Top Stories category, Page 28
Pa.’s independent home care workers get pay raise in state budget but agencies miss out
Pennsylvania lawmakers granted $21 million in additional funding to a sliver of in-home caregivers in the state budget passed Wednesday. Workers directly hired by the people they care for will see their per-hour state payments rise to more than $15 from $13.51, an increase that could make a small dent...
McKeesport’s Millers seek to join WPIAL-winning father/son combos — 5 things to watch in Week 12
As a football coach’s son, McKeesport senior Matthew Miller has held a lot of different jobs before becoming the team’s starting quarterback. “He’s been the waterboy, the ballboy and all these other things,” said his father, Matt Miller, who’s in his 10th season as McKeesport’s coach. “He’s been around the...
‘Frightening time’: Speakers lament how Civic Arena, Penn Plaza construction displaced whole neighborhoods
Sala Udin said he was about 7 years old in 1950 when rumors began circulating that his family would be forced to move from their home on the corner of Fullerton and Epiphany streets in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District neighborhood. Udin, a Pittsburgh Public Schools board member, on Friday recalled...
New prosecutor takes on the Georgia election case against Trump and others
ATLANTA — A longtime prosecutor announced he will take over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from the case and no one else wanted the job. The nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia was tasked with...
Penn State schedules meeting on Commonwealth Campus progress
Penn State administration will hold a virtual meeting Dec. 9 to provide updates on the seven Commonwealth Campuses that will close in two years, and also the 13 campuses that will remain open. Fotis Sotiropoulos, Penn State’s executive vice president and provost, and Renata Engel, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses...
Arnold man arrested in connection to shooting
An Arnold man is in custody in connection to a shooting Monday night along Third Avenue. Nile Rodgers, 33, faces attempted homicide and two aggravated assault charges. Arnold police allege Rodgers shot a man in his 30s at around 9 p.m. Monday in the 1400 block of Third Avenue. When...
For the right price, Norwin will sell naming rights to its new stadium
The Norwin School District hopes to sell the naming rights to its stadium to recoup some of the cost of a $25.4 million renovation that began this month. School leaders want the funds to defray the cost of the renovation of the 60-year-old Knights Stadium, said Superintendent Natalie McCracken. “We...
Roundup: Pittsburgh’s Christmas tree spurs Downtown road closures; Cabot residents face water issues
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Nov. 14: Road closures set for Christmas tree transport Lawrenceville’s Leslie Park will supply a towering Norway Spruce for the annual Christmas display outside of the City-County Building in Downtown Pittsburgh. The 40-foot tree will make its journey...
1 man dead, another charged after Hill District stabbing
One man is dead and another charged with criminal homicide after a stabbing Thursday night in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Robert Tillman, 50, is accused of fatally stabbing Eddie Murrell, 53, in a fight that spilled out of their shared home in the 2700 block of Webster Avenue. Police were called...
After months of debate, Greensburg Council decides where to install an electronic message sign
Greensburg Council has abandoned a proposal to put an electronic sign in St. Clair Park and instead plans to have it installed at the entrance to Lynch Field. Councilman Gregory Mertz said the sign will be 3 feet tall by 8 feet wide along Route 119 at the entrance to...
State budget sees no new money for public transit
Pennsylvanians woke up Thursday to a $50.1 billion state budget that makes additional investments in public schools and creates a new tax credit for lower-income people but provides no increase in funding for public transportation. Noticeably absent from the budget is Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to increase the portion of...
County leaders say furloughs, service cuts won’t disappear because of state budget deal
County officials are relieved that state money will begin flowing again but they aren’t out of the woods just yet. Despite a new state budget being signed Wednesday, austerity measures in most counties are expected to continue, including employee furloughs that, in some cases, could last through the end of...
Former Arnold police Chief Eric Doutt charged with selling cocaine, stealing rifle from police evidence room
Former Arnold police Chief Eric Doutt is accused of selling cocaine in Armstrong County and previously stealing an assault-style rifle from the Arnold Police Department evidence room, according to charges filed by the state Attorney General’s Office. Doutt, 56, of Arnold, a former Arnold police chief and New Kensington-Arnold School...
Fire scorches vacant Verona home that was being renovated
Fire crews rushed to the scene of a blaze at an unoccupied home on Peter Street in Verona on Thursday afternoon. The fire, which began just after 4 p.m., seems to have ignited in a bathroom, according to Verona Volunteer Fire Company Capt. Andy Tihey. Though renovations had been ongoing...
‘I felt it was either him or me,’ defendant testifies in Banksville Road shooting death
Connor Makstutis felt like he was being hunted. For months, he told a jury on Thursday, Richard Derkach had been following him, threatening him — even chasing him. It became so bad, Makstutis said, that the day after Thanksgiving in 2022 — when Derkach chased him through Brookline at speeds...
Victim identified in fatal Brighton Heights blaze
Authorities Thursday identified the victim of a weekend house fire on Pittsburgh’s North Side as Mark A. Jeselnick, 64. Firefighters were dispatched around 5 a.m. Saturday to a home in the 300 block of Parviss Street in the city’s Brighton Heights neighborhood. When they arrived, they found the home engulfed...
5 takeaways about Pittsburgh police chief nominee Jason Lando
Jason Lando, 48, was introduced Thursday as Pittsburgh Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor’s pick for police chief. Lando spent more than two decades with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police before taking over the significantly smaller police force pf Frederick, Md. O’Connor campaigned on a pledge to find a permanent police chief who...
Gainey, Black leaders launch August Wilson legacy brick fundraiser
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson was the 1994 commencement speaker at Morgan State University in Maryland, and one of the graduates in the audience was Ed Gainey. “I look back on this, years later, because here’s a gentleman … who wrote ‘Radio Golf,’ where he talked about the first Black...
Pittsburgh airport sees flight disruptions abating in time for new terminal opening
Pittsburgh International Airport officials expect flight cancellations and delays caused by the government shutdown, which ended Wednesday, to taper off in time for the new terminal’s opening Tuesday. Flight reductions ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration at 40 airports — not including Pittsburgh’s — remain in place and have had...
2 arrested after massage parlor raids in Westmoreland
Greensburg and state police raided four massage parlors Thursday and arrested two women on prostitution charges. The two police agencies teamed up on the investigations at Mu’s Asian Massage locations in Hempfield and Unity and Ruiquan Foot Spa and Li’s Massage on Main in Greensburg. Trooper Steve Limani said state...
Sen. John Fetterman hospitalized after fall near Braddock home
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman was hospitalized Thursday after suffering facial injuries in a fall while walking near his Braddock home, according to his office. Fetterman was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital “out of an abundance of caution,” his office posted on the X social media platform. “During an early morning...
Mayor-elect O’Connor taps veteran officer Jason Lando as next Pittsburgh police chief
Pittsburgh Mayor-Elect Corey O’Connor on Thursday tapped Jason Lando, a 21-year Pittsburgh police veteran now running a police department in Maryland, as the next chief of the city’s 750-officer bureau at a time when it is struggling with low morale, leadership woes and staffing declines. “I think you’ll see Chief...
What’s next in Congress on the push to release the Epstein files
WASHINGTON — The House is speeding toward a vote next week on releasing files related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a step that comes after months of resistance from Republican leaders. They have no choice but to allow consideration of the bill after a petition on the...
Black hat found at crime scene leads to arrest in McKeesport slaying
DNA from a black hat found last year near a shooting scene in McKeesport led to an arrest Wednesday in the slaying of a man in his car. Allegheny County Police charged Daemond Artemus, 18, of McKeesport in the May 2, 2024, slaying of Brandon Dean. Artemus was taken to...
Burrell fans to line Leechburg Road to support girls soccer team’s state championship bid
Burrell High School girls’ soccer fans can send the team off in style Friday morning as they head to play in the state championship game. “We are over the moon here,” said Chelsey McMahon, president of the Burrell Girls Soccer boosters. “We are trying to get as many people as...
