Top Stories category, Page 512
Potholes at Pittsburgh Mills are mall owners’ responsibility, not Frazer’s
Grant Becker had just left work at the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex in Frazer when he heard a giant crunch. Becker’s car hit a pothole on Pittsburgh Mills Boulevard that he said was more like the size of a crater. “It was humongous,” said Becker of Springdale Township. “It had...
Gibsonia man charged in fatal hit-and-run in McCandless last March
A Gibsonia man has been charged in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 78-year-old pedestrian last year in McCandless. Karl Vincent Scott, 36, was arraigned Wednesday, Feb. 7, charged by McCandless police with causing an accident involving death or injury. Police say Scott struck Donald Leach of Wexford at about...
Pitt trustees discuss ways to raise national profile
University of Pittsburgh trustees Thursday heard an update on the university’s five-year strategic initiative dubbed “Plan for Pitt” and elected a new board chairman. Their meeting was punctuated by a noisy but peaceful pro-Palestinan protest outside the Assembly Room in the William Pitt Union. The demonstrators numbering a few dozen...
Body-camera footage shows chaotic lead-up to Times Square brawl between police and migrantsVideo
NEW YORK — The confrontation begins with police officers ordering a group of migrants to leave a bustling Times Square block. It escalates when one of those men, slowly walking away, lobs an insult in Spanish: “They look like Ugly Betty.” Second later, he is pushed up against a wall...
Mon Incline set to reopen following monthlong closure
The beleaguered Monongahela Incline will get new life again. The incline, which connects Pittsburgh’s Station Square to the city’s Mount Washington neighborhood, is set to reopen sometime this weekend, pending a state inspection, Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced Thursday. Transit officials said repairs are nearly complete and state inspection workers will...
Police investigate crash in Washington County that killed McMurray man, Venetia woman
A McMurray man and a Venetia woman died when their vehicles collided Thursday afternoon in Washington County. The motorists were dead at the scene on Route 837 in Carroll Township, according to a report from the county coroner’s office. That office has identified one of the crash victims as Michael...
Vandergrift man convicted in sexual assaults of 2 children
A Westmoreland County jury deliberated more than five hours before returning guilty verdicts against a Vandergrift man for the sexual assaults of two children. Following a three-day trial that ended Wednesday night, Timothy Robert Johnson, 38, was found guilty of nine felony counts including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, conspiracy, indecent...
Former Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann wins defamation suit over comparison to molester, jury decides
WASHINGTON — A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester. Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to...
Westmoreland County commissioners approve $2.7 million boost in pay
Raises for Westmoreland County’s union and nonunion employees will cost taxpayers an additional $2.7 million in 2024. Commissioners ratified a union contract and approved pay hikes for nonunion workers Thursday. A new three-year labor deal with the Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare Pa. includes average raises of...
Register of Wills says work continues to ease backlog as office restructuring OK’d by commissioners
A restructuring and boost in staff pay approved by Westmoreland County commissioners is expected to improve operations in the Register of Wills office. Filing delays and other deficiencies prompted Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton to be admonished last week by a county judge, who issued a court order that...
Longtime Allegheny County chief medical examiner Karl Williams to retire after 17 years
Karl Williams, Allegheny County’s longtime chief medical examiner, who toiled largely in obscurity while overseeing some of the region’s most grisly death investigations, is stepping down. A doctor by training, Williams, 75, is retiring Friday after 17 years as the county’s top forensic pathologist. He leaves behind a $238,000 salary,...
‘There’s consequences,’ judge tells Pittsburgh man before sending him to prison for killing toddler with stray bullet
Zaphora Bernard held up the baby book, “The Life of Zykier Young. I love you.” Zykier was just 5 pounds, 9 ounces when he was born. But 22 inches long, his mom said. She flipped through the pages, displaying them for the judge to see, thrusting the book toward the...
6 members of Philadelphia area family feared dead in house fire and shooting, prosecutor says
EAST LANSDOWNE — Six members of a family — including three children — are feared dead, an official said Thursday, from a fire at a house in suburban Philadelphia that went up in flames as two police officers who responded to the scene were shot and injured. Delaware County District...
New York City man sentenced for drug distribution in Pittsburgh area
A New York City man arrested twice in less than three years for bringing large amounts of drugs into the Pittsburgh area was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in a federal prison. Christopher Delacruz, 35, was first arrested during a traffic stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Westmoreland County in...
Hill District residents ‘overwhelmed with joy’ that Salem’s Market is open
The Hill District has a grocery store again. Salem’s Market & Grill opened its third location at Centre Heldman Plaza on Thursday morning, ending a nearly five-year span in which the Hill District was left without a local grocer following the closing of Shop ‘n Save in March 2019. Guests...
Shapiro’s college plan could be ‘transformational,’ Pa. higher education board chair says
Minutes into Thursday’s State System of Higher Education board meeting, chair Cynthia Shapira summed up in her own view the enormous stakes for public higher education in Pennsylvania: “If we do this right, the new system represents an opportunity to be transformational.” She was referring to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal...
Special counsel alleged Biden couldn’t recall personal milestones. His response: ‘My memory is fine’Video
WASHINGTON — The longstanding concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and memory intensified on Thursday after the release of a special counsel’s report investigating his possession of classified documents. The report described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It noted that Biden could...
Donations to Plum school lunch debt take small bites out of a big problem
An anonymous member of the Plum School District community recently gave the district $500 to cover student lunch debt at Holiday Park Intermediate School. While generous and appreciated, the donation took only a small bite out of what is routinely a big problem. The district is carrying more than $45,000...
PennWest University embarks on search for new president
Efforts to identify PennWest University’s next president are advancing this week after the school finished assembling a 25-member search committee. Members are a mix of State System of Higher Education leaders and representatives from the California, Clarion and Edinboro campuses, which were merged in 2022 to create Western Pennsylvania’s largest...
5 Marines aboard helicopter that went down outside San Diego are confirmed dead, military says
SAN DIEGO — Five U.S. Marines aboard a helicopter that went down during stormy weather in the mountains outside of San Diego are confirmed dead, the military said Thursday. Authorities say the CH-53E Super Stallion vanished late Tuesday night while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego...
Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off ballot over Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seems poised to reject attempts to kick former President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot. A definitive ruling for Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, would largely end efforts in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere to prevent his name from appearing on the ballot. Conservative...
I-70 westbound reopens in Washington County after crash
A portion of I-70 westbound in Washington County has reopened after it was closed early Thursday morning because of a crash involving a tractor-trailer and a vehicle. The wreck happened just after 2 a.m. near the 13.1 mile marker near the Taylorstown ramp, according to TribLive news partner WTAE. One...
Morning Roundup: Man injured in Homewood shooting; home invasion in Knoxville
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Thursday, Feb. 8: Man injured in Homewood shooting A man was injured Wednesday night in a shooting in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood. Pittsburgh police and EMS were dispatched to the 7200 block of Frankstown Avenue for an eight-round ShotSpotter alert...
Co-teaching program at Acmetonia boosts learning, test scores
The lesson in Scott Andrews’ fifth grade English Language Arts class Wednesday was about sentence structure. But as students worked through their assignments, it wasn’t just Andrews teaching. Chelsea Brody, a special education teacher, was working in tandem with Andrews and the students as part of a co-teaching program at...
Woman’s hit-and-run death raises questions about Pittsburgh police policy
Twelve minutes before a car struck and killed Faye McCoy on the West End Bridge last month, she was talking to Pittsburgh police officers nearby. It was almost 3 a.m. on Jan. 27, and police had just arrested McCoy’s friend for drunken driving after the car they were in struck...
