Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1756
YouTube to pay $170M fine after violating kids’ privacy lawVideo
WASHINGTON — Google will pay $170 million to settle allegations its YouTube video service collected personal data on children without their parents’ consent. The company agreed to work with video creators to label material aimed at kids and said it will limit data collection when users view such videos, regardless...
Congressional committee on Homeland Security holds roundtable in Pittsburgh
If the problem involved anything but guns, something would have been done to stop it long ago, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto told three visiting members of Congress. “There would not only be hearings like this, but actions taken,” Peduto said Wednesday, as the city hosted a roundtable of the House...
Burrell grads set to ride out Hurricane Dorian in N.C.
Erika Fitch and Patrick Duffey wanted to try something new, so the 2012 graduates of Burrell High School packed up their apartment in Robinson and moved to North Carolina three months ago. Preparing for a hurricane wasn’t the new experience they were looking for, but that’s what they’ve found themselves...
Trump offers altered hurricane chart, appearing to double down on ‘Alabama’ warningVideo
President Trump presented a doctored Hurricane Dorian map to possibly justify the fact he had warned that the state of Alabama was in direct path of the storm. The President of the United States altered a National Hurricane Center map with a sharpie to falsely extend the official forecast toward...
Feds: Man sold rapper Mac Miller drugs before overdose death
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he sold counterfeit opioid pills to Mac Miller two days before the rapper died of an overdose. A Drug Enforcement Agency affidavit unsealed after the arrest of Cameron James Pettit alleges that Miller asked him for oxycodone...
Gov. Wolf announces new fees for Pennsylvania charter schools
Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced that the state Department of Education will enact new fees directed at charter schools. The “fee-for-service model” will charge charter schools to resolve payment disputes with local school districts. It is part of a sweeping charter school reform plan that Wolf announced earlier this...
Elizabeth Smart to speak in Pittsburgh for United Way women’s leadership event
Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart will share her story of hope and survival with nearly 800 women during this year’s United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Women Leadership Council’s campaign kickoff. The luncheon starts at 11:45 a.m. on Sept. 13 at the Wyndham Grand Hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh. The local Women’s Leadership...
Woman pecked to death by her own rooster
A woman in Australia was killed in a freak rooster attack. And experts say it should be a warning to us all. As published in the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, a 76-year-old Australian woman was gathering eggs on her rural property when her own rooster attacked her, pecking...
Lower Burrell man accused of almost hitting trooper, fleeing DUI checkpoint
A Lower Burrell man is in the Butler County Jail, accused of nearly running down a state trooper at a DUI checkpoint over the weekend. Terrell Eugene Leonard, 27, of Craigdell Road faces nine charges, including felony aggravated assault on a police officer. Police said the incident began Saturday night...
Florida man parks Smart car in kitchen so it won’t blow away in DorianVideo
A man in Jacksonville, Florida, is keeping his car safe from the ravages of Hurricane Dorian by parking it in his kitchen. Jessica Eldridge posted on Facebook that her husband, Patrick Eldridge, was “afraid his car might blow away” so he moved it indoors. She explained that there are double...
Online hospital threat was ‘extremely disruptive,’ Pittsburgh police sayVideo
Pittsburgh area hospital employees were justifiably afraid after an online threat was made Tuesday threatening to “commit a hate crime” at an undisclosed hospital in the city, police said. The threat came from a teen and was traced to Beaver County, police said. “It was extremely disruptive,” spokesman Chris Togneri...
Court takes up doctor liability in Pittsburgh psych clinic shooting
Pennsylvania’s highest court will determine if a woman shot seven years ago in the psychiatric clinic where she worked can sue the University of Pittsburgh over the assailant’s treatment before the attack. The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will decide whether a former Allegheny County judge made the right decision...
Heinz Field ranks high in atmosphere, food in new stadium survey
Fans going to a Pittsburgh Steelers game and visiting Heinz Field ranked the stadium’s atmosphere and food high, but the bathrooms average. Ticket site SeatGeek released its 2019 NFL stadium guides Wednesday, which surveyed more than 3,200 NFL fans about game-day atmosphere, in-stadium food, and bathrooms. Heinz Field ranked ninth...
Aerial videos, photos show Hurricane Dorian’s destruction in BahamasVideo
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Bahamians rescued victims of Hurricane Dorian with jet skis and a bulldozer as the U.S. Coast Guard, Britain’s Royal Navy and a handful of aid groups tried to get food and medicine to survivors and take the most desperate people to safety. Airports were flooded and roads...
Oprah Winfrey launching wellness arena tour in early 2020
LOS ANGELES — Oprah Winfrey is taking her motivational spirit on the road early next year with an arena tour to promote a healthier lifestyle. The former talk-show host and OWN television network chief announced Wednesday that the “Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus” tour will begin Jan. 4...
Police chase ends when SUV hits bus in Philadelphia; 9 hurt
PHILADELPHIA — Authorities say an SUV being pursued by police crashed into a commuter bus in Philadelphia, injuring nine people. The pursuit started in Upper Merion, as police tried to capture three robbery suspects. State police soon joined in, and the SUV eventually rear-ended the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s bus...
Man convicted of murder in Jefferson Hills motel owner’s shooting death
A Sacramento, Calif., man was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder by an Allegheny County jury in the 2016 shooting death of a Jefferson Hills motel owner. Derrick “Chino” Gallaway, 63, also was found guilty of robbery, theft and tampering with evidence in the death of Denhad Taiedi, 78, at the...
Barebones Productions gets back to bare essentials with ‘True West’ play in Braddock
After enjoying a brief foray into glitz and glamour with its successful staging of “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” Barebones Productions is getting back to the gritty content it’s largely known for. Sam Shepard’s play “True West” opens Friday at the Barebones Black Box in Braddock, representing a return to...
Family, teenagers among 34 presumed dead in California boat fire
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — High school students, a science teacher and his daughter, an adventurous marine biologist and a family of five celebrating a birthday are among those presumed to have died when fire tore through a scuba diving boat off the Southern California coast, trapping dozens of sleeping people...
Police say Ring video-sharing partnership has helped solve crimes
Two Western Pennsylvania police departments that have established partnerships with the doorbell-camera company Ring said the alliance has helped them solve crimes and benefited their communities. Baldwin Borough and Castle Shannon police are among roughly 400 police forces across the United States that have partnered with the Amazon-owned company, giving...
Officials: Online threat made to Pittsburgh-area hospital not credible, traced to teen
A Beaver County teen is responsible for online threats made Tuesday to commit a hate crime in Pittsburgh, officials said. Police spokesman Chris Togneri said at 7:30 a.m. today that officers traced the threat to a Beaver County home and determined it was not credible. “Police interviewed a male juvenile...
‘Total devastation’: Dorian slams parts of the BahamasVideo
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Relief officials reported scenes of utter ruin Tuesday in parts of the Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands. At least seven deaths were reported, with the...
Car catches fire near kerosene tank at Sheetz in Plum; no one injured
A car caught fire Tuesday night near a kerosene tank in the parking lot of a Sheetz gas station in Plum, prompting officials to shut down the gas pumps and close the convenience store for several hours. No one was injured in the incident, officials said. Plum police and firefighters...
Pentagon diverts $3.6 billion in military construction to build border wall
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday approved the use of $3.6 billion in funding from military construction projects to build 175 miles of President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Pentagon officials would not say which 127 projects will be affected, but said details will be available...
Man, woman face drug charges following Kiski Township arrest
Kiski Township police said a phony car inspection sticker and a confidential informant’s tip helped them stop a suspected methamphetamine deal last Thursday. A criminal complaint filed in the case said a pickup driven by Jacqueline D. Pratt, 50, of Avonmore drew an officer’s attention because it appeared to have...
