Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1794
No beer with karaoke in UtahVideo
Adding beer to an evening of karaoke is a recipe for trouble in Utah. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission has denied a request from Heart & Seoul Karaoke to offer beer alongside their musical entertainment, reports FOX-13 in Salt Lake City. Utah’s strict liquor laws will change...
Chinese fossil sheds light on mysterious Neanderthal kin
NEW YORK — Nearly 40 years after it was found by a monk in a Chinese cave, a fossilized chunk of jawbone has been revealed as coming from a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals. Until now, the only known remains of these Denisovans were a few scraps of bone and...
‘Jeopardy!’ host Alex Trebek says cancer fight includes bouts of ‘deep, deep sadness’
“Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer has been making all the news in recent weeks, but host Alex Trebek shared an update on his battle with pancreatic cancer on Wednesday. In an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America,” the game show host talked about the how he’s feeling and the...
Cast of Leonardo da Vinci’s only sculpture at Carnegie Science CenterVideo
There’s a thumbprint visible if one looks closely. It’s believed to be that of Leonardo da Vinci — scientist, engineer, inventor and, in this case, sculptor. The sculpture, titled “Horse and Rider,” was unveiled Wednesday at the Carnegie Science Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side by popular televised art appraiser Brett...
Pennsylvania teacher salaries rank 10th in the nation
Pennsylvania teachers average the 10th-highest salaries in the nation, according to a National Education Association annual pay analysis. While Pennsylvania teachers ranked below colleagues in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, they were well above teachers in West Virginia (who ranked next to last) and the bordering states of Ohio...
Solo robber hits Vandergrift Dollar General along Franklin Avenue
Vandergrift police are searching for a man who robbed the Dollar General on Franklin Avenue Tuesday night. A clerk was restocking shelves when a tall man walked in. He held his left hand in the pocket of a hooded sweatshirt he was wearing and “acted like he had a gun,”...
Profusion of daffodils in Butler County keeps sister’s memory aliveVideo
A stiff breeze blows through thousands of bright yellow daffodils, making them dance as Emily Milich-Franusich and her husband Michael Franusich walk hand in hand through a 2-acre field of blooms as their cat Sophie leads the way in Butler Township, Butler County. Since 2015 the couple has spent their...
‘The Soap Myth’ tells gripping Holocaust story
Jeff Cohen distinctly remembers the day about 17 years ago when an elderly gentlemen approached him at his small theater in downtown Manhattan. The man handed him a manila envelope and said “maybe there is something you can do with this.” The man’s name was Morris Spitzer and it was...
Attorney General William Barr grilled over his differences with MuellerVideo
WASHINGTON — Private tensions between Justice Department leaders and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team broke into public view in extraordinary fashion Wednesday as Attorney General William Barr pushed back at the special counsel’s “snitty” complaints over his handling of the Trump-Russia investigation report. Testifying for the first time since releasing...
Police conduct active shooter drill at Idlewild
State police and local law enforcement on Wednesday morning conducted an active shooter drill at Idlewild Park in Ligonier Township, according to Westmoreland County 911. Emergency radio reports of a shooter and child abduction at the park were all related to the drill, dispatchers said. The theme park is closed....
Loosen your belt, Pittsburgh Mac and Cheese Festival is coming
Who doesn’t love a big bowl of that favorite childhood comfort food, macaroni and cheese? There’s little as satisfying as that combo of pasta, butter, cream, and the star — cheese. Let the belt out a notch and enjoy, as the Pittsburgh Mac and Cheese Festival heads to Highmark Stadium....
Man hit by car in South Greensburg dies; restaurant owner collects donations for reward
The owner of a South Greensburg restaurant plans to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver who hit an elderly man outside the establishment almost two weeks ago. Clarence Wolff, 86, of Hempfield died Tuesday at a Pittsburgh-area hospital, according to the Allegheny...
Family seeks to retrace last months of man found dead by South Side tracks
The family of Steven Michael O’Brien is trying to piece together the last months of his life, from his last conversation with his wife in January to the moment the proud Bostonian was found dead last week near a set of South Side railroad tracks. “He was my baby brother,”...
Trump retweets people taking issue with firefighters union’s endorsement of Biden
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday morning to retweet dozens of posts from purported firefighters and friends and relatives of firefighters who had taken issue with an endorsement this week of Democrat Joe Biden by a major firefighters union. Trump began a spate of Twitter activity...
Authorities identify man found dead on Wilkinsburg porch
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said a man found dead on a Wilkinsburg porch had been shot. Officials identified the dead man as Jakeem Booker, 19, of Braddock. Police were called to a home along Franklin Avenue just after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, where a man’s body could be seen...
1 killed in Fayette County ATV crash
A 34-year-old Brownsville man was killed in an ATV crash Wednesday in Fayette County. The incident happened around 4 a.m. Wednesday at Market and Spring streets in Brownsville, a county emergency dispatch supervisor said. The victim was identified by the coroner’s office as James Close of Brownsville. A report on...
SUV crashes into Spring Garden house
Pittsburgh police cited the driver of an SUV that crashed into a house in Pittsburgh’s Spring Garden neighborhood early Wednesday morning. The driver was going too fast down a steep hill near the scene of the crash, according to police. The crash on Spring Garden Avenue was reported just before...
Pittsburgh area to see temps in the 80s for first time this year
It’s gonna be a warm one. The Pittsburgh area is expected to see temperatures in the low 80s today. It will be the first 80-degree day this year, and the warmest it’s been since early October, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Modzelewski said. The high is forecast to hit 83...
Police: 2 teens expected to survive after being shot in Penn Hills
Two teenagers were expected to survive after being shot in Penn Hills , Allegheny County police said. Police were called to the 8900 block of Eastwood Road at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday. Officers found a 19-year-old man who had been shot in the head and leg, and a 17-year-old boy who...
Fire hits house in Derry just before midnight
Multiple fire departments responded to a fire at a house in Derry Borough late Wednesday night. The fire was reported at about 11:55 p.m. at 111 Walters St., according to Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety. Initial dispatches from the scene said that the occupants of the house escaped the...
Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probeVideo
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work, according to a copy...
2 killed at UNC Charlotte, 4 others injured; suspect in custodyVideo
CHARLOTTE — A shooting on a North Carolina university campus left two people dead and four wounded Tuesday, prompting a lockdown and chaotic scene in the state’s largest city. UNC Charlotte issued a campus lockdown late Tuesday afternoon, saying shots had been fired. Later in the evening, the campus was...
Judge throws out ex-Penn State president Graham Spanier’s conviction
HARRISBURG — A federal judge threw out former Penn State President Graham Spanier’s misdemeanor child-endangerment conviction on Tuesday, less than a day before he was due to turn himself in to begin serving a jail sentence. The decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick in Scranton gave state prosecutors three...
Schiff says House will make a criminal referral of Trump ally Erik Prince for possible perjuryVideo
WASHINGTON — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Tuesday that his panel would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding potential false testimony by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the private military contractor Blackwater and an ally of President Trump. “The evidence is so weighty...
Son of late Mayor Flaherty donates inaugural Pittsburgh Marathon poster to cityVideo
A framed poster from the inaugural Pittsburgh Marathon signed by its winners is hanging in the Pittsburgh Mayor’s Office, thanks to the son of a former mayor. Shawn Flaherty, 59, an attorney and the son of late Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty, said he found the poster from 1985 rolled up...
