter a section of Route 65 in the city’s North Side to reconnect the Chateau and Manchester neighborhoods. In the 1970s, officials raised a portion of Route 65, also known as Ohio River Boulevard, onto a viaduct to...
Pittsburgh investigators uncover new evidence in 1994 unsolved slaying of woman
Pittsburgh police have a new suspect in an unsolved 1994 killing. Florence Simon was 68 years old when she was “brutally strangled” inside her home at the 700 block of North St. Clair St. in East Liberty. She lived alone at the time. George Satler, a Pittsburgh detective assigned to...
Westmoreland municipal authority approves $31 million treatment plant expansion
The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will spend $31 million to expand and upgrade a water treatment plant near Connellsville — a 70% jump in the cost estimated when it was initially approved 27 months ago. Originally expected to cost about $18 million, the project’s price jumped in the intervening...
‘The clerk was in on it’: Harrison police nab accomplice in gas station robbery
Police say the robbery of a Harrison gas station earlier this month was staged. “The clerk was in on it,” police Chief Mike Klein said, without elaborating further. David Cousineau, 19, of Harrison is charged with criminal conspiracy, theft and receiving stolen property. Police said he was party to a...
NTSB: Train crew got safety alert too late to prevent derailment
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The crew operating a freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, did not receive a critical warning about an overheated axle until just before dozens of cars went off the tracks, federal safety investigators said in a report Thursday as U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg...
Roberto Clemente book deemed ‘appropriate,’ returns to Fla. school district shelves
An illustrated children’s biography of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente is back on shelves in Florida’s Duval County Public Schools after being reviewed and approved for use in classrooms and libraries. The school district said in a news release that its certified reading specialists are in the process of reviewing...
U.S. ending extra help for groceries that started during covid
Nearly 30 million Americans who got extra government help with grocery bills during the pandemic will soon see that aid shrink — and there’s a big push to make sure they’re not surprised. Officials in 32 states and other jurisdictions have been using texts, voicemails, snail mail, flyers and social...
Nearly $300K worth of fentanyl seized at Pittsburgh Greyhound station
More than 960 bricks of suspected fentanyl that were intended to land in McKeesport were seized Tuesday at the Greyhound bus station in Downtown Pittsburgh, law enforcement officials said. The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Team (DANET), along with the Pittsburgh Regional Transit police and the Attorney General’s task...
Buttigieg visits East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment site
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday to tour the site where a train wrecked nearly three weeks ago as the government faces growing criticism over the federal response to the derailment. The Feb. 3 derailment led to evacuations and fears of air...
Monroeville EMT accused of faking $30K worth of hours on time card
A Monroeville Fire Department EMT is facing charges that accuse him of marking up his time card with hundreds of fraudulent hours, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. Samuel Levy, 33, of Monroeville was paid more than $30,000 in undue wages, a criminal complaint claims. He faces charges...
Warm weather woes: Mild winter impacts allergy symptoms, agriculture
The allergy appointments are already beginning to build for Dr. Christin Deal, and it’s only February. Is this the new normal in Western Pennsylvania? Deal, an allergy immunologist at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said allergist appointments are about a month ahead of pace. “Usually, it’s more like mid- to...
Norwin board members file suit over superintendent assessment
Four members of the Norwin School Board have sued the board president and two other directors, alleging a 2022 assessment of the superintendent was a fraud. The assessment excluded their comments and scores of his performance, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Westmoreland County court. Directors Christine Baverso,...
Westmoreland Democrats seek to refocus commissioner campaign with Thrasher out of the race
Less than 24 hours after the surprise announcement that Westmoreland Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher would not seek reelection, county Democrats said Wednesday they are ready to move forward with a campaign to reclaim a majority at the courthouse. That plan, party officials conceded, is reliant on another candidate coming forward...
Police seek help finding missing Pittsburgh man
Pittsburgh police are asking for public help finding a missing man. Nathanael Williams, 23, was last seen in the Mt. Washington neighborhood Feb. 13. Police said he stands 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. Williams is known to spend time in the South Side and Bethel Park...
Washington County crash kills 1, injures 3
A motorist was killed in a collision with an oncoming vehicle Wednesday afternoon in Washington County, officials said. Edward Michael King, 58, of Avella was pronounced dead at the scene in Independence Township, according to Washington County Coroner Tim Warco. A ruling on the cause of death was pending completion...
Orlando TV news journalist, child killed as ‘multiple people’ shot near earlier homicide scene
ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando TV journalist and a child were shot and killed Wednesday evening near a crime scene where a woman was found shot to death earlier in the day, in a brutal spate of violence in Pine Hills that prompted widespread shock and grief. Orange County Sheriff...
Massive winter storm brings snow, strong winds, frigid coldVideo
PIERRE, S.D. — A brutal winter storm knocked out power in California, closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming and prompted more than 1,500 flight cancellations Wednesday — and the worst won’t be over for several days. Few places were untouched by the wild weather, some at the opposite extreme:...
Attempted homicide charges dropped in BB gun shooting case in Pittsburgh
A Pittsburgh district judge on Wednesday dropped attempted homicide charges against four city teens accused of shooting an unconscious man with a BB gun multiple times as he was lying in a Downtown alley in late November. The man, identified as Christopher Gaylor, 50, of Cadiz, Ohio, later died of...
Allegheny County lawmakers seek federal funding to complete Mon-Fayette Expressway
A bipartisan group of state senators wants to use federal funding to complete the long-delayed and controversial Mon-Fayette Expressway extension project. The Mon-Fayette toll road currently stretches 54 miles from Jefferson Hills to Morgantown, W.Va. Construction work has begun to extend the expressway 6 miles north from Jefferson Hills to...
Trump: East Palestine train derailment response a ‘betrayal’
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized the federal response to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, as a “betrayal” during a visit to the village where residents and local leaders are increasingly frustrated more than two weeks after the disaster. Trump, wearing his...
