Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1320
Pa. reports 77 covid deaths, 5,341 cases
Pennsylvania reported 5,341 additional covid-18 cases and 77 deaths Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health. The state now has 777,186 total covid cases and 19,467 total deaths. In January thus far, there have been 136,861 cases and 3,489 deaths reported. Tuesday’s case count is the second lowest in...
Danny Monaco, owner of Hoffstot’s, Chelsea Grille in Oakmont, dies from covid complications
Daniel “Danny” Monaco, owner of Hoffstot’s Cafe Monaco in Oakmont, died Sunday. He was 75. Monaco and his brother, Tom, started the business in 1971, taking over the Oakmont restaurant Hoffstot’s and featuring their grandmother’s Italian recipes. They later opened Cafe Monaco, a smaller restaurant with a different menu, next...
Jeannette woman accused of burning water service crew with sulfuric acid
Police arrested a Jeannette woman Tuesday on charges she poured sulfuric acid drain cleaner in a Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County pipe, burning three workers who were restoring her water service, according to court papers. Deborah Samulski, 61, is charged with weapons of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe, reckless endangerment...
Judge reinforces ruling that legal proceedings can continue against Crack’d Egg
The Crack’d Egg restaurant on Tuesday lost another round of a legal battle in federal bankruptcy court. A decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jeffery A. Deller allows the Allegheny County Health Department to continue proceedings against the Brentwood restaurant. It has repeatedly defied state-mandated mitigation orders requiring the wearing of...
Westmoreland County covid cases down 40% from same point in December
Westmoreland County has six more covid-related deaths and 198 cases Tuesday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The new figures bring total deaths in the county to 541 and total cases to 23,451. Thus far in January, there have been 4,118 covid cases and 118 deaths reported. As compared...
12 National Guard members removed from Biden inauguration for ties to fringe groups
Twelve U.S. Army National Guard members have been removed from the presidential inauguration security mission after they were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online, according to two U.S. officials. There was no threat to President-elect Joe Biden, they said. The officials, a senior...
Gov. Wolf urges Republican lawmakers to utilize $145 million to support businesses
Gov. Tom Wolf is urging state lawmakers to distribute additional funds to businesses that have suffered during the covid-19 pandemic. “As you all know, many Pennsylvanians — all of us — have been suffering greatly because of the covid-19 pandemic and that includes businesses, through no fault of their own,”...
Allegheny County sees lowest covid case average since mid-November
Allegheny County has 434 more covid-19 cases Tuesday, per the county Health Department. There were no additional covid-related deaths reported Tuesday. Total cases in the county increased to 65,114, while the death total remained at 1,225. Cases reported Tuesday in the county range in age from 1 year to 99,...
Wall Street’s momentum swings back as stocks, yields tick up
Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened week with broad gains for stocks Tuesday, as the market recovered most of its losses from last week. The S&P 500 gained 0.8%, pulling to within 1% of its record high set earlier this month. About 60% of the companies in the benchmark index...
Biden picks Pa.’s Dr. Rachel Levine as assistant health secretaryVideo
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, as his administration’s assistant secretary of health. The move is being championed by civil rights organizations as it would make her the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Biden, in announcing the...
At least 4 hurt in string of shootings in Poconos area; shelter order issuedVideo
MOUNT POCONO — At least four people were injured Monday in a string of shootings that prompted a shelter-in-place order for some residents north of Mount Pocono, authorities said. Mount Pocono Borough Mayor Michael Penn posted on Facebook that there were four or five crime scenes Monday night and “multiple...
Biden won’t end pandemic travel restrictions
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House press secretary says his administration does not intend to lift coronavirus travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K., Ireland and Brazil. The message from Jen Psaki came Monday evening after the White House said President Donald Trump had lifted the restrictions for those...
Trump reportedly set to pardon more than 100 people in his final hours as presidentVideo
With just hours left in office, President Donald Trump is expected to dish out pardons and sentence commutations to a varied group of more than 100 criminals, pardons that could include himself and his family members, according to several reports Monday. Trump, whose term ends at noon Wednesday, spent his...
Netflix’s ‘Archive 81’ filming in North Side and Downtown Pittsburgh
In November, a random group of visitors walked into The Government Center, an independent record store on Pittsburgh’s North Side, with no interest in making a purchase. “They came in to search out specific locations,” said owner Josh Cozby, referring to film scouts for Netflix’s production company, looking for spaces...
Pittsburgh artist designed Google Doodle honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday’s Google Doodle was designed to show the duality of history and current events, pointing out similarities and differences in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the one that is taking place today. That’s according to the doodle’s creator. She is artist Noa Denmon, 25, a Pittsburgh native...
Colleges, universities in Western Pennsylvania could get more than $200M in new stimulus reliefVideo
Colleges and students struggling to make ends meet in a pandemic economy will get a $21 billion boost from the latest infusion of coronavirus stimulus, with more on the way, should Congress take up President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package. The U.S. Department of Education recently released projections...
Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham to resign amid criticism over data
Facing criticism over efforts to produce citizenship data to comply with an order from President Donald Trump, U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham said Monday that he planned to resign with the change in presidential administrations. Dillingham said in a statement that he would resign on Wednesday, the day Trump...
Spirit Airlines expands flights from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to Florida, Myrtle Beach
After months of commercial flight slowdowns and outright shutdowns, the terminal at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport is about to become bustling again with airline passengers. While covid-19 and an $18 million runway widening and facility improvement project took their toll on commercial flight offerings over the last 11 months, officials...
Man sues Allegheny County jail officials over alleged assault by inmate
A man is suing Allegheny County Jail officials after he said he was viciously beaten by another inmate who, just days earlier, had assaulted another man because of the way he looked at him. Derrick Jubeck, 35, was to be released on May 30, 2019, after being held at the...
New covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania continue to slow
New cases of coronavirus appear to be on a downward trajectory in Pennsylvania, with hospitalization numbers following suit. Over the past two days, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday, the state saw 10,068 new cases of the virus. When comparing it to last week’s numbers (12,844), that’s a 21.6%...
Westmoreland County adds 214 coronavirus cases, 9 deaths over past 2 days
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday that 214 new cases of coronavirus were added over the past two days in Westmoreland County. Cases seem to be on the decline in the county. This week’s Sunday-Monday total is 47% lower than last week’s (404) and 63% below the similar period...
Here are 5 things to know about Inauguration Day
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday in an inauguration ceremony that, amid violent threats and a deadly pandemic, will look unlike any other. What’s the schedule of events? The ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. with the playing of the national...
Harrisburg woman in custody, accused of stealing Pelosi’s laptop in riotVideo
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested a Harrisburg woman who was wanted for her role in the Capitol uprising on Monday. Authorities say Riley June Williams allegedly stole a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and was said to have plans to turn it over to Russia. Williams, a 22-year-old...
Allegheny County covid cases, hospitalizations continue to decline
New cases of coronavirus are continuing to decline in Allegheny County. The Allegheny County Health Department on Monday reported that over the past two days, it saw 796 new cases — a 10% drop from a week ago and a 44% drop from this time in December. In a release,...
Own a piece of memorabilia from Parkway West Max & Erma’s restaurant
Get something to-go at Max & Erma’s. The restaurant chain is auctioning items from its closed North Fayette location along Parkway West. The locations in Cranberry and Monroeville remain open. People can bid on everything from signs to equipment to a wooden bench at the entrance. A large wooden pirate...
