Rich Cholodofsky stories

Westmoreland County Prison inmates have a new way to get home when their incarceration ends. An expanded program operated by Sage’s Army, a private nonprofit focused on drug addiction and recovery, is offering free rides for inmates. Janie Olson, the agency’s director of operations, told members of Westmoreland County’s Prison...

Ten minutes after Kelly Poholsky took a call from her husband as she drove home from work Oct. 7, 2023, she came upon what appeared to be the scene of a bad accident. Only later that night did she learn the covered body that lay on the ground as she...

Long planned revisions of Westmoreland County’s public transportation service are on hold as officials await clarity on funding. Substantial alterations in the county transit authority’s fixed-route bus system were expected to be launched this year, including the start of a pilot project to convert a small portion of the service...

Westmoreland commissioners voted Thursday to pay $7,500 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a former children’s bureau caseworker who claimed he was improperly fired after one month on the job. Former Fayette County Controller Sean Lally contended he was discriminated against by supervisors in the county’s child welfare office...

Westmoreland County Democrats will convene a town hall meeting next week in Greensburg to address potential cuts in federal social service programs. The event, scheduled for 6 p.m. May 19 at Greensburg Hose Co. No. 1, will feature former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner...

Delays have left construction of a $22 million new terminal building at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport at least three months behind schedule, officials confirmed Tuesday. Delivery of the domestic steel needed to erect the 32,000-square-foot expansion of the main terminal building was slated to arrive earlier this spring but now...

Robert Eberly Jr. is keenly aware that part of his family’s legacy hangs in the balance as a decision looms about the future of the Penn State campus named for his father. Renamed Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus in 2004, the site in the largely rural county is among...

Evidence that a New Florence woman threatened to kill her mother years before she and two teen-aged boys, according to Westmoreland prosecutors, conspired to commit murder is admissible at trial, a judge ruled Monday. Prosecutors contend that investigators overheard Melissa Sue Fox-Beacom say to her mother, “I am going to...

An Irwin man was ordered to serve up to nine years in prison for the the sexual assault of a teenage girl during a July 4 party in 2020. Chad S. Flow, 51, formerly of Hempfield, pleaded guilty Friday to felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault...

In an unprecedented move last summer, a Westmoreland County judge ordered Westmoreland County’s three-term Register of Wills to resign. In February, Gov. Josh Shapiro and the state Senate chose a new temporary administrator for the courthouse office where wills, estates, adoptions, guardianships and marriage licenses are filed and processed. Now,...

Shawn and Mary McMullen didn’t expect hoopla when they arrived at the ticket counter of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Wednesday morning to purchase airfare for an upcoming trip to Disney World. “It is so convenient. This is the easiest place for use to fly out of,” said Shawn McMullen. The...

A Connellsville man was convicted Wednesday in Westmoreland County court of recording and possessing a sexually explicit video of a teenage girl. After nearly three hours of deliberations, a jury found Jonathan Dulaney, 30, guilty of three felony offenses, including two counts of sexual abuse of children. Prosecutors said he...

A state appeals court just two weeks before the May 20 primary has reinstated a Jeannette mayoral candidate to the Republican ballot. The ruling has left Westmoreland County election officials scrambling to reprogram voting machines and send more than 100 new mail-in ballots to Jeannette’s Republican voters. In a ruling...

Westmoreland County officials approved final preparations for the May 20 primary election. County commissioners, acting as the elections board, on Monday earmarked two short-term parking spaces along Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg for voters who wish to drop off mail-in ballots at the elections bureau. The parking spots are near the...

Testimony in the trial of a Connellsville man accused of soliciting and distributing images of child pornography will begin Tuesday. Westmoreland County prosecutors charged Jonathan A. Dulaney, 30, with five counts, alleging that in December 2021 and January 2022 he and his then-wife surreptitiously recorded images of a teenage girl...

Westmoreland commissioners approved an emergency contract Monday to rebuild a picnic pavilion that was destroyed by a windstorm at Twin Lakes Park. Wind gusts in March uprooted a large tree, causing it to crash into the large wooden structure, according to Public Works Director Dante DeCario. Pavilion No. 3 is...

A Greensburg teen pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a man last year in Hempfield. Cayden Essway, 17, has been in jail since his arrest after being charged as an adult with counts related to what police said was a violent armed robbery on Mt. Pleasant Road on April...

The Westmoreland Cultural Trust, through its operation of the Palace Theatre in Greensburg and other real estate holdings and sponsored activities, had an economic impact to the county of nearly $13 million last year, according to a study released by the nonprofit agency. Executive Director Benjamin Luczak said the trust...

Ligonier Borough’s zoning hearing board has rescinded an occupancy permit for a unique outdoor pavilion built last fall to host events near the historic Diamond. But in a legal notice published in the Tribune-Review this week, owners of Thistledown at Seger House, a nine-room boutique hotel on West Main Street,...

Prosecutors have valid concerns that a key witness against a Clairton man accused in the 2023 shooting of a Monroeville police officer could flee or die before next month’s trial, a Westmoreland County judge ruled. The witness, according to prosecutors, was a passenger with Bruce Alvarado as he fled in...

A Greensburg man will serve up to eight years in prison for two brutal attacks that injured an East Huntingdon woman in 2023. James Dennis Lehneke Jr., 48, pleaded guilty in two separate cases to multiple felony charges, including strangulation, aggravated assault and related offenses that police said occurred several...

Westmoreland County prosecutors dismissed a charge of drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the fatal overdose of a Greensburg man who died in 2023. Hugh Hawkey, 49, of Greensburg, pleaded guilty Tuesday to lesser drug-related counts after a Westmoreland County judge ruled in favor of the defense’s challenge...

A Derry Township couple pleaded guilty Tuesday to repeatedly assaulting a teenage boy so severely he is permanently disfigured. Charles E. Harr, 54, and his wife, Jamie Denise Harr, 53, were charged with multiple felony offenses in connection with allegations they beat and strangled the child for more than four...

The inmate population at Westmoreland County Prison has swelled to its highest numbers this decade, prompting officials to watch for signs of overcrowding. Meanwhile, local leaders said they want to increase the number of teens housed next door at the county’s juvenile detention center in Hempfield. The jail on Monday...

A Ligonier Township man pleaded guilty to lesser charges for stabbing his father last year. Michael Glenn Glass, 27, has been in jail since his arrest in March 2024 after he was charged with felony attempted homicide, aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of simple assault and possession of instruments of...