Deb Erdley stories, Page 28
U.S. News ranks colleges for 2020
College leaders across the country took a deep breath as they opened their email Monday, looking for something to brag about in the new 2020 America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report. The much anticipated annual report that covers about 1,900 colleges and universities purports to identify the...
Sen. Ward appointed to Veterans’ Center Advisory Council
State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, has been appointed to the Advisory Council for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Veterans’ Center in Pittsburgh. Ward, in her third term, was elected to the state Senate in 2008. She said she is anxious to learn more about the center and will tour the facility in...
Michigan State faces record federal fine in Nassar sexual abuse scandal
Federal regulators Thursday slapped Michigan State University with a $4.5 million fine stemming from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. The fine is the largest on record against a university charged with failure to protect students from sexual abuse. The largest fine prior to this was $2.4 million the U.S....
State prison at Retreat could close
Pennsylvania, which has shuttered state prisons in Hempfield, Pittsburgh and Cresson over the last six years, may be on the verge of closing yet another massive state lock-up. Faced with a $140 million budget deficit and declining prison population, Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has proposed closing the State...
Belle Vernon woman was 1st female X-ray technician in hometown
Eula Tintori was a woman ahead of her time. Her daughter said the Traverse City, Mich., native became the first female X-ray technician in her hometown hospital when officials there realized the young woman they had hired to assist in the X-ray lab showed great promise. At the time mammography...
9/11 Promise Run launches inaugural cycle relay
Keeping this promise will require stamina. Even veteran athlete Mark Mhley, who has completed multiple Ironman triathlons, worries that pedaling 198 miles over steep winding country roads that cross the mountains between Washington, D.C., and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Somerset County, will be a stretch. Mhley, 44,...
Former skinhead warns of resurgent hatred in Westmoreland County visitVideo
More than five decades after the Civil Rights Act changed U.S. law, former skinhead Arno Michaelis says, racial hatred is translating into violence in America and around the globe. “White nationalist attacks have escalated all over the world, and the death toll is growing,” Michaelis said Thursday at Saint Vincent...
Pitt researchers develop marijuana breathalyzer
With more and more states legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, sooner or later some bright scientist had to invent a marijuana breathalyzer. Now it appears researchers at the University of Pittsburgh may have just walked to the head of the class. A Pitt spokesman said a team from the university’s...
Pitt suspends Chinese language program in wake of visa issues for foreign scholars
The University of Pittsburgh has suspended a language program sponsored by the Chinese government in the wake of visa issues for 15 Chinese scholars previously scheduled to oversee the program. The school suspended its Confucius Institute language programs after the U.S. State Department issued “unwelcome and unexpected” guidance regarding the...
Church compensation fund dredges up old agonies for onetime altar boy
“It’s not about the money.” In another time and place, Jack (not his real name) said he’d take the $41,990 offered through the Greensburg Catholic Diocese’s compensation fund for clergy sex abuse survivors and toss it back. Nothing will ever erase what he says the Rev. John J. Nyeste, a...
Gregerson takes helm as president of Pitt-Greensburg as the new semester beginsVideo
Robert Gregerson is still in awe of the lush greenery that surrounds the grounds of the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg campus. It’s a world away from the sandy beaches of Fort Myers, Fla., where he was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University prior...
Report finds Pennsylvania entry-level teachers fare well
That first day of school may have been rough, but chances are new teachers are doing comparatively better in Pennsylvania than just about anywhere else in the nation. A study by business.org that looked at average teacher starting salaries across the nation and then calculated the pay gap between that...
Schools look to novel strategies to fill substitute teacher needs
Low pay, an economy approaching full employment and dramatic decreases in enrollment in teacher education programs at colleges have produced something few ever thought they’d see in Pennsylvania: a teacher shortage, specifically a shortage of substitute teachers. Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, said the...
Pitt suspends Chinese language program
The University of Pittsburgh has joined a growing list of American universities that have shuttered a Chinese language and culture program sponsored by the Chinese government. Ariel Armony, Pitt’s vice provost for global affairs and director of the University Center for International Studies, said the university closed its Confucius Institute...
In Indiana County, Trump loyalty seems as strong as everVideo
There’s a reason some people refer to Indiana County as Trump country. It has nothing to do with tony golf courses or glittering resorts. It has everything to do with how voters in the rural county that is home to one of the nation’s largest coal-fired power plants rallied behind...
Greensburg veteran was a dedicated advocate for the handicapped
Whenever anyone at the Westmoreland County Blind Association’s workshop needed a voice or a hand, Ken Gulisek was there. Mr. Gulisek, whose son, Brett, was born with sight impairments and intellectual challenges, was committed to the workshop. He was grateful to the organization that provided his adult son with a...
IUP students awarded State Department Gilman scholarships
Two Indiana University of Pennsylvania students were awarded U.S. State Department Benjamin A. Gilman scholarships for study abroad, IUP officials announced Thursday. Kailyn Provitt, a 2016 Gateway High School graduate, and Adama Kouyate of Reading were selected from a pool of more than 3,400 students nationwide. The scholarships support international...
Pa. court ruling opens possible path for old church sex-abuse claims
A year to the day after a statewide grand jury report disclosed seven decades of sexual abuse allegations against 301 Catholic priests, the Pennsylvania Superior Court Wednesday cleared what may be a path for some old claims to go to a jury. An order issued Wednesday by the court upheld...
Study finds huge difference in cost of new voting machines for Pennsylvania counties
Seven of the 31 Pennsylvania counties that purchased new voting machines opted for a system that cost nearly twice as much as one ranked more secure, according to a new report from the University of Pittsburgh and Citizens for Better Elections. Counties across the state are rushing to buy new...
Excela working to untangle error that sent bad checks to 800 patients
Excela Health’s finances are not on life support, despite the potential that hundreds of patient refund checks recently bounced. A data entry error this month had people across the Westmoreland County-based health system wondering what happened when banks began issuing bad check charges for refund checks issued on behalf of...
Gov. Wolf calls for sweeping reforms for charter schools in Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday vowed to level the playing field between Pennsylvania’s traditional public schools and charter and cyber charter schools. He said the latter lack accountability and transparency and are draining millions of dollars from struggling school districts. Calling the state’s 22-year-old public charter school law flawed and...
Mt. Pleasant teachers issue strike notice
Mt. Pleasant Area School District teachers who have been working without a contract for the last year issued a strike notice this week after failing to reach an agreement during their 15th negotiating session. The Mt. Pleasant Area Education Association, which represents 143 teachers, counselors, nurses and school psychologists, said...
Poll: Majority of Pennsylvanians support additional regulations on gun ownership
Retired steelworker Arthur Flowers of Derry Township is among thousands of Pennsylvanians who have a license to carry a concealed handgun. But he’s also among nearly two-thirds of registered voters in a recent statewide poll who said they favor some type of additional laws regulating gun ownership. A Franklin &...
Senators promote law to standardize gun denial notifications
Three days after a pair of mass shootings rocked the nation, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators is promoting legislation that would standardize procedures for gun license denials across the country. Pennsylvania is among 13 states that operate their own background checks on individuals attempting to purchase firearms using the...
Westmoreland Diversity Coalition to host former skinhead as keynote speaker
The Westmoreland Diversity Coalition is joining Saint Vincent College, the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County, Adelphoi and the YWCA to sponsor a keynote speech this month by former white supremacist Arno Michaelis. Michaelis, author of “My Life After Hate,” will speak on his experience at 9:15 a.m. Aug. 29 at...
