Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1187
New Kensington police accuse Jeannette man of sexually assaulting girl, who became pregnant
New Kensington police have charged a Jeannette man with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, who became pregnant. Police said they began investigating last September after getting a report that a teen had given birth to a son in November 2019 at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. The father was identified...
Pennsylvania passes 1 million covid cases
Pennsylvania passed 1 million covid cases on Thursday. The milestone comes as vaccinations continue amid rising cases statewide and stable cases closer to home in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,000,240 cases, a rise of 3,623 cases from Wednesday. The seven-day average of cases is...
Lawyer: Colorado shooting suspect needs mental health review
BOULDER, Colo. — The suspect in the Colorado supermarket shooting appeared in court for the first time Thursday, and a defense attorney immediately asked that he receive a mental health evaluation before the case against him proceeds. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, did not speak during the brief hearing except...
Wolf administration refuses to release details of wasted covid vaccine doses
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 is refusing to disclose details of wasted coronavirus vaccine doses, including how many have been discarded...
AstraZeneca confirms strong vaccine protection after U.S. riftVideo
AstraZeneca insisted Wednesday that its covid-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed U.S. study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials. In a late-night press release, AstraZeneca said it had recalculated data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76%...
Pittsburgh police: Man dies after being wounded in North Side shooting
A man shot Wednesday night in Pittsburgh’s Perry South neighborhood has died, police said Thursday morning. The shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. on Brightridge Street. Police responded to a ShotSpotter alert and found a man shot in the head with a possible puncture wound to his chest, said Public Safety...
Gas driller to pay Pennsylvania $1.9M for damage to wetlands, waterways
HARRISBURG — One of the most active natural gas exploration firms in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $1.9 million after it disclosed in 2014 that its construction work had damaged waterways and wetlands, without proper permits, according to paperwork filed in federal court on Wednesday. Officials from Chesapeake Energy Corp....
Oath Keepers militia, far-right Proud Boys coordinated plans for Capitol assault, Justice Department says
WASHINGTON — A leader of the Oath Keepers militia was communicating with members of the far-right Proud Boys in the weeks leading to the U.S. Capitol attack, federal prosecutors allege, suggesting for the first time the extremist groups had formed an alliance for the day of the deadly assault. The...
Rally for Solidarity held in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section
A “Pittsburgh Rally for Solidarity” was held Wednesday in Oakland to protest racism and violence toward the Asian community. A few hundred people participated in the event, which started out at Flagstaff Hill and ended at Schenley Plaza. The event featured several speakers and eight minutes of silence for the...
As thousands of unemployment claims expire, Pa. residents refile, wait on federal benefits
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — Shawn McCreary has measured the last year in time waiting. As a substitute teacher, there have been exactly zero...
A first: U.S. Senate confirms transgender doctor, Rachel Levine, for key postVideo
Voting mostly along party lines, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be the nation’s assistant secretary of health. She is the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation. The final vote was 52-48. Levine had been serving as Pennsylvania’s top health...
Allegheny County to launch new vaccine registration system next weekVideo
Allegheny County will launch a new vaccine registration system next week, officials announced Wednesday. The system will allow residents to register for a covid-19 vaccine, receive notifications when they become eligible and prevent those who are ineligible from making appointments in the meantime. The system will reduce the number of...
Suspect in McKeesport shooting arrested 1 year later
Allegheny County authorities on Wednesday arrested a man wanted for more than a year in connection with a shooting in McKeesport, investigators said. Kiesean Brown, 20, was identified by the victim in the aftermath of the March 1, 2020, shooting on Irwin Street, according to the charges against him. The...
Pagan woman sues Pleasant Hills Panera over religious discrimination
A Clairton woman who worked as a baker at the Pleasant Hills Panera claims that she was discriminated against and ultimately fired because she is Pagan. Tammy McCoy said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court that she was hired at the Panera on Clairton Boulevard in October 2019....
2 Pittsburgh eaglets hatch same day; 3rd eaglet a possibilityVideo
The Pittsburgh Hays bald eagle family might be unusually large this season as two eggs hatched successfully Tuesday and a third hatch is possible, said an Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania spokeswoman. Now in their ninth year together, the Hays bald eagle couple has only once before raised three young....
Suez Canal blocked by grounded mega-ship, causing huge traffic jam in the seaVideo
On any given day, more than 50 ships traverse the 120-mile Suez Canal, bearing millions of tons of cargo that make up some 12% of the world’s trade volume. But not since Tuesday, after a mammoth vessel ran aground in the vital waterway. In the more than 24 hours since,...
Highway construction firms oppose PennDOT’s bridge toll plan
HARRISBURG — A prominent highway construction trade association on Wednesday came out against a state plan to toll up to nine major bridges around Pennsylvania in need of repairs as lawmakers move to block the plan, although Gov. Tom Wolf’s top transportation official disputed the trade association’s criticisms. The Associated...
Wilkinsburg man pleads to manslaughter after friend is killed in drug deal gone bad
A Wilkinsburg man with ties to two high-profile cases pleaded guilty Wednesday to involuntary manslaughter in an unrelated shooting. Demetres Beck, 26, admitted to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski that he and a friend, Kierre Simmons, participated in a robbery on Dec. 29, 2014. According to Deputy...
U.S. outlook improving as covid vaccinations rise, deaths fall
More than three months into the U.S. vaccination drive, many of the numbers paint an increasingly encouraging picture, with 70% of Americans 65 and older receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and covid-19 deaths dipping below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since November. Also,...
Faculty union blasts leader of Pa. state universities: ‘His job was to improve the system, not tear it down’
Instructors and coaches are blasting the leader of the state-owned universities for saying that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education should be reorganized or dissolved. At a Senate budget hearing last week, Chancellor Dan Greenstein warned that if a proposal to consolidate some universities doesn’t happen, he will come...
Editorial: On ballot questions, clear language should be the only option
When you cast a vote, it’s important to know exactly what’s going on. You need to know what the race is. You also need to know exactly who the people are. No one needs a situation like the confusing butterfly ballots in Florida in 2000 that some say had third-party...
Allegheny County adds 498 covid cases, highest total since mid-January
Allegheny County on Wednesday added its most coronavirus cases since mid-January. The Allegheny County Health Department reported 498 additional cases, the highest since 516 were reported Jan. 17. It was also only the third time since the beginning of February that the county has surpassed 400 cases. Allegheny County had...
Former Pitt employee charged with stealing over 13,000 masks at start of pandemic
The former director of emergency management at the University of Pittsburgh was indicted Tuesday in federal court on charges that he stole thousands of masks from campus at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic and sold them on his eBay page. Christopher Casamento, 42, of Ross had access to N95...
Covid variant identified on Pitt’s Oakland campus as cases spike
University of Pittsburgh officials confirmed at least one case of the U.K. covid-19 variant has cropped up on campus, something they believe will lead to an uptick in cases that have already spiked in recent days. “We confirmed that the U.K. variant … is present on the Pittsburgh campus,” the...
A late slide, led by Big Tech, leaves stock indexes lowerVideo
A late-afternoon burst of selling on Wall Street erased an early gain for stocks Wednesday, pulling the market further below the all-time high it reached just a week ago. The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% after having been up 0.8% in the early going. Technology and communication services companies accounted for...
