Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 986
Gas prices stabilize on rising oil prices, easing omicron fears
After a run of declines, gasoline prices are largely unchanged in the Pittsburgh area and across the nation, according to price tracking service GasBuddy. In Pittsburgh, prices are down less than 1 cent per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.51 on Monday, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 731 stations....
Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show founder John DeSantis dies at age 69
John DeSantis gave the best advice. “Growing up, my friends would always ask my dad for advice and my sons always asked him for advice. They felt comfortable around him – and he gave great advice. They would talk to him in confidence and know he wouldn’t tell anyone what...
Pittsburgh council members sworn in, promise collaboration with new mayor
Pittsburgh City Council members Theresa Kail-Smith, R. Daniel Lavelle, Erika Strassburger and Anthony Coghill were sworn in Monday after winning reelection in November. Coghill handily defeated Green Party challenger Connor Mulvaney to earn his second term. Kail-Smith, Lavelle and Strassburger ran unopposed. Council members unanimously voted to elect Kail-Smith to...
NASA: Exploding meteor had same energy as 30 tons of TNT
NASA is weighing in on the New Year’s Day boom heard across the Pittsburgh region. Researchers confirmed an exploding meteor was the “likely culprit” and estimated the size of the object at about one-yard wide, with energy the equivalent of 30 tons of TNT, according to the NASA Meteor Watch...
Community cooperation helps police identify suspect in Rostraver fatal New Year’s shooting
Holly B. Vadella of Rostraver spent New Year’s Eve at her mother’s house watching television before insisting not long after midnight that she needed to head home and take care of her cat, said township police Chief John Christner. “Her mom did try to convince her to stay,” Christner said....
FDA expands Pfizer boosters for more teens as omicron surges
The U.S. is expanding covid-19 boosters as it confronts the omicron surge, with the Food and Drug Administration allowing extra Pfizer shots for children as young as 12. Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older, and federal regulators on Monday decided they’re also warranted for 12- to 15-year-olds...
Pittsburgh police seek man in connection with Downtown shooting
Pittsburgh police said they are seeking a man in connection with a Dec. 9 shooting in Downtown that left another man in critical condition, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV. Andre Douglas Davis, 34, of Pittsburgh, was charged Sunday with aggravated assault and gun charges in connection with the shooting...
School, work, travel can wait as snow blankets U.S. capitalVideo
WASHINGTON — A winter storm packing heavy snow blew into the nation’s capital Monday, closing government offices and schools and grounding the president’s helicopter as 6 to 11 inches of snow ringed the area around Washington. Snow spotters for the National Weather Service reported accumulations of 11.5 inches in the...
Biden pushed to speak out more as U.S. democracy concerns grow
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has gotten the same troubling questions from worried world leaders, ones that he never thought he would hear. “Is America going to be all right?” they ask. “What about democracy in America?” While Biden has tried to offer America’s allies assurances, he has only occasionally...
How will pandemic end? Omicron clouds forecasts for endgame
Pandemics do eventually end, even if omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. But it won’t be like flipping a light switch: The world will have to learn to coexist with a virus that’s not going away. The ultra-contagious omicron mutant is pushing cases to all-time highs...
$29,000 for an average used car? Would-be buyers are aghast
DETROIT — A couple of months ago, a woman paid a visit to Jeff Schrier’s used car lot in Omaha, Nebraska. She was on a tight budget, she said, and was desperate for a vehicle to commute to work. She was shown three cars priced at her limit, roughly $7,500....
Pennsylvania casinos not ready to cut smoking from gambling experience
Like flashing lights, dings and coins splashing into a slot machine tray, an equally familiar — even stereotypical — casino experience involves plumes of smoke wafting skyward from patrons puffing on ash-tipped cigarettes. Casinos, and the states that host them, have permitted smoking for decades, with the industry bypassing a...
Some Pittsburgh Public Schools buildings go remote because of staffing shortages
Students in 12 Pittsburgh Public Schools buildings learned remotely Monday because of covid-related staffing shortages. An alert posted to the district’s website said students would have livestreamed lessons at the following schools:Allegheny PreK-5.Carrick High School.Crescent Early Childhood Center.Greenfield PreK-8.Liberty PreK-5.Lincoln PreK-5.Montessori PreK-5.Morrow PreK-8.Perry High School.Phillips PreK-5.Weil PreK-5.Whittier PreK-5. A covid-19...
Steelers fans sound off on the apparent end of the Big Ben era
Angela Birch of Kiski Township has a message for Ben Roethlisberger. “You’ll be missed,” said Birch, 48. “I hate to see you go. Enjoy the life with your kids and thank you so much for everything you’ve done.” Tonight’s game against the Cleveland Browns likely will be the final home...
1st New Year’s baby in Westmoreland makes late appearance
The first baby born in Westmoreland County in the new year made a late appearance on New Year’s Day at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, but it was earlier than her mother’s doctors had predicted. Rosalind Grace Weimer, the daughter of Katlyn, 25, and Michael Weimer, 27, of Hempfield...
New Year’s Day dodgeball tournament draws small, but enthusiastic turnout in first year
The Dodgefathers arrived dressed to impress. The five-member dodgeball team, made up of middle school-age boys from Wheeling, W.Va., journeyed Saturday to West Deer to compete in the inaugural New Year Smash Em Dodgeball Tournament. Sporting matching custom T-shirts with a sporty play on the classic Italian mafia film, the...
In nation at war with itself, one town tries cup of civility
LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — When Maureen Donnelly Morris came from nearby Leesburg to open her café in Lovettsville, she got a warm welcome. Neighbors rallied to her aid. Divisions ripping at their town and their country were set aside. America’s thunderous rage felt distant. They sank posts for her parking signs....
Vomit-fumed ‘Bradford’ pear tree lands on Pa. noxious weeds list, with sales to be banned
As an urban landscaping option, a certain ornamental, flowering pear tree might be nice and compact — even with a bit of an odorous downside. After some unfortunate cross-breeding between varieties, however, it now finds itself in the crosshairs of Pennsylvania horticulture officials. Callery pear, scientifically known as Pyrus calleryana...
Police: Spat over missing item leads to man’s shooting in Kiski Twp.; woman jailed
A Kiski Township woman was jailed in Armstrong County after shooting a man she had forced out of the car on the night of New Year’s Day, Kiski Township police said. Police said Patricia Kettering-Pierce, 55, of Clarks Hollow Road, shot the man along Edmond Road in Armstrong County about...
Twitter bans Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene account for covid-19 misinfo
SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter on Sunday banned the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of its covid-19 misinformation policy, according to a statement from the company. The Georgia Republican’s account was permanently suspended under the “strike” system Twitter launched in March, which uses artificial intelligence to...
Fauci: CDC mulling covid test requirement for asymptomatic
WASHINGTON — As the covid-19 omicron variant surges across the United States, top federal health officials are looking to add a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus, the White House’s top medical adviser said Sunday. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Centers...
Capitol rioters’ tears, remorse don’t spare them from jail
WASHINGTON — Florida business owner Robert Palmer cheered on the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 before he joined the fray. Screaming obscenities, he hurled a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at police officers trying to ward off the mob. Nearly a year later, Palmer fought back...
Police struggle to deter rising catalytic converter thefts
RICHMOND, Va. — In the tiny town of Lawrenceville, Virginia, a van owned by Poplar Mount Baptist Church was knocked out of commission for weeks after thieves cut the catalytic converter out of its exhaust system. Several months later, across town, a catalytic converter was ripped from a van owned...
Slippery Rock program for students with intellectual disabilities offers Greensburg woman chance to thrive
Lizzie Ammons had fought too hard to let the prospect of college slip from her grasp when word began circulating that Slippery Rock University might shutter its Rock Life program — one of about 300 college programs across the nation for students with intellectual disabilities. Ammons, 21, of Greensburg was...
Police: Suspect arrested in fatal New Year’s road rage shooting in Rostraver
A Rostraver woman was shot to death early New Year’s morning in what Rostraver police are calling an act of road rage. Holly B. Vadella, 59, of Pawnee Drive, was driving home from visiting her mother on New Year’s Eve when she was shot once at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday...
