Top Stories category, Page 299
Fire at Verona apartment leaves at least 6 people homeless
At least six people were left homeless Thursday evening after a fire ripped through an apartment building in Verona. Multiple fire departments responded to the call for a fire with entrapment shortly before 5 p.m. in the 400 block of Center Avenue. Bystanders and borough police were kicking in doors...
MAWC says inventory finds 3% of water system has lead service lines
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County officials said they suspect just 3% of its water system contains lead service lines and have started to notify impacted home and business owners of its findings. An inventory of the system’s more than 123,000 customers revealed more than 4,000 properties could be serviced by...
Mt. Lebanon businessman gets 3 years in prison for fraud stemming from arson
A Mt. Lebanon man will spend three years in federal prison stemming from fraud allegations related to a South Side property he owned that burned down. Prasad Margabandhu, 48, pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and mail fraud in September before U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand. On Thursday, she ordered...
Westmoreland’s fired deputy purchasing director testifies courthouse boss initiated alleged theft scheme
Westmoreland County’s former deputy director of purchasing told a judge her boss said he and his five department employees were authorized for additional pay in August 2023. Kristen Coyne claimed she didn’t learn those pay hikes had actually been rejected by county officials until both she and her boss were...
Chorus to approve U.S. Steel-Nippon deal grows louder
United Steelworkers President David McCall was mentioned only once by name Thursday afternoon at a rally supporting the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, but his intransigence over the $15 billion acquisition looms much larger with a decision on the deal likely imminent. “I want to know: Who’s...
American who says he crossed into Syria on foot is free after 7 months in detentionVideo
DAMASCUS, Syria — An American who turned up in Syria on Thursday said he was detained after crossing into the country on foot seven months ago on a Christian pilgrimage. Travis Timmerman appears to have been among thousands of people released from the country’s notorious prisons after rebels reached Damascus...
Police flag Pittsburgh man for Steelers parking lot scam
Police have sacked a Pittsburgh man they say netted more than $1,000 Sunday by getting Pittsburgh Steelers fans to pay to park at a North Side lot he doesn’t own. Alphonso Rattliff, 30, on Sunday charged 23 drivers headed to see the Steelers play at Acrisure Stadium $50 apiece to...
New Kensington man sentenced in kidnapping case called ‘a single woman’s worst nightmare’
A New Kensington man convicted of kidnapping a woman he met online in 2022 was sentenced to serve five to 10 years in prison for what a Westmoreland County prosecutor called a chilling crime. “This defendant is more dangerous than anyone else I could imagine. The facts of this case,...
Barn burns at Critter Country in South Huntingdon
An icy wind whipped across an empty, snow-dusted field off Route 981 in South Huntingdon on Thursday afternoon as flames punched through the roof of a barn at Critter Country Animal Farm. At least a dozen fire trucks and ambulances lined Route 981, blockading the roadway for about an hour...
St. Louis bakery embroiled in smiley cookies trademark dispute with Eat’n Park
Eat’n Park isn’t smiling over a St. Louis bakery producing a similarly named cookie. McArthur’s Bakery and The Pioneer Cafe in St. Louis, which employs adults with disabilities, has received a cease and desist letter from Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain Eat’n Park alleging trademark infringement over its popular Smiley Cookies. McArthur’s...
‘Misinterpreted’ text, not bomb threat, led to disruption on Spirit jet at Pittsburgh airport
Allegheny County Police on Thursday removed all passengers from a Spirit jetliner at Pittsburgh International Airport after one traveler “misinterpreted” another’s text message as being about “a possible bomb threat,” the Transportation Security Administration told TribLive. There was no bomb threat, according to TSA and county police. TSA officials and...
Jordan Brown loses civil case against troopers who charged him
Jordan Brown set out to prove he should never have been arrested for the 2009 shooting death of his father’s pregnant fiancee. He failed. A federal jury Thursday said the four state troopers who led the investigation and accused then-11-year-old Brown of killing Kenzie Houk had probable cause to charge...
Outgoing Greater Latrobe superintendent preparing to leave at end of December
Mike Porembka’s final day as superintendent of Greater Latrobe School District is set for Dec. 31. The school board is expected at a meeting next Tuesday to accept Porembka’s resignation and select an administrator to lead the district in the interim while a search is underway for his successor. In...
Trump named Time’s Person of the Year, rings New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump has been recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its Person of the Year. To mark the event, Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange. The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback...
Legislation aims to address post-traumatic stress among first responders
In February 2023, Sardis Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joe Paiano Jr. entered a burning house in Salem Township to rescue an 11-year-old boy. The boy was among three people pulled from the fire, but he died of his injuries a few days later. The incident affected Paiano in a way...
Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday...
Minnesota fugitive arrested in East Liberty
A Minnesota man wanted by federal law enforcement officials was apprehended in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood Wednesday, according to the U.S. Marshals. Theodore Jaymes was charged with second degree attempted murder in connection to a shooting on a light rail train in St. Paul, Minn. A woman on that train...
22-car crash in Pittsburgh sends 5 to hospital amid icy road conditions
A massive crash involving 22 vehicles occurred at 6:30 a.m. on the Boulevard of the Allies/Forbes Avenue off ramp coming off of Interstate 376, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety officials. Five people were transported to hospitals with minor injuries from the crash in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, officials said. A number...
Greensburg approves $13M budget that includes 3.3% property tax hike
Property tax bills will increase 3.3% to fund a 2025 Greensburg budget that was approved this week by a divided city council. Aside from a 1-mill tax approved by voters in 2017 that is designated for the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library and a 1-mill charge that since 2022 is designated...
Kansas closes 50th anniversary tour in Pittsburgh with several special guestsVideo
In a night of history and looking back, Kansas wrapped up their Another Fork in the Road 50th Anniversary tour Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. Founded in the early 1970s, the progressive rock band originally broke big in Pittsburgh, with their first show here in 1975, fittingly at the same venue,...
Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing could return to New York on a governor’s warrant
PHILADELPHIA — The suspect in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO plans to fight extradition to New York to face murder charges, but officials hope to get him back with what’s called a governor’s warrant. The process could happen quickly or take more than a month. New York Gov. Kathy...
Zappala sues over troubled Allegheny County pension fund
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. is suing the county pension board and has asked a judge to force county officials to adequately fund a retirement system slated to run out of money in 15 years. In the 43-page lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court’s civil...
Lawyer says attempted murder charges against East Huntingdon man a result of police cover-up
The lawyer for an East Huntingdon man wounded in a shootout with police said Wednesday attempted murder charges filed against her client are nothing more than an attempt by officers to cover up what she called a botched investigation. Defense attorney Jill Devine said James R. Miller Jr., 62, rejected...
Mariah Carey’s PPG Paints Arena concert canceled Wednesday night
Just hours before showtime Wednesday night, “Queen of Christmas” Mariah Carey canceled her “Mariah Carey’s Christmas Time” tour set for PPG Paints Arena. “Pittsburgh, I am sorry to say, I’ve come down with the flu. It breaks my heart that I unfortunately have to cancel tonight’s show. I love you...
Police charge teen with plotting hit from Allegheny County Jail cell
A McKeesport teen awaiting trial for homicide orchestrated a hit on a police informant from an Allegheny County Jail cell, using code words like “lottery numbers” and “taco shells” to instruct another teen to carry out the crime, police said Wednesday. Allegheny County Police have charged both teens — Daemond...
