Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1067
Overwhelmed morgues belie U.S. illusion of a defanged pandemicVideo
The fast-spreading delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many covid-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen. This harsh reality, likely fueled by a...
The coming crisis in dementia care and why Pa. is woefully unprepared
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. Pat Loughney was sleep-deprived and panicked as he dug a partially eaten bar of medicated soap from his wife’s mouth in...
Greater Latrobe, Derry Area students plan walkouts to protest mask mandate
Some students at Greater Latrobe and Derry Area high schools are planning walkouts Tuesday morning to protest the statewide mandate requiring students, staff and teachers in K-12 schools to wear masks. Greater Latrobe organizer Spencer Bowman, a 17-year-old senior, said he hopes the school board will vote to buck the...
Burtner House marks 200th anniversary with free community celebration
Philip Burtner laid the cornerstone for his family homestead in 1818. James Monroe was president. It would be at least two decades before indoor plumbing was invented, and decades more would pass before homes had electricity. The three-story Burtner House in Harrison was completed in 1821 and life continued there...
First responders nationwide resist covid vaccine mandates
March 11, 2021. It was supposed to be a turning point in the coronavirus pandemic for Erin Tokley, a longtime Philadelphia police officer, Baptist minister and 47-year-old father of three. It was supposed to be the day of his vaccine appointment. Instead it was the date of his funeral. Tokley...
Ex-Marine held without bond in shooting of Florida family
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former Marine sharpshooter who told authorities he was high on methamphetamines when he invaded a home in Florida and fatally shot a mother, her 3-month-old baby and two others was ordered held without bond during his first court appearance on Monday. Bryan Riley, 33, also...
After unrelenting summer, Biden looks to get agenda on track
WASHINGTON — The collapse of the Afghan government, a surge of covid-19 cases caused by the delta variant, devastating weather events, a disappointing jobs report. What next? After a torrent of crises, President Joe Biden is hoping to turn the page on an unrelenting summer and refocus his presidency this...
Hurricane Ida shows need for big infrastructure spending, White House adviser says
The devastation caused by Hurricane Ida shows the need for President Joe Biden’s sweeping infrastructure plans, a top White House aide said on Sunday. The sweeping $3.5 trillion infrastructure package being finalized by Democratic lawmakers will make critical investments in building resilience, shoring up the nation’s power grid and battling...
After covid hiatus in 2020, Labor United returns to Northmoreland ParkVideo
The skies were gray and the ground was a bit muddy on Sunday, but the Labor United Celebration is back. After being canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, the two-day Labor Day festival got underway Sunday at Northmoreland Park in Allegheny Township. It concludes today. The festival features food,...
48 people shot over 37 hours in Chicago
CHICAGO — At least 10 children and teenagers were among the 48 shot in Chicago over the weekend through Sunday morning, according to information provided by police. The youngest child shot was a 4-year-old boy who was in critical condition after gunfire from outside went through the window of his...
Western Pa. business owners lament: Where have all the workers gone?Video
Rod Darby has a great location for The Trailside Pub & Restaurant, overlooking the Youghiogheny River in West Newton. Diners can sit on the deck watching hikers, bikers and runners travel the Great Allegheny Passage, the popular trail connecting Pittsburgh with Washington, D.C. Attracting customers to his business has not...
Fauci says covid-19 boosters likely to start with Pfizer shot only
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said U.S. booster shots against covid-19 are likely to start only with the vaccine by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, while the Moderna Inc. shot may be delayed. “The bottom line is very likely at least part of the plan will be...
Hospitals in crisis in least vaccinated state: Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. — As patients stream into Mississippi hospitals one after another, doctors and nurses have become all too accustomed to the rampant denial and misinformation about covid-19 in the nation’s least vaccinated state. People in denial about the severity of their own illness or the virus itself, with visitors...
Blind woman, 90, from Fawn receives Communion wearing the white dress she never had as a child
As Margaret “Peggy” Muriel Drinkwater Clink tried on the dress, she asked her daughter what color it was. “It’s white,” said Kim Griffith. “We want you to wear the white Communion dress you never had.” Clink inquired about the hue because she is blind. “My daughter said, ‘Mom, try this...
Demolition begins in downtown GreensburgVideo
With the push and pull of a 25-foot claw attached to heavy equipment stationed on South Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg, workers started the laborious task of bringing down a dilapidated former restaurant building Sunday morning. The three-story building that once housed the former Derby’s Delicatessen but has been vacant for...
2 anchors of covid safety net ending, affecting millions
WASHINGTON — Mary Taboniar went 15 months without a paycheck, thanks to the covid pandemic. A housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, the single mother of two saw her income completely vanish as the virus devastated the hospitality industry. For more than a year, Taboniar depended entirely...
Police: Wrong-way crash in Fort Pitt Tunnel critically injures 1
A 36-year-old man was in critical condition after state police said his vehicle was hit head-on by another traveling the wrong way through the Fort Pitt tunnel. State police said Maraye Ann Alexander, 21, was driving a Toyota Camry when she entered eastbound I-376 from an unknown location and began...
Origin story of the Texas law that could upend Roe v. Wade
The road to a Texas law that bans most abortions in the state, sidestepping for now the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, began in a town called Waskom, population 1,600. The Supreme Court’s decision this past week not to interfere with the state’s strict abortion law, provoked...
Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after covid
Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks. “It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the...
Biden to mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 at 3 memorial sites
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day. Biden will visit ground zero in New York City, the Pentagon and the memorial outside Shanksville,...
Westmoreland pension fund at all-time high with $675 million banked
Stock market advances and a cash infusion pushed Westmoreland County’s pension fund to a record level, with more than $675 million socked away to pay benefits for the county’s 1,400 retirees. Proceeds from a $126 million bond purchase this summer hit the pension fund in August, a move county officials said...
Experts: UPMC’s reputation is safe despite federal false billing allegations
UPMC likely will not be significantly impacted by news this week that the U.S. Attorney’s office is suing the health system and its head of cardiothoracic surgery, according to experts in health care marketing. On Thursday, the federal government filed a civil action against Dr. James Luketich and UPMC, alleging...
Alle-Kiski Valley employers across all business sectors looking for workers, employment agency says
PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski said Friday it has received more than 300 job postings in the past month. “Jobs are available from virtually every business sector,” said Phil Grove, account representative for PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski. Jobs range from ones for which applicants need no previous experience to ones requiring advanced degrees,...
Trafford man dies in motorcycle crash
The Westmoreland County Coroner’s office has released the identity of a man killed early Saturday in a motorcycle crash on Mt. Pleasant Road in Hempfield Township. The coroner’s office said Tanner B. Van Woundenberg, 19, of Trafford was headed north on Mt. Pleasant Road on a 2008 Yamaha motorcycle when,...
‘Where the plane went down’: Shanksville remains small, quiet, but forever connected to 9/11 and United Flight 93Video
When someone from Shanksville travels and is asked where they’re from, the question typically gets answered with a generality: “Pittsburgh” — even if they hail from about 80 miles east, in Somerset County. If pressed, they get more specific. Shanksville. Where is that? “Where the plane went down,” said Robin...
