Tawnya Panizzi stories, Page 3

Tarentum residents have made their voices heard, and the most requested upgrade to Riverview Memorial Park is an overlook on the Allegheny River. That was the top answer in a borough survey, focused on the park, that drew more than 130 responses. That suggestion was followed by adding a fishing...

A private club in O’Hara’s RIDC Park is seeking a liquor license at its Alpha Drive facility. The Bocce House of Pittsburgh, LLC will have a public hearing before O’Hara Council on Tuesday. It is seeking an inter-municipal license transfer to serve alcohol at its site at 641 Alpha Drive....

Changes are coming to Tarentum’s monthly street festival to boost safety and socialization. Night Market, heading into its sixth year, is eyeing a move to First Avenue, where officials believe people will be more prone to sit, eat and linger. There also would be improved traffic flow and access to...

Brackenridge Council will have a different look next month for the first time in several years. The borough is seeking applicants to fill a vacancy after council on Thursday accepted the resignation of member John Stanzione. He announced last month that his family was moving to Lower Burrell. Stanzione was...

It wasn’t too many years ago that the Tarentum VFW would fill up two floors of its East Fourth Avenue post with members and other revelers. “Bingo was a big draw,” said Quartermaster Zack Blume, a retired Army captain who served in Afghanistan. “We had a very active group. “When...

A church program in Tarentum is working to provide people with a path to employment, among other services. That could mean funneling people to free training programs at The Digital Foundry in New Kensington, which offers certification programs in entry-level manufacturing to advanced engineering. “At the heart of what we...

Three people were flown by medical helicopter to area hospitals after a head-on crash late Sunday in Buffalo Township. Police received reports at 8:41 p.m. of a two-vehicle collision near Buffalo Plaza along Route 356, according to Chief Tim Derringer. A man and a woman were taken by helicopter to...

A Beltzhoover man is facing charges of aggravated assault in connection with injuries to a Wilkinsburg police officer on Saturday. CJ Jackson, 52, is charged with assault and resisting arrest after police said he attempted to flee from police, according to TribLive news partner WTAE. The extent of the officer’s...

Friends are recalling longtime radio host Jim Quinn as a force in Pittsburgh media. Quinn died Sunday at 82. A cause of death was not immediately released. The New Jersey native spent decades on Steel City stations, from his start at KQV in the 1960s to WTAE in the late...

Brackenridge could be without a mayor early next year, at least temporarily. Incumbent Lindsay Fraser is undecided on whether she’ll seek reelection, and no one else has shown interest in the position heading into the May 20 primary election. A representative at the Allegheny County Elections Division said that nobody...

Stephanie Zimble is a woman who finds treasure in other people’s “trash.” The archivist at Oakmont Carnegie Library often can be found prodding people to reconsider basement finds before they end up in the garbage can. “The more people I can convince not to throw cool stuff away, the better,”...

Farmer Greg Boulos asked first graders in the Highlands School District how many of them liked spinach and was surprised to see 50 hands shoot into the air. Boulos, owner of Blackberry Meadows Farm in Fawn, brought his farm-to-table presentation to the students Tuesday to promote sustainability and raise awareness...

Friends of John Miclot are recalling the Fox Chapel businessman as a visionary who was generous with his time and leadership. The former president and CEO of Respironics served on the board of the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium and the St. Margaret Foundation and was an active volunteer at the...

Karolina Hrustinec was abandoned in Slovakia at 9 years old, left in the care of an aunt and forced to forge her way as a farmhand until she could follow her parents to the United States nine years later. “The war broke out, but she made her way to Creighton,...

The interior of a GardaWorld armored truck suffered severe damage during a fire Wednesday in O’Hara, but it’s unclear what, or how badly impacted, the contents were, police Chief Jay Davis said. The incident is under investigation by the Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office. Kasey Reigner, emergency services spokesperson, said...

Environmental remediation is underway after about 100 gallons of gasoline spilled into an O’Hara stream Friday from a leaking BP tank nearby, officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection said. Fire crews responded to Fox Chapel Road after several people reported the odor of gasoline near Fox Chapel Plaza....

A paid EMS Authority to serve Brackenridge, East Deer, Harrison and Tarentum could be in effect by January. That’s the most recent update from an exploratory committee tasked with researching the agency for the past year. Their hope is to solve the local EMS funding crisis that mimics struggles of...

Rachel Machen recalls getting a string of online mammogram reminders from her physician’s office and pushing them to the bottom of her to-do list. “I’m young, and I had no family history. I felt so healthy,” said Machen, 44, of Oakmont. “My diagnosis came as a 100% shock.” Machen spent...

When Mark Eyerman started walking on the Rachel Carson Trail through Indiana Township in the 1990s, it wasn’t uncommon to be alone in the woods. “It was at least two or three years before I saw another person on my walks,” said Eyerman, who today is the trail manager for...

Cleanup continues at an O’Hara stream after a fuel leak early Friday. Fire crews were called at 6:45 a.m. to Fox Chapel Road for the odor of gas near the BP station, just outside Fox Chapel Plaza. Blawnox and Pleasant Valley volunteer fire companies deployed booms into Sycamore Run, which...

A failed contract between United Steelworkers and ATI boils down to money and respect, according to some who voted against a six-year deal Monday. William “Scooter” Polczynski, a welder at Harrison’s Hot Strip Mill, said the contract wasn’t even worth looking at. “We’re working with molten steel every day and...

ATI and United Steelworkers are still without a contract. A tentative agreement was reached Feb. 28, just hours before the most recent contract was set to expire. But it failed to pass a union vote Monday. ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said company leadership is disappointed the union vote was unsuccessful....

Gun smuggling, Swiss bank accounts, Fidel Castro and the New Kensington mafia converge on the pages of Richard Gazarik’s newest book, a harrowing tale of local ties to the criminal underworld. In his seventh release, Greensburg resident Gazarik dives into declassified FBI files stemming from the mafia’s grip on New...

Bill Godfrey knows that lettuce, peppers and fruit grown in the Natrona Community Garden are vital to feeding residents of the Harrison neighborhood. But that doesn’t include the deer. “There was a total destruction of our garden last year once a herd discovered it and had a gourmet salad buffet,”...

Pittsburgh author Eliza Smith Brown will mark Women’s History Month in March with a personal tale of two females who transformed the local political landscape. Brown will lead a discussion of formidable sisters Lucy and Eliza Kennedy — her grandmother and great aunt, respectively — who came of age in...