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Pittsburgh says city cop gave unapproved interviews protesting vaccine mandate
A Pittsburgh Police detective protesting the covid-19 vaccine mandate for city employees has come under fire for giving unauthorized interviews to media outlets, including conservative sites that have been accused of spreading conspiracy claims. Her appearances and interviews were unscheduled and unapproved, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety...
Strategy to recruit, retain teachers in Pa. introduced by Wolf administration
Out of Gov. Tom Wolf’s commitment to leaving the state’s education system in better shape than he found it comes a three-year strategy to recruit and retain more educators to work in Pennsylvania’s classrooms, according to Acting Education Secretary Eric Hagarty. Hagarty said filling vacancies at schools is the most...
Police laud actions of man who killed Indiana mall attackerVideo
GREENWOOD, Ind. — Authorities on Monday identified the gunman who shot five people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them, before a shopper shot and killed him as a 20-year-old local man. Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood, began firing after leaving a bathroom at the Greenwood Park Mall...
New Pa. budget injects $125M into private school tax credit program that lacks accountability
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 — When Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-led Legislature hammered out the $45.2 billion budget deal in early July, they...
What does ‘plead the Fifth’ mean? Will the Trumps do it?
NEW YORK — Donald Trump and two of his children — Donald Jr. and Ivanka — were due to face questioning under oath in New York’s civil investigation into their business practices. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said last week it had agreed to postpone the scheduled depositions...
Doug Mastriano is deleting his videos from Facebook as he runs for Pa. governor
PHILADELPHIA — In early April, Doug Mastriano was recording a Facebook Live video on his phone after a legislative session in Harrisburg when he segued into his thoughts on global warming. The state senator from south-central Pennsylvania, who would become the Republican nominee for governor the following month, told his...
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO testifies about concession company ‘putting us at risk’
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis told a judge Monday that leaving the concessions company in place at Pittsburgh International Airport is a security concern. “We cannot risk having them out there doing business as usual,” she said. Cassotis was the last witness called as part of a multi-day...
Gilpin police investigating whether neighbor was justified shooting 3 dogs after 1 bit woman
Gilpin police are investigating whether the shooting of three dogs Sunday was justified after one of them bit a neighbor. Police Chief Christopher Fabec said the dogs were shot after one of them bit a woman from a neighboring property multiple times on the leg and thigh. She was treated...
1 person injured in single-vehicle crash in Kiski Township
A car struck a telephone pole and rolled over early Monday in the 1300 block of Route 56 in Kiski Township. Armstrong County 911 confirmed the accident and said one person was transported to an area hospital. The condition of the accident victim was not available Monday morning. State police...
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he will retire by end of Biden’s 1st term
The United States will grapple with covid-19 long after Dr. Anthony Fauci leaves his post as the president’s chief medical adviser, the Brooklyn native said in a Politico interview announcing his plans to retire by the end of Joe Biden’s first term. Fauci, 81, became the face of the covid-19...
Heinz ketchup bottles removed from scoreboard at Acrisure StadiumVideo
The giant Heinz ketchup bottles are coming down. Crews on Monday morning removed the first of two ketchup bottles that framed the scoreboard at the former Heinz Field. Last week, the stadium announced that Kraft Heinz no longer held the naming rights for the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and...
Pittsburgh’s Picklesburgh sets new attendance record
By any measure, the seventh edition of Picklesburgh was the largest ever held, officials said. During the three-day festival, crowds took full advantage of a larger footprint that encompassed the Rachel Carson (9th Street) Bridge and the riverfront along the 10th Street Bypass. “This was definitely the largest event we’ve...
$1M grant will help prep former Sony industrial site in East Huntingdon for tenants
A $1 million state grant is expected to cover close to half the costs of planned infrastructure improvements at RIDC Westmoreland Innovation Center, the former Sony television plant in East Huntingdon. The grant will help pay for work on a few hundred thousand square feet in the southeastern corner of...
Gas prices continue to fall on drop in demand, declining oil prices
The national average price of gasoline has fallen for 34 straight days, and — barring major hurricanes, outages or unexpected disruptions — could fall under $4 by mid-August, an industry analyst says. “We’ve seen the national average price of gasoline decline for a fifth straight week, with the pace of...
Jury selection underway for ex-Trump adviser Steve BannonVideo
WASHINGTON — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Steve Bannon, a one-time top adviser to former President Donald Trump. He is facing criminal contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Bannon is charged in...
Buffalo Township bus company receives honor for 75th anniversary
When Jeanne Roenigk is asked about retirement, she responds with a simple question. “What else would I do?” Roenigk, 90, runs the Buffalo Township-based bus company founded by her late husband, William Roenigk Sr., in 1945. Her longevity with W.L. Roenigk is the reason the family-run bus company continues to...
Boost in K-12 state funding to impact Allegheny, Westmoreland districts
Allegheny and Westmoreland school districts anticipate a boost in funding this year after legislators gave their stamp of approval to $8.5 billion for K-12 public education. The Keystone State will provide more than $7.3 billion in basic education and level-up funds — a roughly 11.4% increase from the 2021-22 allocation....
Police: 3 people and gunman dead in Indiana mall shootingVideo
GREENWOOD, Ind. — Three people were fatally shot and two were injured, including a 12-year-old girl, at an Indiana mall after a man with a rifle opened fire in a food court and an armed civilian shot and killed him, police said. The man entered the Greenwood Park Mall on...
Jan. 6 panel to receive Secret Service texts after data lossVideo
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol assault expects to receive text messages it has subpoenaed from the Secret Service by Tuesday, panel member Zoe Lofgren said. A government inspector general told the panel last week that the agency wasn’t cooperating with its inquiry into the Jan. 6,...
Fires scorch France and Spain, as Europe wilts in heat waveVideo
PARIS — Firefighters battled wildfires raging out of control in France and Spain on Sunday as Europe wilted under an unusually extreme heat wave that authorities in Madrid blamed for hundreds of deaths. Two huge blazes, which have consumed pine forests for six days in southwestern France, have forced the...
Report: ‘Systemic failures’ in Uvalde school massacreVideo
UVALDE, Texas — Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but “systemic failures” created a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed, according to a report from investigators released...
4 counties under flood watch as storms approach Pittsburgh area
A flood watch is in effect for parts of the Pittsburgh area until Monday morning as excessive rainfall may cause flooding, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said Sunday. The watch for Allegheny, Beaver, Greene and Washington counties began at 11 a.m. Sunday and was scheduled to last until 8...
Doug Mastriano helps celebrate the political movement that made him at film premiere
LOWER ALLEN TOWNSHIP — Sen. Doug Mastriano largely set aside his standard stump speech Saturday night to pay an homage to the latest grassroots conservative movement in Pennsylvania of which— for the moment — he’s field general as he fights with Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro to become the state’s...
Abortion laws spark profound changes in other medical care
A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so that if she is ever attacked again, she won’t be forced to give birth to a rapist’s baby. An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems “sick enough.” A lupus patient must stop taking medication that controls...
No major problems with ballot drop boxes in 2020, AP finds
ATLANTA — The expanded use of drop boxes for mailed ballots during the 2020 election did not lead to any widespread problems, according to an Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. that revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft that could have affected the results....
