Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1404
Police investigating abduction of 2 girls from Penn Hills, juveniles safely returned
The two teenaged girls abducted at gunpoint in Penn Hills on Oct. 14 and found later that evening were not targeted randomly, Allegheny County police said. After the girls, both age 17, were found unharmed in Brighton Heights around 5 p.m., a car was found in Oakland by University of...
2 more Port Authority employees test positive for covid-19; overall count reaches 54
Two Port Authority of Allegheny County employees have tested positive for covid-19 in the past week, officials said Wednesday. The employees, based at garages in Collier and in Ross, bring the public transit agency’s coronavirus total count to 54, according to Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph. The majority of workers...
Plum High School remains open after 2 students test positive for covid-19
Plum High School remains open in a hybrid learning model despite two students testing positive for covid-19. District officials said they were notified Wednesday of two students from the same family at the high school having positive cases. Principal Joe Fishell said via letter that the district’s conducted contact tracing...
Live wires impede crash rescue efforts on Route 130 in Penn Township
First responders shut down part of Route 130 in Penn Township Wednesday night as they worked to free a person from a vehicle surrounded by live wires, according to Westmoreland County 911. The crash near the intersection of Pleasant Valley Road happened around 8:25 when the vehicle struck a power...
Man suspected of Sheraden Park assault surrenders after SWAT standoff
A police chase of an alleged assault suspect culminated in a SWAT standoff in Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood Wednesday night, officials said. A woman called 911 from a residence to report that she was assaulted in Sheraden Park at about 5 p.m., Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said. The woman...
Postal Service agrees to reverse service changes
HELENA, Mont. — The U.S. Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse changes that slowed mail service nationwide, settling a lawsuit filed by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock during a pandemic that is expected to force many more people to vote by mail. The lawsuit filed against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and...
Medical examiner IDs North Side woman killed in Perry South crash
A 28-year-old North Side woman died Tuesday when her vehicle struck a tree in Pittsburgh’s Perry South neighborhood. Shronda Watkins was identified as the driver in the crash, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said. The crash, which did not involve any other vehicles, happened at about 10 p.m. Tuesday,...
Facebook, Twitter seek to keep Hunter Biden report from going viral amid disinformation crackdown
After heavy criticism over the way they let misinformation run wild on their platforms in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, social media companies gradually have been adopting stronger policies to stem the spread of misinformation. For the first time, Facebook and Twitter deployed those policies Wednesday against a...
Passenger killed in South Side Slopes crash ID’d as 55-year-old woman
The woman killed Monday morning in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes after the minivan she was riding in collided with a concrete mixer truck has been identified as Roberta Leonard, 55. the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday. A residence for Leonard was not provided in the medical examiner’s initial...
Southmoreland High School closing due to coronavirus cases
Southmoreland High School is shutting down for five days after two people tested positive for the coronavirus, the district announced Wednesday. The district was informed of the latest positive test this week. Officials have not disclosed whether the infected people are students or staff members. The high school will close...
Allegheny Valley schools superintendent wants K-6 students back in classroom
Allegheny Valley School District Superintendent Pat Graczyk is proposing expanded in-person learning at Acmetonia Elementary School. “I’m asking the board for our elementary students (K-6) to come back four days a week for in-person learning starting on Oct. 26,” he said. Under Graczyk’s proposal students would be in classrooms Monday,...
Allegheny County officials attribute slowed covid rise to mask cooperation
Allegheny County officials on Wednesday said they are keeping an eye on the local increase in covid-19 cases, but they aren’t panicking. “This slow increase should remind us that things aren’t getting better in Allegheny County,” Health Director Debra Bogen said Wednesday. “But they also aren’t getting substantially worse, as...
Cameron Heyward’s foundation donates 350 backpacks to Pittsburgh students
Charlotte Heyward’s parents were teachers. She learned the importance of an education. And she taught that same lesson to her son, Cameron Heyward, star defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I know the impact of having the right tools to learn,” Charlotte Heyward said Wednesday as she handed out backpacks...
First lady: Barron Trump tested positive for covid, no symptoms
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump says her 14-year-old son, Barron, had tested positive for the coronavirus but has since tested negative. The White House initially said he had tested negative, after both of his parents tested positive earlier this month. The first lady said Wednesday that subsequent testing showed Barron had...
Covid-19 cases climb at Westmoreland Manor
Westmoreland officials said Wednesday that five more residents tested positive for coronavirus at the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield. Cases at Westmoreland Manor have steadily increased since the middle of September and now 117 residents, or more than a third of those who live there, have tested positive. The facility...
Westmoreland 911 center has 2 coronavirus cases
Westmoreland County’s 911 dispatching operations were split into two operational locations Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning after officials discovered two employees tested positive for coronavirus. Public Safety Director Roland Mertz said 911 operations were uninterrupted even as the county instituted mitigation efforts and implemented its emergency response plan to...
Monroeville Mall shooting victim remembered as selfless, loving
Saheed Gayle was at work at the Monroeville Mall on Oct. 7 when he was shot and killed. The 20-year-old had last spoken to his mother, Theresa Kallon of Laurel, Md., on the phone the evening before he died. He had called her to get ideas for what to buy...
Greensburg man accused of squatting in basement of Seton Hill building
A Greensburg man is being held in the county jail after police said he broke into an office building at Seton Hill University, ransacking it and using the basement as a hiding place. Joseph Donald Lawrence, 27, is charged with burglary, theft and criminal trespass in the August incidents. University...
Pa. health officials aim to avoid shutdown despite covid uptick
A recent uptick in covid-19 cases and a likely cold-weather resurgence of the virus will not lead to another state shutdown, Pennsylvania health leaders said Wednesday. Instead, current mitigation measures and increased testing will be used to combat the spread as cool weather drives people indoors. “We have no plans...
Wanted Jeannette man in jail after fight with trooper
A 38-year-old Jeannette man wanted on multiple arrest warrants dating back to March is accused of fighting a state trooper this week after he was found hiding out at a New Stanton motel with his girlfriend and 2-year-old daughter. James V. Villi was jailed on $50,000 bond on charges of...
Pennsylvania high court to settle voter signatures fight
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s highest court granted a request Wednesday from the state’s top elections official to take up the question of whether counties should count mail-in ballots when a voter’s signature doesn’t necessarily match the one on their registration. In its brief order, the state Supreme Court said it will...
2 Pittsburgh-area postal workers charged with throwing away mail
Federal criminal charges have been filed separately in Pittsburgh against two postal carriers accused of throwing away mail — including an application for a mail-in ballot and political advertisements. Both men are charged with delay or destruction of mail by a postal employee. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, on...
Westmoreland County tops 3K coronavirus cases
Westmoreland County on Tuesday became Pennsylvania’s 16th county to surpass 3,000 coronavirus cases. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 60 new cases in the county, bringing the total to 3,053. The state didn’t add any new deaths, leaving the county’s total at 64. The county added 309 test results, with...
Allegheny County adds 97 new coronavirus cases
Allegheny County reported 97 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the sixth straight day in double digits after hitting triple digits twice earlier this month. The 97 new cases bring its total to 13,533, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. Of those 97 cases, 55 are confirmed and 42 are...
Nearly 29K Allegheny County voters receive wrong mail-in ballots
Nearly 29,000 Allegheny County voters have received the wrong ballot because of a programming and printing error by the company hired to print and mail the county’s ballots, officials said Wednesday. Elections officials began hearing of the misprinted ballots on Friday, said Elections Division Manager David Voye. About 20 county...
