Deb Erdley stories, Page 4

A Blairsville-area woman was jailed without bail Saturday in the Indiana County Jail on charges of stemming from the Friday evening shooting death of her boyfriend. State Police from Indiana County say Matraca Lynn Vrana, 28, was arraigned Saturday afternoon before District Magisterial Judge Christopher Welch on charges of voluntary...

A pair of U.S. senators say the Biden administration must do more to provide families with easily accessible information on covid-19 vaccination rates among nursing home staff and residents. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Senate Finance chair, and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, D-Scranton, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, want the...

At first, they worried their story would be lost. The families of the passengers and crew members of United Flight 93 knew they held a precious piece of American history. The efforts of 40 people who lost their lives on a rural Pennsylvania mountaintop thwarting a terrorist plot to crash...

...

Repeating a scene that has become more common in recent years, another municipality — Mt. Pleasant Township — is turning to Mutual Aid Ambulance Service to provide coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Township supervisors last week unanimously approved a resolution that calls for Greensburg-based Mutual Aid...

Nicole Roberts Bitar was encouraged to see the numbers ramping up for kindergarten registration in the New Kensington-Arnold School District this summer. Last year, the district was among many across the U.S. that saw kindergarten enrollment decline unexpectedly as families weighed their options: Should they send their 5- and 6-year-olds...

Pit Take BBQ in Greensburg will host a hog roast from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 12 to benefit Friends of Firefighters. The charity, which promotes mental health and wellness support services to members of the Fire Department of New York, was formed 20 years ago in the wake...

Eric McElvenny never shied away from a challenge. This week, the 38-year-old Bethel Park father of three will face a new one. The Rostraver native will take to an international stage as a member the U.S. Paralympic Triathlon Team in Tokyo. Like the Summer Olympic competitions that wrapped up there...

The digital world is colliding with the real one, only this time it’s not on a movie set but on the gritty streets of New Kensington. Workmen are setting the steel for The Digital Foundry at New Kensington, the brainchild of a coalition brought together by Penn State New Kensington...

Calling it a game-changer, officials at the University of Pittsburgh Greensburg broke ground Friday for the school’s long planned Life Sciences Building on its Hempfield campus. The $19.3 million, 32,000- ­square-foot sustainable building is scheduled to be completed in November 2022. Beginning in January 2023, it will house the school’s nursing program...

Calling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a painful spectacle, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, is calling on Americans to turn down the blame game and concentrate on assisting those trying to escape the Taliban. Casey said his office alone logged 280 calls about the collapse of Afghanistan as of Wednesday...

The bipartisan infrastructure bill pending in the U.S. House likely will become law by mid-October, predicts U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. The Scranton Democrat, on the road in Pennsylvania during the August congressional break, on Thursday told Tribune-Review editors and reporters the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that already passed the...

The foundation that sponsors a 537-mile fundraising trek to pay tribute to the heroes of 9/11 will have a breakfast event Saturday in Shanksville to honor the first responders who heeded the call to respond to the crash of United Flight 93 the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The annual...

Charlotte Porath is weaving a web of love for furry creatures great and small. The Hempfield girl has two cats, Bella and Bonkers. And she always has to stop and pet all of the neighborhood dogs and cats when she goes out walking with her mother and 22-month old brother,...

Teachers tackling the tough topic of genocide in high school classrooms will be able to take advantage of a two-week institute at Seton Hill University next summer. University officials said the school recently was awarded a $174,426 competitive grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to underwrite the summer...

Ambassadors and park rangers tell visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial repeatedly, “It’s all about the heroes of Flight 93.” Those would be the men and women aboard the United jetliner who made America’s first stand in the war on terror in the skies above Somerset County on Sept....

Citing growing workforce needs and the popularity of a series of graduate health care and health information programs, the Slippery Rock University council of trustees approved the creation of a new College of Health Professions. The academic unit that will officially begin operating next fall will provide a central home...

Nearly 18 months after covid-19 began to cut a broad swath through the nation’s nursing homes — killing 184,000 elderly and disabled residents and care workers — the U.S. Senate is weighing a bill to update federal policies and oversight of such facilities. The bill, dubbed the Nursing Home Improvement...

Providing — and verifying — proof of covid-19 vaccine status largely comes down to the honor system. And this could prove problematic with calls for proof of vaccination status growing among employers, entertainment venues, restaurants and colleges. There is no national database of vaccine recipients. Record keeping varies from state...

Child sexual abuse prevention advocates are making good on their promise to keep the heat on state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward for her refusal to advance a bill giving adult survivors of child sexual abuse their day in court. This week, they took their battle to the Hempfield Republican’s...

A former state prison in Hempfield is scheduled to be sold at a Westmoreland County Sheriff’s sale on Sept. 7 as part of a mortgage foreclosure seeking payment of $5.6 million. The sheriff’s sale notice is the most recent chapter in the ongoing saga of the former prison located on...

Nearly two decades after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group of survivors who lost loved ones and first responders afflicted with lingering illnesses are asking President Biden to avoid ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks next month. About 1,800 who lost loved ones as well as first responders...