Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1271
‘The Pavilion at Star Lake’ concert venue in Burgettstown goes back in time
The name has been changed several times, but some people have always called it by its first name. And now they can again. Tribune-Review News Partner WPXI-TV reported that the concert space in Burgettstown is returning to its roots. The venue’s Facebook page said it is now being called “The...
Allegheny County reports more than 1,000 new covid cases for 6th time this month
Allegheny County reported 1,059 new covid cases Tuesday, marking the sixth time 1,000 or more cases have been announced by the county 15 days into December. There were 10 new coronavirus-related deaths reported, as well. Total cases and total deaths in the county are now 41,933 and 675, respectively. There...
Moderna vaccine found safe, effective ahead of key FDA review
Moderna Inc.’s vaccine is safe and effective for preventing covid-19, U.S. regulators said, clearing the way for a second shot to quickly gain emergency authorization and add to the country’s sprawling immunization effort. The Food and Drug Administration’s staff said in a report on Tuesday that the experimental vaccine is...
Winter storm could bring up to 9 inches of snow; PennDOT, Turnpike Commission enact restrictions
Ahead of the major snow storm expected to dump as much as 9 inches across the region today, PennDOT is advising motorists to avoid unnecessary travel. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission enacted restrictions that begin at 1 p.m. on several portions of the toll road, as well as other highways that...
Teen shot and killed in Penn Hills
A teenage boy was shot to death early Tuesday in Penn Hills, according to Allegheny County police. Officials identified the victim as 15-year-old Jafar Brooks of Churchill. Officers responded to a call at just about 12:45 a.m. in the 1900 block of Garden Drive and found the teen with gunshot...
Editorial: Do what’s best and take the covid-19 vaccine
On Monday, the first health care workers rolled up their sleeves and accepted a shot in the arm of the Pfizer/BioNTech cocktail that offers hope against the coronavirus pandemic. In Pittsburgh, five front-line UPMC employees, including a critical care nurse and a patient transporter, had their injections livestreamed. This is...
Trib Total Media announces $1 million Shop Local Marketing Grant program
It’s the season of giving, and Trib Total Media wants to show its gratitude to locally owned businesses. The Trib announced Monday it will give new matching grants to local small businesses recovering from the covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic downturn. With the Shop Local Marketing Grant 2021, Trib Total...
‘Democracy prevailed’: Biden aims to unify divided nationVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden told Americans on Monday that “democracy prevailed” as electors nationwide cast votes affirming his victory in last month’s election, saying the country’s governing principles withstood being “pushed, tested, threatened” by repeated, baseless claims of fraud championed by President Donald Trump. In a speech from...
Restaurant owner sues Braddock mayor, claims defamation
Braddock Mayor Chardaé Jones admits she had the borough police check on the capacity at Portogallo Peppers N’At during the pandemic to ensure they weren’t exceeding the governor’s orders. Also, she said, she forwarded to the county health department a Facebook ad Portogallo’s posted in which they said they would...
Covid quarantines in Allegheny County jail raise nutrition, staffing concerns
In the video, an inmate at the Allegheny County Jail holds up his dinner tray and describes his meal. “This is bologna with applesauce in it and Teddy Grahams,” he says. “That’s the only thing that’s on our tray for dinner tonight. No juice, no vegetables, no fruit, no nothing.”...
Trump says AG William Barr resigning, will leave before Christmas
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general...
Biden clears 270-vote mark as electors affirm his presidential victory
WASHINGTON — The Electoral College gave Joe Biden a solid majority of its votes Monday, confirming his victory in last month’s election in state-by-state voting that took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he lost. California’s 55 electoral votes put Biden over the...
Who is next in line to get the covid vaccine?
Some health care workers at UPMC received Pittsburgh’s first doses of the newly approved covid-19 vaccine, but widespread availability is still months off. State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Monday the state will receive 97,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, and the allocations to hospitals and...
U.S. agencies, companies secure networks after huge hackVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies and private companies rushed Monday to secure their computer networks following the disclosure of a sophisticated and long-running cyber-espionage intrusion that experts said almost certainly was carried out by a foreign state. It was not yet clear who was responsible for the intrusion, though it...
‘Stop the Violence Fund’ shifted from Pittsburgh police budget after outcryVideo
About $5.3 million in the 2021 Pittsburgh budget will be moved from police to public safety to fund a new Stop the Violence initiative spearheaded by city councilmen Ricky Burgess and R. Daniel Lavelle. The initiative is among the police reforms adopted by council this year and is in part...
U.S. covid-19 deaths top 300,000 just as vaccinations beginVideo
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 on Monday just as the country began dispensing covid-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak. The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of...
Pa. corrections department tells officer with covid symptoms to return to work early
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 — The state Department of Corrections defied federal guidelines and a doctor’s order last week, demanding that an officer who...
Excela plans to begin vaccine distribution to staff on Friday
Excela Health officials plan to administer their first doses of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine to staff in Westmoreland County on Friday, officials said. “We have requested 6,000 doses,” Excela spokesperson Robin Jennings said. Excela officials have conducted an internal survey among staff about the vaccine. Employees will not be required to...
Dr. Rachel Levine: ‘Today is a great day,’ but vaccine’s arrival doesn’t end pandemic
As Pennsylvania officials on Monday celebrated the first vaccinations of health care workers against covid-19 , Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reiterated warnings this is the first step in a long road to the end of the pandemic. “Today is just a great day, when we start immunizing people,”...
Westmoreland County adds 666 new covid cases over 2 days
Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Health said there were 666 new cases of covid-19 in Westmoreland County over the past two days. Monday’s report from the department said 371 new cases were added Sunday, 285 confirmed through PCR tests. Of Monday’s 295 new cases, all were confirmed. Westmoreland County’s...
With over 18,000 new covid cases, Pennsylvania nears 500K mark
Health officials reported Monday there were 18,646 new cases of covid-19 in Pennsylvania over the past two days. The Department of Health reported 10,684 of those cases Sunday and 7,962 on Monday. The new cases bring the state’s seven-day average of daily cases to 10,474, while its seven-day case total...
Allegheny County’s latest covid cases up from previous weekend
Allegheny County added 1,647 new cases of coronavirus over the past two days, the Health Department announced Monday. While the new cases — 897 from Sunday and 750 from Monday — were slightly down from recent days, they were up 12% from the same time last week. The county’s seven-day...
Pennsylvania electors cast their votes for BidenVideo
In a ceremony often considered as little more than a formality, Pennsylvania’s College of Electors on Monday certified their 20 votes for president-elect Joe Biden. The event mirrored similar ceremonies in states across the nation, as state electors cast ballots in a constitutionally mandated event to formalize Biden’s 306-232 Electoral...
Crack’d Egg flouts shutdown as deputies quarantined for dining, taking photos with owner
Two Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies who ate and posed for a picture at a Brentwood diner defying state shutdown orders by remaining open have been reassigned and placed on quarantine. The Crack’d Egg, on Brownsville Road, has continuously flouted the orders from Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel...
Wolf: Federal covid relief package needed ‘right now’
As coronavirus relief negotiations languish in Congress, Gov. Tom Wolf and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday there is a dire need to pass a package sooner rather than later to ensure an economic recovery from the pandemic. “It’s disgraceful, disgraceful that right now in the midst of the...
