Week-in-review: Covid restrictions expire, explosions, puppy snatching among top Western Pa. headlines

The first full week of 2021 may best be remembered for unrest in the U.S. Capitol tied to the presidential election, but there was plenty of local news of note.

It included businesses being able to reopen at limited capacity after restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus expired, the investigation of explosions in two Pittsburgh neighborhoods, the death of one state lawmaker and another being prevented from taking his seat, and the story of the snatching of a puppy from its owner that, fortunately, had a happy ending.

Businesses reopen as latest covid-19 restrictions expire

Restaurants, bars, gyms and casinos reopened Monday morning at a still-limited capacity when Pennsylvania’s most recent set of covid-19 restrictions expired.

The restrictions, started Dec. 12, barred restaurants from allowing indoor dining and shut down gyms and casinos in the face of a post-Thanksgiving surge in virus cases.

Pittsburgh man arrested after Lawrenceville explosion

A Pittsburgh man was charged in federal court with throwing an explosive device from a moving vehicle Sunday night in the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

Charles Baker, 33, was charged with illegal possession of an unregistered destructive device and being a felon in possession of a destructive device after investigators said he turned himself in Tuesday evening.

Baker was scheduled for a detention hearing on Jan. 12.

Police also responded Sunday night to a report of another explosion on Dinwiddle Street in the Hill District. Investigators believed it was caused by fireworks.

State Rep. Mike Reese dies

State Rep. Mike Reese, elected in November to his seventh term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, died Saturday at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg following an apparent brain aneurysm.

Reese, 42, of Mt. Pleasant Township, was a 12-year House veteran representing Westmoreland and Somerset county residents in the 59th Legislative District.

Reese was memorialized on the floor of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday, the day he was supposed to have been sworn in to his seventh two-year term.

Memorial yard signs were sold at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds Wednesday evening to support Reese’s family.

Republicans block Brewster from being seated

The Pennsylvania Senate devolved into chaos Tuesday as Republicans refused to seat Democrat Jim Brewster to his third term in office.

The state certified Brewster, of McKeesport, as the winner of the Nov. 3 election in the 45th District, which includes parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. His victory was set aside by Republican senators who claimed a pending federal lawsuit by GOP challenger Nicole Ziccarelli was reason to delay his seating.

It has left constituents of the 45th District effectively without representation in the state Senate, but Brewster said his staff was working on constituent issues even if he can’t do anything official.

Puppy snatching has a happy ending

A puppy snatched from her owners Tuesday night in Squirrel Hill was reunited with her family Wednesday.

City public works employees found Daphne, a 4-month-old mixed breed, in the Blue Slide Park section of Frick Park.

Debbie Gespass said she was walking Daphne near the Frick Park Environmental Center when a man stopped and began petting the dog. She told police the man picked up the dog, unhooked the leash from its collar, pushed her and ran off with the dog.

Police said the suspect — described as a tall, very thin man in his early 20s — has not been found.