Top Stories category, Page 890
State officials: Bushy Run staff must consult with Native groups before staging reenactments
If historic Bushy Run Battlefield Park intends to host future reenactments or programs portraying Native Americans, park management first will have to consult with appropriate Native groups. That’s the policy of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which oversees the Penn Township park. The commission says it also must approve...
Despite hurdles, these Afghan refugees successfully made transition to living in Pittsburgh area
After three months of living in Pittsburgh, Ahmad Yousofzay yearned to return to his native Afghanistan. He had traveled here with his wife and three children in November 2017. They didn’t know anyone. Communicating with others was difficult. In Afghanistan, Yousofzay was a man of importance. He had worked as...
Car crashes into Pa. fundraiser for fire victims: reports
BERWICK - Authorities in northeastern Pennsylvania responded to a multi-scene incident that started with a car plowing into a fundraiser here. According to initial reports, a person drove a car into a crowd at the benefit fundraiser in Berwick, Columbia County, and then sped off. That driver then was involved...
Steelers win preseason opener on Kenny Pickett’s TD pass with 3 seconds left
If the preseason opener is any indication, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t going to be the notoriously slow starters that took the field last year in Ben Roethlisberger’s final season. With veterans Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph competing to be Roethlisberger’s successor, the offense got off to a good start Saturday...
Denzel Washington joins grand opening of August Wilson House
Brenda Tate walked past August Wilson’s childhood home many times. She said she lived next door to the famous Pittsburgh playwright while growing up in the Hill District. When she heard the news of his home being preserved and transformed into an arts center, she was thrilled. “This is amazing,”...
ShawRide V benefit motorcycle ride an overwhelming success
It was a beautiful, sunny August Saturday morning at the Shriners Center in Harmar, minutes away from the start of ShawRide V to benefit the Officer Brian Shaw Memorial Scholarship fund, and New Kensington Police Chief Bob Deringer was nervous. He was about to lead the ride in a marked...
Prosecutor: Stab attack on Salman Rushdie was ‘preplanned’
MAYVILLE, N.Y. — The man accused in the stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime, as the renowned author of “The Satanic Verses” remained hospitalized with serious injuries. An attorney for Hadi Matar entered...
Salman Rushdie on ventilator after stabbing, may lose an eye
MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie remained hospitalized Saturday after suffering serious injuries in a stabbing attack as praise poured in for him from the West but he was disparaged in Iran. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye, and was on a ventilator,...
City of Asylum/Pittsburgh co-founder injured in Salman Rushdie attack
Supporters are wishing a speedy recovery for Henry Reese, co-founder of the City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, who was injured Friday along with noted writer Salman Rushdie in an attack at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. According to New York state police, Reese, 73, was moderating a planned lecture by...
A year after fall of Afghanistan, refugees adjust to new life in Pittsburgh
Zainab Amiri arrived in Pittsburgh in September, pregnant and alone. She had no choice, she said, but to leave her native Afghanistan behind. “I was not able to stay in my home (in Afghanistan), and I had to leave everything,” she said via an interpreter as she looked down at...
Authorities ID Michigan man found dead in Allegheny River off East Deer shore
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office has released the name of the man who was found dead Thursday afternoon in the Allegheny River off the East Deer shore. The medical examiner identified the man as Tirrell Lamont Smith, 40. Inspector Mike Peairs of the Allegheny County Police said Smith is...
Doug Mastriano brings gubernatorial campaign to Westmoreland County
State Sen. Doug Mastriano made a campaign stop Friday in Westmoreland County, where he received the endorsement in his race for governor from the county’s Republican Party chairman and state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward. Speaking before a crowd of several hundred supporters in a clearing at the Slickville Sportsman’s...
Off-road vehicle, stretcher, ropes needed to rescue man from rugged terrain in Murrysville park
It took more than two hours Friday for emergency crews to rescue a man who suffered an apparent medical emergency and fell down a steep trail in Murrysville’s Duff Park. Off-road utility terrain vehicles and a rope system were used to transport the man across some of the park’s steep...
House Democrats pass sweeping health care, tax and climate bill
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Friday passed a sweeping health care, tax and climate change bill. Now they have to sell it. The vote was 220-207, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposing. With the midterm elections quickly approaching, congressional Democrats have had a series of legislative...
Anne Heche, TV, film and stage actor, dies at 53 from injuries sustained in car crash
LOS ANGELES — Anne Heche, the Emmy- and Tony-nominated actor whose work in “Six Days Seven Nights,” “Another World” and dozens of other projects dovetailed with a groundbreaking romance with Ellen DeGeneres that challenged homophobia in Hollywood, has died. She was 53. Her son Homer confirmed her death in a...
FBI seized ‘top secret’ documents from Trump home
WASHINGTON — The FBI recovered “top secret” and even more sensitive documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court papers released Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorized the sudden, unprecedented search this week. A property receipt unsealed by the court shows...
UPMC Children’s Hospital employee diagnosed with monkeypox
A UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh employee who works in an outpatient clinic has been diagnosed with monkeypox, officials said Friday. “Precautions to prevent transmission were already in place and were followed, so we believe there is very low risk of exposure,” said Beth Mausteller, a spokeswoman for the UPMC...
Some Pittsburgh cops sidelined after failing firearms certification
Several Pittsburgh police officers are off the streets while they await retesting for annual firearms certification, officials said. Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said in an email that she did not have the exact number of officers who failed to qualify during the current testing period, noting that it is...
‘Top dog’ pleads guilty for role in Westmoreland heroin trafficking ring
A Jeannette man who prosecutors described as the “top dog” of a multi-million dollar heroin trafficking ring that operated throughout Westmoreland County in 2017 has pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy charges. Chauncy Bray, 32, has been behind bars since his arrest five years ago, when police said he and...
Woman, dogs escape injury in Jeannette fire
A woman and four dogs escaped injury Friday when a Jeannette home caught fire and was extensively damaged, leaving a family of four homeless. Jeannette fire Chief Bill Frye said flames were shooting out of the second-story windows of the front bedroom of the house on 14th Street when firefighters...
Former Westmoreland County softball standouts find ‘extra’ special roles in ‘A League of Their Own’
Mollie Kovalcin watched the film “A League of Their Own” so many times growing up, she lost count. It was part of her childhood and still holds a special place in her film collection. You might say it is “extra” special now. “I’ve probably seen it maybe 300 times, over...
Peters man accused of leaving infant in hot car, killing him, released from jail
A Peters man who said he accidentally left his 3-month-old son inside a hot vehicle for six hours, killing the infant, will be released from Allegheny County Jail. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski on Friday afternoon granted release on home electronic monitoring for Khang Nguyen. Nguyen, 33,...
Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” drew death threats from Iran’s leader in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen Friday by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York. A bloodied Rushdie,...
Developer to resubmit plans for Shadyside apartments after zoning rejection
The Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustments has rejected plans for a 131-unit apartment complex in Shadyside that was seeking a height variance to build above the 85-foot limit in that area. But the developer who proposed the apartment building, Shadyside-based Mozart Management, has vowed to resubmit plans in hopes to...
Fetterman plans ‘raw’ remarks in return to Pa. Senate race
ERIE — Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman is expected to open up about his personal health challenges as he officially returns to the campaign trail Friday, more than 90 days after the Democrat suffered a stroke that threatened his life and political prospects in one of the nation’s premier Senate...
