Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1062
Arnold Palmer airport offers PreCheck appointments, saw fewer passengers in August
Passengers who want to sign up for the Transportation Security Administration PreCheck program can make an appointment to enroll through Friday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, said Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority. Those enrolled in the program can bypass some of the time-consuming steps at...
Pittsburgh police, FBI investigate threats to city churches
Pittsburgh police and the FBI have launched a joint investigation to determine if there are any links between two threats to city churches last Sunday. St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church in Greenfield was evacuated after a man called 911 and threatened to harm himself and others at the church,...
Peduto proposes changes to parking rules for restaurants
Fewer people in Pittsburgh are driving their cars to restaurants, with more preferring to walk or bike instead. With that in mind, Mayor Bill Peduto is proposing sweeping changes to zoning laws requiring minimum parking and other stipulations for restaurant owners. They include requiring any individual or company proposing a...
Gov. Wolf’s coronavirus business waiver program was flawed, secretive, Pa. auditor says
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 — The Wolf administration’s controversial waiver program allowing businesses to remain open during the early months of the pandemic was...
Pa. officials: 94% of covid cases were in unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated people
The “vast majority” of covid-19 related cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Pennsylvania since January have been among unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated individuals, according to Department of Health data released Tuesday So-called “breakthrough” covid-19 infections — those that occur 14 days after an individual has received either two doses of...
‘Saturday Night Live’ comedian Norm Macdonald dead at 61 after battle with cancer
Norm Macdonald, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member best known as the host of Weekend Update, died Tuesday. He was 61. Macdonald succumbed to a nine-year cancer battle that he kept private, his management team told Deadline. “He was most proud of his comedy,” producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra told...
Covid-19 cases in U.S. climbing, wiping out months of progress
Covid-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to where they were over the winter, wiping out months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for sweeping new vaccination requirements. The cases — driven by the delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting...
Free rides take $104M toll on Pennsylvania Turnpike finances
CARLISLE — More than $104 million in Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls went uncollected last year as the agency fully converted to all-electronic tolling, with the millions of motorists who don’t use E-ZPass having a nearly 1 in 2 chance of riding without paying under the “toll-by-plate” license plate camera system. An...
Fatal shooting victim in McKeesport was daughter of former Penn State football star
A woman shot and killed in McKeesport has been identified as the daughter of a former Penn State University and NFL linebacker. Police found Karli Short, 26, dead with a gunshot wound to her head in McKeesport Monday morning. Short’s father, Brandon Short, played football at McKeesport Area High School...
Nicholas makes landfall in Texas as hurricane; dumps rain along Gulf Coast
HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas hit the Texas coast early Tuesday as a hurricane and dumped more than a foot of rain along the the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, drenching storm-battered Louisiana and bringing the potential for life-threatening flash floods across the Deep South. Nicholas made...
Va. couple wanted for questioning in disappearance of 3-year-old girl arrested in South Greensburg
A couple wanted by Virginia authorities for questioning in connection with the disappearance of a 3-year-old girl was arrested in a South Greensburg motel Sunday for having “two large rocks of methamphetamine” and multiple checks investigators say were stolen in Virginia, according to court documents. However, when state troopers and...
Public’s help sought in finding Ligonier burglars
Ligonier Valley police are asking the public’s help after a pair of businesses along Route 30 in Ligonier were burglarized early Saturday. Chief John E. Berger said officers responding to an alarm at Rick’s Tobacco Outlet at 2:28 a.m. found the drive-thru window had been forced open and broken. Once...
ShotSpotter alert lead Pittsburgh police to shooting in Homewood
A man was seriously injured late Monday after being shot in his lower back in Homewood, according to Pittsburgh police. Officers from the city’s Zone 5 station found the victim after responding to a ShotSpotter gunfire alert for the 7100 block of Frankstown Avenue around 10:55 p.m. The man who...
Volunteers needed as Garbage Olympics returns to Pittsburgh
It’s an Olympic year in more ways than one. The City of Pittsburgh is holding its annual Garbage Olympics on Saturday, a citywide cleanup event the Department of Public Works bills as a “competitive litter pick-up event.” More than 40 Pittsburgh neighborhood teams are being pitted against one another to...
Police: Man in critical condition after being shot in Mt. Washington Monday evening
A man was hospitalized in critical condition after being shot in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood Monday night. Public Safety spokesperson Maurice Matthews said officers responded to a 911 call for the shooting around 8:30 p.m. along the 200 block of Jasper Street. Police encountered a 20-year-old man suffering from a...
Secretary of State Blinken defends Afghanistan withdrawal at congressional hearingVideo
WASHINGTON — Facing often-hostile questioning by some Republican lawmakers Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken vigorously defended his department’s handling of the massive, if incomplete, evacuation from Afghanistan of U.S. citizens, green card holders and other at-risk Afghans. The top U.S. diplomat testified in the administration’s first public congressional...
Apple fixes security hole reportedly used to hack an iPhone
BOSTON — Apple released a critical software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action. Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said the security issue was exploited to plant spyware on a...
New Kensington, Arnold go on camera for filming of streaming series ‘Sprung’
Keith Spruill enjoyed getting a look behind the scenes of the production of a television series Monday as filming for Amazon Studios’ “Sprung” was underway in New Kensington. “This could be the new Hollywood,” he said. “That’s what I’m hoping for, at least.” Spruill is the maintenance supervisor at Valley...
Westmoreland tax delinquent property sale nets $1.5 million
Bryaunt Williams came to bid. Williams, a contractor from Tarentum, was one of the more than 160 potential buyers who came to the Westmoreland County Courthouse on Monday to find a deal during the annual sale of tax delinquent properties. “I was doing remodeling work on a home last year,...
Most people don’t need covid vaccine booster, scientists say
Covid-19 vaccines work so well that most people don’t yet need a booster, an all-star panel of scientists from around the world said in a review that’s likely to fuel the debate over whether to use them. Governments would be better served to focus on immunizing the unvaccinated and to...
Westmoreland Commissioner Chew pledges to cover lost drug court grant for weekend testing
Westmoreland Commissioner Doug Chew said he will pay for weekend drug tests of participants in the county’s drug court program until a permanent funding source is secured. In an email sent to county judges over the weekend, the first-term Republican from Hempfield pledged to help identify future funding sources for...
Nicholas gets stronger, threatens to hit Texas as hurricaneVideo
HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 20 inches of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana. Although the system was...
Veronica Wolski, Chicago woman at the center of ivermectin firestorm, dies
CHICAGO — Veronica Wolski, the QAnon adherent whose recent hospitalization made her a cause célèbre for the controversial medication ivermectin, died in the intensive care unit of AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center early Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said. She was 64. Wolski’s social media followers said she was being treated...
Wolf administration ordered to reveal details of cannabis use as drug addiction treatment
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 — The public could soon know for the first time how many patients use medical marijuana to treat opioid use...
Expiring covid-19 waivers could make Pa. health-care staffing shortages worse
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 — Regulatory waivers established last year to help hospitals and health-care workers fight covid-19 will expire this month, and those...
