Regional category, Page 292
Victim of fatal Derry Township overdose was warned of drug’s potency
Westmoreland County prosecutors said Monday that a Christmas Eve decision to sell drugs to a Derry woman two years ago was both fatal and tragic. Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar told a Westmoreland County jury that Michelle Spillar, 38, died Dec. 26, 2017, from drugs sold to her by an...
Gasoline prices dip below $2 per gallon in spots as oil prices continue to sag
While not the case in the Pittsburgh area, nearly 5,000 stations across the United States are selling gasoline for less than $2 per gallon, according to price tracking service GasBuddy. “Oil prices continue to sag on worries over the spread of the coronavirus, blowing the door wide open for a...
Clarion University to introduce campus safety smart phone app
There’s an app for nearly everything and, next fall, Clarion University students will have the opportunity to tap one designed to fight sexual violence on campus. Officials at Clarion said the state-owned university located about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh will use a state grant to launch LiveSafe, a mobile...
Where’s the snow? Winter so far has failed to deliver much to Western Pa.
All those things that make winter wintry in Western Pennsylvania — at least one snowstorm, shoveling snow, making a snowman — haven’t happened much this year. “I don’t think I’ve shoveled once,” said Greg Phillips, manager and CEO of the Westmoreland Conservation District. While there was some measurable snowfall in...
Police: Father of 4-month-old unintentionally shot child
State police reported they believe the father of a 4-month-old child unintentionally fired a shot in an Indiana County apartment, hitting his son. According to police, the 21-year-old father fired a shot from a 9mm handgun while inside an apartment at 42 College Lodge Road in White Township, striking the...
Pennsylvania health department officials say ‘coronavirus threat remains low’
While China has accused the U.S. of causing panic in its response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is doing what it can to keep residents calm. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reminded Pennsylvanians Monday that the threat from coronavirus remains low. There have been...
Public hearing in February set to discuss the Saturday open to deer season
Hunters across Southwestern Pennsylvania will have a chance this month to let state officials know how they feel about having rifle deer season open on a Saturday. The House Game and Fisheries Committee announced a public hearing is planned Feb. 20 in Speers, Washington County. The meeting will be from...
Déjà vu, again: Bill Murray is back for ‘Groundhog Day’ Jeep commercialVideo
Just like the premise of the movie “Groundhog Day,” its star Bill Murray, and others are back again — but this time riding in the new Jeep Gladiator as the getaway vehicle. The 60-second commercial debuted on television Sunday during Super Bowl LIV. For some, the biggest football game of...
Police investigating after 4-month-old boy shot in Indiana County
State police are investigating after a 4-month-old boy was shot at an Indiana County apartment. According to police, officers responded to College Lodge Road in White Township for reports of a shooting shortly before 6:20 p.m. Saturday. When they arrived on scene, they found the child had suffered a gunshot...
Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring for 2nd consecutive yearVideo
Pennsylvania’s beloved and world-famous Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring Sunday morning after he did not see his shadow. Phil has only made such a prediction 20 times in the 134-year history of Groundhog Day, according to state officials. This year marks the first time he has envisioned an early...
Crashes, slick roads reported as region gets inch of snow
Almost an inch of snow fell across the Pittsburgh region overnight into Sunday morning, causing some slick road conditions, according to the National Weather Service. “It was expected,” said NWS meteorologist Myranda Fullerton. “We anticipated snow basically last evening through the overnight hours. We had more snowfall north of Interstate...
Woman killed in rollover crash on I-79 near Cranberry
A woman was killed Friday in the first of two back-to-back vehicle crashes along Interstate 79 near Cranberry, state police reported. Cristi Reibert, 41, of Lyndora was pronounced dead after she was involved in a crash at about 3:30 p.m., just north of Cranberry in Butler County. The initial investigation...
Police say Indiana County woman let child vape, then recorded it
Police said an 18-year-old Indiana County woman allowed a child to vape from a Juul smoking device, recorded it and laughed as the child laid coughing on the floor. State police at Indiana charged Berkley Noel Sutton of Shellbark Road, Armagh, with endangering the welfare of children for failing to...
Pitt cancels spring programs in China
Citing a new U.S. State Department advisory against travel to China, the University of Pittsburgh Friday instructed students, staff and faculty slated to travel there in the coming weeks to cancel their plans. Several Pitt groups were scheduled to travel to China in March. Pitt spokesman Kevin Zwick said the...
Donora man killed in crash
A Donora man was killed Thursday night in a one-vehicle crash near the Donora-Monessen Bridge, according to the Washington County coroner. Derrick A. Dow, 41, lost control of the vehicle he was driving at the intersection of Route 837 and Donora Road at 8 p.m., Coroner Tim Warco said. Dow’s...
Cops: Traffic stop yields more than 500 stamp bags, 22-gram crack rock
A McKeesport man and an Indiana woman face drug charges after state police said they discovered more than 500 stamp bags of heroin and crack cocaine during an Indiana County traffic stop Wednesday. Shortly after noon, state police said, they pulled over an SUV on Laurel Road in Armstrong Township...
Missing woman found after large Beaver County search
An elderly woman has been found after going missing for several hours, according to Beaver County 911. Frances Zernich, 79, was last seen in her Zernich Drive home in Center Township around midnight. Her family reported her missing around 3 a.m. Search teams spent hours scouring the area around her...
Pittsburgh universities monitoring coronavirus reports and weighing travel considerations
Officials at Pittsburgh universities say they are closely monitoring news about coronavirus. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, which enroll about 5,000 Chinese students at their Oakland campuses and have a variety of academic partnerships on the Chinese mainland, both have issued alerts about the mysterious respiratory virus...
Trooper: Paranormal investigator’s report of voice coming from Fayette cemetery unfounded
A paranormal investigator’s claim of hearing a female voice coming from “beneath a pile of dirt” in a Fayette County cemetery Wednesday was unfounded, state police said. Trooper Johnathon M. Mosier reported he was dispatched to rural Evergreen Cemetery on Morgantown Road in Springhill Township just before 10 a.m. by...
‘Value-added’ products a boon to small farms
For smaller farms in Southwestern Pennsylvania, growing commodity crops may not be enough to keep them afloat. The grain farmer may have to learn how to mill flour. The fruit farmer may have to learn how to produce jam. The dairy farmer may have to learn how to make cheese....
Rare New Geneva musket returns to National Park Service
The Friendship Hill Association and the National Park Service will display the return of an artifact to Fayette County during a Feb. 1 program at Friendship Hill National Historic Site in Point Marion. During a brief program, beginning at 11 a.m. in the Gallatin mansion, a Deed of Gift signing...
2 killed in Fayette County crash
Two people were killed in a head-on collision in Fayette County Tuesday afternoon, according to state police. John Snyder, 68, of Scottdale, and Tiler Guth, 24, of Vanderbilt, were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Officers responded to the incident shortly before 2:45 p.m. Tuesday along Route 201 in...
Pennsylvania reports 9 new flu-related deaths
After a two-week respite, Pennsylvania reported an increase in flu-related deaths in the past week, according to the state Department of Health. As of the week ending Jan. 25, a total of 33 flu-related deaths have been reported this flu season, which started Sept. 29. That’s up by nine from...
412 Food Rescue expands mission in Westmoreland, other Western Pa. counties
A Pittsburgh nonprofit that “rescues” good food from going to landfills is expanding its services to surrounding counties through a smartphone app and a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. 412 Food Rescue, founded in 2015, redirects surplus food from local waste streams to nonprofits that serve people in need. In...
Carnegie Museum will partner with Pitt, Boston University to study climate-change effects
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the University of Pittsburgh and Boston University will partner on a three-year collaborative research project to study the effects of climate change and invasive plants on trees and wildflowers. The three entities were awarded a $646,000 National Science Foundation grant to study “phenological mismatches...
