Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1409
Bill Mazeroski’s former Hempfield house sells for $150,000
A lineman for West Penn Power Co. in Greensburg bought the home of Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, fitting because the house was once featured in an advertisement for the electric supplier. Nathaniel Smirga picked up the home and nearly 20 acres along Walton Tea Room Road in...
Reliving the Live Aid experience 35 years later
Editor’s note: Monday is the 35th anniversary of the Live Aid benefit concert. The Trib’s Paul Guggenheimer was there. Here, he shares his first-person remembrance of the historic event in Philadelphia. In the days leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in Philadelphia and London on Saturday, July 13,...
Lower Burrell hosts ‘Rise Up Against Racism’ event
The national conversation about race and racism in America made its way Sunday to the predominantly white small town of Lower Burrell. Between 40 and 50 people braved a steady rain for an event billed as Rise Up Against Racism on the soccer field at Officer Derek Kotecki Memorial Park....
Video shows Allentown police officer kneeling on man’s neck during arrestVideo
ALLENTOWN — The woman who shot a video outside Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown that shows a police officer putting his knee on a man’s head and neck during an arrest said the man was screaming “Mira, mira!” — Spanish for ‘Look, look!’” “That means he knew what was going...
Tarentum man dies in motorcycle crash on Route 366 in Murrysville
A Tarentum man died Sunday afternoon when his motorcycle crashed in Murrysville, a Westmoreland County 911 dispatcher said. The crash occurred shortly before 4 p.m. on Route 366, the dispatcher said. Westmoreland County Coroner Kenneth Bacha identified the victim as Patrick G. Dzugan, 59, of Butler Street, Tarentum. According to...
21 injured in fire aboard ship at Naval Base San DiegoVideo
SAN DIEGO — Twenty-one people suffered minor injuries in an explosion and fire Sunday on board a ship at Naval Base San Diego, military officials said. The blaze was reported shortly before 9 a.m. on USS Bonhomme Richard, said Mike Raney, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force, US Pacific Fleet....
Dr. Fauci doesn’t weigh ‘whole national interest,’ coronavirus task force member saysVideo
One of President Trump’s coronavirus task force members said Sunday that infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci doesn’t necessarily “have the whole national interest in mind” in suggesting responses to the pandemic. Fauci, who’s also on the task force, “looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view,”...
Hedge fund announces plan to buy newspaper publisher McClatchy
NEW YORK — Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management plans to buy newspaper publisher McClatchy out of bankruptcy, ending 163 years of family control. The companies did not put a price on the deal in an announcement Sunday. The agreement still needs the approval of a bankruptcy judge; a hearing is...
5 residents at Concordia at Villa St. Joseph in Baden test positive for covid-19
Five residents of a Beaver County nursing home have tested positive for covid-19, officials at the facility confirmed over the weekend. The infected residents at Concordia at Villa St. Joseph in Baden have been quarantined and staffers have investigated where those residents have been in the facility to determine who...
Pennsylvania reports 725 new cases of coronavirus
Pennsylvania health officials on Sunday reported 725 additional covid-19 cases, bringing the statewide total to 95,414. The data section of the state Department of Health’s website was down for maintenance Sunday and because of that only new cases were reported, according to a news release emailed Sunday evening. Earlier in...
19 new coronavirus cases reported in Westmoreland County, no new deaths
Westmoreland County reported 19 new covid-19 cases and no new deaths on Sunday, according to state health department officials. That brings the total number of covid-19 cases in Westmoreland County to 994. Of those, 968 are confirmed and 26 are probable cases. The department reported 23 new covid-19 cases Saturday,...
Allegheny County reports 200 new coronavirus cases, no new deaths
Allegheny County Health Department officials reported 200 new covid-19 cases Sunday. There were no new deaths reported. The death total stands at 198. The county reported eight new hospitalizations out of 1,990 test results. Allegheny County now has seen 4,962 cases of covid-19 since the first ones were reported March...
Trump wears mask in public for first time during pandemic
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus. Trump...
4 more states added to Pennsylvania travel quarantine list
HARRISBURG, Pa. — State health officials in Pennsylvania have added four states — including neighboring Delaware — to the travel quarantine recommendation aimed at stemming the spread of covid-19 in the commonwealth. Officials said people who have traveled to Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma are being asked to self-quarantine for...
Trump, Biden try to outdo each other on tough talk on China
WASHINGTON — China has fast become a top election issue as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden engage in a verbal brawl over who’s better at playing the tough guy against Beijing. The Trump campaign put out ads showing Biden toasting China’s Xi Jinping, even though Trump did just...
It’s Trump’s call on what the GOP convention will look like
WASHINGTON — After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated. After a venue change, spiking coronavirus...
‘Moving target’: Schools deal with new plans, Trump demands
TOLEDO, Ohio — With little more than a month before millions of U.S. schoolchildren go back to class, much is still up in the air - and not just because of the surging number of coronavirus cases nationwide. Last week, President Donald Trump and his administration demanded schools fully reopen...
‘We know them well’: Firefighter’s parents die in Rostraver fire
An elderly couple died in a fire that destroyed their home early Sunday morning in the Rostraver Township village of Collinsburg. The husband and wife, Marie A. Oblak, 81, and her husband, Lloyd D. Oblak, 83, were found inside their home at 808 Collinsburg Road, the Westmoreland County Coroner’s office...
Veterans left out of census count
On the morning of July 29, 1967, Preston Gardner, a Navy senior chief petty officer, had just finished an overnight shift aboard the USS Forrestal, an aircraft carrier operating in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. A stray electrical signal ignited a rocket on board. It shot across...
2 officers, suspect killed in Texas border town shootingVideo
MCALLEN, Texas — Two police officers were shot and killed Saturday by a suspect who later fatally shot himself in a South Texas border town after responding to a domestic disturbance call, authorities said. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez identified the slain officers as Edelmiro Garza, 45, and Ismael Chavez,...
Natrona man survives near-drowning on Allegheny River in Plum
Cliff Jones isn’t second-guessing his decision to buy a kayak on Friday. What he does regret is nearly drowning Saturday on the Allegheny River and throwing a scare into the people who came to his rescue. Jones, a 55-year-old property manager from the Natrona neighborhood of Harrison, took his new...
Rain, covid-19 restrictions don’t dampen Idlewild Park’s opening weekend crowd
While rain soaked some visitors Saturday who ventured to Idlewild Park & SoakZone in Ligonier Township, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of those who waited a long time for the park’s opening weekend, which was delayed because of covid-19 restrictions. “They were looking forward to coming. They’ve been coming...
Western Pa. pool companies make a big splash during wave of demand
When the 90-degree-plus heat soars, artist Joan Marangoni stops painting by noon on her new outdoor mural at Murphy’s Music Center in Leechburg. She practically sprints to her new 30-foot round, above-ground pool at her Washington Township home. “Jumping in a pool to cool off and to be with your...
Toomey: Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence a ‘mistake’
Sen. Pat Toomey calls President Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence a “mistake.” In a statement released Saturday, Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, said while Trump had the “legal and constitutional authority” to take the action, it should be used “judiciously and very rarely by any president.” “While I understand the frustration...
Low water brings rare glimpse of old bridge and Pa. Canal at Conemaugh River Lake
Low water levels in the Conemaugh River Lake have exposed some archaeological artifacts: abutments to a railroad bridge and remnants of the Pennsylvania Canal system from the 1800s. The artifacts in the Conemaugh River Lake, straddling Indiana and Westmoreland counties just east of Saltsburg, were visible over the July Fourth...
