Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 817
Police arrest man in connection with Shadyside, Lawrenceville burglaries
An Aliquippa man wanted in connection with a string of burglaries in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside and Lawrenceville neighborhoods has been arrested. Michael Moffett, 33, who faces multiple charges including burglary, criminal mischief and theft from a motor vehicle, was arrested by North Versailles police on Monday evening, said Cara Cruz, a...
TV Q&A: Can local TV stations refuse politicians’ ads?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Can you tell me if local stations can refuse to put political ads on? I would think whichever stations refuse would get a huge bump...
Fall allergies share symptoms with covid; ragweed a leading trigger
A stuffy, runny nose could be a sign that your body is coping with a flu or covid-19 infection, or it could be an overreaction to an allergen. The maturation of pollen-packed plants like ragweed means the fall allergy season has arrived in Western Pennsylvania. “If you have nasal congestion,...
Motorcyclist injured in New Kensington accident
A motorcyclist is in the hospital after an accident on Tuesday evening in New Kensington. The accident occurred at around 9:50 p.m. in the 1100 block of Seventh Street, according to a Westmoreland County dispatcher. EMS transported the motorcycle driver to an area hospital, the dispatcher said. No further information...
Mail ballot fight persists in key states, sure to slow count
HARRISBURG — Former President Donald Trump and his allies seized on the drawn-out processing and counting in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election to fuel his false claims that fraud cost him victory in the battleground state. Election officials worry that a replay could be on the horizon for November’s midterm...
Burgettstown man gets maximum sentence for third-degree murder in 3-year-old boy’s beating death
A Burgettstown man will serve 20 to 40 years in prison for killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son last year. Tyler Scott Mason, 27, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder on June 21 for the beating death of Aiden Lombardi. On Monday, he was sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly...
Defendant takes the stand in Homewood triple fatal fire trial
Martell Smith spent nearly eight hours in a Pittsburgh police interview room on Dec. 20, 2017, being questioned about a fire in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood that killed three people earlier that day. Investigators suspected the fire had been purposefully set and that gasoline was used. They also knew that when...
Trial for sex trafficking of teen ends in guilty plea for Turtle Creek man
A Turtle Creek man pleaded guilty Tuesday to the sex trafficking of a 14-year-old runaway from New Kensington. Davon Allen Fuqua, 36, cut short his trial midway through testimony from his accuser, who told a Westmoreland County jury she was transported with a prostitute to have sex with two older...
Indecent graffiti in Kennedy Park in Vandergrift draws ire from parents
The last thing Vandergrift resident Sarah Cooper expected to find at her local park during an outing Sunday with her young son was X-rated graffiti. Cooper said her 10-year-old son noticed vulgar images of male genitals and obscene words spray-painted on two stone pillars at the entrance to Kennedy Park....
Trump FBI search puts unusual spotlight on National Archives nominee, a Norwin graduate
WASHINGTON — As a novelist, Colleen Shogan has imagined the most vivid of Washington dramas. Larceny at the Library of Congress. A homicide in the House of Representatives. A stabbing in the U.S. Senate. But Shogan is about to become a protagonist in a storyline too fantastical for fiction —...
Arbiter in Trump documents probe signals intent to move quicklyVideo
WASHINGTON — The independent arbiter tasked with inspecting documents seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home said Tuesday he intends to push briskly though the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified....
Video shows ‘unauthorized access’ to Georgia election equipmentVideo
ATLANTA — A Republican Party official in Georgia told a computer forensics team to copy components of the voting system at a rural elections office two months after the 2020 election and spent nearly all day there, contradicting her sworn deposition testimony about her role in the alleged breach of...
NTSB wants all new vehicles to check drivers for alcohol use
DETROIT — The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all new vehicles in the U.S. be required to have blood-alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. The recommendation, if enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, could reduce the number of alcohol-related crashes, one...
Mt. Pleasant man charged after incident in Westmoreland County courtroom
A man accused of incidents involving two nurses at the Westmoreland County Prison was charged Monday after a woman was injured when he “thrusted himself” at his attorney in a courtroom, according to court papers. Joe Paul Biller, 37, of Mt. Pleasant, is facing a charge of simple assault. Westmoreland...
5 things to know about Oktoberfest this weekend
On the Sept. 16-18 opening weekend of Oktoberfest at Penn Brewery in Pittsburgh’s North Side, revelers drank 65 half-barrels of beer — or just over 1,000 gallons. If that sounds like a lot, consider this: At the granddaddy of Oktoberfests in Munich, Germany, about 6 million visitors will down about...
Pa. court hears argument on whether life without parole for 2nd-degree murder is cruel, unusual punishmentVideo
When Derek Lee illegally entered a home in Elliott in 2014, he had no intention of killing anyone. He and his co-defendant, Paul Durham, had gone to the house to rob its occupants. But while Lee was upstairs, Durham shot and killed a man in the basement. Both men were...
Bridgeville man pleads guilty for actions in Capitol riot
A Bridgeville man who livestreamed his actions during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder. Kenneth Grayson, 53, pleaded guilty to this charge in a Washington D.C. court. According to court...
Fiona wallops Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico still stunned
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety. The storm’s eye passed close to Grand...
Explainer: Bused, flown migrants can live in U.S. — for now
Republican governors have been sending more migrants released at the U.S. border with Mexico to Democratic strongholds, raising questions about their legal status, how they are lured on board buses and planes and the cost to taxpayers. Florida’s Ron DeSantis flew about 50 Venezuelans last week to the small, upscale...
Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion
WASHINGTON — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights, underscoring how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before the November midterm elections. With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than...
2 people injured after falling from Mt. Washington balcony
Two people were injured early Tuesday after falling from a balcony in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington, city police said. Police were called to a business on Bailey Avenue just before 1:40 a.m. Tuesday for reports of the falls. Two people were found on the ground with head injuries. Medics took a...
Trial date set for Tree of Life accused shooter
A federal judge has set the trial date for the man accused of killing 11 people in 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill. The jury selection process will begin April 24, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville wrote in an order released Monday night. Robert Bowers...
Man dead after motorcycle crash in Carrick
A Sheraden man riding a motorcycle died Monday evening after a crash in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood, police said. Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said the crash occurred along Saw Mill Run Boulevard/Route 51 shortly before 7:30 p.m. The man was found on the road unconscious and not breathing, Cruz said....
Texas sheriff investigating flights to Martha’s VineyardVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas sheriff on Monday opened an investigation into two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but did not say what laws may have been broken in putting 48 Venezuelans on private planes last week from San Antonio. Bexar County Sheriff...
Salman Rushdie attack victim Henry Reese speaks at opening day of Eradicate Hate Summit
Though Henry Reese never anticipated being relevant to the topic of hateful acts of violence that the yearly Eradicate Hate Global Summit was designed to help eliminate, he has in many ways become one of the faces of this year’s summit. Last month, Reese, co-founder of City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, was...
