Deb Erdley stories, Page 23
Pittsburgh universities monitoring coronavirus reports and weighing travel considerations
Officials at Pittsburgh universities say they are closely monitoring news about coronavirus. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, which enroll about 5,000 Chinese students at their Oakland campuses and have a variety of academic partnerships on the Chinese mainland, both have issued alerts about the mysterious respiratory virus...
Carnegie Mellon tuition among the highest in nation, inching higher
No one said it would be cheap or easy to get through college, but annual costs at Carnegie Mellon University are edging toward a six-figure sticker price. Officials at the Pittsburgh research university recently approved a 3.2% tuition increase for the 2020-21 school year. Parents of incoming freshmen may be...
Seton Hill slates speaker and service day in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
Seton Hill University was on break when the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 20, but officials at the Greensburg school will hold their own observances in memory of the slain civil rights leader in February. The university will host a well-known sociologist who specializes in community...
Billboard art project to highlight strength of diversity in Westmoreland County
County highways will take on a new look this fall as the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition’s Diversity Billboard Art Project begins to blossom. The Heinz Endowment’s new Just Arts program, a grant initiative designed to support communities that harness the power of arts to address social issues, recently awarded the coalition...
Pennsylvania watches as Supreme Court considers public support for parochial schools
Pennsylvanians on both sides of the school choice debate watched the U.S. Supreme Court last week for hints of how it could rule in a pivotal case that has implications for the way K-12 education is funded across the nation. Justices heard arguments in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue,...
Herminie woman loved to nurture others
Nothing made Sara Heckman happier than taking care of someone else. First, it was her husband, John. Their children tell how the two married young — she as 16, he was 19. Then, there were her five children. Finally, there were her 12 grandchildren and five great grandchildren and the...
Women gain increasing numbers on Pitt faculty
Women are gaining an increasing stake on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. A new report, published in Pitt’s University Times, revealed that women made up 46% of the full-time faculty, up from 44% three years earlier. While that falls short of the 51% of the population that is...
Latrobe family establishes IUP scholarship fund in honor of Jerry Quinn
A pair of Latrobe area brothers established a new scholarship fund at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in honor of local entrepreneur Jerry Quinn Sr. Students from Greater Latrobe High School or Westmoreland County will be eligible to apply for the scholarships from the Quinn Keystone Legacy Trust of Westmoreland County,...
Duquesne president, legal scholar dissects start of Trump impeachment trial
From his seat in the Senate gallery in the nation’s capital, Ken Gormley on Tuesday had a bird’s-eye view for the opening of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. “I was there for the first day of the Clinton trial, too. I’m two for two now,” said Gormley, president...
Robert Morris offers tuition breaks to 105,000 FedEx Ground workers
Robert Morris University is staking another claim in the increasingly competitive world of higher education, where government officials are encouraging colleges to tailor offerings to workforce needs. Officials at the private university located in Moon inked an agreement to provide tuition discounts to some 105,000 eligible FedEx Ground employees in...
One woman’s marathon journey to a perfect fit in the classroomVideo
Vicky Krug was determined to become a teacher. Her resolve only grew during nearly two decades she spent as a social worker, substance abuse therapist, substitute teacher and tutor earning multiple degrees and certifications along the way. A brain injury she suffered when her car and a truck collided on...
Western Pa. colleges in line for grants to prevent sexual violence on campus
Four years after Pennsylvania officials signed on to a national initiative designed to prevent sexual violence on college campuses, three dozen colleges and universities across the state are getting a boost to help them implement programs to assist in the effort. Gov. Tom Wolf said the state will provide about...
Highmark opens school grant program
Schools looking to support wellness programs, encourage professional development among school nurses or support the basic health needs of low-income students can apply for grants for the 2020-21 school year from the Highmark Foundation. Applications for the program, now in its eighth year, will be accepted from public, parochial and...
Excela granted Magnet status for nursing care
Nurses at Excela Health System facilities now can count themselves among a small percentage nationwide who work at institutions that have earned the Magnet Recognition for nursing care. Excela officials announced the new designation Wednesday. Only 505 of the nation’s 6,300 hospitals have achieved the designation from the American Nurses...
South Fayette retiree, daughter sue to recover $82K seized at Pittsburgh airport
A 79-year-old retired railroad engineer and his adult daughter Wednesday sued two federal agencies in an effort to recover more than $82,000 seized last summer inside Pittsburgh International Airport. Rebecca Brown, 54, of Lowell, Mass., said her father, Terry Rolin, a resident of the South Fayette village of Morgan, had...
Advocates push for Alina’s Law for additional protections in domestic abuse
A pair of Allegheny County lawmakers joined domestic violence prevention advocates and the parents of a murdered Pitt student Tuesday in Harrisburg in a renewed push for the passage of Alina’s Law. The measure was named for Alina Sheykhet, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who was bludgeoned and stabbed...
Abuse case seeking church records moves forward in Pittsburgh
Nearly 18 months after a Pennsylvania grand jury report unmasked decades of allegations of clergy sexual abuse in Catholic parishes across the state and church leaders paid $84 million to abuse survivors, fallout from the report continues to mount in the courts. State lawmakers began the process of amending the...
Point Park University welcomes new board members
A Columbia University professor, a well-known Pittsburgh lawyer and a Pittsburgh banker are among the recent appointees to the board of Point Park University. The university on Thursday identified those appointed to three-year terms as Joann Baney, a communications consultant and adjunct associate professor at Columbia’s School of International and...
Pennsylvania’s senators split on reasons behind killing of Iranian general
A lengthy closed-door briefing by top Trump administration officials Wednesday left senators deeply divided along party lines over whether the president’s assertions of imminent threats were sufficient grounds for killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, told reporters that Trump’s decision was merited and undoubtedly saved...
IUP, Duquesne, Robert Morris to bolster addiction prevention programs
When students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania return to class Jan. 21, they will be among the first in the state to benefit from a new program designed to prevent opioid abuse. IUP, which received a $99,888 state grant to underwrite the effort, was among 13 colleges and universities selected...
2 Pennsylvanians among the 5 people killed in Pennsylvania Turnpike crash
Two of the five people killed in Sunday’s deadly Pennsylvania Turnpike crash in Westmoreland County were from Pennsylvania. Dennis Kehler, 48, of Lebanon, a driver for UPS for 28 years, leaves behind his wife, Kathleen, a daughter and two stepchildren. “He was one of the most generous men I’ve ever...
Gov. Wolf orders state flags at half-staff to honor Rostraver West Newton paramedic killed Sunday
Gov. Tom Wolf ordered the commonwealth flag to be flown at half-staff Monday to honor Matthew Smelser, the Rostraver West Newton Emergency Services paramedic who was killed Sunday while responding to a crash on Interstate 70. Smelser, a 44-year-old paramedic supervisor from Charleroi, died when he was struck by a...
Pennsylvania requires permits for hemp growers and processors in 2020
Like hemp growers, facilities that process the crop also will have to get permits in 2020 as Pennsylvania’s emerging industry enters its second year, state officials said. The commercial cultivation of hemp, which had been banned by the federal government for 80 years, took off in Pennsylvania last year after...
Soleimani’s death ratchets up tensions and raises questions about U.S. long game
Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s powerful Quds Force, wasn’t a name known to most Americans before a U.S. drone strike early Friday near Baghdad killed him. But he’s been front and center among serious considerations for Iran watchers for years, said Julia Santucci, a senior lecturer in intelligence studies...
‘Quid pro quo’ tops banished words list
In an apparent nod to President Donald Trump, and to the great relief of newspaper editors near and far, the experts at Lake Superior State University announced Wednesday that “quid pro quo” topped its 45th Annual Banished Word List. The small public university, located on Michigan’s northern Peninsula, began publishing...
