Top Local and National News Stories category, Page 1880
Pittsburgh publicity video gets a seat in Times SquareVideo
Pittsburgh is inviting the world to have a seat in the Steel City. That’s the message in the latest marketing campaign launched on Tuesday by VisitPittsburgh, Allegheny County’s official tourist promotion agency. VisitPittsburgh parlayed Western Pennsylvanians’ quirk for using chairs placed curbside to save a parking space into a video...
Trump baby blimp is back, could be even bigger for UK visit
The balloon that depicted Donald Trump in a diaper during protests against his visit to the United Kingdom in July will return in June. The Donald Trump baby blimp will fly again during Trump’s three-day state visit in the first week of June and could be joined by an even...
McKeesport school officials say they did not block Black Student UnionVideo
McKeesport Area School District officials on Tuesday refuted claims in a civil rights lawsuit that they are trying to thwart formation of a Black Student Union. Superintendent Mark Holtzman, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with the district, told reporters that the American Civil Liberties Union...
Pennsylvania is tops in craft beer production, brewers group says
Pennsylvania is ranked No. 1 in the country in one craft beer category — production. The state’s 354 breweries produced more than 3.7 million barrels of craft beer last year, more than in any other state in the nation, according to statistics compiled by the Colorado-based Brewers Association, a national...
Walgreens to hike minimum age for store tobacco sales
Walgreens has decided to raise its minimum age for tobacco sales several weeks after a top federal official chastised the drugstore chain for violating laws restricting access to cigarettes and other products. Walgreens said Tuesday that it will require customers to be at least 21 years old to purchase tobacco...
Western Pennsylvania’s first rebranded Dunkin’ opens in Pleasant HillsVideo
Dunkin’ opened its first rebranded store in Western Pennsylvania on Tuesday. No “Donuts” here in Pleasant Hills. Just Dunkin’. “We all know that America runs on Dunkin’ and we’re excited to make it easier for Western Pennsylvania residents to run on Dunkin’ too,” Anthony Braun, chief operating and financial officer...
2 passengers caught with guns on same day at Pittsburgh International Airport
A California man tried taking a revolver in his carry-on bags at Pittsburgh International Airport on Monday, just hours after a West Virginia woman was caught with a loaded handgun, officials said. Transportation Security Administration officers stopped the Chula Vista man at the checkpoint after they found a .22-caliber revolver...
Police: Man who lost prosthetic in dumpster slept there to avoid ‘chaos’ at home
A man sleeping in a dumpster in McKees Rocks, who lost his prosthetic leg when he got tossed into the back of a garbage truck, was not homeless, authorities said. The man, whose name has not been released, has a home in the neighborhood but left to escape what authorities...
Saudi Arabia beheads 37 citizens for terrorism crimes; pins bodies to poles
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 Saudi citizens for what it said Tuesday were terrorism-related crimes, the Interior Ministry said, publicly pinning two of the bodies to a pole as a warning to others. The report said the executions were carried out by beheading and that two...
Free tree seedlings offered in Pittsburgh on Arbor Day
Allegheny County’s trees are in trouble. This Arbor Day, there’s something you can do about it. “It literally means ‘tree day,’ so one of the requirements on Arbor Day is that you plant a tree,” said Joe Stavish, community education coordinator with Tree Pittsburgh. This year, Arbor Day falls on...
1 killed when truck tips onto car on Steubenville Pike in Robinson
One man died Tuesday morning when a cargo truck tipped over onto his car on Steubenville Pike in Robinson, authorities said. The incident happened about 9 a.m. near the Interstate 79 interchange, an emergency dispatcher said. Police said they arrived on scene to find the cargo truck had rolled over...
Matriarch pizza wins Caliente ‘best’ honors
Caliente Pizza & Draft House chef Eric Von Hansen’s tribute to his mother and grandmother, “Mee-Maw” pizza, will soon be available to local mee-maws and their families. Hansen and business owner Nick Bogacz traveled to Italy recently to compete in the Pizza World Championships, where Von Hansen won “Best Pizza...
Back to Earth: Washington set to allow ‘human composting’
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington appears set to become the first state to allow a burial alternative known as “natural organic reduction” — an accelerated decomposition process that turns bodies into soil within weeks. The bill legalizing the process, sometimes referred to as “human composting,” has passed the Legislature and is...
Cops: Pittsburgh man spent weeks hiding in ex-girlfriend’s attic
Police have arrested a man who allegedly spent weeks hiding out in his ex-girlfriend’s attic in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood. The woman discovered Cary Cocuzzi, 31, in her bedroom Saturday, according to an affidavit filed against him. She had a protection from abuse order against Cocuzzi and told police he...
Brighton Heights man pleads to involuntary manslaughter in infant’s death
A Brighton Heights man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday in connection with his infant daughter’s death nearly four years ago. Joseph Swidorsky, 33, is scheduled for sentencing July 16 in Allegheny County court, according to online court records. His 1-month-old daughter Braelyn Swidorsky became unresponsive in a West View...
Palace: Trump to pay state visit to Britain in June
LONDON — U.S. President Donald Trump will pay a state visit to Britain in June as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday. Trump and his wife, Melania, have “accepted an invitation from Her Majesty The Queen to pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom,” officials...
Parked car rolled into Mon River. It took 2 days to recover it.Video
It took two days to recover a car that sank in the Monongahela River in Washington County, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI. Police told WPXI that an 18-year-old driver parked his parents’ Nissan at the top of a boat ramp in New Eagle on Saturday evening. After the man...
Coroner identifies 4 killed in Beaver County crash
The Beaver County Coroner’s Office has identified the four people who were killed in a two-car crash Sunday night. Denise Feathers, 41, of Baden, was driving a Jeep south in the northbound lane of Route 65 in Baden when she struck another vehicle just before 11 p.m. Sunday, according to...
Allegheny Health Network CEO vows to expand amid Pittsburgh health care war
The challenges were many when Cynthia Hundorfean accepted the job as Allegheny Health Network’s CEO in 2016. For one, the hospital system reported a loss of $17.8 million in the first three months of 2016 and other losses in years prior. The other challenge was gaining respect in an industry...
Gift ideas for women undergoing cancer treatmentVideo
Lisa Lurie gets asked the same question all the time. “People want to know what would make a great gift for somebody undergoing surgery, treatment or in recovery?” says Lurie of Squirrel Hill, a breast cancer survivor and co-founder of Cancer Be Glammed, a company that helps women diagnosed with...
Police seek 16-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting girl in North Braddock
A 16-year-old girl shot in the face by an acquaintance Monday in North Braddock told the boy repeatedly she didn’t like guns and asked him to put it away, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. Allegheny County police said they are searching for 16-year-old Damond Thomas, of West...
America’s elderly are twice as likely to work now than in 1985Video
Just as single-income families began to vanish in the last century, many of America’s elderly are now forgoing retirement for the same reason: They don’t have enough money. Rickety social safety nets, inadequate retirement savings plans and sky high health-care costs are all conspiring to make the concept of leaving...
House chair subpoenas former White House lawyer Don McGahn
WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler on Monday subpoenaed former White House Counsel Don McGahn for testimony following the special counsel’s report that said McGahn refused President Trump’s request to curb or cut off the Russia investigation. The New York Democrat announced his court action to compel McGahn...
Federal drug conspiracy trial off for Harrison City doctor as he appeals prior conviction
A Harrison City doctor accused of illegally distributing the anti-opioid drug Suboxone will not stand trial in federal court Tuesday, sources said. Dr. Felix Brizuela Jr., 58, was scheduled to go to trial in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, W.Va., with co-defendant Dr. George Naum III on a charge of...
Sri Lanka blames local Islamist extremist group for Easter bombingsVideo
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka on Monday accused a local Islamist extremist group, the National Thowheed Jamaath, of being behind a string of Easter bombings at churches and hotels that killed at least 290 people, and the United States pledged support for the investigation, dispatching FBI agents to help. At least...
