Top Stories category, Page 282
Regional learning alliance offers school districts opportunities to innovateVideo
California Area School District is 3D printing its way into an elementary orchestra program. The Washington County school district, where a third of residents live below the poverty line, is not able to provide students with costly string instruments, nor are many of its families in a position to rent...
Unity proposes guidelines for ATV trails, limiting solar farms to conservation zone
Potential solar farms would be confined to the eastern edge of Unity, in the vicinity of Chestnut Ridge, under a zoning ordinance amendment proposed by township officials. If approved, the change wouldn’t affect the existing case of Joseph Stas and GreenKey Solar, whose plan to develop a solar panel array...
Independence Health looks to cut losses, crunch data to improve bottom line, patient care as 3rd year begins
Independence Health cut its operating losses by close to 50% in 2024, but those losses remain in the eight-figure range, prompting leaders of the regional health system to further reduce expenses. Excela and Butler health systems combined in 2023 to create a third, albeit smaller, health care giant in a...
Ravens run roughshod over Steelers to win AFC wild card game, extend streak of playoff futility
BALTIMORE — The Pittsburgh Steelers had no answers. Not for Lamar Jackson’s read-option runs or big-play passes. Not for Derrick Henry’s breakaway bursts through the middle. And certainly not for a streak of playoff futility that stretched to six straight losses in an eight-year span under Steelers coach Mike Tomlin,...
Steelers notes: Justin Fields quickly makes his playoff debut
BALTIMORE — It didn’t take long for Justin Fields to make his NFL playoff debut. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ change-of-pace quarterback, Fields checked in for the third snap from scrimmage of Saturday night’s wild-card round game against the Baltimore Ravens. Fields, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith spent...
Powerful winter storm that dumped snow in South maintains its icy grip
ATLANTA — Flight cancellations piled up and officials warned of continuing dangerous roads Saturday in the wake of a winter storm that brought biting cold and wet snow to the U.S. South, leading to school closures and disrupting travel. The storm was moving out to sea off the East Coast...
Kohl’s to close 27 stores by April as struggling department stores works to improve sales
NEW YORK — Kohl’s said Friday it was closing 27 underperforming locations in 15 states by April — a fraction of its 1,150 store base — as the struggling department store chain aims to boost profitability and improve sagging sales. The announcement comes as the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based chain has...
50 years later: Super Steelers reflect on winning 1st Super Bowl, igniting franchise’s legacy
Terry Bradshaw already was feeling immense pressure — internally if not externally — when he took the field for the biggest game of his young NFL career 50 years ago. The sight of an apparently dead body lying in front of him only heightened his anxiety before he led the...
Firefighters race to contain Los Angeles wildfires with menacing winds forecast to return
LOS ANGELES — Firefighters raced Saturday to cut off spreading wildfires before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward the world famous J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles, while new evacuation warnings left more homeowners on edge. A fierce battle against the...
Wilkinsburg man dead after Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar crash
A Wilkinsburg man is dead after crashing his car over a hillside Friday night in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood. Leondre Johnson, 28, crashed his car near the intersection of Paulson Avenue and Rowan Street just before 6 p.m. Friday, according to a release from Pittsburgh Public Safety. Pittsburgh EMS performed CPR...
Climate change will continue with warmer, wetter conditions predicted
Jim Bonner used to associate mockingbirds with the southern part of the United States. His backyard is home to one, it’s indicative of how weather changes have impacted the avian species, and likely will continue for other types of birds. “I see more mockingbirds now that I ever did 20...
Families in shock begin to visit their charred homes in Los Angeles area
LOS ANGELES — Many watched their homes burn on television in a state of shock. Now four days since the flames erupted in and around Los Angeles, many residents have returned to their still smoldering neighborhoods even as the threat of new fires persisted and the nation’s second- largest city...
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tours Pittsburgh International Airport’s new landside terminal
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Friday toured the new terminal under construction at Pittsburgh International Airport, touting the work President Joe Biden’s administration has done to support such infrastructure improvements nationwide. “It was important for us to have Pittsburgh be one of the last places I travel to in...
Tempers flare during 7-hour Pine-Richland School Board meeting over book policy
The latest episode in Pine-Richland School District’s yearslong discussions about book bans and book review policies took place Thursday during a nearly seven-hour school board meeting. Tempers occasionally flared as audience members shouted and board members sometimes argued among themselves while attempting to revise its “Library Resources” policy. The meeting...
Aliquippa VFW closes, liquor license goes dormant as police seek ‘armed, dangerous’ suspect in attack
A Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge where a man was brutally beaten in what the victim’s family called a hate crime agreed to close permanently, while authorities Friday kept searching for a suspect labeled as “armed, dangerous and mentally unstable” by the Beaver County district attorney. The lodge’s leadership “are...
Pittsburgh’s high-end steakhouses lowering prices during Restaurant Week
If you’ve been wanting to try one of the high-end steakhouses in the area, the upcoming week is the time to do it. A number of establishments for the winter edition of Pittsburgh Restaurant Week are serving up filet, sirloin and New York strip meals with lower prices than usual....
Relative of New Kensington cop killer’s helper threatens to shoot woman ‘like we shot up Brian Shaw,’ police say
Editor’s note: All charges against Mayona Harrington were withdrawn by the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office on Jan. 23 after, police say, prosecution witnesses fail to appear to testify at a hearing on the charges. A relative of a woman convicted of helping a New Kensington police officer’s killer escape...
Mt. Pleasant woman guilty for drunken crash that injured pedestrians
A Mt. Pleasant woman was convicted Friday for her role in a drunken-driving crash more than four years ago that injured two pedestrians. Elizabeth M. Sirianni could serve at least one year in prison as a result of the verdicts rendered by a Westmoreland County jury following a three-day trial....
‘Culmination of my life’s work’: Pitt names Jerry Dickinson as new law school dean
When Jerry Dickinson’s mother died in the fall of 2023, he was approached at the service by an older man who introduced himself as George Pettrone, Pitt Law, 1976. “Vice Dean Dickinson, it’s a pleasure to meet you again,” the man said. “I haven’t seen you for 33 years.” Dickinson,...
Meta becomes latest company to eliminate DEI programs
DEI programs are ending at major companies — with the latest changes happening at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Meta announced the rollback of its major diversity-oriented programs in a memo Friday, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions, Axios reported....
Mt. Pleasant woman gets up to nearly 2 years in jail for theft of $50K from band boosters
A Mt. Pleasant woman has been sentenced to serve time in the Indiana County Jail for stealing more than $50,000 from a high school band boosters group. Lara Lee Brown, 57, pleaded guilty to the thefts, which state police said occurred from 2019 through 2022 while she was treasurer of...
6 Highlands students charged in connection with hazing allegations
Six student-athletes from Highlands School District have been charged in connection with an alleged hazing incident. Harrison police Chief Brian Turack said the students, all members of the boys basketball team, were charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and hazing stemming from an incident Nov. 26 on a bus carrying the...
Mark Madden: The recalibration of Mike Tomlin’s legend continues
Denial. It’s tough. With the Pittsburgh Steelers set to finish their traditional late-season skid with a fifth straight loss by losing their wild-card playoff game at Baltimore on Saturday, here’s a bit of hope: Betting the Steelers on the money line is great value. The Steelers are plus-400. A worthwhile...
Former Leechburg police chief faces new charge of failing to report internet use
Former Leechburg police chief Michael Diebold is facing a new felony charge after state police say he didn’t report all of the internet sites and apps he’d been using. Diebold, 47, is a convicted sex offender and was ordered to be listed on the state’s Megan’s Law site for 25...
About $500K of work to fill Unity sinkhole nearly complete
Crews have pumped more than 3,300 cubic yards of grout into an abandoned mine void to stabilize a section of a Unity property where a local woman fell into a sinkhole and died. With recent snow blanketing the ground at Monday’s Union restaurant, work to restore a cordoned-off area behind...
