Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1386
Playing electoral defense, Trump claims Biden opposes GodVideo
CLEVELAND — President Donald Trump billed his trip to Ohio Thursday as a chance to promote economic recovery, but he quickly pivoted to a deeply personal attack on Joe Biden, even questioning without foundation the former vice president’s faith in God. Even for a president known for his blunt criticism,...
Audit of Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy ‘a little bit concerning,’ Controller Michael Lamb says
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy pays the City of Pittsburgh $1 per year for Schenley Plaza, the popular five-acre park in the heart of Oakland that bustles with college students and families. City workers cut the grass and provide routine maintenance. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy operates and maintains the plaza, a...
Westmoreland leaders say covid-19 grant awards will take longer than expected
Westmoreland commissioners said Thursday that $10 million in grants for local small businesses and nonprofits hurt by the coronavirus pandemic won’t be awarded until the end of August. The county received 500 grant applications by last week’s deadline. While officials originally suggested that money could begin to flow as early...
First Commonwealth Bank to close 29 locations, including 4 in Alle-Kiski ValleyVideo
Ashley Coudriet wasn’t happy to hear that First Commonwealth Bank on Leechburg’s Market Street is scheduled to close its doors in December. She and her husband own several rental properties in the Leechburg area and do all of the banking for their rental business there. “It’s been so nice. I...
U.S. rescinds global ‘do not travel’ coronavirus warning
NEW YORK — The Trump administration on Thursday rescinded its warnings to Americans against all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying conditions no longer warrant a blanket worldwide alert. The State Department lifted its level-four health advisory for the entire world in order to return to country-specific warnings....
Gov. Wolf’s recommendation to postpone high school sports gets mixed reactions
Gov. Tom Wolf’s recommendation that youth sports be postponed until Jan. 1 was met Thursday with mixed reactions. Wolf’s suggestion that “we don’t do any sports until Jan. 1” first came during a morning news conference when he was asked about spectators at high school sporting events. By the afternoon,...
Restaurants back down from ultimatum, request meeting with Gov. WolfVideo
The president of a group of restaurant and bar owners on Thursday shied away from threatening to reopen establishments at full capacity. Instead, board members of the newly formed Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern Association will wait for a sit-down meeting with Gov. Tom Wolf. “If we go on the...
Pittsburgh Promise offering gap year for students during pandemic
The Pittsburgh Promise will offer a gap year for recipients affected by the covid-19 pandemic, the organization announced Thursday. Pittsburgh Public Schools students who graduated high school from 2017 through 2020 will have five years — rather than the usual four — to utilize their scholarship award. “We know that...
Former New Ken-Arnold superintendent kept on as ‘consultant,’ gets a year’s pay in severance agreement
John Pallone’s tenure as superintendent of New Kensington-Arnold School District ended July 31, but for the next four months he’ll collect twice as much money from the district as he did when he was district chief. A severance agreement approved as part of his resignation guarantees him a full-year’s salary,...
Ohio Gov. DeWine tests positive for covid-19 ahead of Trump visit
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive Thursday for the coronavirus just ahead a planned meeting with President Donald Trump. The Republican governor’s office said Thursday that he took the test as part of standard protocol before meeting Trump at an airport in Cleveland. He had planned to...
New York attorney general seeks to dissolve NRAVideo
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. Attorney...
Allegheny County announces 100 new covid-19 cases, 3 new deaths
There were 100 new cases of covid-19 announced by the Allegheny County Health Department on Thursday. Continuing to drop, the county’s seven-day average of newly revealed cases stands at 109. The county hasn’t seen a double-digit seven-day average since July 1. Allegheny County coronavirus by dayInfogram The new cases —...
Gov. Wolf recommends high school sports be delayed until Jan. 1Video
With fall sports in the balance, will the PIAA treat Gov. Tom Wolf’s recommendation as a suggestion or a mandate? Wolf’s administration wants all youth sports — interscholastic and recreational — postponed until January, a request that jeopardizes football, soccer and other high school sports days before they’re scheduled to...
Port Authority reports 5 more covid-19 cases
Five more Port Authority of Allegheny County employees have tested positive for covid-19, spokesman Jim Ritchie said. The new cases bring the number of covid-19 cases involving Port Authority employees to 37. Last week, Port Authority recorded three covid-19 cases. Three of this week’s cases involved bus drivers based in...
1.2 million seek jobless aid after $600 federal check ends
WASHINGTON — Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired. The Labor Department’s report Thursday marked the 20th straight week that at least 1 million...
Penn Hills School District reopening plans call for mix of in-person, online classes
Penn Hills School District administrators recommend a hybrid in-person learning model, and an online learning option for families to start the upcoming school year. “This is not forever,” Superintendent Nancy Hines said after Wednesday’s safety/buildings and grounds committee meeting. “This is just to start.” Back-to-school plans were formally revealed that...
75 years after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima, area vets believe U.S. did right thing
They are called the “hibakusha,” the survivors of the atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima 75 years ago today and on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Their stories are hard to hear. One survivor visiting Boston in 1985 for Hiroshima’s 40th anniversary reduced a group of reporters to tears. The...
After summer of delays, Lazy River reopens at Sandcastle
The Lazy River earned its name this summer. The Sandcastle Waterpark attraction, where guests float along a quarter-mile on inner tubes, took its time and waited until the final few weeks of the season to start flowing again on Wednesday. “We appreciate everyone’s patience while we completed necessary work,” said...
Shadyside’s Rodef Shalom offers classroom space to Falk Laboratory School students
With back-to-school just a few weeks away, many local schools are scrambling to find ways to adhere to covid-19 guidelines regarding social distancing. School officials are looking to reduce student density on campus and space desks 6 feet apart, while still providing a good learning environment. Meanwhile, at Rodef Shalom...
Century III Mall’s JCPenney to close
The JCPenney store at Century III Mall has been added to the list of 151 locations closing nationwide. It was the last surviving store in the long-struggling mall, which closed last year after West Mifflin Code Enforcement declared it “unsafe and uninhabitable” due to a broken water and fire suppression...
Washington County woman accused of locking sister in cage wanted for skipping hearing
A Washington County woman accused of locking her adult sister in a cage is wanted on a bench warrant for allegedly skipping a court hearing, Tribune-Review news partner WPXI reported. Leona Biser, 51, originally was charged in January by the state Attorney General’s Office. She allegedly kept her 53-year-old sister...
Loves Furniture hiring to staff some of former Levin’s sites acquired in bankruptcy court
Loves Furniture, a new retail chain that formed when a private equity firm recently bought 27 Art Van, Levin and Wolf outlets in bankruptcy court, is looking to hire 1,000 workers in three states — including people to staff at the Mt. Pleasant store that for a century served as...
412 Food Rescue holding more distributions Friday and Saturday as need increases
With no end in sight to the pandemic, there seems to be no forseeable end to food insecurity induced by covid-19. Layoffs, particularly in the service industry, combined with the end of the $600 a week federal boost to unemployment on July 31, mean one box of food can make...
College parties, school openings, contact sports pose challenges in Allegheny County’s ‘war’ against covid-19
Allegheny County’s new cases of covid-19 fell sharply in the past two weeks, but the region still has “lots of community spread,” and officials have concerns about schools and sports programs safely resuming in coming weeks. That was the scenario laid out Wednesday by the county’s public health chief. In...
Missing 5-year-old girl found in Herminie
First responders have found a 5-year-old girl who was missing for about two hours Wednesday afternoon, according to the Sewickley Township Emergency Management Agency. The girl went missing around 4:30 p.m. in the area of Highland Avenue in Herminie, Sewickley Township, according to Westomreland County 911. She was found safe...
