Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 95
Coronavirus impacts High Holy Days in Jewish community
In a typical year, members of the Jewish community would’ve dressed up and assembled Friday night at the local temple for two days of services with friends, family and fellow congregants to mark the start of the High Holy Days. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 2020 are different. Congregations...
Westmoreland Transit hopes to boost rebound with extended hours, trips
Two hours of local bus service on Westmoreland County Transit Authority routes will be added in early October as the struggling agency seeks to rebound from massive losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec said final details on the expanded service will be released as early...
Group home for former mental health patients approved in Greensburg
Plans to convert a Greensburg mansion into a group home for former mental health patients at Torrance State Hospital was approved this week over objections from neighbors who claimed the project could lower nearby property values. The city’s zoning hearing board voted to grant a special exception that clears the...
Jurors find Scottdale man guilty of raping girl
A Westmoreland County jury on Thursday rejected a Scottdale man’s claims that his physical limitations prevented him from having sexual activity and rendered him unable to have repeatedly raped a young girl. Dylan Chiaramonte, 27, was convicted of rape of a child, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated...
Westmoreland Manor staff to be tested for coronavirus
All staff at Westmoreland Manor will again be tested for coronavirus. Commissioners on Thursday cut a deal with Excela Health to test the staff of the county owned nursing home in Hempfield as part of a federal mandate put in place this week. The county will pay Excela $105 per...
Head of Pittsburgh area gambling ring, son, plead guilty to running numbers
The 90-year-old patriarch of a Pittsburgh family connected to gambling operations in Western Pennsylvania for more than a half century agreed to pay $300,000 to resolve charges the family operated a sports betting and numbers running business dating back to 1994. Robert “Bobby I” Iannelli, of Pittsburgh, along with his...
Trial starts in Penn Township attempted murder case from 2016
Jury selection started Wednesday in the attempted murder trial of a Penn Township man accused of firing a rifle at police who responded to a domestic call at his home more than four years ago. The case against Jody Martz, 56, was delayed for years as attorneys argued a series...
Westmoreland libraries to provide free Wi-Fi outside buildings through covid relief money
Westmoreland libraries will provide around the clock free Wi-Fi as part of a program that county officials said will help to ensure residents have expanded access to the internet. A $145,000 grant will be made to the Westmoreland County Federated Library System to install equipment that will broadcast hotspots for...
In-person visits resume at Westmoreland Manor
Westmoreland officials said Tuesday that in-person visits with residents at the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield have restarted. Visitation of residents at Westmoreland Manor initially was suspended in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and briefly restarted on a modified basis in late July before being again put...
Woman in prison for threatening to kill Westmoreland judge pleads guilty to doing it again
A woman already serving up to four years in prison for threatening to kill a Westmoreland County judge two years ago pleaded guilty Tuesday to again issuing a similar threat to the same judge last year. Rebecca Elizabeth Gardner, 31, is expected to be sentenced this year under terms of...
Prosecutor: Scottdale man’s control enabled sexual assault of girl
A Westmoreland County prosecutor told jurors Monday that repeated and sometimes daily sexual assaults against a young girl was about control. Assistant District Attorney Kelly Hammers in an opening statement in the rape trial of a Scottdale man accused of molestation and sexual assaults said the abused started in May...
Westmoreland County holds annual sale of tax delinquent property – pandemic styleVideo
Donna Oesterling sat comfortably Monday morning in a camp chair outside Science Hall on the Westmoreland County Community College campus to wait for her neighboring property in North Huntingdon to come up for bid as part of the county’s sale of tax delinquent property. “We lived there for 30 years...
Westmoreland leads region in fatal overdose prosecutions
Carmen Capozzi knows all too well the horrors associated with drug addiction. For three days in 2015, he sat quietly in a Westmoreland County courtroom and watched the trial of a Wilkinsburg man charged with selling his 20-year-old son a fatal dose of heroin three years earlier. Capozzi’s silence ended...
Westmoreland tax delinquent property sale expected to be very different this year
Hundreds of tax delinquent properties could be auctioned off Monday as part of Westmoreland County’s annual sale, but this year’s event will look different in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. The tax sale will be conducted at Science Innovation Center Theater in Science Hall on the Youngwood campus of...
Butler woman charged in Arnold homicide last summer denied bail
A Butler woman charged with second-degree murder in connection with an Armstrong County man’s killing last year in Arnold was denied bail Thursday by a Westmoreland County judge. Bailey Ann Hines, 25, has been in jail since her arrest following the June 28, 2019, fatal shooting of Gregory Ray Wynkoop,...
Appeals court upholds conviction of former state trooper from Plum
A former Pennsylvania State Police trooper’s appeal of his conviction for assaulting and threatening his wife was denied Thursday. A three-judge panel of the state’s Superior Court upheld the guilty verdicts issued by an Allegheny County judge against Scott Richard Mang, 34, on charges of simple assault and making terroristic...
Greensburg man headed to jail for shooting into neighbors’ homes
A former Greensburg man will serve at least 20 months in jail for firing a rifle into the homes of two neighbors last year. Joshua Dowell Miller, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and a misdemeanor reckless endangerment count in...
Westmoreland provisional ballots discovered after primary won’t be countedVideo
Seven provisional ballots submitted at a Unity poll during the June primary and discovered this summer won’t be counted. Westmoreland County officials rejected those ballots Wednesday after they were formally opened by a reconstituted provisional board. The ballots were found to have been improperly handled at the polls when they...
Judge declines to lower bond for Monessen woman charged with attempted murder
A Westmoreland County judge on Tuesday rejected a bond request from a Monessen woman awaiting trial for the attempted murder of a neighbor. Tiffany Grogan-Howard, 38, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in connection with a Nov. 25 incident in which police contend she stabbed her...
Jeannette inmate gets more time for trying to smuggle drugs into Westmoreland jail
A Jeannette man will serve up to 23 months in jail for an attempt last year to smuggle drugs into the Westmoreland County Prison. Adam Brandonio, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, drug counts and other offenses in connection with an incident police described as a sting operation at a...
Westmoreland County looks to fight ‘brain drain’ caused by department head resignations
Westmoreland County lost five of its top administrators this year through resignations and retirements, creating what one official called a “brain drain” in local government. The latest to leave was Amanda Bernard, who resigned as the county’s human resources director in late August to take a similar job with a...
Westmoreland County hiring poll workers to handle heavy expected voter turnout
Westmoreland County will hire as many as 1,800 poll workers for election day. Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said recruiting has been underway for the last several weeks to have each of the county’s 307 voting precincts fully staffed on Nov. 3. “We’re going to take as many poll workers...
Westmoreland controller’s office to put audits online
For the first time, audits from the Westmoreland County Controller’s Office are available online. Controller Jeffrey Balzer said financial reports compiled by his staff will be made public, a departure from past practices that required formal requests under the state’s open records laws to review the department findings. “I have...
Dems blast Trump policies, ‘chaos’ ahead of president’s Westmoreland County rally
Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli on Thursday issued a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump ahead of his visit to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. “To put it simply, Donald Trump is simply not up for this job. Pennsylvanians have suffered at the hands of a weak and incompetent...
Westmoreland outsources mailing of ballots, calibration of voting machines
Westmoreland County will spend an additional $350,000 to beef up its ability to hold an election and count votes this fall. Commissioners on Wednesday approved a contract with a private mailing company in Cleveland to send ballots to voters, and finalized a deal with the Nebraska-based firm to test touch-screen...
