Regional category, Page 341
Anti-vaxxers attacked Western Pa. pediatricians. Study shows how they fought back.
When Dr. Todd Wolynn published a YouTube video on his Kids Plus Pediatrics Facebook page touting the HPV vaccine as a cancer prevention tool, he had no idea he was opening the floodgates to a world of anti-vaccine internet warriors. Wolynn, a pediatrician and the CEO of the practice with...
Police nab Butler County homicide suspect in Venango County
Police on Thursday arrested a man accused of shooting to death a 23-year-old man in Butler County earlier this week. Alec D. Miller, 19, of Oakland Township is charged with homicide in the death of Maximillian W. Halterman in Oakland Township. After hours of searching for the suspect, officials found...
Washington man, 24, won’t get death penalty for killing man during botched gun robbery
A Washington County man convicted of murdering a partially deaf and blind man while trying to rob him of a gun collection six years ago will not face the death penalty, a jury decided. A jury of six men and six women sentenced Brandon Wolowski, 24, to life in prison...
Ohio man alleged to have distributed heroin in New Castle pleads guilty in federal court
An Ohio man accused of distributing heroin in New Castle plead guilty to federal drug charges. Frank Christian, 46, of Youngstown plead guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon on charges of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of heroin. Authorities said he distributed about 90 grams of...
Former Mercer County DA sentenced in obstruction case involving his lover
The former Mercer County District Attorney who was convicted in January of abusing his position of power to influence criminal cases involving his lover was sentenced Wednesday to probation and community service. Miles Karson, 73, of Sharon was sentenced to four years of probation and 300 hours of community service....
Grants available to help rural, low-income, disabled homeowners
Grants are available to help rural, low-income disabled homeowners in six southwestern Pennsylvania counties make repairs and renovations to their homes. Disability Options Network, a non-profit based in New Castle, is administering a recently-awarded Housing Preservation Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grants are provided to very low...
Special election will fill 11th state House seat vacated by Brian Ellis
A special election to fill former state Rep. Brian Ellis’ seat in the state House of Representatives will be held during the primary election on May 21. The date was set Wednesday by Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny). The seat is in the 11th District in Butler County....
Rockwood woman ejected, killed in Somerset crash
A Rockwood woman died of blunt force trauma after being thrown from a pickup truck Monday evening in Somerset County, state police said. Authorities on Tuesday didn’t release the name of the 32-year-old victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene in Northampton Township. According to police, the crash occurred...
Former JPMorgan Chase Bank analyst guilty of stealing account holders’ personal info
An Ohio woman, a former analyst for JPMorgan Chase Bank, pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally accessing account holders’ personal information. Sarah Wiley, 35, of Columbus plead guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft charges before U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer, federal authorities announced Tuesday. She was an...
Maryland man admits to stealing lawn tractors, UTVs from Western Pa. dealerships
A Maryland man admitted to stealing riding lawn mowers and utility terrain vehicles from dealerships in Western Pennsylvania, then returning to his home state to sell them, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Harvey Leemore, 53, pleaded guilty to plotting with others to raid the dealers and transport the stolen vehicles across...
Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh officially retires from K&L Gates
Former U.S. Attorney General and Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh has officially retired, according to K&L Gates, the global law firm where he began his career. K&L Gates “wishes its longtime partner … well in his retirement,” the firm said in a news release. Thornburgh, 86, began his legal career as...
West Virginia lawsuit accuses diocese of knowingly employing pedophilesVideo
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sued the Catholic diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and its former bishop Michael Bransfield on Tuesday, charging that they “knowingly employed pedophiles and failed to conduct adequate background checks” for people working in Catholic schools and camps, a news release from Morrisey’s office says. The lawsuit,...
Are we alone in the universe? New Penn State center searches for answer
Is anyone out there? Or are we alone in the universe? Penn State intends to make its newly created Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSETI) a global leader and worldwide hub for research aimed at answering that question. For most people, SETI - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - conjures images of...
Powerball jackpot climbs to $550 million
Powerball players will be vying for the 10th-largest lottery jackpot in U.S.. history in Wednesday’s drawing. The top prize has climbed to $550 million, or about $335 million if taken as a lump sum. The winner will likely have to pay almost half the prize in state and federal taxes,...
Glen Campbell man dies at Lawrence County gas/oil well site
A 60-year-old man died after a large steel pipe fell from a truck and hit him at a gas/oil well site Monday morning in Lawrence County, state police said. According to state police, the accident happened shortly after 11 a.m. at the well site on Mt. Jackson Road in North...
Pennsylvania lawmaker Brian Ellis facing sex assault claim quits House
HARRISBURG — A Western Pennsylvania state lawmaker resigned Monday, two months after being stripped of a chairmanship over allegations he had sex with a woman against her will while she was blacked out. Republican state Rep. Brian Ellis, who has not been charged with any crime, wrote in a letter...
Gas prices continue climb as refinery issues raise concerns
Gasoline prices have been on the rise for five straight weeks with no signs of slowing down, a petroleum analyst said Monday. “Several perhaps major refinery issues flared up over the weekend, including fires at two facilities that could push wholesale gasoline prices up notably, mainly in the Pacific Northwest...
Police: Missing Blairsville woman found safe
A Blairsville woman who had been reported missing since early March has been located and is safe, state police in Indiana County said Tuesday. Jodi K. Leary, 44, a Blairsville native, was reported missing by her family Friday. Police said she’d last been seen by a family friend March 3...
Johnstown pediatrician gets at least 79 years for assaulting patients
EBENSBURG — A former Pennsylvania pediatrician was sentenced Monday to at least 79 years in prison for sexually assaulting 31 children, most of them patients, as his now-adult victims blasted not only their abuser but the system that let him get away with it for so long. Dr. Johnnie Barto...
Female Scouts BSA troop in Westmoreland takes inaugural camping trip
Friday night was far from the first time a group of Scouts braved the cold for a winter camping trip in the woods. It was, however, the first camping trip for a female Scouts BSA troop in Westmoreland County. “I’m actually, finally, part of a group,” said Greta Nicodemus, 11,...
2 killed, 4 injured in wrong-way crash on turnpike in Beaver CountyVideo
Two people were killed and four were injured in a head-on crash in Beaver County on Saturday because of a motorist was driving the wrong way on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, according to state police. Police identified those killed as William Paxton, 76, of Pittsburgh and Andrew Sworan, 36, of Cleveland....
Tragic deaths of Jonny Gammage and Antwon Rose twice put Pittsburgh in the spotlight
Western Pennsylvania over the span of nearly a quarter century has twice found itself at center stage of national outrage involving the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers. The 1995 death of Jonny Gammage in the era of Rodney King and the L.A. riots focused...
Woman killed in hit-and-run crash in Fayette County
A pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Dunbar Township, Fayette County on Friday evening, according to state police. The driver who struck the woman fled the scene and is at large. Police do not know what kind of vehicle he or she was driving. The crash happened on...
Washington DA appeals Supreme Court decision vacating homicide verdict in McClelland case
The Washington County District Attorney wants the state Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that overturned a Mon Valley woman’s conviction of conspiracy to commit homicide in the 2011 death of her 92-year-old neighbor. The neighbor was murdered after being repeatedly burglarized by the inmate’s family. In his...
Don’t call it a comeback: Despite record busts, officials say cocaine never went away
Recent large seizures of cocaine locally and nationally make it seem as though the drug is making a comeback. It’s not. “It never really went away. There’s just, unfortunately, an abundant supply of it,” said Patrick Trainor, special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. As Pennsylvania officials report an...
