Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1390
Former Pittsburgh firefighter faces federal prison in sex case
A former Pittsburgh firefighter pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to traveling to Virginia to have sex with what he believed was a 10-year-old girl and her mother. Brian Kosanovich, 58, will be sentenced on charges of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual...
Man who assaulted New Kensington hockey referee gets probation, anger managementVideo
A Buffalo Township doctor who attacked a hockey referee during a recreational game in New Kensington earlier this month has accepted an agreement calling for two years’ probation and requiring that he attend anger management counseling sessions. New Kensington police charged the player, Dr. Jeremy Gregory Gilbert, 43, with assault...
‘Gone too soon’: West Penn Power lineman remembered for acts of kindness at Madison serviceVideo
Dozens of West Penn Power utility trucks and ambulances on Thursday lined Main Street outside of Beatty-Rich Funeral Home in Madison to honor 27-year-old Dillon W. Walton, a utility lineman killed Oct. 21 in a crash on nearby Interstate 70. The overflow crowd of family, friends and co-workers, who parked...
Home for the holidays: Pa. health secretary urges that gatherings be limited to households
State officials are asking Pennsylvanians to limit holiday gatherings to those within their own households as the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic continues. Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Thursday there is evidence locally and nationally that such gatherings, large or small, are contributing to an increase in cases...
Westmoreland County reports 6 new coronavirus deaths, 74 new cases
Westmoreland County added six new coronavirus deaths, continuing a streak of 14 days with at least one new death in the county because of the virus. The six deaths are the most in a single day since May. The county saw five deaths on Wednesday and four on Tuesday. There...
Pennsylvania reports more than 2,200 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths
Pennsylvania has experienced its largest spike in coronavirus cases during October. After reporting 2,202 new cases on Thursday, the state have accumulated 43,909 cases for the month with two days to go. At the start of the pandemic, cases grew quickly with 40,000 cases in April. But September recorded just...
PPG Ice Rink opening in November in Pittsburgh
Lace up your skates: The PPG Ice Rink is opening. Although Light Up Night has been canceled because of the covid-19 pandemic, the annual debut of the skating rink will be the Friday before Thanksgiving. Located in PPG Plaza between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, the rink will be open...
Pitt Library System acquires August Wilson archive
An adage taken from the title of a Thomas Wolfe novel states, “You can’t go home again.” However, August Wilson is doing just that. Or at least his archive is. The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) has acquired the August Wilson archive with the help of Wilson’s widow, Constanza...
Allegheny County posts 149 new coronavirus cases, 2 deaths
Allegheny County on Thursday reported 149 new coronavirus cases with two new deaths. The county has seen an average of 131 new daily cases over the past seven days, while adding 920 new cases in that time. The county’s total number of cases stands at 15,449 with 10,695 recoveries. According...
Police looking for suspect in theft of $1,000 worth of Legos from Indiana Co. Walmart
Pennsylvania State Police are looking to identify a man suspected of stealing Legos from a Walmart in Indiana County. Police said they believe the man stole 11 Lego sets worth $989.45. The incident took place at a Walmart in White Township on Oct. 14, according to police. Photos show the...
Potentially thousands of requested mail ballots lost in Butler County, official says
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — Potentially thousands of mail ballots requested by Butler County voters appear to be lost, a county official said Wednesday,...
10-year-old Shaler student stops spotted lanternfly in its tracks
Ten-year-old Ludi Aguera didn’t realize the significance of the bug she squashed at the Shaler Area Elementary School track – she just thought it was a cool-looking moth. “I had no idea what it was,” said Ludi, who stumbled across a spotted lanternfly — an invasive insect with the potential...
Pine-Richland alum working on team searching for covid-19 vaccine
Kathy Strauss has always pretty good at math and science. But the 1974 Pine-Richland graduate didn’t necessarily envision a career in the medical profession or ever imagine that she would someday work on groundbreaking research in the mission to find a vaccine for the coronavirus. But Strauss, 64, recently was...
Zeta batters Southeast after swamping Gulf Coast; 6 deadVideo
NEW ORLEANS — Zeta sped across the Southeast on Thursday, leaving a trail of damage and more than 2.6 million homes and businesses without power in Atlanta and beyond after pounding New Orleans with winds and water that splintered homes and were blamed for at least six deaths. A Category...
Wall Street ends higher after shaking off a wobbly startVideo
Stocks shook off an early slide and closed broadly higher Thursday as the market steadied after its worst drop in more than four months. The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, bouncing back from a drop of 0.3% in the early going. Traders welcomed encouraging data on the pace of layoffs and...
Duquesne suspends all Greek Life activity after covid protocol violations
Duquesne University has canceled all fraternity and sorority activity for the rest of the semester after officials said Greek organizations repeatedly violated covid-19 precautions. In a letter to students, Senior Vice President for Student Life Douglas Frizzell said that several Greek organizations had committed “repeated and egregious violations of the...
Self-driving trucks from Pittsburgh deliver food to needy in Ohio, Michigan
Two self-driving trucks delivered more than 40,000 pounds of food last week from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to needy families in Toledo, Ohio. The delivery was part of a test drive featuring two human-guided, self-driving trucks produced by Locomation, an autonomous convoying startup located on Pittsburgh’s North Side....
Westmoreland elections officials: ‘Number of residents’ have not received mail-in, absentee ballots
While nearly 50,000 mail-in ballots from Westmoreland voters have been returned to the county’s Election Bureau, a number of residents have not received the mail-in or absentee ballot they requested. County officials said as of Wednesday, 71,852 of 74,648 ballots had been delivered to the U.S. Postal Service to be...
French prosecutor: Nice killer of 3 got to France from ItalyVideo
PARIS — A man armed with a knife attacked people inside a French church and killed three Thursday, prompting the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The attack in Mediterranean city of Nice was the third in two months that...
Trump to make campaign stop at Butler County airport on Saturday
President Donald Trump will make three stops in Pennsylvania on Saturday, including an appearance at a rally in Butler County in the final weekend before the Nov. 3 election. Trump’s campaign announced that he will deliver remarks at 1:30 p.m. in Bucks County, followed by rallies at 4 p.m. at...
Biden lead holds steady at 6 points in latest Franklin & Marshall College Poll
Former vice president Joe Biden continued to hold a six-point lead among likely voters in Pennsylvania last week as the number of undecided voters declined, a poll Franklin & Marshall College Poll found. The poll of 558 likely Pennsylvania voters, which was conducted from Oct. 19-25, contained a margin of...
California-Kirkbride house condemned after vehicle crashes into it
A 24-year-old man was in stable condition after crashing his car into a house in Pittsburgh’s California-Kirkbride neighborhood Wednesday, according to police. The crash happened near Brighton Road and Brighton Place shortly before 5 p.m. Police said the driver crashed into a home where Brighton Place branches off Brighton Road,...
Postal Service ordered to increase late trips for election mail
WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was ordered to immediately begin expanding mail delivery with extra trips and later deliveries after the U.S. Postal Service failed to improve performance less than a week before the election. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan late Tuesday in Washington granted an emergency request to...
Pittsburgh Public Schools extends remote learning for most students until Jan. 4
Some Pittsburgh Public School students will return to face-to-face instruction Monday, Nov. 9 under a phased hybrid approach approved by the school board Wednesday evening. But the majority will stay in remote learning until at least Jan. 4, 2021. Under the school’s new plan, students are broken into four groups,...
Highlands High School closes because of covid-19 case with ‘significant’ quarantines
All Highlands High School students will learn remotely through next Friday, Nov. 6, because officials said a covid-19 case resulted in a “significant” number of required quarantines. The move to all remote learning took effect Thursday. “The high school building will be closed and all after-school activities that are scheduled...
