Patrick Varine stories, Page 48

Scouts marching in Export’s 2023 Memorial Day Parade carried with them an American flag which once flew over the USS sanctuary, a hospital ship deployed during the Vietnam War....

Email news briefs and event listings to pvarine@triblive.com. Splash pad opens June 5 The splash pad at Murrysville Community Park will open for the season on June 5. The area includes a splash pad, playgrounds for children ages 2-5 and 5-12, with a zip-line for children ages 5-12, two water...

Pending official certification by the Westmoreland County Elections Board, local council races in Export and Delmont will be shaped in at least some way by write-in votes. In Export, where there are three council seats up for election in the fall, incumbent Councilman Joe Ferri ran a write-in campaign. He...

An Ohio man was found not guilty of attempted homicide in connection with a March 2022 shooting in Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Heights neighborhood. Neil A. Toalston, 28, of Alliance was found not guilty following a three-day jury trial last week in Judge Jennifer Satler’s Pittsburgh court. Toalston and his girlfriend were...

After finding the correct combination of diet, exercise and holistic medicine, Cara Zanella found a way to live with the rheumatoid arthritis that affected her life for nearly two decades. She was able to do it without the use of medication, but the North Huntingdon woman with a passion for...

Mammoth Fest will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at Mammoth Park in Mount Pleasant Township. Visitors can purchase an all-day pass for $4 which includes unlimited access to carnival rides, a petting zoo, kiddie-train rides, a Nerf obstacle course and a rock-climbing wall. The afternoon will...

When Carlajane Donovan and other organizers for the Lego Brick Fest Live event were looking to make a return to in-person events following covid restrictions in 2021, they turned to Monroeville. “We only did nine shows from September 2021 through the end of the year, and the very first one...

Franklin Regional students Augusto Butkewitsch and Jacob Toniolo can add three more words to their word-based video game — “Pennsylvania,” “state” and “champions.” The seniors from Murrysville came out on top in the computer games and simulation programs category at the statewide high school competition organized by the Future Business...

A team from the Google Safety Roadshow talked with Franklin Regional Middle School students about internet safety on Friday. Franklin Regional officials have been emphasizing the concept of “the five C’s” with students — creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication and citizenship. “We want to make sure you’re productive citizens and...

Email news briefs and event listings to pvarine@triblive.com. Library exhibition features east-suburb artists East Suburban Artists League will present an exhibition featuring members’ artwork at the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space in Monroeville Public Library, 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd., from May 26 through June 20. The public is invited to attend...

Pittsburgh police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Wednesday morning wrapped in a tarp and left in a wooded area. Police were called to the 400 block of Ardary Street in the city’s Garfield neighborhood, where they found a Black man whose body had been...

Shell Chemicals Appalachia will pay nearly $10 million for air quality violations during the commissioning of its petrochemical plant in Beaver County. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Shell will pay a $4.9 million civil penalty, with 25% going to local communities. Along with $5 million for environmental projects to benefit...

The annual Westmoreland Heritage Trail Community Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 3 in Trafford, and this year will include a poker run. In addition to basket raffles, a DJ, fishing for kids, food vendors, ice cream, face-painting and more, the festival will include a...

The Jacobs Creek Watershed Association will host a “Young Naturalist Camp” in June at Laurelville Retreat Center in Mount Pleasant Township. The overnight camp will be June 11-13 and is the successor to the association’s “Tot-Time” and “Nature Explorer” day camps for children ages 11 to 13. Programs during the...

Erica Nuckles, director of learning, engagement and partnerships at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, will be the featured speaker at the next “Boomers and Beyond” speaker series in Murrysville. It will be at 11:30 a.m. June 13 at Mother of Sorrows social hall, 4202 Old William Penn Highway in...

Pennsylvania Lottery officials will recognize another $1 million winner from Westmoreland County at the Shop’n Save in Latrobe on Wednesday. Diane Babbin will be presented with a commemorative check after winning $1 million the “Millionaire Maker” scratch-off game. Western Pennsylvania has seen a number of sizable lottery winners this spring....

After merging to create Western Pennsylvania’s third-largest health system, Excela Health and the Butler Health System have a new name: Independence Health System. The system includes Butler, Clarion, Frick, Latrobe and Westmoreland hospitals, with 7,300 employees and more than 1,000 physicians and advanced practice providers. “Having the wider resources of...

As spring comes into full bloom, flowers aren’t the only thing popping up. Mosquitoes are also spawning in small, mostly natural pools of standing water. After those pools dry out, a cousin moves in. And it’s known to be an aggressive biter. The Asian tiger mosquito, an invasive species first...

Scott Duff of Export remembers being a kid and catching salamanders in a stream not far from where the White Valley church stands in the borough, on Roosevelt Avenue. In the cemetery on the church grounds, there are two thin, well-worn headstones. “If you come out here in the morning,...

The Franklin Regional School District was among six in the U.S. to be chosen by the School Superintendents Association as a model of positive change in public education. The association recognized Franklin Regional as a 2023 spring “Lighthouse System,” adding it to the 120-member Learning 2025 Network, a group of...

Emmanuel Lutheran Church and Emmanuel Reformed Lutheran Church can trace their beginnings back to the same group of German Lutheran immigrants, some of the first Europeans to settle in the area that would become Murrysville. Unfortunately, both churches also had to share in the frustration of having their 200th anniversary...