Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1201
Israelis march in east Jerusalem in test for new governmentVideo
JERUSALEM — Hundreds of Israeli ultranationalists, some chanting “Death to Arabs,” paraded Tuesday in east Jerusalem in a show of force that threatened to spark renewed violence just weeks after a war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians in Gaza responded by launching incendiary balloons that caused at...
Duquesne Light still working to restore power to 900 customers, some might not get power until late Wednesday
About 900 Duquesne Light customers were still without power Tuesday night after storms passed through the region early this week, the power company reported. According to Duquesne Light spokeswoman Ashley Macik, the company has identified areas with “more extensive damage that will require longer repairs.” There have also been a...
Crafton man pleads guilty to obstruction stemming from 2020 George Floyd protests in Pittsburgh
A Crafton man who already pleaded guilty in state court to charges stemming from last year’s protests in Downtown Pittsburgh over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota entered a similar plea Tuesday in federal court. Raekwon Blankenship, 25, pleaded guilty to a single count of obstruction of law enforcement...
Commissioners remain silent on suspended Westmoreland election bureau director
Westmoreland County’s public works director continued in his interim role as head of the election bureau on Tuesday as the commissioners remained silent about the status of the department’s suspended top official. The county commissioners also serve as the county’s election board. They met as such late Tuesday to approve...
Pa. physician general, local health leaders tour UPMC outpatient facility to tout treatment, continue vaccine pushVideo
UPMC Mercy’s South Side Outpatient Center sat dormant and quiet for about a year before it became the epicenter of some of the health care system’s covid-19 programs. The focus of the Mary Street site has evolved since the pandemic began, concentrating on testing first with a UPMC-developed test and...
Westmoreland airport authority OKs DeNunzio’s restaurant lease
The Westmoreland County Airport Authority on Tuesday approved a new lease with DeNunzio’s Italian Chophouse for the terminal restaurant space at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, despite a request from county Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher to delay the action. Thrasher questioned how the authority calculated the terms of the lease and...
Wolf urges Senate to keep cocktails-to-go, some Pa. bar owners lukewarm
Gov. Tom Wolf is urging the Senate to pass a bill that would enable the cocktails-to-go law to remain in place. The bill would amend the state’s liquor code to allow bars, restaurants and hotels with liquor licenses to sell mixed drinks for off-premises consumption. Just over a year ago...
Pittsburgh programs among MacKenzie Scott’s $2.7 billion charity donations
MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist known for her impromptu multi-billion dollar donations to charities and racial equity causes, announced Tuesday that she has given $2.7 billion to 286 organizations. It is the third round of no-strings-attached, major philanthropic gifts Scott has made, which together rival the charitable contributions made by...
Nearly all Allegheny County seniors at least partially vaccinated against covid, health official says
Almost all senior citizens in Allegheny County are at least partially vaccinated against covid-19, a virus that ravaged the older population, including those in care facilities, both locally and nationwide, officials said. Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen noted the milestone after a tour of UPMC’s vaccine and testing...
Water steps on Pittsburgh’s North Shore still dry
Usually by this time of the year, water is cascading down a set of North Shore steps and children are splashing around. The Water Steps, a popular destination at the North Shore Riverfront Park near PNC Park, have not been filled to flow — yet. According to the Sports &...
Mt. Washington man gets 5 years in prison for having gun that killed 3-year-old girl
A defense attorney argued on Tuesday that her client should be sentenced based on the crime he’d pleaded guilty to — not ones committed in the past, or one he might have committed but was never charged with. A prosecutor countered, telling the judge that he needed to look at...
Users give Mammoth Park slides thumbs-up after reopeningVideo
After a 10-month moratorium on rides at the Giant Slide complex in Mammoth Park, it took teenager Mary Janetka only about 10 minutes Tuesday to give the slightly recontoured, re-signed and reopened slide facility her seal of approval. “Oh yeah, it’s fun!” said Janetka, 15, who was accompanied in the...
U.S. covid-19 deaths hit 600,000, equal to yearly cancer toll
The U.S. death toll from covid-19 topped 600,000 on Tuesday, even as the vaccination drive has drastically brought down daily cases and fatalities and allowed the country to emerge from the gloom and look forward to summer. The number of lives lost, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater...
GOP’s major election overhaul advances in Pa. House as Democrats call it a ‘farce’
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Republicans in the state House advanced their...
Panel approves Pa. House GOP bill to ban employer vaccine mandates
HARRISBURG — A ban on employers mandating vaccines for their workers inched ahead in the state House on Tuesday with a committee vote supported by all Republicans and opposed by every Democrat. The main sponsor, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, called it “a very simple question of workers’ rights.” Diamond has...
Trib talks with Brazilian music pioneer Sergio Mendes about new PBS documentaryVideo
The 1960s are remembered as a decade with dramatic cultural changes taking place to a rock music soundtrack. But psychedelic rock wasn’t the only music shaking up the U.S. pop scene in the swinging ’60s. Perhaps Eartha Kitt said it best when she introduced a pioneering Brazilian jazz musician and...
Feds award $19.3M to rapid bus line project linking Downtown Pittsburgh to Oakland
A rapid bus line linking Downtown Pittsburgh to its Oakland neighborhood will receive another $19.3 million in federal funding. The allocation was announced last week by the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Port Authority of Allegheny County as part of $250 million in funding made available under the American...
Suppression motion denied in federal gun case against man suspected in Unity woman’s disappearance
Search warrants in a federal weapons case against Thomas George Stanko were legally obtained, a judge ruled in denying a motion to suppress evidence against Stanko. Authorities had probable cause to search a storage unit Stanko rented and Unity property he owned based on coded conversations he had with family...
Saturday Night Market returns to Pittsburgh
For the next five months, Saturday evenings of music and shopping will once again fill Market Square in Pittsburgh. The Night Markets return Saturday — after missing last year because of the pandemic — through Oct. 30. The 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. event features music and shopping, with a...
Duquesne Light, West Penn Power work to restore electric service
Crews with Duquesne Light and West Penn Power are continuing to work to restore electric service to customers affected by storms that came through the Pittsburgh area on Sunday and Monday. As of about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Duquesne Light was reporting about 2,300 customers without power. By 6 a.m., the...
Teen dies after being found shot on Brookline sidewalk
A boy died after being found shot in Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood late Monday night, police said. Officers responded to reports of multiple shots fired in the 1100 block of Creedmoor Avenue around 11 p.m. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the victim as Christian Redinger, 15. Police said he was...
Videos of violent arrests sparked by vaping stir criticism in Ocean City, Md.Video
OCEAN CIY, Md. — Videos showing Ocean City police officers kneeing one Black teen and Tasing another on the Boardwalk of that beach community in separate confrontations that began over vaping are stirring criticism of the department’s use of force in such cases. On June 6, police tried to stop...
Senate votes to confirm Biden pick for D.C. appeals court
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday confirmed the first appellate court judge of President Joe Biden’s tenure, elevating a judge with strong prospects of landing on the president’s short list should a Supreme Court vacancy arise. Senators voted 53-44 to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Court of...
Republicans aim again to block Gov. Wolf’s climate strategy
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are reprising a fight from last year, passing legislation Monday to require Gov. Tom Wolf to go through them if he wants to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The bill passed 35-15 in the Senate, a veto-proof majority...
Natural gas price drop means less money for towns
Pennsylvania will distribute about $46 million less in natural gas impact fees this year to the state’s counties and municipalities because of the drop in natural gas prices in 2020. That’s bad news, especially for rural townships in Marcellus shale-rich regions of Southwestern Pennsylvania already coping with pandemic-related income losses....
