Regional category, Page 41
D.C. plane crash killed ex-Johnstown woman, an IUP grad, and her family
An IUP grad and former Johnstown woman, her husband and two children were among the 67 people killed Wednesday when a plane collided with an Army helicopter approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. Donna Smojice Livingston graduated in 1999 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a marketing degree,...
Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts warm, rainy spring for Western Pa.
Punxsutawney Phil will weigh in Sunday on Pennsylvania’s weather for the next six weeks, but the Old Farmer’s Almanac is one step ahead. The 1792 long-range weather publication predicts a warm, rainy season for the Keystone State. Though temperatures are predicted to align with typical patterns in part of the...
Take the TribLive weekly news quiz: Jan. 31
The following is a regular feature from TribLive: A weekly news quiz:...
Washington County inmates detained by ICE
Up to six Washington County inmates could be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jose Turcios Salmeron, a native of El Salvador, was being held at Washington County Jail on charges of aggravated and simple assault. He was released to ICE Thursday, according to a statement from the county...
Butler County woman struck and killed by vehicle
Butler County resident June M. Ruff died Tuesday afternoon of injuries she sustained after being hit by a vehicle Monday evening, according to a report from the Allegheny Medical Examiner’s office. Ruff, 62, of Slippery Rock was struck in the 400 block of Main Street in Evans City, Butler County...
Conservative group objects to Slippery Rock University STEM program’s minority recruitment
A conservative nonprofit is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate Slippery Rock University and three other state schools, alleging that their participation in a national program to recruit minority students into science majors is discriminatory against white and Asian students. The Equal Protection Project, an offshoot of the...
Western Pa. leaders react to federal funding freeze
Residents of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties could be hurt by a move to halt the federal funding stream to state and local governments, especially those who rely on social service programs and public housing, some of the area’s elected officials said. Others defended President Donald Trump’s directive Tuesday to pause...
Norfolk Southern and East Palestine announce $22 million settlement after 2023 derailment
East Palestine and Norfolk Southern have announced a $22 million settlement resolving all of the village’s claims arising from the disastrous 2023 train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border that prompted a national reckoning on railroad safety. The settlement is to be used for priorities the village identifies in connection with...
Coffee lovers likely to pay more in wake of jump in bean prices
The cost of a cup of joe is on the rise at coffee shops. If the price of her $3.25 cup of Americano coffee goes up too much, Piper Anke of Derry is among those who say they would consider drinking less. Anke, 18, is a student at Seton Hill...
Donora, Murrysville, Greensburg dive teams help pull Fayette County crash victim, vehicle from West Virginia lake
With an 8-inch sheet of ice atop the frigid water beneath their feet, dive teams from Murrysville Medic One and the Donora and Greensburg volunteer fire departments helped pull a vehicle and remains of a Fayette County resident from West Virginia’s Cheat Lake Sunday. Kevin Laitalle, 59, of Smithfield, and...
‘A freeing experience’: Guides help visually impaired skiers take to Seven Springs slopes
Editor’s note: The captions under the photographs associated with this story include a description of the image content so that information might be relayed to software assisting the visually impaired. Downhill skiing with a guide took away any fears for Amelie Colletti. Having the support close by to navigate the...
Area fallen soldiers remembered 81 years after Allied landing craft sank off coast of Italy
When Allied forces landed on the Italian coast at Anzio 81 years ago, they began a four-month battle that left some 7,000 of their 100,000 troops dead. That toll included 58 soldiers from the Keystone State — several residents of Westmoreland and Allegheny counties among them — who never made...
From the archive: Punxsutawney Phil’s famous prognostications had humble beginnings in 1880s
Pennsylvania’s famed weather prognosticator has been at it for more than a century. With that fame, Punxsutawney Phil and his namesake hometown have become a sort of ground zero on Groundhog Day. The limelight has turned every Feb. 2 into an early morning festival at Gobbler’s Knob that ends with...
National reproductive health care resource website goes dark
When Elizabeth Ringstad found out that the national reproductive health care resource website www.reproductiverights.gov had been taken down, she felt fear. “I feel like taking down such a major research tool for women is kind of removing our ability to educate ourselves on our bodies and our rights,” said Ringstad,...
Johnstown man sentenced to life without parole in 2020 fatal shooting of IUP student
A Johnstown man will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole in the October 2020 shooting death of an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student at an off-campus apartment. Terrion Gates, 22, was convicted in September of second-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy to robbery in the incident at the...
Iron Horse Bridge rehab seen as ‘linchpin’ in effort to expand trails — and Connellsville’s economy
The Great Allegheny Passage bike trail between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md., has been a boon for communities that sit along it — and business owners hope a nearly $4 million study will provide a blueprint for boosting its impact in the region. A key component of the study will be...
Take the TribLive weekly news quiz: Jan. 24
The following is a regular feature from TribLive: A weekly news quiz:...
Fayette County skier places in Junior World Championships moguls competition
Fayette County native Jessie Duda came away from the freestyle skiing Junior World Championships proud of her performance. Duda, 19, of Brownsville was one of 12 U.S. athletes to compete against dozens of freestyle skiers from across the world at the Junior World Championships, held the second week of January...
2 nabbed in burglary spree of 11 bars in Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette counties
State police announced Thursday that two people were arrested in connection with a string of bar burglaries in three counties, including Westmoreland, where $17,500 in cash and alcohol was stolen. Preliminary hearings are scheduled next week for David Alan Rice, 33, of Charleroi, and Stephanie Denise Hankle, 30, of Monongahela....
North Allegheny hosts presentation to train responders on how to help people with autism
Local law enforcement attended a presentation at Carson Middle School on Jan. 20 on how to best interact with those who may be on the autism spectrum or have intellectual and developmental disabilities. The event was presented by Scott Bailey, an officer for the Fox Chapel Area School District and...
Cold, flu and covid cases down from last year, but post-holiday spike has arrived
Western Pennsylvania is a little healthier than last year in terms of flu, covid-19 and respiratory virus cases. While the overall figures are down, local health systems said doctors’ offices and hospitals are in the midst of a post-holiday spike in all three. “We’ve definitely seen an uptick, and that’s...
Frost responders: Citizen observers aid National Weather Service’s ground game
Steve Fazekas’ citizen weather observer station in Winfield recorded a temperature of minus-15 degrees just after 5 a.m. Wednesday. Fazekas’ reading came in well below the Pittsburgh region’s lowest temperature on record for Wednesday’s date — minus-4 degrees Jan. 22, 1936 — but it won’t go in the record books....
Fewer lanternflies this summer? Maybe, and you can thank this week’s deep freeze
One upside to the frigid cold — there should be fewer pesky spotted lanternflies this summer. The mottled, brilliant red and white plant hoppers lay eggs inside a sac that clings to trees and resembles a bag of baked beans, but some of those sacs likely will not survive this...
‘It was macabre’: Police find decayed corpse in Washington County home
The corpse of a Washington County man was left to decay in bed for six months while several of his family members lived among it, police said Wednesday. Authorities do not suspect foul play. Michael Bebout, 64, apparently died last summer of natural causes inside his Canton Township home on...
PETA calls for ‘weather reveal’ cake to replace Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day
In lieu of Punxsutawney Phil forecasting the weather on Groundhog Day, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering to send a “weather reveal” vegan cake this year. PETA sends a letter annually to Punxsutawney Groundhog Club President Tom Dunkel suggesting an alternative predicting method...
