Deb Erdley stories, Page 2
Westmoreland Co. lawmaker offers to help with vaccine exemptions as covid-19 infections surge
A state lawmaker is offering “vaccination exemption assistance,” while local health officials plead with residents to mask up and get vaccinated and Excela Health struggles to deal with covid-19 infections that have pushed its three Westmoreland County hospitals beyond capacity. State Rep. Leslie Rossi, R-Unity, said she offered help to...
Pitt launches teacher prep program amid growing shortage of teachers
No one can remember exactly when the University of Pittsburgh last offered an undergraduate degree in education. But officials at Pitt say it is high time for a change. They recently announced the university, which boasts a robust graduate school of education, will open a new bachelor’s program in education...
David A. Regoli, respected lawyer, former judge from Lower Burrell, dead at 56
Tributes began rolling in on social media hours before the family announced the sad news. David A. Regoli, 56, passed away on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. A lawyer, former Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court judge and Lower Burrell councilman, his unexpected death due to complications from a routine cardiac procedure...
Penn State names 1st woman university president
When Neeli Bendapudi takes the reins as Penn State’s 19th president on July 1, officials hope her broad portfolio will help her boost the university’s struggling regional campuses. Penn State’s board of trustees capped a 10 month national search Thursday with a unanimous vote to appoint Bendapudi, who has served...
Pitt continues to sort through vaccine mandate
Officials at the University of Pittsburgh aren’t saying how many students, faculty and staff are facing ouster for failure to meet today’s deadline to provide proof of covid-19 vaccination or an approved exemption. Unlike officials at Excela Health System and UPMC who have temporarily put their vaccine mandates on hold,...
Dr. Oz calls Keystone State home as he ponders U.S. Senate bid
Dr. Mehmet Oz’s claim to residency in Pennsylvania may be both recent and tenuous, but that won’t keep him off the crowded GOP ballot of contenders seeking to replace U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. The Associated Press reported that Oz, 61, a longtime New Jersey resident, is planning to announce his...
Nonprofits hope to see funds flow on Giving Tuesday
Hot on the heels of the nation’s three biggest shopping days of the year — Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday — there is yet another reason to keep that wallet open. Charities, arts organizations, libraries and other nonprofits are hoping to top off a tough year on...
Fire sweeps through Cook Township salvage yard
Volunteer firefighters from 14 Westmoreland County companies worked throughout the night Saturday and into Sunday morning to put out a fire in a Cook Township auto salvage yard that began shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday. Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Department Chief Shawn Kestner said firefighters were called to Pipers Auto...
Police seek 15-year-old in McKeesport stabbing death
Police have issued an arrest warrant for 15-year-old Damian Baverso in connection with the stabbing death Friday of a 19-year-old McKeesport man. Authorities found the victim, Kai Brown suffering from stab wounds when they responded to a call at around 3:20 p.m. Friday at 516 Sinclair St., McKeesport. Brown was...
Wilkinsburg teen dead in Point Breeze shooting
A Wilkinsburg teen is dead of a gunshot wound she suffered Saturday evening in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner said Aliah Johnson, 17, died shortly before 8:30 p.m. following a shooting in the 100 block of North Linden Avenue. WPXI reported that police found Johnson dead...
Police seek information in fatal shooting in Penn Hills
Authorities are seeking information in the Saturday night shooting death of a man in Penn Hills. Allegheny County Police Department Homicide detectives, responding to a 911 call at 10:42 p.m. found the victim, David Moore, 30, of Pittsburgh inside a vehicle in a parking lot on the 1100 block of...
Penn State enrollment numbers mirror national trends
We are? If the answer to the popular college cheer is “Penn State,” there are fewer voices chiming in these days. Although Penn State’s University Park campus, which turns away hundreds of well-qualified students every year, bounced back to better than 2019 enrollment numbers, increasing from 46,313 students last year...
Car crashes into Derry Borough house, driver airlifted to hospital
The driver of a car that crashed into a house Saturday afternoon in the 500 block of W. Fourth Avenue in Derry Borough was airlifted to a local hospital with injuries he suffered in the accident. A spokesman for the Derry Volunteer Fire Department said the gas company was called...
Cyclists brave cold for Pantry Pedal on Greensburg Trail
Call them the few, the hardy, the Flat Tire Co. Fellows. On Saturday morning, while much of the rest of the region might have been sipping hot chocolate, nursing a strong cup of coffee or reluctantly rolling out of a warm bed, Ashley Reefer was layering up, preparing to lead...
Cyclist dead in early morning collision in Pittsburgh
Authorities are investigating a collision that left a bicyclist dead shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday when he collided with a vehicle on the 5700 block of Stanton Avenue in Pittsburgh. First responders from Pittsburgh EMS, fire and police said they found the cyclist unconscious when they arrived and began CPR....
Cranberry man, 44, dies after being rescued from fire on Pittsburgh’s South Side
A Pittsburgh man who was in critical condition early Saturday morning after firefighters rescued him from a burning South Side building has died, authorities said. Joseph B. Traynor, 44, of Cranberry died on Sunday of injuries sustained in the fire in the 1100 block of East Carson Street. Authorities said...
Ward announces $2M for infrastructure projects in Westmoreland County
Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, on Friday announced nearly $2 million in Commonwealth Financing Authority grants for five local projects in Westmoreland County. The projects in Hempfield, Mt. Pleasant and Unity townships as well as Delmont and Jeannette were among 266 projects statewide totaling $94.4 million that the CFA...
Group to again lobby Harrisburg lawmakers for ‘People’s Maps’ over traditional Pa. politics
A citizens group that solicited public input to create “People’s Maps” to guide officials in drawing new legislative districts for the Pennsylvania General Assembly will make a final pitch on Monday. Carol Kuniholm, executive director of Fair Maps Pennsylvania, will make her pitch for the House and Senate maps, created...
Former Saint Vincent College president who handled school’s coed transition dies
Much like the early church fathers, the Rev. Augustine Flood, OSB, traversed the world. During a life in the priesthood that spanned half a century, he served as a parish priest, missionary, theology professor and president of Saint Vincent College. The priest, affectionately known as “Father Gus,” studied in Italy,...
Democrat appears poised to snare state Commonwealth Court seat as tight race flips
Pennsylvania Democrats appear poised to pick up a seat on the state’s Commonwealth Court. As provisional and mail-in ballots were tallied late last week, preliminary returns showed Democrat Lori Dumas, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge, slightly ahead of Drew Crompton, a Republican judge who was running for a full...
Red wave in Western Pennsylvania ring counties leaves Allegheny a blue island
A red wave that has been building in Southwestern Pennsylvania for a decade broke loose, washing over the region with a vengeance Tuesday, leaving only Allegheny County reliably blue when the votes were counted. In statewide judicial races that topped the ballot, Republican candidates who carried the day outpolled Democrats...
10 years later, Sandusky scandal at Penn State has opened the door to others coming to light, experts say
Few saw it coming. Even fewer had any idea that a Nov. 5, 2011, grand jury report that unmasked retired Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky as a serial pedophile would trigger a tidal wave worldwide. “When the scandal at Penn State broke, it was as though it radically changed...
Westmoreland County Community College inks new transfer agreement
When the governors of 19 western states joined forces 24 years ago to establish a new kind of college, no one could have anticipated how it would grow. But grow it did, and now Western Governors University — a private nonprofit college that offers a low-cost, competency-based approach to higher...
Retired public relations director was an institution at Saint Vincent College
Don Orlando was an institution within an institution at Saint Vincent College. Orlando, who graduated from the college in 1972, was back within several years working at the college where he went on to serve as director of public relations for 40 years. Former Saint Vincent President Brother Norman Hipps...
Pitt will require covid-19 vaccination by Dec. 6
The University of Pittsburgh will require its students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated for covid-19, effective Dec. 6. The requirement applies to all Pitt campuses. Students, faculty and staff must be vaccinated or have received an approved vaccine exemption, university officials announced Monday. Those who fail to comply with...
