Regional category, Page 322
Professional fireworks shows still plentiful despite federal figures to the contrary
Business for display fireworks companies is booming, industry experts say, despite figures showing a dud when it comes to pounds of pyrotechnic goods sold over the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2018, there was a 31.5 million pound decrease in the number of display fireworks used in the United...
Iran tensions, declining inventories cited for rising gasoline prices
The Fourth of July isn’t the reason for rising gasoline prices, an industry analyst says. “Motorists can blame escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran for higher oil prices, declining inventories and even a potential U.S./China trade deal,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. In Pittsburgh, gas...
Pets can be frightened of fireworks, storms, but help is available
The booms and sparkles of fireworks may delight the huddled masses of humanity who celebrate America’s Independence Day this week, but they can befuddle and terrify their four-legged counterparts. “They just get spooked,” said Gwen Snyder, manager of Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, a New Kensington-based animal shelter. This is...
Gov. Tom Wolf signs law that protects regional DUI checkpoints
Small police departments across Pennsylvania are celebrating freshly inked legislation that protects their right to collaborate with other agencies to run DUI checkpoints, weeks after a state Supreme Court decision put such enforcement efforts in jeopardy. Gov. Tom Wolf signed House Bill 1614 into law Tuesday afternoon. “It will save...
Family of flesh-eating bacteria victim urges caution in the water
Former Charleroi resident Carolyn “Lynn” Fleming liked to read, play word games and take trips to the beach. Unfortunately, a June 14 visit to Coquina Beach near Bradenton, Fla., with family members visiting from Pennsylvania, proved fatal when she stumbled, fell in the water and suffered a cut on her...
Congressional stamp of approval expected to boost 1,300-mile long Sept. 11th National Memorial Trail
The likely passage of U.S. Senate and House bills are expected to boost continued development of the 1,300-mile-long September 11th National Memorial Trail connecting all three plane crash memorial sites in Shanksville, Pa., New York City and Arlington, Va. The September 11th National Memorial Trail Alliance, along with others, has...
Teenager in Uniontown charged as adult after refusing to drop knife, troopers say
A Fayette County teenager was charged as an adult Monday with six counts of aggravated assault and related charges after state police say they were called to an apartment complex in Uniontown to break up a street fight and she refused to surrender a knife to police. Jamayla Jones, 16,...
LCB awards nearly $765,000 in grants to reduce underage drinking
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board approved almost $765,000 in grants to 44 schools, community organizations, municipalities and law enforcement organizations, among others, to reduce underage and dangerous drinking. The grant money will cover projects like enforcement patrols and tactics, awareness campaigns, educational efforts and alternative, alcohol-free activities. “Since 1999, the...
Police: North Versailles man tried to flush heroin, cocaine, pot at Indiana County hotel
State troopers say a man attempted to “flush” nearly five bricks of heroin, 24 grams of crack cocaine and a small amount of marijuana down the toilet at an Indiana County hotel Monday as they were closing in to serve a search warrant, according to court documents. But the alleged...
Forecasters predicting a hot and rainy Fourth of July
According to the National Weather Service, the flashes of light in the sky this Fourth of July are just as likely to be lightning as they are to be fireworks. As sustained hot weather continues, forecasters are predicting a 40% to 70% chance of daily and evening thunderstorms through Saturday...
Some Fayette County townships under boil water advisory
Several townships in Fayette County are under a boil water advisory by the Mountain Watershed Association. The association placed part of their system in Nicholson, Georges and German townships under the advisory due to water loss and a leak, which have not yet been located, according to a news release....
Pa. moves to shut down Erie Coke plant, citing violations
ERIE — State environmental regulators are moving to shut down a coke plant in northwestern Pennsylvania, citing “years of numerous repetitive environmental violations.” The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said Monday it has denied Erie Coke Corporation’s application to renew its operating permit and filed a complaint in Erie County...
Suspect arrested in Somerset Dollar Tree robbery
State police have arrested a man suspected of robbing a Somerset Township Dollar Tree at knifepoint Saturday. John Joseph Sigado, 34, of Washington is charged with robbery and related charges. He was placed in the Somerset County Jail on $150,000 cash bail. Troopers said Sigado entered the Somerset Township store...
Annual push underway in Pennsylvania to let local police use speed-detecting radar
It’s a question that seems to have been around almost as long as the Model T: Should local police departments in Pennsylvania be allowed to use radar to catch speeders? The state Senate thinks so. A bill permitting local police departments to use radar passed 49-1 last week. Only state...
Police: Gun fired during Uniontown fireworks show
State police at Uniontown are looking for a man who apparently fired a gun during a fireworks show at Uniontown Mall on Sunday night. Police said no one was injured. A single gunshot was reported during the show just before 10 p.m. Tribune-Review news partner WPXI obtained a video from...
Troopers seek identity of man who they say threatened clerk with knife during robbery
State police are asking the public’s help identifying a suspect in a daylight robbery Saturday at a Dollar Tree store in Somerset Township. Troopers said a white man between 30- and 40-years-old and about 6 feet tall entered the Somerset Township store on North Center Avenue at 2:10 p.m. and...
Presses to stop at Youngstown’s daily newspaper, The Vindicator, on Aug. 31
Bertram de Souza was alone in The Vindicator’s newsroom early Saturday afternoon in downtown Youngstown. “The newsroom is empty, and I’m sitting here contemplating the next 60 days,” de Souza, a 40-year veteran of the paper who works as editorial page editor and columnist, told the Tribune-Review. “It’s a certain...
Police: Man shot, killed after firing at Pa. troopers
REEDERS, Pa. — State police in eastern Pennsylvania say troopers answering a call about a man who said he intended to kill himself shot and killed the man after he fired at them. Police in Monroe County say they were called to a Jackson Township home just after 10 a.m....
Western Pa., Ohio fireworks companies play big role in nation’s Fourth celebrations
Thousands of boxes filled with consumer fireworks filtered one day this month through Phantom Fireworks’ main warehouse in Warren, Ohio, where hundreds of workers prepared for Fourth of July sales. More than 20 miles east across the Pennsylvania border, Jason Farell, scripting coordinator and designer at Pyrotecnico in New Castle,...
Pennsylvania lowers sales tax on taproom craft beers, pushes start to Oct. 1
Some craft beer brewers will adjust prices. Others are considering options to offset any additional cost associated with a state requirement that they must collect sales tax starting Oct. 1 — after a July 1 start date was delayed — on beers sold at their taprooms and to-go purchases. John...
Here’s where to watch July Fourth holiday fireworks in Western Pa.
Here’s where you can watch fireworks around Western Pennsylvania this Fourth of July holiday. July 3 • Findlay Township Independence Day Celebration, begins at 7:30 p.m., fireworks at 9:45 p.m., Recreation and Sports Complex, Route 30. No parking permitted on Route 30. • Hampton Township Community Day Celebration, fireworks at...
Much like the insect, cicada cookie emerges from Beaver County man’s freezer after 17 years
Even Cookie Monster might pass on munching the treat Beaver County lawyer Robert Banks has kept in his freezer since 2002. That’s the last time Kretchmar’s Bakery sold cookies that are decorated to look like the cicadas that have taken the region by swarm since early May. Like the insect,...
Pennsylvania grants to fund programs that educate on environmental issues
A one-acre pollinator garden. Climate change workshops. Riparian buffer planting. Field trips for fourth- and sixth-graders. Those are some of the programs being funded by the latest round of Environmental Education Grants announced Friday by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The grants, most of them in the range of...
Pitt names Thomas E. Richards board chair-elect
The University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees named a new chair-elect Friday, who will take over next year after the fifth and final term of incumbent Chair Eva Tansky Blum, who board members reelected Friday. A Pitt spokesman said Thomas E. Richards, a long-serving Pitt trustee and executive chair of...
‘Zombie cicadas’ try to mate after losing body parts, WVU researchers say
West Virginia University researchers discovered traces of amphetamines and hallucinogens fueling the hyperactive sexual behavior of cicadas that were infected with a deadly fungus and trying to mate even after their abdomens had fallen off. The cicadas with their impaired bodies spread the disease to others, hence, the researcher dubbed...
