Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1319
Vaccine eligibility quiz released by Pa. health department
Not sure if you qualify yet for the coronavirus vaccine? Don’t know where to get it if you do qualify? The Pennsylvania Department of Health has released a vaccine eligibility quiz to answer those questions. The quiz gauges a person’s age and if they are living in a nursing or...
Joe Biden takes the helm as 46th president: ‘Democracy has prevailed’
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, declaring that “democracy has prevailed” as he took the helm of a deeply divided nation and inherited a confluence of crises arguably greater than any faced by his predecessors. “The will of the people has been...
Kamala Harris sworn in as vice president, breaking gender and racial barriers in American politics
Vice President Kamala Harris broke the barrier Wednesday that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath to hold the nation’s second-highest office. Harris was sworn in as the nation’s first female vice president — and the first...
Allegheny County covid hospitalizations drop by half in past month
Hospitalizations related to covid-19 have dropped by more than half in the past month in Allegheny County. There are 386 coronavirus patients hospitalized, down from 793 on Dec. 20, according to data released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The county reached its peak on Dec. 16 when 881...
Penn Township police charge man with transmitting obscene photos of ex-girlfriend
Penn Township police this week charged a McKeesport man with posting partially nude photographs of woman on social media. Det. Brad Buchsbaum charged Shawn Himich Jr., 24, with 12 counts each of dissemination of intimate materials and illegally transmitting obscene and sexual materials. Buchsbaum said in court documents the woman,...
Inauguration Live: VP talks up ‘American aspiration’ in 1st speechVideo
9:40 Kamala Harris talked about the power of “American aspiration” in her first speech to the nation as vice president. With the Washington Monument lit up behind her Wednesday night, Harris called on Americans to remember “we are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome, that we will rise...
Trump predicts ‘success’ for new administrationVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he thinks the new administration will have “great success” and claims to have laid the foundation for it. In making his brief farewell remarks Wednesday morning at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews, Trump said the new administration has the “foundation to do something really spectacular.”...
Trump leaves White House, says ‘It’s been a great honor’Video
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump pumped his fist and waved as he departed the White House on Marine One Wednesday for the last time as president, leaving behind a legacy of chaos and tumult and a nation bitterly divided. Four years after standing on stage at his own inauguration and painting...
On Day One, Biden to undo Trump policies on climate, virusVideo
In his first hours as president, Joe Biden will aim to strike at the heart of President Donald Trump’s policy legacy, signing a series of executive actions that reverse his predecessor’s orders on immigration, climate change and handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden on Wednesday will end construction on Trump’s...
Trump pardons ex-strategist Steve Bannon, dozens of othersVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon in the final hours of his White House term as part of a flurry of clemency action that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family. The last-minute...
Looking back at Trump’s strong connection with Western Pennsylvania
Outgoing President Trump’s frequent visits to Western Pennsylvania were emblematic of his time in office. He brought aspirational ideas. He made questionable claims. He galvanized supporters and detractors alike. He made his first official Pennsylvania campaign stop in Pittsburgh in April 2016. Trump, then the front-runner for the GOP nomination,...
Trib Total Media $1 million Shop Local Marketing Grant program extended
Trib Total Media will extend its 2021 Shop Local Marketing Grant program, following a strong response from local businesses that claimed the first allotment of funds. The program was launched in April 2020 in the jaws of the pandemic. It supports locally-owned businesses by matching their advertising purchases — in...
Biden immigration plan opposed by GOP, conservative groupsVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers and conservative groups opposed President-elect Joe Biden’s forthcoming immigration plan Tuesday as massive amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally, underscoring that the measure faces an uphill fight in a Congress that Democrats control just narrowly. In a further complication, several pro-immigration groups said they would...
Judge: Port Authority cannot ban Black Lives Matter masks
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the Port Authority of Allegheny County cannot ban its employees from wearing Black Lives Matters masks, finding that a policy banning political speech was “arbitrary and over broad.” U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said in his 45-page opinion that Port Authority’s argument...
Feds say charges over stolen Pelosi computer by Harrisburg woman being prepared
HARRISBURG — A woman accused of entering the U.S. Capitol illegally during the riot on Jan. 6 will likely be charged with stealing a computer from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a federal prosecutor said in court Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson in Harrisburg said he will...
State Rep. Ed Gainey to challenge incumbent Bill Peduto in race for Pittsburgh mayor
State Rep. Ed Gainey announced Tuesday he is challenging Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto in the Democratic primary. “I’m running for mayor because I know that the working people of Pittsburgh need opportunities for good union jobs with a living wage and benefits, affordable housing, genuine public safety, and a city...
Western Pa. teachers struggle to get information on vaccine distribution
As the state expands the first priority group for the covid-19 vaccine, educators in Western Pennsylvania are struggling with inadequate and often conflicting messages about when teachers and staff could receive their first doses. Teachers and staff inside school buildings fall into Phase 1B of the federal and state guidelines...
Harris vice presidency marks several ‘firsts’
When Alyson Holt pursued a degree in electrical engineering, she was keenly aware of how few fellow students looked like her. “Women were 6% of the students,” said Holt, 48, of Murrysville. Holt came from a family full of technology careers — both grandfathers were engineers, and her grandmother and...
Biden marks nation’s covid grief before inauguration pompVideo
WASHINGTON — Hours from inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden paused on what might have been his triumphal entrance to Washington Tuesday evening to mark instead the national tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic with a moment of collective grief for Americans lost. His arrival coincided with the awful news that the U.S....
Feds: Oakdale man stormed Capitol with baseball bat, stole chair
An Oakdale man climbed through a broken window of the U.S. Capitol building during a Washington, D.C., riot earlier this month, taking a chair from inside and attempting to smash a window with a baseball bat, according to federal charges filed Tuesday. Jorden Mink, 27, faces a half-dozen charges including...
‘Shameful’: U.S. covid deaths top 400K as Trump leaves officeVideo
As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of covid-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control.” Now, in his final hours in office, after a year of presidential denials of reality...
Trump expected to issue flurry of pardons on last full day
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was expected to spend his last full day in office issuing a flurry of pardons and bidding farewell to the American public from a near-deserted White House and surrounded by an extraordinary security presence outside. In one of his final acts as president, Trump was...
Josh Shapiro sworn into 2nd term as Pa. attorney general
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro promised to continue working toward justice for all residents on Tuesday as he was officially sworn into his second term in office. Throughout his 15-minute speech from the state Judicial Center in Harrisburg, Shapiro spoke about inequality in race and socioeconomic status and pledged to...
Pa. residents 65 and older eligible for covid vaccine but most providers don’t have supply
Pennsylvania will prioritize people 65 and older and others with certain conditions for covid-19 vaccination, though many providers say the supply of vaccine is so low they cannot begin vaccinating any more groups. Cindy Findley, deputy secretary of Health and head of the state’s covid-19 vaccine task force, said Tuesday...
McConnell: Trump ‘provoked’ Capitol siege, mob ‘fed lies’
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday explicitly placed blame on President Donald Trump for the deadly riot at the Capitol, saying the mob was “fed lies” and that the president and others “provoked” those intent on overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s election. McConnell’s remarks as he opened the Senate were...
