Deb Erdley stories, Page 31
Number of Pennsylvania babies treated for drug exposure levels off, report shows
After spiking for more than a decade, the rate of Pennsylvania newborns hospitalized for drug withdrawal at birth leveled off and remained stable for the last two years, a new report reveals. The report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council said Pennsylvania babies were hospitalized for Neonatal Abstinence...
GirlGov pitches political engagement for local high school girls
The Women and Girls Foundation of Pittsburgh is making a pitch for the next generation of female leaders with its GirlGov program. The free program is open to girls from Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington or Westmoreland counties entering grades 9 to 12 this fall. The foundation will launch...
U.S. Rep. John Joyce racks up 12,000 miles of travel in six months
In just six months in office, U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair County, will have racked up about 12,000 miles on the public dime. In April, Joyce traveled to Yuma, Ariz., to get a firsthand look at the flow of migrants streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking asylum. He said the...
International visitors and students social media use to be screened
International students and just about everyone else seeking a visa to visit, study or work in the U.S. will have to ante up all of their social media usernames, email addresses and phone numbers from the last five years. The New York Times quoted the State Department as saying the...
Death penalty repeal movement surfaces in Pa. Legislature
In a turnabout that few could have predicted, Pennsylvania appears poised to join at least a half-dozen other states where Republicans and Democrats together are pushing to repeal capital punishment. Four Keystone State lawmakers — three Democrats and a Republican — have launched a drive seeking support to repeal the...
Board votes to pardon Robert Wideman, the Pittsburgh man profiled in “Brothers and Keepers”
The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons voted unanimously Thursday to recommend clemency for a Pittsburgh man serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in a 1975 case detailed in the award-winning book “Brothers and Keepers.” The decision to free Robert Wideman, the 68 year-old Homewood native whose life of poverty, crime...
Pitt boosts wellness, activities fees
No word yet on next year’s tuition, but Pitt students will have to dig deeper to cover student fees this fall. University officials recently approved a $50 a semester increase in student wellness fees. The increase, which will boost wellness fees from $130 to $180 a semester, has been earmarked...
College enrollment in Pennsylvania, U.S. slips further
College enrollments in Pennsylvania and nationwide continued to slip through the spring semester. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which calculates enrollment numbers twice a year, for spring and fall, reported Thursday that college enrollments slipped by 1.7%, or about 300,000 students, between spring 2018 and spring 2019. Although graduate...
Pennsylvania ranked among 10 worst states for job seekers
Pittsburgh may well be among the nation’s top cities for new college grads. A study last month by personal finance tech site SmartAsset put the city among the top 10 in the nation for grads looking to market their new degrees. But another study released Thursday — by WalletHub, a...
Finance experts call for charter school funding reforms
Echoing complaints of school superintendents across Western Pennsylvania, public school finance experts Wednesday warned that charter school costs are reaching a breaking point for many of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts. Finance experts with the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) said lawmakers must change the way charter costs are...
Pa. State Police count 9 deaths in holiday weekend crashes
The Pennsylvania State Police investigated eight fatal crashes over the holiday weekend that killed nine people. While fatalities for the 2019 Memorial Day Holiday were three times higher than the same period in 2018, the actual number of crashes state police investigated declined from 787 last year to 755 this...
IUP team to present research on biodiversity in Honduras
Four students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, including two from Allegheny County, are headed to Central America in June as presenters at an international symposium on biodiversity in Honduras. The seminar, organized by their IUP faculty advisor, Dr. Josiah Townsend, will focus on the group’s research on biodiversity in Honduras....
Murrysville woman snares honors at IUP
A Murrysville woman will be featured in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Eberly College student gallery as an Outstanding Student in this year’s graduating class from the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology. Julia Nitchman, a May IUP graduate, is the daughter of Beth and Craig Nitchman. She is a...
Central Westmoreland Habitat breaks ground for new house in Greensburg
When excavators arrived Tuesday at a vacant lot on Harrison Avenue in Greensburg, it marked the beginning of a construction project more than a year in the making. By fall, a two-story, three-bedroom home designed to fit nicely in the well-kept residential neighborhood that backs up to the Coulter Playground...
Bill would assist grandparents raising children in the wake of opioid epidemic
A coalition of Midwestern and Northeastern senators from some of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic want to open additional resources to grandparents and other relatives who have taken on child rearing duties in the wake of the addiction crisis. Citing the needs of more than 100,000 children...
Child welfare officials seek foster families in Westmoreland County
The Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau is making a bid to recruit additional foster families as it marks Foster Care Awareness Month. Officials from the bureau are partnering with the SWAN Legal Services Initiative as well as 13 private providers and foster care agencies to host a foster family recruitment event...
Craft brewers release beer to support Pennsylvania Veterans Foundation
Just in time for the holiday weekend, beer lovers can lift a cold one to their favorite veteran and know that proceeds from a new IPA on tap today at 22 craft breweries statewide will go to the Pennsylvania Veterans Foundation to support services to veterans. Breweries in Pennsylvania, an...
Belle Vernon World War II combat medic, now 96, to receive military honors
A 96 year-old Belle Vernon man will be honored next week for his service as a World War II combat medic in a campaign to liberate the Philippines. Felix J. Lisovich, who was a decorated staff sergeant and combat medic, will receive the Order of Military Medical Merit’s Regimental Honor...
Union endorsed candidates sweep Mt. Pleasant school board primary
A slate of six school board candidates endorsed by the Mt. Pleasant Area Education Association swept balloting Tuesday on the Republican and Democratic tickets, besting three incumbent board members. The candidates, four of whom won on both the Republican and Democratic tickets, will compete for election to five open seats...
Kunco retrial arguments to drag into summer months
On Tuesday, nearly a year to the day after they secured an order overturning John Kunco’s 1991 rape conviction and ordering a new trial, lawyers from the Innocence Project were back in Westmoreland County. And Kunco, 53, who had been released from prison amid a celebration May 23, 2018, was...
Lawmakers want to strike ‘good moral character’ from occupational licensing criteria
A bipartisan coalition of Pennsylvania lawmakers wants to eliminate the requirement that applicants to 23 state occupational licensing boards be of “good moral character.” The proposal comes on the heels of a lawsuit the Institute for Justice filed late last year challenging the Pennsylvania Board of Cosmetology’s decision to deny...
Rep. Frankel, Pittsburgh Jewish lawmaker, outraged with pro-life group using Holocaust images
An anti-abortion group went too far this week when it sent state Rep. Dan Frankel said an email loaded with black and white photos of Holocaust death camp victims to protest his vote on an abortion bill, the Squirrel Hill lawmaker said. Frankel, who is Jewish, represents the district that...
CCAC to host VA official for roundtable
Paul R. Lawrence, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Benefits, will be on hand Monday at the Community College of Allegheny County to meet student veterans, reservists and their dependents who attend CCAC. A CCAC spokesman said Lawrence will participate in an 11 a.m. roundtable discussion in...
Pocketbook issues drive heated contests in school board races
A controversial building project, questions about assessment appeals and a long-stalled teachers’ contract are among the issues driving public engagement in heated school board races in Tuesday’s primary. It’s not unusual for school board ballots to draw few candidates and scarce attention from voters. Given that candidates in such races...
Hempfield-based General Carbide CEO finalist for regional entrepreneurial award
A Hempfield businesswoman is in the running to be Entrepreneur of the Year for the East Central Region of the United States. Mona Pappafava-Ray, president and CEO of General Carbide Corp., is a finalist in the competition that recognizes entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies who excel in areas such...
