Editor's Picks category, Page 294

The 2020 Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies was closed to the public Sunday in Cecil Township, but the media was allowed to document the ceremony while abiding by social distancing guidelines because of the coronavirus pandemic....

SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Johnson hadn’t owned a bicycle since he was 15, but the pandemic changed all that. Johnson first bought a multipurpose bike to avoid the germs on crowded buses and trains but then discovered a passion for pedaling around San Francisco, where some streets are now closed...

Rob Domenick has become a magnet for war honor rolls. He knows all the right places to look, scouring Pennsylvania communities for memorials small and large to help with a national American Legion project. “You have to look for the right kind of community,” said Domenick of Hempfield. “Little places,...

Visitor restrictions at hospitals during the covid-19 pandemic have caused a lot of angst, said a nurse at Jefferson Hospital. “Family is a person’s support system,” said Irma D’Antonio, manager of nursing quality and patient experience at Allegheny Health Network’s Jefferson Hospital. That’s why she and her colleagues created “Connection...

Have you been missing something amid the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders? No, not human contact. Not even toilet paper. Robocalls. Industry experts say robocalls are way down — scam calls as well as nagging from your credit-card company to pay your bill. The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted millions of job...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Universal Orlando is aiming to reopen its theme parks in early June, a resort official said Thursday, more than two months after the company joined crosstown rivals Disney World and SeaWorld in closing their gates to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Universal Orlando executive John...

For those craving a burnt almond torte during quarantine, Prantl’s Bakery is back. The famous bakery’s three locations have been closed since mid-March in the coronavirus shutdown, though some products were still available for delivery via online orders. Now customers can once again walk into the Greensburg and Shadyside locations...

Two Western Pennsylvania distilleries have teamed with the state to make hand sanitizer, alongside their drinkable spirits. Glenshaw’s Pennsylvania Pure Distilleries, home of Boyd & Blair Vodka and BLY Silver Rum, and Quantum Spirits in Carnegie, known for its rye whiskey, vodka and gin, are part of a project coordinated...

Bartenders began whipping up mixed drinks Thursday afternoon at Mogie’s Irish Pub as soon as they learned Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law allowing cocktail to-go sales during the pandemic-spurred restrictions. Craig Licata, who lives nearby the Lower Burrell bar, picked up two plastic foam cups of Long...

Time flies when you’re rockin’ the house. The 40th anniversary of “Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive),” the second album from Joe Grushecky and the Iron City Houserockers, is being celebrated with a deluxe, expanded reissue. The reissue will include remastered original tracks and previously unreleased tracks of...

I only wanted to be a cashier. Now I’m deemed essential. So I work, exhausted, on the “front lines,” praying I won’t bring covid-19 home. I only wanted to be a cashier. Now I must enforce social distancing. “Can you please step back?” I only wanted to be a cashier....

NEW YORK — For several years, the slogan “Release the Snyder cut” has reverberated online as a rallying cry both genuine and ironic — a “Vive la revolution” for comic book movie fans. On Wednesday, they finally got their wish. Warner Bros. Pictures announced that a director’s cut of Zack...

The Weeknd will have to wait until next year. The Toronto native announced Wednesday that his “After Hours” tour, which included a June 26 stop at PPG Paints Arena, has been rescheduled. The Grammy-winning artist will now head out on tour in summer 2021. see you when it’s safe ?...

A pandemic can’t stop WDVE’s Memorial Day 500. The massive music countdown of the top 500 rock tunes of all time begins at 1 p.m. Friday and ends around 6 p.m. Monday, said John Moschitta, program director for WDVE/WXDX iHeartMedia Pittsburgh. (Update: The countdown began at No. 500 with “Everlong”...

With libraries in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties closed since mid-March to stem the spread of the coronavirus, more patrons are using the electronic resources — books, audiobooks, movies and music, a trend that likely will continue when they reopen, library officials and library directors say. “There has been a significant...

As some churches prepare to open, two Pennsylvania lawmakers want to prevent the state from restricting religious gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic or any future emergency. State Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Westmoreland, said religious leaders have been confused about whether churches are affected by state-mandated coronavirus shutdowns. “Our religious community is...

Ben Roethlisberger’s visit to a barbershop wasn’t enough to make Tom Wolf pull his hair out, but Pennsylvania’s governor wasn’t pleased the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback violated the state’s yellow phase reopening after the coronavirus shutdown. During his daily press briefing Tuesday, Gov. Wolf criticized Roethlisberger’s decision to get a haircut...

Four new U.S. citizens were welcomed Tuesday morning in a large, mostly empty room on the sixth floor of a building in Wilkins Township. The newly minted citizens all wore face masks. They sat in chairs spaced six feet apart. There were no friends. There were no families. After taking...