Level Green veteran with multiple sclerosis enjoys new all-terrain wheelchair
Bill Driscoll never thought he’d be able to hunt again, let alone clear snow from his driveway. As an active member in the community and Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm, Driscoll, 52, enjoyed coaching wrestling, working at a power plant and spending time outdoors. But a multiple sclerosis...
Giuliani: ‘So what’ if Trump and Cohen discussed testimony
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani left open Sunday the possibility that Trump and former personal attorney Michael Cohen might have discussed Cohen’s congressional testimony. But, he added, “so what” if he did? Giuliani appeared Sunday on CNN, where he said he did not know if Trump had...
Ice glazes over swath of U.S. as wind chills fall below zero
BOSTON — Bitter cold is setting in after a major winter storm blanketed a wide swath of the country in snow, sleet and rain this weekend, creating dangerously icy conditions that promise to complicate cleanup efforts and make travel challenging on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Some of the coldest...
Unclaimed veterans buried with dignity, thanks to strangers
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When the flags were removed from the caskets and folded with military precision, there were no family members there to receive them. So, the banners were passed, hand-to-hand, through the crowd. Some mourners wept as they clutched the flags briefly. Others kissed them. But the three veterans...
Curtain rising Sunday night on total lunar eclipse
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The celestial curtain will be rising soon on a lunar extravaganza. Sunday night, the Earth will slide directly between the moon and the sun, creating a total lunar eclipse. There won’t be another until 2021. It will also be the year’s first supermoon, when a full...
Students seen mocking Native Americans could face expulsion
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Students at a Kentucky Catholic school who were involved in a video showing them mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a Washington rally could potentially face expulsion, according to the diocese. In a joint statement , the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic...
Democrats aren’t buying Trump’s shutdown-ending ‘compromise’
WASHINGTON — In a bid to break the shutdown stalemate, President Donald Trump offered to extend temporary protections for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children and those fleeing disaster zones in exchange for his long-promised border wall. But while Trump cast the move as a “commonsense compromise,”...
Man who died after jumping from Roberto Clemente Bridge identified
A man who died after being pulled from the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh on Saturday jumped from the Roberto Clemente Bridge, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. The man was identified Sunday as Mohammed Zubair Shaikh, 20, of Pittsburgh, by the medical examiner. The Trib’s news partner, WPXI-TV...
Police bust suspected meth lab in Indiana County
State police busted a suspected meth lab in Ernest, Indiana County on Friday. Investigators suspected that a home on Main Street was being used to make methamphetamine. They went to the house around 5:30 p.m. Friday and got permission to search, finding “several items that were found to be consistent...
Winter storm mostly bypasses Southwestern Pa., but hazards remain
Snowpocalypse it wasn’t. Local meteorologists tracking last week’s ever-shifting forecasts knew the weekend’s weather would be tricky to predict, and in the end the weekend’s snowfall totals were far smaller than expected — about 2 inches in most of the region. That’s not to say there’s no weather-related dangers, said...
Westmoreland Transit to change bus routes to better suit needs, attract more riders
Alisia Alcala rides the bus daily to her job at Greengate Centre just a few miles away from her home in Greensburg. Just not on Sundays, when she’s on her own to get to work. “I’d like to see Sunday service and maybe add more stops to the service. On...
Adding hope highlights ministry of new Trinity Lutheran pastor in Freeport
A retired pastor is enjoying an interim assignment helping a Freeport church reach out to the community. Earlier this month, the Rev. Robert Keplinger, 69, started in the pulpit at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Restoring hope is the focus of Keplinger’s ministry. “God is not done with my story nor...
Work to bring back lights to the Apollo Bridge likely to require more time
The lights will be out for a while longer on the Apollo Bridge. Apollo officials were trying to get the lights back on but, according to West Penn Power, the ball now is in Oklahoma Borough’s court. Motorists have been in the dark on the bridge since the lights went...
Winter storm misses Southwest Pa.
Most of Western Pennsylvania escaped snowfall during the day Saturday as temperatures remained in the 30s and brought steady, sometimes heavy, rains. The region Is expected to receive 1 to 3 inches of snow overnight as temperatures drop, while northern counties such as Butler and Indiana could get significantly more...
Greyhound investigating Pittsburgh man’s complaint of racial profiling by driver
Greyhound is investigating a complaint filed by a Pittsburgh man who said a bus driver racially profiled him in early January during a trip from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., a company official said. William Anderson, 46, of Homewood, who is black, said the white driver accused him several times of...
Murrysville Army veteran loved the flag, pursued adventure
Lester Dolton’s appetite for adventure was as big as the great outdoors he explored with his family. His first passion was bowling, including games with the Patriots league he founded half a century ago at White Oak Bowl. It’s a sport he continued to enjoy into his 80s. “He loved...
Irwin Builders Supply site sold, auction set
An auction is set for Jan. 26 to sell a variety of home building products at the last remaining vestige of Irwin Builders Supply Corp., which was sold last month to a Hempfield-based supplier of aggregate and building products. Wendell H. Stone Co. of Connellsville, part of Hempfield-based Stone &...
Snow, ice blanket Midwest as storm heads to New England
DETROIT — People throughout parts of the Midwest woke Saturday to a heavy and steady snowfall that forced the cancellation of hundreds of airline flights and made driving dangerous. More than 460 flights were canceled Saturday morning at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and about 50 flights were canceled...
Woodland Hills hosts MLK basketball tournament
It’s a big weekend for high school basketball as 37 teams and some of the best players from across the region face off during a three-day tournament at Woodland Hills High School. But the school district’s athletic director, Ron Coursey, hopes athletes and fans alike will see the event —...
Food banks fill in for paychecks as government shutdown drags on
Thirty people lined up in the parking lot of a Giant grocery store in Alexandria, Virginia, before the food bank for federal workers opened at 9 a.m. Some waited more than an hour. More than a tenth of the food was gone in the first five minutes. “Hi there. Potatoes,...
Driver dies of heart failure, crashes in Indiana County
An Indiana County woman died of heart failure while driving, sending her car crashing into a utility pole Wednesday, according to state police. The unidentified 83-year-old woman was driving west on State Route 286 East when she lost control. Her car traveled about 550 feet before going off the road...
Emotional support alligator offers comfort, sharp teeth
YORK, Pa. — On a recent Monday afternoon, Joie Henney walked into the Glatfelter Community Center at the Village at Sprenkle Drive, an assisted-living development north of York, with his emotional support animal on a leash. He walked by an elderly woman sitting on a bench by a window, reading...
Man gets 10 to 20 years in death of Lock Haven woman missing since 1991
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. — A man has been sentenced to 10 to 20 years on a murder conviction in the disappearance a quarter-century ago of a woman whose body has never been found. Senior Lycoming County Judge Kenneth Brown sentenced Loyd Groves in Clinton County Thursday to the maximum term...
Man charged with shooting at police, robbing Family Dollar store in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh police charged a suspect with multiple crimes, including robbery and attempted homicide, following a shootout Friday night at a Family Dollar Store in the East Hills neighborhood that happened about 45 minutes after a robbery at a Family Dollar in Penn Hills. An Allegheny County deputy sheriff shot Timothy...
Model in Russian court apologizes for U.S. election claim
MOSCOW — A Belarusian model and self-styled sex instructor who last year claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election said Saturday that she apologizes to a Russian tycoon for the claim and won’t say more about the matter. Anastasia Vashukevich made the statement in...
