Jack Troy stories, Page 7
Guns found after carjacking lead to charges in East Liberty mass shooting
Clues from a teenager’s June arrest in an armed carjacking case have led Pittsburgh police to charge him in connection with a mass shooting in East Liberty days earlier. Aaron Reddix, 16, of McKees Rocks was charged Friday with four counts of attempted homicide stemming from the shooting just before...
Lawyer for accused PNC Bank swindler says client has started to repay $27M
A New York tech company founder who PNC claims defrauded it of over $27 million has started to chip away at his balance, but the bank has doubts a full payoff is possible without court intervention. “We still don’t have a very clear picture of whether this is a truly...
Tiny chemical safety board, battling to keep funding, launches probe of Clairton explosion
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s probe into the deadly explosion at the Clairton Coke Works could take a year or more and will include worker interviews, careful examination of daily operations and a cinematic recreation of the blast. The aim is to trace events leading up to the...
U.S. Steel early findings pinpoint gas valve failure as cause of fatal Clairton Coke Works blast
U.S. Steel on Friday pinned blame for the deadly explosion Monday at the Clairton Coke Works on a valve failure that led to coke oven gas igniting, according to the company’s preliminary findings. “Preliminary indications lead us to believe that the explosion happened when flushing a gas valve in preparation...
Allegheny County steps up pollution checks after Clairton blast
Regulators are temporarily stepping up pollution monitoring in the Mon Valley after a deadly explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works on Monday sparked worry about the release of toxic gases. The Allegheny County Health Department announced Thursday it’s deploying two air quality monitoring vans provided by the Pennsylvania Department...
Clairton Coke Works employees stay focused despite deadly blast
Richard Tikey stood by anxiously until every last one of his colleagues was accounted for after a deadly blast Monday morning at the Clairton Coke Works. He felt it was his duty as vice president of the plant’s union local to stay on scene, assist emergency responders and field concerns...
Forging forward: As contract talks loom, union workers grapple with rift over U.S. Steel-Nippon deal
Brian Pavlack leads something of a rebel faction within the United Steelworkers union. Steelworkers for Trump, started by Pavlack ahead of the November election, gave voice to a growing number of defectors from the union’s traditional Democratic identity. The group mostly lives through Facebook, where it’s some 2,600 accounts strong,...
VA voids union contracts for 400K workers, prompting backlash
The Department of Veterans Affairs is voiding union contracts for more than 400,000 workers, part of the Trump administration’s bid to weaken organized labor in the federal bureaucracy. Affected employees include doctors, nurses, benefits administrators — everyone at the VA except for roughly 4,000 police officers, firefighters and security guards....
‘We’re trying to disrupt an industry’: Mark Cuban touts pharmacy deal with Giant EagleVideo
Mark Cuban, the billionaire and Western Pennsylvania native now knee-deep in the pharmaceutical industry, offered strong words Wednesday toward the pharmacy benefit managers some say are bleeding drugstores dry. “Get rid of them,” Cuban said at Market District in Robinson after announcing a partnership between his company, Cost Plus Drugs,...
Giant Eagle partners with billionaire Mark Cuban to slash some drug prices
Billionaire Mark Cuban’s drug company has partnered with Giant Eagle pharmacies to make certain medications more affordable. As of Friday, customers across Giant Eagle’s five-state pharmacy network may be able to fill their prescriptions for less money through Cost Plus Drug’s Team Cuban Card. The company buys drugs directly from...
500K in Pa. face soaring health care premiums as insurers seek rate hikes
Nearly 500,000 Pennsylvanians could see their health insurance premiums spike next year. Insurers selling coverage on the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, Pennie, want to raise premiums by an average of 19% for customers who buy their own insurance and 13% for small businesses, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department announced Friday....
Deluzio demands answers on VA town hall cancellations
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio is investigating whether the Trump administration axed a regional town hall tour for veterans to obscure the impact of staff cuts on their health care. In a letter sent Thursday to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, Deluzio demanded answers as to who called off the events...
How much will that procedure cost? You might not find the full answer at Independence Health, report claims
All five of Independence Health System’s hospitals failed this year to fully comply with federal rules ordering them to post prices online for their services, according to a report released this week by an advocacy group. The Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Health Access Network found Independence’s hospitals — Butler Memorial, Clarion, Frick,...
Nippon rounds out U.S. Steel board with ‘world-class’ American businessmen from outside steel industry
Nippon Steel has appointed three more members to U.S. Steel’s board of directors as the Japanese firm molds its new acquisition. The directors announced Wednesday are all U.S. citizens, giving the board four American and three Japanese seats. As a condition of approving Nippon’s takeover of U.S. Steel in June,...
Scorching summer will mean higher electric bills, regulators warn
Utility regulators are warning extreme heat since mid-June will mean higher electric bills for Pennsylvanians. The state’s Public Utility Commission said Friday scorching weather has brought demand on the regional power grid to its highest level in 14 years, a fact that will soon be reflected in electric bills. “Whether...
McCormick and HUD secretary tour U.S. Steel’s Braddock facility, hint at housing plans
Federal officials hinted Friday morning at plans to build more housing near U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works as the firm’s new owner, Nippon Steel, prepares to spend big on upgrades. “When you create jobs, there’s a housing need,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner at a news conference...
Pittsburgh VA abruptly cancels town hall tour after just 1 stop
Without explanation, the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System has canceled a series of town halls in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. The agency broke the news in a bare-bones press release Thursday. What was supposed to be a regional tour where veterans could interact directly with leaders of the Pittsburgh...
UPMC, GoHealth partner to run 81 urgent-care clinics in Pa., W.Va.
UPMC and MedExpress clinics recently got a makeover and a new name — UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care — but services are staying mostly the same. In October, UPMC and national chain GoHealth Urgent Care partnered to rebrand and renovate 80 clinics across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including 33 in the Pittsburgh...
Pa. electric bills to rise after grid manager ups payments to power plants
Electric bills in Pennsylvania could climb as much as 5% as rising rates paid to power plants trickle down the system. That’s according to PJM Interconnection, a regional body that ensures utilities have enough power to supply their customers during peak demand times, like a heat wave or cold snap....
Kamins give $65M for UPMC Presbyterian tower project, medical research
Philanthropists Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin on Tuesday continued their recent giving spree by announcing $65 million toward UPMC’s Presbyterian hospital tower and medical research. The research portion of the gift is geared toward studying the brain and heart and is specifically in response to cuts in federal research...
Overdoses lead to Pa. crackdown on nitazenes, a powerful class of opioids
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has criminalized nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids that can be even stronger than fentanyl, as overdose deaths in the state mount. Nitazenes are temporarily labeled a Class I controlled substance as of Saturday, meaning it’s illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture them in the...
Unions rallying in Pittsburgh pitch Trump ‘chaos’ as chance to grow ranks
Union heavyweights pitched their organizations Monday at a Downtown Pittsburgh rally as not just detractors of the second Trump administration, but vehicles for a unified opposition. “We’re saying: ‘Look to the labor movement,’ ” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, told TribLive after the event. “We are the ones that...
Is the labor, funding there to see through $90B in energy, tech projects in Pa.?
Announcements are easy. Following through could be the hard part for companies that pledged more than $90 billion in investments across the state Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, organized by U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh. At least a quarter of that money is...
Pa. lawmakers push to move federal energy office to Pittsburgh
A bipartisan group of congressmen say Western Pennsylvania’s status as a growing energy hub justifies moving a key federal office here. U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, John Joyce, R-Altoona, and Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, introduced legislation Tuesday that would relocate the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon...
Trump, McCormick to tout $70B in energy, AI investments across Pa. in CMU event
More than $70 billion worth of investments into Pennsylvania’s energy and artificial intelligence sectors will be highlighted during a summit Tuesday at Carnegie Mellon University, with industry leaders and politicians including President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro participating. U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a lead organizer for the inaugural Pennsylvania...
