Top Stories category, Page 96

The University of Pittsburgh’s David C. Frederick Honors College is expanding to include high-achieving students enrolled at its suburban Greensburg campus in Hempfield, officials announced Tuesday. Effective this fall, undergraduates with the necessary academic qualifications can enroll in the newly formed David C. Frederick Honors College at Pitt-Greensburg. Students there,...

Pittsburgh resident Otis Keasley has not missed voting in an election in more than five decades. The 2024 primary was no different — except that Keasley, a Vietnam War veteran, decided to mail in his ballot for the first time. His sister-in-law was ill and needed him to help care...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — One person was killed and seven injured following a natural gas explosion Tuesday afternoon that caused extensive damage to a building in downtown Youngtown, Ohio, authorities said. The Youngstown Police Department said a 27-year-old employee of Chase Bank, where the blast happened, was killed in the explosion....

A citywide master plan meant to guide Pittsburgh for the next 20 years has faced criticism for being nonbinding, too expensive — and vague. On Tuesday, a top city official rendered that last complaint moot by providing details about the $6 million project to the city’s Planning Commission. The master...

An Ohio man wanted on attempted homicide charges was taken into custody early Monday in Brackenridge. Tarentum police were dispatched shortly before midnight Sunday to the Devil Dog Saloon along Sixth Avenue on a tip that a man wanted as a suspect in a New Kensington shooting was inside the...

Pittsburgh City Council has scheduled two closed-door meetings next week despite concerns from legal experts and good government advocates that such private sessions might flout the spirit of Pennsylvania’s open-meetings law. The two private meetings for next Wednesday mark the first such closed-doors sessions — or briefings, as council calls...

UPMC reported an operating loss of $103 million during the first three months of the year, up slightly from its $100 million operating loss during the same period a year ago. The Pittsburgh-based health giant’s first-quarter losses came on revenues of more than $7.1 billion, according to a financial disclosure...

Independence Health System cut operating losses by nearly half from Jan. 1 to March 31 compared to the same time last year, continuing a steady trend of financial improvement for the merged health system. According to the system’s most recent financial reports, Independence saw a little more than $12.6 million...

LGBTQ Pride Month is almost here, and with it, numerous events and festivals are coming to Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. The yearly, monthlong celebration in June honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which was a tipping point in the Gay Liberation Movement, according to the Library of Congress....

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis apologized Tuesday after he was quoted using a vulgar and derogatory term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement acknowledging the media storm that erupted about Francis’ comments, which were delivered behind closed...

An off-duty state trooper from the Uniontown barracks is accused of forcing his way into a Connellsville home and assaulting a man, according to state police. James T. Stevenson Jr., 29, of Connellsville, was charged Tuesday with felony aggravated assault and trespassing. According to a criminal complaint, Stevenson arrived at...

Marcus Porter has been around good food his entire life. Sunday dinners growing up were always at his house. When surrounded by delicious fare, he said, you quickly learn how to cook — and so he did. Now, Porter is poised to open Super Smash Burgh on June 1, and...

Deer Lakes School District and Frazer Township are facing some hefty unforeseen expenses after a recent reassessment of three Pittsburgh Mills commercial properties. The school district will refund a total of more than $700,000 to the owners of Walmart, Sam’s Club and the SpringHill Suites hotel in Frazer. The district...

NEW YORK — Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy “to hoodwink voters” in 2016, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments in the former president’s hush money trial, while a defense lawyer branded the star witness as the “greatest liar of all time” and pressed the panel for an...

A Pittsburgh man has been charged in connection with a May 16 bank robbery in Reserve, according to Allegheny County Police. Detectives had been investigating a robbery at Dollar Bank on Mount Troy Road. Through multiple surveillance videos, images of the suspect fleeing the bank and witness interviews, police were...

Jim Antoniono’s travels have taken him from Cold War-era Germany to the Westmoreland County Courthouse, through thousands of miles of mountain trails and into courtrooms and boardrooms. After a more than a half- century, Antoniono, 78, of Unity, will return to his roots in county government when on Tuesday he begins...

Temporary traffic signals are being installed where Route 380 and Golden Mile Highway meet, but the permanent improvements proposed for the intersection have a Murrysville family upset. Canonsburg-based Olympus Energy is funding traffic improvements as part of its Hermes fracking well pad project, being constructed nearby on the Murrysville/Plum border....

From a passing watercraft or the banks of the Allegheny River, Sycamore Island appears untouched by humans. A wall of invasive Japanese knotweed anchors the 14-acre island’s northern end, giving way to silver maple, cottonwood and, of course, sycamore trees, each grasping the silt against the river’s current. From off...

Jennifer Boyd will close her life-long family business, Patrick’s Pub in Apollo, at the end of the month. “My parents have owned this for 43 years, I don’t want to sell it, but I can’t afford it,” Boyd said. “In order for us to fix everything, including the roof, electrical...

Bill Walton, who starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Hall of Famer for his NBA career and one of the biggest stars in basketball broadcasting, died Monday, the league announced on behalf of his family. Walton, who had a prolonged fight with cancer, was 71. He was...

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Monday that a “tragic mistake” had been made after an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah set fire to a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people. The mistake...

A 93-year-old woman has died at a Pittsburgh hospital after being injured in a crash Sunday afternoon in Washington County. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Rose Marie Gillespie of Washington died shortly before 7 p.m. after being transported to the emergency room at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. The crash...

Two men were wounded in a shooting Sunday evening in McKeesport. The men were taken to area hospitals in stable condition after they were found by first responders in the 100 block of Marshal Drive, according to Allegheny County Police. The shooting was reported to county 911 dispatchers shortly after...