Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1113
People or profit? Facebook papers show deep conflict within company
Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — not to mention the last shreds of its carefully crafted, decade-old image as a benevolent company just wanting to connect the world. Thousands of pages of internal documents provided to Congress by a former employee depict an internally conflicted...
Opponents of critical race theory seek to flip school boards
GUILFORD, Conn. — A racial reckoning began years ago for the Guilford school system, first with an episode in which a student wore blackface makeup to a home football game and then a fraught debate over the elimination of its mascot, the Indians. After the killing of George Floyd, district...
Woodland Hills High School students to return to class after fights led to building closure
Woodland Hills students will return to classrooms Monday after a series of fights led to a two-day closure of the building. In a letter to parents Sunday night, Principal Shelly Manns said a student assembly to address the incidents will take place Monday. “Over the next couple of weeks, we...
Severe, isolated storms expected in Western Pa. late Monday
Isolated thunderstorms are expected to roll through parts of the region late Monday. Some of the showers may be strong enough to bring damaging winds and large hail, said Michael Brown, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. “It’s typical late-October weather,” Brown said. Temperatures will be mild...
Police say Snapchat post of ‘shooting up’ Central Catholic High School is no longer a threat
A social media post about “shooting up” Central High School, not necessarily Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, is no longer a threat to the local all-boys, college prep school, according to Pittsburgh Police on Sunday. Central Catholic officials alerted Pittsburgh Police about the threat Saturday on Snapchat. Detectives with...
Peck seeks to fight off Ziccarelli challenge in Westmoreland district attorney race
For the first time in a quarter century, Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck has a race on his hands. Republican Nicole Ziccarelli, fresh off a razor-thin defeat in a bid for state Senate last fall, insists it’s time to change leadership in the county prosecutor’s office. “I respect the...
After one-year hiatus, ‘witches’ return to Ligonier
Bicycles, buses and maybe even brooms were the preferred mode of transportation Sunday in Ligonier, as more than 1,200 “witches” from the region gathered for the town’s fifth annual Witches Bike Brigade event. Since it was created as a pre-Halloween event for women in 2016, the daylong festival offers a...
Here’s how Pa.’s school pension fund keeps its communications secret from the public
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — In December 2020, Pennsylvania’s largest pension fund adopted a figure for investment profits that its executives said was rock...
Where are the workers? Cutoff of jobless aid spurs no influx
INDIANAPOLIS — Earlier this year, an insistent cry arose from business leaders and Republican governors: Cut off a $300-a-week federal supplement for unemployed Americans. Many people, they argued, would then come off the sidelines and take the millions of jobs that employers were desperate to fill. Yet three months after...
Westmoreland County sheriff takes dispute over inmate medical transports to court
Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert is taking a dispute with the county’s prison board to common pleas court. The sheriff and the prison board are sparring over a requirement that sheriff’s deputies transport sick inmates to and from the county jail for medical treatment. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Albert...
Texas drag race driver slams into spectators, killing 2 kids
KERRVILLE, Texas — A driver lost control during a Texas drag racing event on an airport runway and slammed into a crowd of spectators, killing two children and injuring eight other people, authorities said. A 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy were killed in the crash Saturday afternoon at an...
Washington County woman killed on I-79 by wrong-way driver, troopers say
A Washington County woman was killed early Sunday when the car she was driving was struck by a wrong-way driver along Interstate 79 in North Strabane, state police said. Holly A. Davis, 56, of Canonsburg died in the 1:45 a.m. head-on crash near mile marker 42. Moments before the collision,...
Man critically injured in Swissvale shooting
The Allegheny County Police are asking the public’s help in connection with a shooting that critically injured a man early Sunday in Swissvale. Police reported that dispatchers were notified at 2:12 a.m. of a shooting on the 7500 block of Washington Avenue. First responders found a man suffering from a...
‘Here I am 100 years later’: As more seniors live longer, these centenarians share stories of hardship, humor and humilityVideo
Marion Yates lived the first 10 years of her life without electricity. Frank Pugliano Sr. had one of the first television sets in his neighborhood. Elijah Gardner grew up on a Southern plantation that his father operated for a white family. All three are centenarians, people who have lived 100...
Dirty Dozen bike ride challenges cyclists to take on Pittsburgh area’s steepest hills
The 38th annual Dirty Dozen Bicycle Ride was held Saturday, challenging cyclists to take on 13 of the Pittsburgh area’s steepest hills. The route is about 60 miles. Typically, the ride’s duration is five hours because of the stops and easy pace between the hills. The ride requires endurance and...
Giant Eagle to hold hiring event to fill more than 1,000 jobs in Pittsburgh area
Giant Eagle will hold in-person hiring events at all of its stores Tuesday to fill more than 1,000 permanent, full-time and part-time jobs in the Pittsburgh area. Although the positions are permanent, a Giant Eagle statement said it needs the workers to help with the stores’ vital role in local...
Alligator heads, a BMW, jewelry: Auction spans items left at Pittsburgh International Airport
From preserved alligator heads to brand-new Christian Louboutin shoes, two years of personal items left by travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport went up for auction Saturday. Hundreds of auctiongoers showed up at a heavy equipment garage at the airport to bid on lost, unclaimed and abandoned items from the airport’s...
Rain fails to dampen memories of bidders during Ligonier Beach auction
Steady rain fell Saturday morning as Hempfield native Jason Anthony piled box after box of stainless steel cookware and serving trays into the bed of his pickup at the now-defunct Ligonier Beach swimming pool and restaurant complex. Still, he managed a smile. Anthony, 51, smiled recalling the “hours and hours...
Baldwin was told gun was ‘cold’ before movie set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. — As a film crew and actors in Western garb prepared to rehearse a scene inside a wooden, chapel-like building on a desert movie ranch outside Santa Fe, assistant director Dave Halls stepped outside and grabbed a prop gun off a cart. He walked back in and...
Fire destroys Greensburg house, damages neighboring one
A state police fire marshal and Greensburg fire investigators are looking into the cause of a fire in the city early Saturday that destroyed a two-story house and damaged a second home. Four occupants of the two homes were displaced as a result of the blaze. It was reported just...
Mike Holden cleared by doctors to return to WPXI-TV
WPXI-TV reporter Mike Holden, who’s been out on medical leave since early September, says doctors have cleared him to return to work at Channel 11 next week. In September, Holden posted to social media that he was suffering from a potential case of popliteal artery entrapment syndrome that didn’t allow...
Westmoreland district attorney race sees challenger Ziccarelli outspend Peck 9-to-1
Nicole Ziccarelli, the Republican candidate with designs on unseating six-term Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck, holds a substantial edge in campaign fundraising and spending heading into the Nov. 2 election. The lastest campaign finance reports, filed Friday, show Ziccarelli since June has spent more than $141,000 — an amount...
Buffalo Bill’s House among unique spooky season spots in Western Pa.
Her visit happened over the summer, but Jeanette Milo still can’t say enough about why people should stay in October at the house made famous in the film “The Silence of the Lambs.” “I’m already planning to come back and stay again next summer,” said Milo, who won a contest...
Warrant: Baldwin didn’t know weapon contained live round
SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot a cinematographer, court records released Friday show. The assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live...
Voting by mail? Time to drop off your ballot in person, Pa. officials warn
Pennsylvania’s chief election official on Friday urged voters who are holding onto or applying for mail-in ballots to deliver their envelopes in person amid concerns that the U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver their ballots on time. “Election Day is just days away. Do not delay,” Acting Secretary of State Veronica...
