Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1860
Man caught with loaded gun at Pittsburgh International Airport security checkpoint
A Venango County man was caught Wednesday with a loaded gun at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Transportation Security Administration officers found a .22-caliber gun loaded with 10 bullets in his carry-on bag. The man, who officials didn’t name, was stopped at the security checkpoint. Allegheny County Police responded to the...
18 members of white supremacist prison gang indicted
TULSA, Okla. — A federal indictment in Tulsa charges 18 members of a white supremacist prison gang with racketeering, drug conspiracy and kidnapping that resulted in at least six homicides since 2005. The indictment unsealed Wednesday says the 18 are members of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood, described as a violent...
Snow in Vegas! 1st measurable since record keeping started
LAS VEGAS — Winter storms in the U.S. Southwest brought rare snowfall Thursday to the Las Vegas Strip, dusting casino marquees and prompting revelers to erect a snowman near the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. A half-inch of the white stuff began falling late Wednesday, marking the first significant...
Measles outbreak leads lawmakers to rethink religion exemptions for vaccines
Recent measles outbreaks in states such as Washington, New York and New Jersey have cast a spotlight on a group of Americans who receive exemptions from immunizing their children on the grounds that the vaccines violate their religious freedoms. Now the states that suffered outbreaks are taking aim at those...
Pittsburgh not a doughnut city? Shops see a hole in that argument
Pittsburgh may not rank highly among the country’s top doughnut locales, but doughnut lovers in Western Pennsylvania still have plenty of places to sate their appetite. BestPlaces.net ranked the top doughnut cities in the U.S. based on the number of doughnut shops per capita. By that measure, Pittsburgh ranked 68th....
‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett turns himself in to face charge
CHICAGO — Chicago police say “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has turned himself in to face a charge of making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck. Police spokesman...
Fire guts ancient part of Bangladesh’s capital, killing 67
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A devastating fire raced through densely packed buildings in a centuries-old district in Bangladesh’s capital, killing at least 67 people, officials and witnesses said Thursday. The fire in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area was mostly under control after more than 10 hours of frantic firefighting efforts. About 50 people...
Renovated Lamp diner set for ‘soft’ opening in AprilVideo
Two years after being hauled from a parking lot in Pittsburgh and deposited next to The Lamp Theatre in Irwin, a 68-year-old stainless-steel diner is scheduled for a “soft” opening in late April. Rainy weather and some bitterly cold temperatures this winter slowed work. “The weather has really dogged us,”...
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim strikes, kills pedestrian on highway
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim struck and killed a man walking on an interstate late Wednesday night as he tried to avoid hitting the man’s disabled vehicle, police say. Syracuse police say 51-year-old Jorge Jimenez had been in a car with three others before midnight Wednesday...
U.S. home sales tumbled 1.2 percent in January
WASHINGTON — U.S. home sales fell 1.2 percent in January to their worst pace in more than three years, as persistent affordability problems have put a harsh chill in the real estate market. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of existing homes declined 1.2 percent to a...
Charleroi man injured in Pittsburgh hit-and-run dies
A man who was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash earlier this month has died. Michael May, 55, of Charleroi, died at an area hospital Tuesday after suffering a head injury in the Feb. 7 crash in the 900 block of Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh, according to the Allegheny County...
Study finds spike in Pennsylvania child abuse-related deaths
HARRISBURG — A new study says the number of Pennsylvania children killed or nearly killed after abuse had occurred spiked recently, likely driven by changes to state law and heightened awareness in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky and Roman Catholic clergy child sexual abuse scandals. The state Human Services...
Nestlé, AT&T pull YouTube ads over pedophile concerns
Several companies, including AT&T and Nestlé, are pulling advertisements from YouTube over concerns about inappropriate comments on videos of children. A video from a popular YouTuber and a report from Wired showed that pedophiles have made unseemly comments on innocuous videos of kids. The comments reportedly included timestamps that showed...
Rape suspect extradited from Israel to Pittsburgh
An Israeli man who authorities say was on the run for about 15 years for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl was extradited from Israel on Thursday, the FBI and Allegheny County sheriff said. Moshe Journo, 53, and a citizen of Israel, is accused of the September 2004 rape of the...
Uniontown woman charged with stealing, injuring 9-week-old Chihuahua
A Chihuahua returned home with a broken leg after it was allegedly stolen from a North Union Township home, state police said. Kizzy Smith, 18, of Uniontown, was arrested in connection to the incident. Police said Smith took the 9-week-old puppy from a Johnston Avenue house, went to work, and...
Michigan man faces 10 years to life in prison for heroin ring targeting Western Pa.
A Michigan man caught with nearly three pounds of heroin pleaded guilty for scheming to sell the illegal street drug to addicts in Western Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Victor Burnett Jr., 38, of Oak Park, Mich. faces a sentence of at least 10 years in prison, U.S. Attorney Scott...
Pittsburgh man pleads guilty, awaiting sentence for federal drugs, gun charges
A Pittsburgh man who pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug charges is scheduled to be sentenced in June. Marvin Dennis, 23, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to having a gun while trafficking drugs. He pleaded guilty to selling heroin and crack cocaine. Prosecutors said...
Coast Guard lieutenant planned widespread terror attack, prosecutors say
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist has been arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a widespread domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists. Christopher Paul Hasson called for “focused violence” to...
W.Va. teachers end strike after no action on doomed bill
CHARLESTON — Unions for West Virginia teachers ended their two-day strike Wednesday night after lawmakers did not act on a doomed, broad-based education bill. Leaders of three unions representing teachers and school service personnel said at a news conference that classrooms would reopen statewide on Thursday. The House of Delegates...
Mon Incline will remain closed for six to eight weeks because of water main break
Pittsburgh’s Monongahela Incline will remain closed for six to eight weeks because of “significant damage” caused by three water main breaks in recent weeks, according to the Port Authority of Allegheny County. The Port Authority, which owns the 149-year-old incline, said engineers are determining what will be needed to ensure...
Man gets probation, house arrest for wreck that killed Norwin student
The North Huntingdon man charged with causing a car crash in 2017 that killed a Norwin High School senior will serve five years on probation and 18 months of house arrest. Victor Playso Jr., 33, pleaded guilty Wednesday to vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Route 993 in...
Official: Employee stole $1.2M from Upper St. Clair church for vacations, Pirates tickets
A church administrator who handled the finances for an Upper St. Clair church siphoned $1.2 million from church accounts over the course of about 17 years for himself and his wife to use, according to a detective with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office. David and Connie Reiter of South...
Samsung’s foldable phone will cost nearly $2,000
SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung has unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen that breaks new ground in a market that has been stuck in an innovative funk. The phone announced Wednesday in San Francisco will be called the Galaxy Fold and will sell for $1,980 when it is...
Wife of rabbi who survived Tree of Life shooting opposes death penalty
The wife of a rabbi who narrowly escaped the October shooting rampage at Tree of Life synagogue doesn’t want prosecutors to seek the death penalty against alleged gunman Robert Bowers. In an op-ed piece published Wednesday by the Jerusalem Post, Beth Kissileff writes that she hopes Bowers is convicted and...
Steelers won’t take discount for Antonio Brown on trade market
Kevin Colbert is willing to grant Antonio Brown’s trade request. With one condition. “By no means are we going to make a trade or any type of move that will not be beneficial to the Pittsburgh Steeler organization,” Colbert said Wednesday during a meeting with reporters. “We will not be...
