Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1853
5 must-see areas at this year’s Pittsburgh Home & Garden ShowVideo
The Duquesne Light Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show might officially open Friday but things actually got started Monday as vendors began unloading their displays. It’s truly a scientific process to get more than 1,800 exhibits set up inside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. John DeSantis, executive...
Cohen returns to Capitol Hill after slamming Trump as liar
WASHINGTON — In a damning depiction of Donald Trump, the president’s former lawyer cast him as a racist and a con man who used his inner circle to cover up politically damaging allegations about sex and who lied throughout the 2016 election campaign about his business interests in Russia. A...
Scott police seek man wanted in attempted home invasion
Scott police are looking for a man who allegedly pretended to be a police officer during an attempted home invasion last week. The incident happened on Feb. 20 in the 500 block of Carothers Avenue, township police said on Facebook. According to police, they got a call about a man...
Snow could make Friday morning commute slippery
Didn’t the groundhog say something about an early spring? Pittsburgh-area residents might be questioning Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction based upon the upcoming weather. According to the National Weather Service, some snow is expected overnight today into Friday morning, which could make things slippery for the Friday morning commute. More snow is...
Pedestrian deaths up 41 percent in Pennsylvania
Fueled by ubiquitous sport utility vehicles and distracted drivers, Pennsylvania saw a 41 percent increase in the number of pedestrian fatalities in the first six months of 2018 over a similar period the previous year, a new report has found. Pennsylvania wasn’t alone. The more than 6,200 pedestrians killed on...
Man, 19, accused of assaulting 81-year-old over MAGA hat
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Authorities say a young man at a New Jersey supermarket assaulted an 81-year-old who was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. Somerset County prosecutors have charged 19-year-old Ryan Salvagno with assault and harassment. Officials say Salvagno exchanged words with the older man about the hat...
Paramedic, policeman rush into burning Washington Township home trying to save manVideo
Darrick Gerano rushed into a burning Washington Township home Thursday to rescue a man still inside. He and Washington Township police officer Ken Hollis got James Indovina out, but were unable to save him. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office. “It’s heartbreaking,”...
UPMC took in $3.1B more in operating revenue last year than 2017
UPMC took in $3.1 billion more in operating revenue last year than it did in 2017, for a 20 percent year-over-year increase, its year-end financial statements show. Revenue for UPMC totaled $18.77 billion last year, up from $15.63 billion in 2017, according to financial documents provided by UPMC and filed...
North Apollo woman, 64, dies in 1-car crash in ApolloVideo
A North Apollo woman was killed Wednesday night after the car she was driving hit a utility pole in Apollo and flipped over several times. Coroner Brian Myers identified the woman as Jacqueline C. Hellein, 64. She was traveling alone and died at the scene. She was not wearing a...
Penn Hills School District officials request investigation into grand jury report
Penn Hills School District officials want state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to investigate after an Allegheny County grand jury report netted no indictments. “We are not accepting them,” board President Erin Vecchio said of the grand jury report’s results. “People should have been indicted. All it was was a smear...
UPMC says it’s eclipsed Highmark in Medicare Advantage insurance market, Aetna gains
UPMC boasted this week that the health system’s insurance arm has eclipsed Pittsburgh-based rival Highmark in attracting Medicare Advantage insurance members and now dominates that market in Western Pennsylvania. “We’ve grown dramatically,” said Diane Holder, president of UPMC’s Insurance Services Division. “We are now the largest provider of Medicare Advantage...
Kiski Township’s Staff Sgt. Booker to receive second-highest military honor for 2003 battle
Sixteen years to the day after he died defending fellow soldiers in Iraq, Army Staff Sgt. Stevon Booker will posthumously be presented the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military award for bravery. A special Army ceremony will be held starting at 10 a.m. April 5 in Soldiers &...
Coal official allegedly cheated on safety tests, putting miners at risk of black lung
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A coal company manager took part in cheating on tests designed to protect miners from contracting deadly black lung disease, a federal grand jury has charged. The grand jury issued a new indictment adding Glendal “Buddy” Hardison to a group of mine officials charged with conspiring to...
Trial for Rahmael Holt, charged with killing Officer Brian Shaw, postponed until August
The capital murder trial of a Harrison man charged with the November 2017 shooting death of a New Kensington police officer has been postponed until August. The attorney for Rahmael Sal Holt, 30, said in court Wednesday that he needed more time to prepare for trial, which had been scheduled...
Walmart to allow more time for greeters with disabilities to adjust to new demands
Walmart’s decision to change the job requirements for its greeters has caused a national controversy as some believe it targets people with disabilities. But some disabled worker advocates say they haven’t seen any issues locally yet. Lisa Razza, spokeswoman with ACHIEVA, which works with people with disabilities in Allegheny and...
U.S. Attorney will not charge Pittsburgh police officers in Kopy’s brawl
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday announced it will not file charges against the undercover Pittsburgh police officers involved in a brawl with members of the Pagans motorcycle club at a South Side bar last year. The FBI was investigating whether there were any civil rights violations by the officers....
Loyalhanna Watershed Association farm preserved by state agriculture board
Bluebirds and foxes can call a Ligonier Township farm home for good now that the 120-acre tract has been preserved by the state. “It’s a huge thing for us and for, I think, our neighbors to know that” the farm was safeguarded, said Susan Huba, director of the Loyalhanna Watershed...
Police say DNA, debit card, receipt all point to Penn Hills man charged with fatal 2017 crash
A Penn Hills man has been charged with causing the death of a woman driver in a 2017 head-on crash in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood. Pittsburgh police charged Taariq Tyler, 22, with homicide by vehicle, reckless endangerment and other related charges on Feb. 22, after determining his rental pick-up truck...
Ex-Istanbul Sofra owner accused of sexual assault is a predator, prosecutors argue
Prosecutors on Wednesday laid out their sexual assault case against former restaurant owner Adnan Pehlivan, calling him a restaurateur by day and sexual predator by night, while defense counsel set out to prove the case is a hook-up gone wrong. The jury of eight men and four women heard opening...
Zoey the sea lion dies after battling cancer at Pittsburgh Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium officials are mourning the death of one of their sea lions. Officials announced Wednesday that a 24-year-old sea lion named Zoey died from cancer after being diagnosed last year. “Zoey was diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma in 2018 and was the first sea lion...
Steelers fan who headbutted man in viral video pleads guilty to disorderly conduct
A Pittsburgh Steelers fan who headbutted another fan during a brawl at a Steelers game in December pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Chad Ferguson, 44, of Ben Avon, was required to pay a $100 fine for the summary offense. A simple assault charge police had filed against Ferguson was dismissed....
A year after Frances McDormand’s Oscars speech, are inclusion riders making progress?
“I have two words to leave you with tonight, ladies and gentlemen,” said Frances McDormand in her Oscars acceptance speech last year. “Inclusion rider.” Just like that, the little-known industry term was instantly catapulted into the public sphere. Actors, directors and producers began tweeting their pledges to adopt the inclusion...
Pete Davidson kicks out heckler who shouted about Mac Miller’s death
Pete Davidson didn’t tolerate a heckler who shouted a remark about Pittsburgh-born rapper Mac Miller. At a standup show in New Jersey, Davidson began to set up a joke with, “ … My friend died of a heart attack.” At which a person in the audience shouted “Mac Miller?” The...
West Jefferson Hills parents voice concerns over racist social media post
African American parents in the West Jefferson Hills School District are enraged after a Thomas Jefferson High School student allegedly made a racist social media post about a fellow student that circulated widely Tuesday. The photo is of an African American student appearing to be sitting in a school science...
Witness: Driver in train-car crash was fleeing earlier crash
WESTBURY, N.Y. — A witness told police that the driver who caused a deadly crash by trying to go around a lowered railroad gate on New York’s Long Island was fleeing the scene of an earlier crash, a police official said Wednesday. “The witness said that individual was involved in...
