Deb Erdley stories, Page 11
Pennsylvania electors cast their votes for BidenVideo
In a ceremony often considered as little more than a formality, Pennsylvania’s College of Electors on Monday certified their 20 votes for president-elect Joe Biden. The event mirrored similar ceremonies in states across the nation, as state electors cast ballots in a constitutionally mandated event to formalize Biden’s 306-232 Electoral...
Allegheny County lawyer Jill Beck launches Superior Court bid
A Squirrel Hill lawyer Friday fired the first salvo in the 2021 election, announcing her candidacy to fill a vacancy on the state Superior Court. Jill Beck said she is running to fill a vacancy on the state court that hears the first round of appeals in most civil and...
Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese pays $19.2 million to settle 224 clergy abuse claims
Signaling an end to the latest chapter in the Catholic Church’s struggle to heal from scathing revelations of child sexual abuse in a 2018 grand jury report, an independent mediator for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Thursday that it has completed two years of work and awarded more than...
Western Pa. congressmen join rebuke of U.S. Attorney General William Barr
A bloc of 39 congressmen — including five Pennsylvania Republicans who were reelected Nov. 3 — lashed out at Attorney General William Barr in a letter expressing dismay at “the shocking lack of action” stemming from the Justice Department’s investigation of allegations of fraud in the election. The letter was...
Community Foundation of Westmoreland County director moving to Pittsburgh Foundation
Officials at the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County are launching a search for a new executive director, following the announcement Tuesday that Phil Koch is moving into a new post at The Pittsburgh Foundation. Koch will maintain his post with the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County, where he served for...
Nonprofits count on Giving Tuesday to balance out a tough year
Hot on the tail of Cyber Monday, nonprofits across the region are looking for a hand on Giving Tuesday. The event, a celebration of giving observed the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, typically is a high-profile opportunity for charities and nonprofits to make a case for year-end donations. It takes on special...
Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers continue election attacks, promise report on ‘sizable irregularities’
A group of state GOP lawmakers contesting the result of the Nov. 3 election is continuing a “forensic investigation,” even as their efforts to bring a resolution seeking to overturn the Pennsylvania election certification failed. The 26 Republican state representatives, including Daryl Metcalfe, Eric Nelson, Eric Davanzo and Cris Dush...
As battle against HIV continues, Pitt Men’s Study volunteer joins coronavirus vaccine studyVideo
When drug makers solicited volunteers to test a coronavirus vaccines, Marc Wagner jumped. It was a matter of giving back. “I never thought I would outlive a number of my relatives my age or younger,” said the 58-year-old Swissvale resident. “And here I am, still alive.” Wagner felt compelled to...
Trump doubles down on allegations of election fraud in Pennsylvania as Biden begins transition
President Trump doubled down on unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania in a phone call from the Oval Office, broadcast to Wednesday’s state Senate Republican postmortem hearing on the Nov. 3 election. “This election was rigged and we can’t let that happen for our country and we’ve got...
Region’s international student enrollment declined with global pandemic
A flood of international students who fueled growth at the region’s colleges and universities for the last decade is waning in the face of the global pandemic. Fall enrollment numbers show international enrollment at nine local universities and Penn State declined by about 2,500, or approximately 12%, this fall as...
Contact tracer jobs dry up just as WCCC launches training program
Those contact tracer jobs that sounded like a lifeline to workers left unemployed in the midst of the pandemic are gone. A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health said the state filled all of its 1,000 positions for contact tracers — hired to track down people who had close...
Westmoreland County Community College and IUP ink dual admissions deal
Students at Westmoreland County Community College who plan to complete a four-year degree after finishing work on an associate degree can tap a new dual admissions program with Indiana University of Pennsylvania. An agreement the two institutions inked Wednesday outlines terms of the new program, designed to streamline the transfer...
Clarion president hopeful universities merger reduces tuition by 25%
The university leader tasked with overseeing the merger plan for California, Clarion and Edinboro says she is confident her group can reduce students’ costs at the state-owned universities by 25%. Experts say the cost reduction will be a heavy lift as colleges and universities across the nation face a new...
Edinboro University president announces departure amid merger study
Just 16 months after assuming office, Guiyou Huang, president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, announced Monday that he is leaving in January to become president of Western Illinois University. Huang’s departure comes as officials at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education work on the second phase of a study...
Infrastructure, jobs are key to coming together under Biden, say Pennsylvania Republicans, unions
After more than a decade of division — Republicans trying to block Barack Obama at every move and Democrats questioning Donald Trump’s legitimacy — President-elect Joe Biden is inheriting a contentious crowd. His best strategy to bring them around a table together, a diverse group of Pennsylvanians say, would be...
State lawmakers call for creation of a panel to investigate, audit election
Citing a deluge of calls to their offices and legal challenges filed by the Trump campaign, state lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House called for an audit of the election Tuesday as well as an investigation, complete with subpoena power. The move, seeking to empanel a commission controlled by lawmakers, came...
Red wave threatening 3 Western Pennsylvania state lawmakers
Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Pennsylvania may be overshadowing a red wave in Southwestern Pennsylvania threatening to wash away three Democrats with more than 60 years’ combined experience in the General Assembly. Preliminary returns showed the last resident Democrat in the Westmoreland County legislative caucus, state Rep. Joe Petrarca, a...
Homicide detectives investigating fatal North Braddock shooting
Allegheny County Police Department homicide detectives are investigating the Saturday afternoon shooting death of a Pittsburgh man in North Braddock. Authorities said police responding to the call of shooting shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday found Theodore B. Jones, 52, of Pittsburgh, along the 1500 block of Beech St., suffering from...
Biden built back Pennsylvania’s own ‘blue wall’ — one brick at a time
Former Vice President Joe Biden rebuilt the Pennsylvania section of the “blue wall” one brick at a time as he amassed a lead that led The Associated Press to declare him president-elect Saturday. Preliminary returns show how he held onto Philadelphia, flipped back Erie and Northampton counties and built larger...
Shapiro takes lead in tight race in attorney general race; contenders still battling for treasurer; DeFoor wins auditor general
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro was poised to claim a second term in office Friday morning as the mail-in ballot count continued, while Timothy DeFoor of Dauphin County became the first Republican to serve as state auditor general in more than 20 years. Shapiro, 47, a Democrat from Montgomery County,...
Pennsylvania’s presidential vote could be moot before it is even finished
After more than five dozen campaign visits to Pennsylvania by President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden and an estimated $100 million in campaign and PAC spending, the final count in the Keystone State’s election could be insignificant in determining Tuesday’s national outcome. The state — with 20 Electoral College...
State row office elections may hang on mail-in ballot count
Early returns suggested two incumbent Democratic state row officers — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and state Treasurer Joe Torsella — could be in trouble in their reelection bids. With about 32% of the vote tallied Tuesday evening, Shapiro was lagging Allegheny County Republican challenger Heather Heidelbaugh by 45% to...
California University of Pennsylvania to offer some classes in person this spring
California University of Pennsylvania, which shuttered its campus last spring and went to online learning this fall, will resume in-person classes for about half of the school’s undergraduate courses when the spring semester begins, officials said Monday. The state-owned university in Washington County that enrolled about 6,900 students this fall...
Women-powered grassroots efforts support Biden, Trump in Western PennsylvaniaVideo
Stasia Vernallis knew she was onto something when Facebook groups of frustrated female voters began cropping up across Pennsylvania just days after the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. “We counted 550 grassroots organizations from January to July,” Vernallis said. Like the suffragists who rallied for years in towns small and...
Trump nears end of campaign with boisterous rally near Butler
President Donald Trump doubled down on attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday evening as he offered closing arguments for his 2020 reelection campaign to a pumped-up crowd of supporters at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport. “Joe Biden will shut down your economy, ship your jobs to China where...
