Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 863
Steelers’ T.J. Watt weds longtime girlfriend, soccer standout in Mexico ceremony
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt married longtime girlfriend and soccer star Dani Rhodes over the weekend in a private ceremony at a resort in Mexico, according to news and social media reports. Watt, 27, and Rhodes, 24, have been together since they were both students at the University of Wisconsin....
Infant found dead in Beaver County swimming pool
An infant was found dead in a Beaver County swimming pool Sunday evening, according to police. First responders in Chippewa responded to a home on Braun Road about 7:40 p.m., according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV. Officials told the TV station they performed CPR on the child to no avail,...
Hartwood Acres Sculpture Garden officially opens after years of work on the project
A formal ribbon-cutting was held Sunday afternoon to officially open the Hartwood Acres Sculpture Garden. The yearslong Allegheny County project involved refurbishing and relocating sculptures around the landscape to provide a centralized experience for parkgoers. There were 12 sculptures acquired in the mid-1980s that were sandblasted, repainted and rewelded. New...
Firefighters respond to Jefferson Hills house fire
Flames overtook a Jefferson Hills house Sunday afternoon. A fire at a Roberts Drive home began around 12:30 p.m. All residents safely exited the home, according to a Facebook post from the Jefferson Hills Police Department. Emergency crews blocked the entrances to and from the residential plan in order to...
Trump ally Bannon now willing to testify before Jan. 6 panel
WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist and ally of Donald Trump who faces criminal charges after months of defying a congressional subpoena over the Capitol riot, has told the House committee investigating the attack that he is now willing to testify. Bannon’s turnabout was conveyed in a...
Biden says he’s mulling health emergency for abortion access
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden said Sunday he is considering declaring a public health emergency to free up federal resources to promote abortion access even though the White House has said it doesn’t seem like “a great option.” He also offered a message to people enraged by the...
Crypto plunge is cautionary tale for public pension funds
MINNEAPOLIS — When the Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund bought $25 million in cryptocurrencies, with the fund’s chief investment officer touting their potential, retired fire Capt. Russell Harris was concerned. Harris, 62, has attended the funerals of 34 firefighters killed in the line of duty. He was already worried...
Shawn Mendes postpones Pittsburgh show, citing mental health concerns
Singer Shawn Mendes has postponed his upcoming Pittsburgh concert. In an Instagram post, the 23-year-old cited mental health concerns as the reason he is pushing back 12 shows from “Wonder: The World Tour” over the next three weeks. “After speaking with my team and health professionals, I need to take...
Electricity rates on rise, but there are ways to combat higher costs
Electricity bills in Pennsylvania are increasing sharply this summer, driven in large part by a tight market for natural gas, industry experts say. The boost in electric rates has come as air conditioning units are cranked up for the summer. That makes it a good time for Pennsylvania residents to...
Gun violence in America: A long list of forgotten victims
ATHENS, Ala. — Amid the stream of mass shootings that have become chillingly commonplace in America, the reality of the nation’s staggering murder rate often can be seen more clearly in the deaths that never make national news. Take last weekend in the Chicago area. On Monday, a rooftop shooter...
Monster truck enthusiasts watch Bigfoot crush cars during Export Tire event
This weekend, about 1,000 people saw Bigfoot in Murrysville Saturday — no, not that Bigfoot. Export Tire hosted the monster truck Bigfoot during a day full of festivities. Families and truck enthusiasts gathered to watch the car-crushing truck fulfill its purpose. The monster truck crushed junk cars in a field...
A hero’s funeral: More than 100 honor Oakdale police officer slain in Blawnox
More the 100 people, including police officers from across the state and Marines, paid respects to fallen Oakdale Police Officer Charles G. Stipetich on Saturday. Stipetich, 23, was fatally shot on July 3 while off duty in what police described as a road rage incident. He lived in Blawnox, and...
‘It’s a shocker.’ Kiski Township residents want local police back
When residents of Kiski Township and North Apollo awoke Friday morning, some were surprised to learn they had lost their 24-hour, seven-days-a-week police department. Four police officers and the police secretary quit Thursday and early Friday, leaving only a newly appointed police chief and the school resource officer. State police...
Passenger dies in wrong-way Parkway East crash
Updated: The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the victim as Thomas Linwood Ligon, 47, of Monroeville. A person died in car crash on I-376 Saturday morning after another driver was traveling on the wrong side of the road. At around 2:30 a.m., a driver was traveling westbound in an eastbound...
Pennsylvania Senate seeks to declare state constitution provides no right to an abortion
HARRISBURG — Voters could be asked as early as the spring to weigh in on five significant amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution, including one that would require voters to show ID every time they vote and another that asserts the state’s charter does not protect abortion access. After a contentious...
It’s official: Corey O’Connor named Allegheny County controller
Former Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor has been appointed Allegheny County controller. O’Connor took to Twitter on Friday to thank the state legislators who supported him. “My family and I are humbled by the opportunity to serve as Allegheny County Controller and the support that we’ve received,” the post read...
Musk abandons deal to buy Twitter; company says it will sue
Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal. The likely unraveling of the...
What does the proposed abortion constitutional amendment mean for Pennsylvania?
The Pennsylvania Senate passed a constitutional amendment proposal Friday that, if enacted, would ensure the state constitution does not grant rights to abortions. The passage doesn’t have any immediate effect on the state’s abortion laws. The process for this amendment started late Thursday night, when Republicans proposed the change with...
Pa. lawmakers agree to boost education funding, spend billions in remaining stimulus money as part of budget
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers have sent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf a $45.2 billion spending plan that boosts education spending by more...
Arnold Furniture founder Gene Miller remembered as ‘a great man’
Gene and Dorothy Miller decided to go into the furniture business after she was hurt in a car crash and unable to continue working as a nurse. Using money from their family vacation budget, they started Arnold Furniture in 1975 — now in its third generation of family ownership and...
‘Don’t pull over’ in the midst of a road rage incident, trooper advises
An angry honk and hand gesture might be the extent of it. But sometimes an aggressive driving situation fuels a motorist’s anger and it escalates into a potentially dangerous encounter. Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Adam Reed said such incidents can carry serious legal ramifications, ranging from a summary citation to...
Overdose deaths in Allegheny, Westmoreland counties hit highest level since 2017 peak
Overdose deaths in Allegheny County rose last year to the highest level since they peaked in 2017, mirroring trends in Westmoreland County and Pennsylvania as a whole, according to statistics released Friday. In 2021, 719 people in Allegheny County died of drug overdoses, accounting for a quarter of all cases...
911 dispatcher who didn’t send ambulance charged in 2020 death in Greene County
A Pennsylvania 911 operator faces a rare charge of involuntary manslaughter for failing to send an ambulance to the rural home of a woman who died of internal bleeding a day later, despite a plea from the woman’s daughter that without medical help “she’s going to die.” A Greene County...
7th suspect in New Kensington murder accused of supplying gun used in attack
A man from Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood is accused of providing a gun used in the attack that ended in the death of a man in New Kensington on Sunday. Raquan Carpenter, 18, is the seventh suspect New Kensington and Westmoreland County authorities named in the killing of Jason Donald Raiford,...
Kiski Township police cite ‘hostile work environment’ in resignation letters
Kiski Township police officers cited what they describe as a “hostile work environment” in resignation letters to the township. Four of the township’s six officers resigned Thursday or early Friday, as did the township’s police secretary. The resignations came after the department’s former officer-in-charge filed a grievance with the township...
