Top Stories category, Page 949
Medical marijuana card companies push access in Pa., while doctors are silenced
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 Pennsylvania lawmakers legalized medical cannabis in 2016, they struck an unusual deal: Physicians can approve patients for the...
Pittsburgh business, community leaders publicly support Pitt funding
Over 100 regional business and community leaders have thrown their weight behind the University of Pittsburgh as Republican support for the school’s state funding is in jeopardy. Pitt shared 12 letters this week urging lawmakers to follow precedent and approve the university’s 2022-23 nonpreferred appropriation bill, which would give the...
Extra security in place at Norwin after reported threat against student, employee
Extra security is in place in the Norwin School District today after a threat of violence against a student and a middle school employee was discovered on social media Wednesday, Superintendent Jeff Taylor said. The district said Thursday that the student who made the comment — reported through the state’s...
Woodland Hills appoints Castagna as permanent superintendent; 2 school directors resign
Woodland Hills school officials have made Acting Superintendent Daniel Castagna’s position permanent, voting to confirm his appointment at a special meeting Wednesday night that also included the resignation of two school board members. The board voted 5-1 to appoint Castagna as the superintendent; board member Terri Lawson abstained from voting....
Parents, educators try to come to grips with Texas elementary school shooting
Leechburg resident Angelique Senko teared up Wednesday while discussing Tuesday’s elementary school massacre in Texas. Senko, 44, a former Leechburg Area School Board member with three children enrolled in the high school, described news of the shooting as terrible. Like parents all over the country, Senko is trying to come...
Police say Washington County man fatally shot his neighbor
Pennsylvania State Police have accused a Washington County man of fatally shooting his neighbor Wednesday afternoon in Smith Township. Bryce Kevin Tacy, 52, is accused of criminal homicide in the incident reported at about 2:3o p.m. along Loffert Road. Police said Tacy verbally engaged the victim, Jerry E. Anderson, 44,...
Security measures heightened, discussed in Western Pa. districts after Texas school shooting
Knowing just how much the deadliest elementary school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012 was likely to affect unnerved parents and children throughout Western Pennsylvania, local school officials took a proactive approach Wednesday to reassuring worried students and their families. Greensburg Salem School Districts posted a video message on its...
Westmoreland coroner’s office plans funeral for unclaimed remains of deceased veterans
The cremated remains of 15 veterans discovered in storage at the Westmoreland County Coroner’s office — some for as long as 29 years — will have a formal memorial service in July before being laid to rest with full military honors, Coroner Tim Carson said. The memorial service will be...
Pennsylvania House votes against taking up gun bill after Texas killings
HARRISBURG — An effort by Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania to ban owning, selling or making high-capacity, semi-automatic firearms went nowhere Wednesday as state House Republicans again displayed their firm opposition to gun restriction proposals. The state House of Representatives voted 111-87 against the effort by Democratic Rep. Danielle Friel Otten...
Will Congress act on guns after Sandy Hook, Buffalo, Uvalde?Video
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly set in motion a pair of background-check bills for gun buyers Wednesday in response to the school massacre in Texas. But the Democrat acknowledged Congress’ unyielding rejection of previous legislation to curb the national epidemic of gun violence. Schumer implored his Republican...
All but 30 ballots counted in Allegheny County as statewide recount in U.S. Senate race looms
Allegheny County election officials as of Wednesday had counted all but 30 challenged provisional ballots cast in last week’s primary, and hearings will be held Friday to determine whether the remaining ballots should be counted. Nearly 1,750 provisional ballots were scanned and tallied Tuesday and Wednesday, ultimately adding 103 votes...
Oz, McCormick race heads into recount in Pa. Senate primary
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top election official said Wednesday that the margin between the top two candidates in last week’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate is tight enough to trigger a statewide recount, dragging the outcome into June as the candidates fight in court. The state’s acting secretary of state, Leigh...
Pennsylvania reports 29K new covid cases in past week; deaths at same rate as last month
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health released its weekly update on covid-19, reporting 29,227 new cases in the past week. While the overall number of cases rose 4.8% from May 18 to 24, the growth of new cases week over week dropped significantly. From May 11 to 18, the...
Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school
UVALDE, Texas — Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by...
Sewickley Academy students collect items for Ukrainian refugees
Sewickley Academy Global Studies teacher Nataliya DiDomenico starts every morning with a phone call to family members nearly 4,900 miles away. She checks in with her mother, Slava Navorenska, and brother, Liubomir Navorensky, who live with several other family members back in Ternopil, a city in western Ukraine. “That’s how...
TV Q&A: What’s going on with Pirates baseball TV coverage?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Question: I moved about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh to New Galilee, Pa. Where I live, there is only one network/cable system available in that area...
Credit card skimmer found in Frazer tied to 2 other cases, police urge awareness
Investigators say two Romanian nationals accused of trying to steal credit card and debit card information by installing a skimming device at the Sam’s Club store in Frazer also put the skimmers in at least two other stores before they were arrested. Authorities say that while the devices are nearly...
Pittsburgh Public Schools on modified lockdown after Texas shooting; covid closes Banksville K-5
Pittsburgh Public Schools will be operating on a modified lockdown Wednesday as a precautionary measure in the wake of Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Texas. The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, claimed the lives of at least 19 children and two adults. “At no time should the...
Police: Braddock man shot 3 times outside an Arnold high-rise; suspect caught after foot chase
A Braddock man was hospitalized Tuesday night after being shot three times in Arnold, according to Arnold Police Chief Eric Doutt. The 20-year-old man, who was not identified by name, was outside Arnold Manor along the 1600 block of Horne Boulevard when someone opened fire around 7:15 p.m., according to...
Brian Kemp wins Georgia GOP governor’s race in stinging rebuke of Trump
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia easily dispatched Donald Trump’s hand-picked challenger on Tuesday in a Republican primary that demonstrated the limits of the former president and his conspiracy-fueled politics in a critical swing state. Kemp will face Democrat Stacey Abrams this fall in what will be one of...
Biden says ‘we have to act’ after Texas school shootingVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered an emotional call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman opened fire at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said at the White House shortly after returning from...
Audit: Marijuana arrests persist among Black Pittsburghers despite decriminalization
An audit of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police meant to address concerns about racial disparities found that Black residents continue to make up a majority of arrests by city police and seem to be disproportionately hit with marijuana-related arrests despite the city’s decriminalization of small amounts years ago. The audit,...
McKees Rocks man pleads guilty in killing after marijuana deal gone wrong
A McKees Rocks man, who was 16 when he shot and killed someone two years ago, believed his life was in danger when he pulled the trigger. Peyton Wiser told a judge on Tuesday that he was walking to a local store the afternoon of May 3, 2020, when he...
NOAA predicts busy Atlantic hurricane season
Federal meteorologists are forecasting a record-shattering seventh straight unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted Tuesday that the summer in the Atlantic will produce 14 to 21 named storms, six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to six turbo-charging into major hurricanes with winds greater...
Gunman kills 19 children, 2 adults in Texas school rampageVideo
UVALDE, Texas — An 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a classroom, “shooting anyone that was in his way,” an official said Wednesday, describing the latest a gruesome, yearslong series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. Police...
