Western PA Local News category, Page 1569
Cold temperatures, Ligonier Diamond provide perfect setting for icy menagerie
Visitors flocked to Ligonier on Saturday to admire a pair of giant chickens and 59 other figures sculpted from ice. After a bone-chilling night, temperatures rose into the 30s by mid-morning, making ideal conditions for viewing the town’s 31st annual Ice Fest. Although the sun was out in full force...
Delmont Diggers group to hold ‘seed swap’ at library
Louisa Fordyce of Loyalhanna is interested in attracting pollinators, both to her own garden and to the perennial pollinator garden maintained by the Delmont Public Library. So she was very excited to learn about tithonia, an annual plant also called the Mexican sunflower. “It comes in all different shades of...
Blaze at Penn Hills apartments displaces dozens, donations being accepted
Dozens of residents were displaced by a fire early Saturday at the Rodi Arms apartments in Penn Hills. Officials told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV no one was injured in the blaze that began as a kitchen fire shortly after midnight and spread to the attic of the three-story building in...
2nd handgun found in just over a week at Pittsburgh International Airport
Allegheny County police confiscated a loaded handgun found in a passenger’s possession Saturday morning at Pittsburgh International Airport’s main security checkpoint. Transportation Security Administration officers spotted the 9mm handgun just before 6 a.m. in a backpack belonging to a 23-year-old man, according to police. The man had a valid concealed...
Victim identified in fatal Avalon shooting, Hopewell man charged with homicide
Allegheny County police have arrested a Hopewell man in the shooting death of a man early Saturday in Avalon. Samuel Lee Tolfa, 32, is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, carrying a firearm without a license and fleeing police. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the victim as Jorden...
Burnin’ love: Wood-fired pizza at Gus Franco’s of Lower Burrell is hot itemVideo
Orders at Gus Franco’s Pizza should be made in advance because the artisan pies are hot — real hot. Boasting a top-of-the-line, wood-fired pizza oven from Italy, Gus Franco’s sizzles dough with an air temperature reaching 900 degrees, which is more than 100 degrees higher than many commercial pizza ovens....
New Esports venue opening in Bridgeville
Calling it a large investment into STEM education as well as Scholastic Esports, Phoenix Theatres Luxury 14 + PTX (Phoenix Theatre’s Extreme Cinema) in Bridgeville is putting in an Esports venue and hosting a tournament for high school students on Feb, 5. Esports are multi-player video games played competitively for...
Greensburg woman hand-paints Marine Corps tribute on ‘World of Wheels’ motorcycle
Building a custom motorcycle is one thing. Building one that honors one’s brothers in arms is another. At the 60th annual World of Wheels custom car show this weekend at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Todd Keyser of Ligonier is showing off his custom Harley, hand-painted with reminders of...
The Stroller, Jan. 22, 2022: Events in the Alle-Kiski Valley
Publicize your events, club meetings and fundraisers for free in The Stroller. Send information at least a week in advance to vndnews@triblive.com. Please include a daytime telephone number. Winter market planned today in Tarentum Organizers of the Tarentum Night Market events will host a winter market from 10 a.m. to...
Pittsburgh’s Ukrainian community keeps nervous watch as Russia threatens invasion of homeland
The Rev. Timothy Tomson, whose grandparents are from Ukraine, is among those in the Pittsburgh area with Ukrainian roots watching warily as fears of a Russian invasion continue. Tomson is vice president of the Ukrainian Community of Western Pennsylvania, which he helped found in 2009, and pastor of St. Mary...
Lenny Calderone remembered as beloved ‘ambassador’ of Vandergrift
Leonard Rocco “Lenny” Calderone, a Vandergrift native known for intense pride in his hometown, died on Sunday. His sister, Elizabeth Calderone, said he died suddenly at home from a heart attack. He was 78. While Calderone never held a position in local government, he was widely considered the unofficial ambassador...
AHN patients possible victims of data breach
The data of Allegheny Health Network Home Infusion (AHNHI) patients may have been improperly accessed after the data breach of a vendor, officials said Friday. Vantage Healthcare Network, Inc., a vendor of Pittsburgh-based AHNHI, was the victim of a ransomware cyber-attack in October. AHNHI is now in the process of...
Westmoreland sheriff’s department sergeant testifies fugitive attempted to grab gun during struggle
A Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Department sergeant testified Friday that a fugitive repeatedly tried to grab his gun as the pair struggled on the floor of a St. Clair Township mobile home where the man was found hiding last month. Sgt. Irvin Shipley testified that a search team of four sheriff’s...
Federal judge rejects request to reinstate universal masking in Upper St. Clair School District
A federal judge Friday afternoon denied a request by parents suing the Upper Saint Clair School District to reinstitute a mandatory masking policy. In a 32-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Williams S. Stickman said that the families of five medically fragile children in the district who sought the temporary restraining...
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO gets raise, $184K bonus
The Allegheny County Airport Authority board on Friday granted a major pay raise and bonus for CEO Christina Cassotis. The board unanimously voted to give Cassotis a 23% salary increase over what she was expected to earn in 2022, bringing her annual salary this year to $534,000. She also was...
Hempfield ice fisherman says of pursuit: ‘It’s addictive’
On a bitter cold day when most people would rather be inside, Ryan Parker of Hempfield not only wants to be in the elements, but he patiently sits out in them. Parker is one of that breed of angler who do not put away their rod and reel when winter...
Norwin teacher, husband in court over participation in ‘Frozen Jr.’ performance
Lawyers for a Norwin middle school teacher and her husband on trial for charges they did not comply with child safety laws told a Westmoreland County jury on Friday no crimes were committed. Tobitha Sasso, 42, and Brad Geyer, 39, both of Greensburg are on trial for misdemeanor charges related...
Former football coach Eric Kasperowicz drops lawsuit against Pine-Richland, hopes to reclaim job
Former Pine-Richland football coach Eric Kasperowicz is dropping his defamation lawsuit against the school district and its administrators in hopes of reclaiming his coaching job. Kasperowicz in August filed a federal lawsuit against the district and several top officials claiming they damaged his reputation by publicly accusing him of knowing...
Pa. covid-19 data follows recent trends in South Africa, U.K., but hospitals remain busy
While Allegheny County’s numbers still are headed in the wrong direction, covid-19 figures posted throughout Pennsylvania are in line with predictions that the U.S. could be nearing the downward curve of the recent surge brought on by the omicron variant. In Allegheny, the weeklong average in hospitalizations is up about...
Police continue search for suspects in killing of Pittsburgh high school studentVideo
Police on Friday continued to search for two suspects connected to the killing of a 15-year-old waiting in a school van in Pittsburgh. Marquis Campbell was sitting in the van waiting to go home after school about 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday outside Oliver Citywide Academy. The school, in Marshall-Shadeland, is...
Hempfield’s covid numbers higher because its tracker covers 14-day period
Despite more than 180 cases being reported on the Hempfield Area School District’s covid tracker, a large number of students and staff who make up those cases could already be back in school after new quarantine guidelines were released last month. The tracker covers a 14-day rolling period and reflects...
Frigid temps don’t stop outside work, though some escape to sunny Florida
Mother Nature threw a bit of shade over Western Pennsylvania early Friday, with cloud cover warming up temperatures to a balmy 8 to 12 degrees in most places – well above what was expected to be closer to zero. “If we would have stayed clear last night with the snow...
‘SignTasTic!,’ game show featuring sign language, filming in Pittsburgh
A unique new game show aiming to raise awareness about American Sign Language and the deaf community is being filmed in Pittsburgh. Each episode of the show, dubbed “SignTasTic!,” features two contestants who have to learn 50 sign language words before the show. The show then tests how well they’ve...
Court won’t force Pittsburgh to turn over taser death report to DA’s office
An Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge has denied a motion by the district attorney’s office to force the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police to turn over an internal report examining the October death of Jim Rogers. The DA’s office initially asked the city to produce the 15-page executive summary of...
Kentucky firm to dismantle Cheswick Generating Station for potential redevelopment
The Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale Borough, slated to close on April 1 after more than 50 years of operation, has been purchased by a Kentucky firm that specializes in remediation of coal-fired power stations. Charah Solutions, based in Louisville, said Thursday it will dismantle the plant and potentially use...
