Editor's Picks category, Page 356
Thin mints or Trefoils? Girl Scout cookie sales set to begin
Thin mints or Trefoils? Do-si-dos or Tagalongs? It’s time to decide which Girl Scout cookies you’re buying this year — and how many boxes. Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania will launch their 2021 Girl Scout Cookie Program on Friday, hoping to bring smiles to the faces of their customers during a...
Explainer: Transfer of power under 25th Amendment
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s role in inciting violence at the Capitol and his refusal to acknowledge his election defeat is prompting some lawmakers to urge his removal from office through the 25th Amendment. The amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a...
Identical twins aren’t perfect clones, research shows
WASHINGTON — If you’re an identical twin who’s always resisted being called a clone of your sibling, scientists say you have a point. Identical twins are not exactly genetically the same, new research shows. Scientists in Iceland sequenced DNA from 387 pairs of identical twins — those derived from a...
Caleb Verbois: The Constitution, a demagogue and a coup
Every semester in my introductory American Government class, I have my students read a short speech written by a 28-year-old over 150 years ago. It turned into one of the most important speeches in American history, even though many people have forgotten it today. The speaker, a relatively unknown Midwestern...
Rather than putting on the ‘quarantine 15,’ 4 Alle-Kiski Valley residents used 2020 to lose weightVideo
Losing never felt so good. Meet four residents of the Alle-Kiski Valley who lost more than 225 pounds combined last year during the covid-19 restrictions. After lockdowns forced people nationwide to endure changes in lifestyles and eating habits, the term “Quarantine 15” was coined — referring to the accompanying trend...
Former presidents Bush, Obama ‘appalled’ and sickened by mayhem at Capitol
Former President George W. Bush said he and his wife, Laura, are sickened and heartbroken over the “mayhem” in Washington, D.C., and have watched in “disbelief and dismay” as events unfolded. Bush said the “assault” on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and the disruption of a constitutionally mandated meeting to...
Photos: Protesters storm U.S. Capitol, disrupt approval of Biden’s win
Protesters backing President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in violent clashes with police that force a delay in the constitutional process to affirm Joe Biden’s victory in the November election. Trump had urged his supporters to come to Washington to protest Congress’ formal approval of Biden’s win....
Mt. Lebanon man leads Video Trust, national group supporting academic film libraries
A lifelong love of the movies has led to a Mt. Lebanon man leading a nonprofit that helps strengthen film collections at academic libraries around the country, from kindergarten through university level. Chad Hunter is the new executive director of Video Trust, a 40-year-old national organization that provides professional development...
All Family Video locations, including Greensburg store, closingVideo
The Greensburg Family Video store on South Main Street is closing under a nationwide shuttering of all of its stores, according to its parent company, Highland Ventures. President Keith Hoogland pointed to the decrease in foot traffic as well as lack of new movie releases caused by the coronavirus pandemic...
TV Q&A: How were the ratings for ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with new host Tyra Banks?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: How were the ratings of “Dancing with the Stars” when comparing last year to this year since Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were fired? —...
Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton to play Batman in 2022 movie
Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton is slated to reprise his role as Batman in “The Flash,” a film anticipated for 2022. In the upcoming movie, DC Films will employ what is known as a multiverse, which allows for different versions of the same character to exist simultaneously in parallel worlds. This...
New geocaching game on Rachel Carson Trail encourages family hikes
A Pine Township family’s hiking experience has inspired a new game to get other families out on the Rachel Carson Trail. Brian Vernon needed to get out of the house after working from home for months on end and helping his daughter, Lorelei, and son, Riley, learn during the covid...
State lottery open for rare Pappy Van Winkle bourbon
Whiskey lovers, now is your chance to get your hands on the biggest name in bourbon — but you’ll need plenty of luck to grab a bottle. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board opened the annual lottery for Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery’s bourbons and rye whiskey. The most coveted release...
Pittsburgh named a ‘reforestation hub’ by startup that aims to use, plant urban trees
Pittsburgh will be going greener this year. The Steel City is one of four cities across the country selected to receive an assessment about how it can be reforested. A national startup, Cambium Carbon, is leading the effort. The company launched last year and has lines of products made from...
Harvard professor believes asteroid was actually old alien techVideo
It would appear that one man’s rock is another alien’s outdated cellphone. Avi Loeb, an Israeli-American theoretical physicist and professor at Harvard University, theorizes in his upcoming book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) that a rock that entered our solar system in September...
TV Talk: Joe Kenda recounts the cases of other cops on ‘American Detective’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. On Investigation Discovery’s “Homicide Hunter,” Westmoreland County native Joe Kenda seemed like he retold cases from memory because he did: Episodes were based on cases he worked for the Colorado Springs, Colo., police department. In...
Independent chefs say pandemic has aided businessVideo
What’s for dinner? During covid times, that question became challenging for many as restrictions, lockdowns and mandated restaurant closures occurred more than once. Meet three Pittsburgh-area chefs — not affiliated with restaurants — providing home-cooked meals delivered to your door. JSMenusPGH Jake Stewart works out of a kitchen in Springdale...
Pandemic plagued schools in 1st semester, likely to continue after holidays
While the end of a tumultuous first semester is in sight, school districts plagued with uncertainty and ever-changing situations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic are far from in the clear as record-breaking cases are continually reported, leaving no set plans going into the spring months. As the first semester...
More than 1,200 species and counting, free pocket field guide developed for Buffalo Creek watershed
The Buffalo Creek watershed might not be a national park, but it has enough wildlife and varieties of plants — more than 1,200 species — to warrant a pocket field guide developed by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. Audubon, government agencies and other nonprofits have been working for years...
New owners of Apollo’s Chambers Hotel look beyond pandemic to brighter future for historic business
The historic Chambers Hotel in Apollo is under new ownership. Jennifer and Walter Seniow purchased the hotel that dates to 1889 late last spring. They opened in November for about a month before facing covid-related shutdowns mandated by the state. “Some people say we’re crazy to buy a bar during...
100 years ago, KDKA gave birth to religious radio broadcasts at Calvary Episcopal in Pittsburgh
Before Jerry Falwell, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Joel Osteen, Archbishop Fulton Sheen and famous radio evangelists such as Father Charles Coughlin and Aimee Semple McPherson, there was Edwin Van Etten. It was the Rev. Edwin Van Etten, far from a household name, who helped popularize the live radio sermon....
It’s a boy! First New Year’s baby born to Greensburg woman
Siearra Pantojas of Greensburg received an early New Year’s Day surprise. A healthy baby boy. Pantojas, 21, was out shopping when she went into labor early on New Year’s Eve. After about five hours of hard labor, she welcomed son Bentlee Cole, the first 2021 baby born at Forbes Hospital...
Looking back, looking ahead: 2020 was a trying year, what’s in store for 2021?Video
Americans would have to go back several decades at least to find a year as hellacious as 2020. Perhaps not since 1968, when the United States was fighting a war in Vietnam, when police were clashing with young people protesting that war, and when Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby...
Drivers not using E-ZPass will absorb a 51% PA Turnpike rate hike in 2021
Pennsylvania Turnpike toll increases announced last year will take effect just after midnight Sunday, Jan. 3, and if you’re not using the state’s E-ZPass program, the hike will be a steep one. Over the summer, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission approved a 6% hike for all E-ZPass rates systemwide, along with...
What turns 100 in 2021? Here are a few century-old items
Everything gets older. It’s just a fact of life. And this year — that would be 2021 — there are a few things that are turning 100. And we’re kind of blown away by how old they are. For instance: Cheez-It On March 31, 1921, the Dayton, Ohio-based...
