Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1637
Westmoreland County animal response team hosts training for regional firefighters, EMTsVideo
About two years after the Westmoreland County Animal Response Team formed, its members were called out to fire in Ligonier . CART Coordinator Lori Mozina thought it was odd, since the fire company was equipped with an oxygen mask suited to treat pets. “They had one at the station, but...
Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna, 7 others killed in California chopper crashVideo
LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant, the 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, died in a helicopter crash Sunday. He was 41. Bryant died near Calabasas, Calif., about 30 miles...
Who can topple Trump? Dems’ electability fight rages in Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa — The urgent fight for the Democratic presidential nomination was raging across Iowa on Sunday as the party’s leading candidates and their allies fanned out across the state to deliver closing arguments centered on the defining question of the 2020 primary: Who is best positioned to defeat...
Defense resumes in key impeachment week; Dems seek witnesses
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial enters a pivotal week as his defense team resumes its case and senators face a critical vote on whether to hear witnesses or proceed directly to a vote that is widely expected to end in his acquittal. The articles of impeachment charge Trump...
Trump peace plan could boost embattled Israeli leader
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on Sunday vowing to “make history” as he prepared to meet President Donald Trump for the unveiling of the U.S. administration’s much-anticipated plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the high-profile meeting in Washington looks set to serve mostly as...
Trump suggests Adam Schiff ‘has not paid the price’ for prosecuting impeachmentVideo
President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Adam Schiff in a series of tweets on Sunday, saying the California Democrat has “not paid the price, yet” for his role in the impeachment process, a statement Schiff said he viewed as a threat. “Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and...
Police: Pittsburgh man attacked medics, threw furniture at officers during hours-long standoff
A Pittsburgh man who sparked a three-hour standoff when he attacked two paramedics Saturday also threw a dresser and air conditioning unit at the SWAT officers charged with getting him out of his Windgap house, according to the charges against him. Joseph Sadar, 51, called 911 about 3:45 p.m. Friday...
Outbound Liberty Tunnel reopens following crash
The outbound lanes of the Liberty Tunnel have reopened following a crash on Sunday morning, according to PennDOT. The crash occurred just after 9:45 a.m., according to an Allegheny County 911 dispatcher. One person was taken to a hospital, the dispatcher said. Additional information was not immediately available....
Arizona, California cases push U.S. tally of new virus to 5
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all among people who traveled to the city at the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday. Two new cases were reported Sunday — one in Los Angeles County in California and the other...
Newly accessible records tell story of Holocaust, journey of survivorsVideo
Steven Fenves and his family were swept up from their Yugoslavian home during World War II, when they were split up and forced into ghettos, then German concentration camps. That included Auschwitz, where his grandmother and then his mother died, caught in the Nazi death machine that slaughtered an estimated...
Liberating Dachau concentration camp uncovered horrors, area veteran saysVideo
At age 23 in the spring of 1945, Guy Prestia was in the Army fighting his way across southern Germany when his unit walked into hell on earth — the Nazi death camp at Dachau. “It was terrible. I never saw anything like those camps,” said Prestia, 97, who still...
Farmers, conservation districts applaud rollback of Obama-era clean water rule
Not long after he took office, President Trump issued an executive order asking the EPA to review a clean water rule that he said exemplified federal government overreach in the Obama years. The 2015 Waters of the United States regulation increased the number and types of waterways — reportedly 60%...
SWAT use on the rise in Pittsburgh, across Western Pa.
As the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has used its SWAT team more in recent years, critics are questioning whether that’s improving public safety. City officials say the department is taking precautions to keep situations from escalating, which protects officers and the public. “We understand that a SWAT callout can be...
SWAT response ends after man accused of attacking Pittsburgh paramedics taken into custody
Two Pittsburgh paramedics were injured while responding to a call Saturday afternoon, prompting a SWAT team response, authorities said. The paramedics were responding to a medical call about 3:30 p.m. at a home on Windgap Avenue in the city’s Windgap neighborhood, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV. The initial call...
Xi calls situation grave as China scrambles to contain virus
BEIJING — China’s leader on Saturday called the accelerating spread of a new virus a grave situation, as cities from the outbreak’s epicenter in central China to Hong Kong scrambled to contain an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41. President Xi Jinping’s remarks, reported by...
Pittsburgh police: Man shot in back in Uptown neighborhood, woman questioned
A man was shot in the back and a woman detained for questioning Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Uptown section, according to police. Pittsburgh police responded about 12:15 p.m. to a ShotSpotter alert followed by notification that a man had shown up to a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound to his...
St. Joseph High School mom recounts March for Life experience in Washington
Nearly three dozen people from the Alle-Kiski Valley took a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., on Friday to attend the yearly March for Life on the National Mall. The locals, which included students from St. Joseph High School in Natrona Heights, Harrison, were among the tens of thousands that attended...
Heavily armed Troy Hill man allegedly obsessed with Nazis held on federal weapons charges
A Troy Hill man with an alleged obsession with Nazis and mass shootings will remain in federal prison while he awaits trial on weapons charges, a judge ruled Friday. Dennis A. Riggs, 50, was arrested by FBI agents about 6 a.m. Wednesday when authorities served a search warrant on his...
Driver in critical condition after crashing into Downtown Pittsburgh wall
A driver is in critical condition after crashing into a wall coming off the Liberty Bridge at Forbes Avenue on Saturday morning. Pittsburgh police responded to a report of a single-vehicle collision at about 8:10 a.m. just off the bridge. The vehicle crashed into a wall on the inbound side...
Route 130 reopens in Penn Township following 2-vehicle crashVideo
A two-vehicle crash shut down Route 130 in Penn Township for more than four hours Saturday afternoon, according to authorities. The crash, involving a car and a pickup truck, was reported at 12:20 p.m. on Route 130 near Hungry Hank’s Pizzeria, a 911 supervisor said. “We had one patient in...
Trump defends Sanders, stoking Democratic divisions
WASHINGTON — As tensions between Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren rose earlier this month, Sanders found himself with an unusual ally: President Donald Trump. During a raucous campaign rally in which Trump critiqued some of his Democratic challengers, the president launched into an unprompted defense of Sanders....
Trump lawyers argue Democrats just want to overturn election
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. “They’re...
Senate floor belongs to Trump team as defense case opens
WASHINGTON — The floor of the Senate now belongs to President Donald Trump’s lawyers as they push the Republican-led chamber for his impeachment acquittal on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress. The president’s lawyers planned to begin their arguments Saturday in the impeachment trial and were expected...
McKeesport shooting victim in critical condition
A 29-year-old man is in critical condition following a shooting early Saturday morning in McKeesport, according to police. McKeesport officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of Maple Street just after 2:15 a.m. Saturday for a report of shots fired. They arrived to find a 29-year-old man with multiple gunshot...
Spacewalking astronauts plug leak, finish fixing cosmic ray detector
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station on Saturday, completing a series of complex repairs to give the instrument new life. The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer could resume its hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter by...
