Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1115
DA Peck takes over Cassandra Gross case, says missing Unity woman ‘has not been forgotten’
Kathe Gross sat on a bench outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse surrounded by friends and family, as passing cars honked in support. Despite the outpouring of support from her closest relatives, she couldn’t help but be painfully reminded of the one family member who was missing — her only daughter,...
How Indiana Normal School dropout Nellie Bly became the world’s best-known woman
INDIANA — When Nellie Bly completed her globe-circling journey in 1890, the New York World hailed the intrepid journalist as “the best-known and most widely talked-of young woman on earth today.” But had she not dropped out of Indiana Normal School a decade before, no one would have ever heard...
Westmoreland struggles to give away pandemic cash grants to bars, restaurants, hotels
Like many in the hospitality industry, it was a rough year for Brady’s. The family-owned Acme restaurant that has operated in the Laurel Highlands since 1964 was closed for a while during the pandemic lockdown last year and has operated under pandemic restrictions for most of the latter part of...
Body found in Ohio River ID’d as South Side man who went missing 5 months ago
A body found in the Ohio River earlier this week was identified Friday as a man who went missing in Pittsburgh’s South Side in January. William Casale, 62, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. Monday in Kilbuck, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office reports. His body was pulled from the...
Suspect charged in fatal shooting of 17-year-old boy in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood
A teen was arrested and charged with homicide in connection to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy last month in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood, officials said Friday. Clinton Miller, 18, was booked at Allegheny County Jail on homicide and gun charges, court records show. Miller was found and detained by...
Pitt recommending but not requiring covid-19 vaccine
The University of Pittsburgh is encouraging students and staff to be vaccinated against covid-19, but the school won’t require vaccination. In a Board of Trustees meeting Friday morning, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher announced the university will not mandate vaccines, also acknowledging having an unvaccinated population on campus “will complicate our responsibility...
Fairfield man jailed; police say he stomped on woman’s head while wearing steel-toed boots
A Fairfield man is being held without bond after state police say he stomped on a woman’s head after a Christmas dinner last year, according to court papers. Zachery Allen Collier, 26, was charged Friday with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, stalking and related offenses. Troopers said Collier went to a...
Penn-Trafford linebacker raises money for police department in final season
Penn-Trafford linebacker Jack Jollie has been playing football for eight years, but his focus extends beyond the field in his final season with the Warriors. To give back to the community, the rising senior is gathering sponsors to donate money for each tackle he makes this season. The funds will...
Republican lawmakers send Wolf election bill he’s vowed to veto
HARRISBURG — A bill to require voter ID and make a host of other changes to Pennsylvania election law passed the state Senate on Friday on party lines and is on its way to the Democratic governor, who plans to veto it. Senators voted on party lines, 29-21, for the...
Congregation asks new U.S. Attorney General to strike plea deal with accused synagogue shooter
Leaders of Dor Hadash, one of three Jewish congregations that lost members during the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue, have again asked the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to strike a plea deal with gunman Robert Bowers, a move they say will offer justice that falls in line with...
Driver crashes through fence onto Los Angeles airport
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles International Airport police are investigating a driver who drove through a fence and onto the airfield. The intrusion forced a sudden closure of some of the runways Thursday evening, authorities said. A statement by the Los Angeles Airport Police Division said the car went through...
TSA: West Virginia man ‘forgot’ he had loaded gun in baby stroller at Palmer airport
A West Virginia man told Transportation Safety Administration agents he forgot to remove a loaded handgun from his child’s baby stroller when he brought it through a security checkpoint Thursday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. “Our TSA officers physically inspect strollers when they are too large to sit...
Rescuers focus on detecting sounds of survivors in rubble of Miami-area condo collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Search and rescue teams worked through the night, encountering rainstorms and small fires in the rubble, hoping to detect any sounds coming from survivors following the collapse of a beachside condominium complex near Miami. The crews, which include some 130 firefighters working in teams, are approaching the...
Crash delays reopening of Tarentum Bridge
The Tarentum Bridge from New Kensington to Tarentum is expected to reopen at 6 a.m. Monday, PennDOT announced Friday. That side of the bridge over the Allegheny River was scheduled to reopen by midnight Sunday. The reopening was delayed after a car crashed in the work zone last Saturday and...
Pennsylvania mask mandate ends Monday
Pennsylvanians can go maskless starting next week unless it is required by the business or building they’re in. The state mask mandate will expire at 12:01 a.m. Monday as promised, Department of Health officials said Friday. “We are continuing to make progress toward stopping the spread of covid-19 throughout the...
Derek Chauvin gets 22 1/2 years in prison for George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced Friday to 22 1/2 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, whose dying gasps under Chauvin’s knee led to the biggest outcry against racial injustice in the U.S. in generations. The punishment — which came after Chauvin broke...
Death toll in South Florida condo collapse rises to 4; 159 still missing
SURFSIDE, Fla. — About 160 people were still unaccounted for Friday a day after an oceanside condominium building collapsed into a pile of rubble, and searchers combing through a twisted, shifting pile of concrete and metal feared the death toll of at least four could go much higher. With scores...
Mike Pence: Idea of overturning election results is ‘un-American’
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Former Vice President Mike Pence has defended his role in certifying the results of the 2020 election, saying he’s “proud” of what he did on Jan. 6 and declaring there’s “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American...
On border tour, VP Kamala Harris cites ‘progress’ in ‘tough’ situation
EL PASO, Texas — Vice President Kamala Harris asserted Friday that the Biden administration had made progress tackling a migration spike that’s drawn fire from Republicans and made fellow Democrats uncomfortable. Her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as head of the Biden administration’s response is being closely watched on...
5 things to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: June 25-27
It’s the final weekend of June. Here are some ideas on how to spend it. Carrie Blast Drive-in Carrie Carpool Cinema at the Carrie Blast Furnaces will host baseball films this weekend. “A League of Their Own,” about women’s professional baseball, is being shown at 9:30 p.m. on Friday. “The...
Kiski Township explores regulations on exotic petsVideo
Kiski Township’s Dominic Hayward dotes on his pet alligators Diamond, Diva, Gisele, Ruby, Rebel, Chevelle, Speckles, Thor, Loki and Reece. A lover of alligators since he was a child, Hayward, 24, is as passionate about his gators as anyone with more traditional pets such as a German shepherd or labradoodle....
Stalemate breaks on mixed drinks to go for Pennsylvania bars, restaurants
It looks as if Pennsylvania’s bars and restaurants are inching closer to regaining the authority to sell take-out margaritas, screwdrivers, fuzzy navels or any other of a number of mixed drinks. The state House voted 170-31 on Thursday to pass a stripped-down version of a bill that dropped broader liquor...
Pittsburgh Public Schools cut 1,000 students from summer programs amid staffing problems
Staff shortages have led the Pittsburgh Public Schools to cut roughly 1,000 students from its Summer BOOST program, a program designed to mitigate covid-19 related learning loss. Some 2,500 students from kindergarten through 11th grade had signed up for the program. The district on Thursday said 1,500 will now participate...
‘This stuff has got to stop’: Pittsburgh police, community members plead for end to surging violenceVideo
Preeti Tuli wept Thursday, baring her pain to strangers, TV cameras and Pittsburgh as a whole, hoping the reality of her grief might help stem the surge of citywide shootings, like the one that took her son in February. “He was a good kid,” she said of her son, Ahmir...
4 injured in head-on crash on Route 31 in Donegal
Four people seriously injured in a head-on crash on Route 31 in Donegal Township Thursday were flown by emergency medical helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, state police said. The collision occurred about 4:45 p.m. near the entrance to the Caddie Shak recreational complex when an eastbound Honda Civic...
