Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1836
Trump administration plans to expand hunting, fishing in wildlife refuges
OAK HARBOR, Ohio — The Trump administration is announcing what it calls a major expansion of hunting and fishing in the nation’s protected wildlife refuges. U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Wednesday the plan affects 1.4 million acres of federal public lands, including 74 national wildlife refuges. “President Trump is...
Ohio boy, 9, raises $80K to buy bulletproof vests for police dogs
A 9-year-old boy got the idea to buy protective vests for police K-9s while watching TV. Brady Snakovsky of Strongsville, Ohio, has raised $80,000 in 17 months via GoFundMe to protect police dogs in his community. “He noticed a dog on television who wasn’t wearing a vest and he wanted...
Readers respond: Dodgeball is not bullying
A story about researchers questioning whether dodgeball is an appropiate game for schoolchildren drew hundreds of responses on social media with most of them decrying the research and saying to leave dodgeball alone. While the Canadian researchers said that dodgeball is not an appropriate game because it often has players...
North Huntingdon drug bust nets suspect in Monroeville Mall shooting
A McKeesport man allegedly involved in April’s fight and shooting at Monroeville Mall was arrested in the Walmart parking lot in North Huntingdon Tuesday after state police say they found him with 15 bricks of heroin in his possession. Brandon K. Murphy, 24, has remained at large since mid-May when...
Americans think fake news is big problem, blame politicians
NEW YORK — Half of U.S. adults consider fake news a major problem, and they mostly blame politicians and activists for it, according to a new survey. A majority also believe journalists have the responsibility for fixing it. Differences in political affiliation are a major factor in how people think...
Powerball winner used numbers from fortune cookieVideo
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man who says he based his Powerball entry on a fortune cookie he got from his granddaughter now has a fortune to celebrate. WRAL in Raleigh reports retired retailer Charles W. Jackson Jr. stepped forward at North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters on Tuesday to...
UPMC to drop prepay rule for seniors; prepay still to affect younger patients, Hillman Cancer Center
UPMC said Wednesday it will drop a controversial prepay rule aimed at Highmark-insured Medicare Advantage patients when the competing health giants split insurance networks. The decision means that more than 100,000 senior citizens and people with disabilities enrolled in Highmark’s Freedom Blue and Security Blue Medicare Advantage plans will not...
Man convicted in fatal North Versailles Thanksgiving crash gets up to 140 years in prison
Kaylie Meininger wasn’t really Taylor Price’s big sister, but that’s what she called her friend anyway. She called Meininger’s fiancé, David Bianco, her brother-in-law and referred to the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Annika, as her niece. Price said she last spoke to the young family via video chat the morning of...
Shaler teacher writes letter to Tooth Fairy after student loses tooth at school
First-grade teacher Laura Roth went above and beyond to make sure a Shaler Area School District student got a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Roth, a teacher at Burchfield Primary School, wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy on Tuesday verifying that a student lost her tooth at school and...
Cops: Somerset County teen threatened to shoot student on social media
A Somerset County boy was cited to juvenile court for making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct by state police after posting on social media last month that he planned to shoot another student in the Rockwood Area School District. Trooper John Wogan of the Somerset station reported that the threat...
Trump reads from FDR’s prayer to the U.S. on D-Day
PORTSMOUTH, England — President Donald Trump read from a prayer delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he joined other world leaders and veterans Wednesday in marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Roosevelt went on national radio on June 6, 1944, to address the U.S. for the first time about...
Video: Rescue of injured 74-year-old hiker spins out of controlVideo
PHOENIX — Authorities say a 74-year-old hiker whose head and face were injured in a fall on a Phoenix mountain endured a wild ride in a stretcher as she was being hoisted into a helicopter. Phoenix Fire Department officials say the woman was treated for dizziness and nausea but suffered...
Indiana County man killed in Route 22 crash in Salem
An Indiana County man was killed Tuesday from injuries he received when his car crashed into a tractor-trailer Tuesday on Route 22 in Salem. Trooper Chad Howell reported Matthew Notto, 45, of Kent died from his injuries at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville. Howell said the crash occurred at 4:52 a.m....
Police search for suspect in Wilkinsburg homicide
A night of drinking and smoking ended early Tuesday with gunfire in an apparent robbery gone wrong in Wilkinsburg, according to charges filed against the alleged gunman. Triq Peek Price, 39, is charged with homicide in the death of David Herbin. Price was not in custody as of late Wednesday...
Woman crossing Route 30 seriously hurt after hit by truck
State police have identified a pedestrian hit by a truck on Route 30 in Hempfield Tuesday morning. Gloria A. Piper, 71, of Penn suffered a suspected serious injury in the incident shortly after 9 a.m. near Nature Park Road. According to state police, Piper was walking north across Route 30...
Texas teacher trying to privately message Trump about ‘illegal’ students gets fired
An English teacher in Fort Worth, Texas, who thought she was directly messaging President Trump on Twitter about removing undocumented students from her district has been fired. Self-proclaimed whistle-blower Georgia Clark, who has been with the district since 1998, thought she was being discreet with direct messages to the president,...
Pennsylvania moves to take over health insurance exchange
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is moving to take over the online health insurance exchange that’s been operated by the federal government since 2014, saying it can cut health insurance costs for the hundreds of thousands who buy the individual Affordable Care Act policies. New legislation introduced Tuesday has high-level support in...
Tim Benz: NFL preseason long overdue for change. Some Steelers agree.
I’ve long been an advocate of ditching the NFL’s preseason. Or at least cutting it back to two games. The risk associated with core roster players participating is massive, even if their reps are limited. By extension, their snaps are usually so few that the reward of playing a couple...
House passes immigration bill that would protect ‘Dreamers’
WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would offer a path to citizenship to more than 2 million undocumented immigrants, including “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States as children. The vote was 237-to-187 for the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would grant...
5 Western Pennsylvania nursing homes among the nation’s most troubled
What regulators called a “persistent record of poor care” landed two Westmoreland County nursing homes and a third in Allegheny County on a waiting list as candidates for special government oversight reserved for the nation’s worst skilled care centers. The Special Focus Facility program, which scrutinizes some of the nation’s...
Judge denies UPMC’s attempt to block Highmark from hearing
Highmark’s attorneys will be allowed a seat alongside Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s legal team during next week’s Commonwealth Court showdown with UPMC, a judge ruled Tuesday. Highmark — which sides with Shapiro in his broader quest to force UPMC to contract with any willing competitor — seeks to testify...
Former deputy Scot Peterson, who didn’t confront Parkland shooter, is arrested
The former Broward County, Fla., sheriff’s deputy who did not pursue the gunman attacking a Parkland high school last year was arrested Tuesday and charged with child neglect and negligence stemming from his actions that day. Scot Peterson, 56, was arrested and charged with 11 counts, including seven counts of...
Editorial: How hot is too hot for classrooms?
It’s hot. You’re in a room full of people, trying to listen to the person talking but your mind keeps wandering. It’s hard to focus on your work. All you can think about is how uncomfortable you are, how much you want a drink, how you want to be anyplace...
Jury convicts East Hills mom in toddler’s death from ingesting fentanyl from sippy cup
A jury on Tuesday convicted a Pittsburgh mom of involuntary manslaughter for the 2018 death of her toddler from an overdose of fentanyl in her sippy cup. Jurors deliberated for about a day Tuesday before finding Jhenea Pratt, 23, guilty. Pratt’s 17-month-old daughter, Charlette Napper-Talley, was pronounced dead April 5,...
Woodland Hills proposed budget could cut more than 60 staff
Staff in the Woodland Hills School District are pushing back against proposed cuts to personnel across the district. At least 60 positions, including 15 teaching positions from kindergarten to sixth grade, 10 secondary teaching positions, five special education positions and two guidance counselor positions could be eliminated, according to the...
