Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1467
Editorial: Line drawn in sand at Pittsburgh skate park
Sometimes someone doesn’t use common sense and it ruins things for everyone. And sometimes a lot of people don’t use common sense and it just starts to spread like, well, a virus. That kind of outbreak could be happening around a Pittsburgh park. It started with the city’s shutdown of...
Police: Philadelphia man used counterfeit bills at stores in Indiana, Cambria counties
A Philadelphia man was jailed for using two counterfeit $100 bills at a Giant Eagle supermarket in Indiana County to buy flowers and other low-cost items last week, state police at Indiana said. The suspect, Bilal Basil Butler, 23, allegedly used the fake bills to buy merchandise at the supermarket...
Westmoreland County adds 2 new covid-19 cases, no new deaths
Westmoreland County reported two additional cases of covid-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number of people to test positive for the virus to 417, according to Pennsylvania health officials. No new deaths from the virus were reported. Westmoreland County is one of the counties that will shift to the yellow...
Pennsylvania reports 19 new covid-19 deaths; total coronavirus cases top 56K
Pennsylvania health officials reported 19 more covid-19 deaths Sunday, and 1,295 additional positive cases, bringing the statewide death total to 3,707 and positive case total to 56,611. People in all 67 counties have tested positive for the virus. More than 227,700 people have tested negative. Starting Friday, two dozen northern...
Covid-19 claims 2 more lives in Allegheny County
Two more people in Allegheny County have died from covid-19, raising the death toll to 122, the Allegheny County Health Department said Sunday morning. Seventeen more people were confirmed as either having covid-19 or were probable over the past day, raising the total number on Sunday to 1,503 cases, the...
14th Port Authority employee tests positive for covid-19
A Port Authority of Allegheny County bus driver is being treated at an area hospital for covid-19, bringing the agency’s total number of employees who have tested positive to 14, the agency said Sunday. The employee, who works at the East Liberty garage, last worked on May 5, according to...
National parks visitors should plan for ‘new normal’
BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah — After closing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the National Park Service is testing public access at several parks across the nation, including two in Utah, with limited offerings and services. Visitor centers and campgrounds remain largely shuttered at Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef, but visitors...
Store workers become enforcers of social distancing rules
NEW YORK — Sandy Jensen’s customer-service job at a Sam’s Club in Fullerton, California, normally involves checking member ID cards at the door and answering questions. But the coronavirus has turned her into a kind of store sheriff. Now she must confront shoppers who aren’t wearing masks and enforce social...
As Trump pulls back from virus, Congress races to fill void
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump tries to moves on from the coronavirus, Congress is rushing to fill the void and prepare the country for the long fight ahead. Jolted by the lack of comprehensive federal planning as states begin to reopen, lawmakers of both parties, from the senior-most senators...
Jeannette man jailed in high-speed pursuit through 2 counties
A Jeannette man was jailed in Armstrong County Saturday after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase through two counties that ended when the car he was driving crashed into a vehicle that was occupied by a family. Rasheed Gordon, 28, was arraigned early Sunday on charges of possession with...
2 members of White House virus task force in quarantine
WASHINGTON — Two members of the White House coronavirus task force placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the nation’s most secure buildings is immune from the virus. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for...
Fire rips through 2 Etna houses, 10 people displacedVideo
A fire destroyed an Etna home and damaged a neighboring house Saturday afternoon, displacing 10 people, officials said. None of the residents of the two households was injured. Firefighters saved two cats, one from each of the affected structures on Wilson Street, Etna Fire Chief Greg Porter said. A firefighter...
New Westmoreland recycling center opens Monday in Unity
Westmoreland Cleanways will open its new recycling center just south of Route 130 in Unity at noon Monday, while following all of the prescribed Centers for Disease Control guidelines, the organization announced. The organization has been able to work on the recycling center at 355 Pleasant Unity-Mutual Road, during the...
Documents show top White House officials buried CDC report on reopening communities
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press. The files also show that after the AP...
Westmoreland County adds 2 new covid-19 cases, deaths remain at 32
Westmoreland County confirmed two more cases of covid-19 between Friday and Saturday, bringing the countywide total to 415, state health data show. The state has confirmed that at least 30 people in the county have died from the disease. Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha, whose tally has been higher than...
US approves new coronavirus antigen test with fast results
U.S. regulators have approved a new type of coronavirus test that administration officials have promoted as a key to opening up the country. The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday announced emergency authorization for antigen tests developed by Quidel Corp. of San Diego. The test can rapidly detect fragments of...
Go native: Local Audubon Society will deliver plants for hummingbirds, butterflies
Although its doors have been closed during the pandemic, the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania is taking orders for native plants from its nurseries and bird seed that it will deliver to area homes. Audubon offers more than 70 species of native plants that attract birds, butterflies and a range...
Pennsylvania reports 72 new covid-19 deaths; total coronavirus cases now top 55K
Pennsylvania reported 72 more deaths from covid-19 and more than 1,000 newly confirmed cases as of Saturday morning, pushing the statewide coronavirus case count above 55,000. Hospitals are treating 2,283 patients with the disease, and 482 of those patients are on ventilators. Another 20 patients are on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation,...
Allegheny County reports 1 covid-19 death, 31 new cases
Another person in Allegheny County has died from covid-19, raising the death toll to 120, the Allegheny County Health Department said Saturday. Thirty-one more people were confirmed as having covid-19 or were probable over the past day, raising the total number on Saturday to 1,486 cases that were either confirmed...
Little Richard, flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, dead at 87
NASHVILLE — Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday. He was 87. Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard’s, told The Associated Press that...
State lawmakers say there is pain ahead as coronavirus restrictions begin to ease
State lawmakers say the social and economic pain from the coronavirus shutdown is not over and that there are still many questions as Southwestern Pennsylvania prepares to move from red to yellow zone status Friday. Gov. Tom Wolf, who imposed statewide stay-at-home orders as covid-19 cases began cropping up in...
White father, son charged with murder in Ahmaud Arbery case
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The white father and son stood quietly Friday as the judge read murder and aggravated assault charges against them in the fatal shooting of a black man who was running through their Georgia neighborhood. In just a few minutes, their first court appearance was over. It was...
Roy Horn, dark-haired half of flamboyant illusionists Siegfried & Roy, dies of complications related to coronavirus
Roy Horn, the dark-haired half of Siegfried & Roy, the flamboyant, German-born illusionists whose lavish stage productions and trademark disappearing white tigers and lions made them one of the biggest draws on the Las Vegas Strip, died Friday. He was 75. Horn, who suffered a severe wound to his neck...
Pennsylvania business owners worry about ability to bounce back from covid-19 lockdown
Bob Sodini’s small accounting firm in Harrison was in its busiest month of the year — tax filing season — when Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a statewide lockdown to thwart the spread of covid-19. With the doors closed to Sodini & Co.’s office on Freeport Road, the firm’s four employees...
Wolf: More than 6K business owners granted waivers during covid-19 shutdown, nearly 13K denied
More than 6,000 Pennsylvania businesses received waivers to operate during the pandemic-spurred lockdown, or about 14% of those who applied for the exemption, data released Friday show. Among them were car washes, bike shops, furniture and appliance stores, lumberyards, sheet metal manufacturers, and toilet rental services. Also approved were bookkeepers,...
