Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1360
10% of City of Pittsburgh’s employees are in covid quarantine, officials say
About 10% of the City of Pittsburgh’s workforce is off work because they are quarantining for possible covid-19 exposure, the city announced Wednesday. That amounts to about 330 of the city’s 3,300-person workforce. A smaller but unspecified number of workers are off because they’ve tested positive for covid. The workers...
Lawsuit: Allegheny County Jail staff beat, restrained women inmates
Three women formerly incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the facility and several officers alleging that they were “brutally assaulted” by a sergeant, who beat them, and improperly used a restraint chair and pepper spray on them. The purpose of the lawsuit, filed by...
Pennsylvania reports 2nd most new covid-19 cases, most new deaths since May
Pennsylvania reported 8,291 new covid-19 cases Wednesday, per the state Department of Health. The new cases represent the second-highest amount of new daily cases reported. To this point, the most new cases came Nov. 26 when 8,425 were reported. For the second consecutive day, the state also reported the highest...
Westmoreland County sets record for new covid-19 deaths
A day after Westmoreland County reached 200 covid-19 deaths, a new daily record was set. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Wednesday the county has 15 new coronavirus-related deaths, a single-day record. It brings the total deaths to 219. The seven-day death total (Nov. 26 through Wednesday) reached 47 deaths,...
Allegheny County nears another covid-19 milestone with new cases
Allegheny County reported 508 new covid-19 cases Wednesday, according to the county Health Department. Ages of new cases range from 3 months to 100 years old, with a median age of 47 years old. Dates of positive tests are from Nov. 14 through Tuesday, with only 14 positive tests being...
New Kensington shot-and-a-beer bar transformed into foodie havenVideo
Three self-described foodies have created a new dining and drinking experience in New Kensington. Friends and business partners Dante Cicconi, Corey Pistininzi and Sean Watson have opened botL, which Watson describes as “a restaurant with a bar.” The menu features 19 wines and 14 beers. Pistininzi makes a signature Old-Fashioned...
Editorial: Keeping hospitals from being swamped is a collective responsibility
The great fear with any disease is always death. We worry about how many people it will steal. But with a pandemic — a rising tide of illness that isn’t confined to one school district, one town or even one country — there is another concern that can be a...
U.K. authorizes Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for emergency use
British officials authorized a covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, greenlighting the world’s first shot against the virus that’s backed by rigorous science and taking a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. The go-ahead for the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech comes as the...
Day-long snow total tops forecast, falls shy of record
The Pittsburgh area got a bit more snow than had been expected on Tuesday, but no records were broken, according to the National Weather Service. Nearly 7 inches, 6.8 to be precise, was measured at the National Weather Service office in Moon, where the official reading is taken, meteorologist Mike...
Tarentum Night Market organizers cancel December event, citing covid stay-home advisory
Organizers of the Tarentum Night Market have canceled the scheduled December event, citing Allegheny County’s advisory for residents to stay home unless going out for essential reasons because of the covid-19 pandemic. Allegheny County Health Department Director Debra Bogen issued the advisory Nov. 18. The last Night Market, for which...
Olives & Peppers opening at historic Greensburg train station
It’s been more than three years, but the long-awaited Olives & Peppers restaurant finally is set to open Thursday in the historic Greensburg train station. “It did take us a little longer than we had hoped, but we are really excited to open,” said Emily Williams, part of the family...
DuBois man killed when trucks collide on icy Indiana County road
A motorist from DuBois was killed when a tri-axle truck slid into his pickup truck Tuesday afternoon on Route 56 in Indiana County, police said Joel Edward Bundy, 58, died at the scene near the United School District campus in East Wheatfield Township, according to Indiana County Coroner Jerry Overman...
Motorist injured as car goes over hillside in Jefferson Hills
At least one person was injured when a car fell about 100 feet over a hillside in Jefferson Hills Tuesday night. Allegheny County officials said the crash took place around 10:45 p.m. along the 1400 block of Route 885. A portion of the state road has been closed. The crash...
‘This has got to stop’: Republican Georgia election official calls out Trump, GOP
A Georgia elections official has had it with threats against himself and fellow elections workers in that battleground state that was awarded to Joe Biden during last month’s presidential election. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s Voting Systems Implementation Manager, who is Republican, said emphatically in a Tuesday press conference that it has...
Pittsburgh Promise gives 10,000th scholarship
Vanessa Thompson remembers feeling stunned as she sat with her mother when they received that first college tuition bill in the fall of 2008. Thompson was attending Chatham University, the first in her family to go to college. “We’re both crying like ‘how are we going to pay this bill?’”...
Beloved Jeannette football coach Joe Mucci dies of coronavirus at age 86
Joseph G. Mucci was a legendary football coach in Westmoreland County. But he was much more than that, according to his former assistant coaches, players and people in the community. The beloved coach and administrator at Jeannette and Greensburg Central Catholic influenced a lot of people whose lives he touched....
Justice Department probing potential bribery, lobbying scheme for pardonVideo
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to a court document unsealed Tuesday. Most of the information in the...
Pa. to administer free covid tests in counties without health departments
Pennsylvania health officials announced Tuesday the state will begin administering free covid-19 testing in counties that do not have their own health departments. Only six Pennsylvania counties have their own health departments, including Allegheny and Erie counties in Western Pennsylvania. Other counties are Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks. “Our goal...
Sen. Mitch McConnell says he’s revising his covid relief planVideo
WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he’s revising his scaled-back covid-19 relief bill with the goal of passing a significant downpayment during the lame-duck session and then revisiting the topic next year. The Kentucky Republican made the announcement after President-elect Joe Biden called upon lawmakers to follow...
Rick Dayton named permanent KDKA Radio afternoon host
Whether it’s television or radio, Rick Dayton loves telling a good story. Now he’ll have another chance to do it on a daily basis. Entercom Pittsburgh, parent company of KDKA Radio, has announced that Dayton will take over the news and talk station’s coveted afternoon drive slot. “KDKA Radio Afternoon...
After White House visit, Pa. state Sen. Doug Mastriano calls covid-19 case mild
HARRISBURG — A Republican state lawmaker from Pennsylvania revealed he has covid-19, confirming the positive test five days after he went to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump and went maskless at a packed public meeting to discuss efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. State Sen....
Intoxicated man accused of leading police on 100 mph chase in Westmoreland, Fayette counties
An Allegheny County man is accused of leading state police on a 100 mph chase in Westmoreland and Fayette counties Sunday night before crashing, according to court papers. Troopers said Nicholas Haluschak, 40, of Dravosburg, was under the influence of drugs at the time and had $1,500 and a loaded...
Suspect in Leechburg double shooting acted in self-defense, attorney says
An Allegheny Township man accused of shooting two men outside a Leechburg tattoo shop Sunday afternoon was defending himself, his attorney said Tuesday. Police said one of the men who was shot, now paralyzed and in critical condition at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, told investigators he had an altercation...
AG William Barr: No evidence of fraud that’d change election outcome
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the election was...
U.S. panel: 1st vaccines should go to health care workers, nursing homes
NEW YORK — Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday. The panel voted 13-1 to recommend priority be given to those groups in the first days of...
