North Allegheny product Matthew DiMarsico, Pine-Richland’s Dane Dowiak play critical roles in leading Penn State to NCAA Division I Frozen Four ripe with local talent
In the wake of scoring a life-changing goal, Matthew DiMarsico returned to his Penn State locker room at Allentown’s PPL Center and looked at his phone. Among the messages the Nittany Lions sophomore forward received, one text in particular stood out. DiMarsico, fresh off scoring the game-winning overtime goal to send Penn State to its…
Worries about Social Security in the age of MAGA spill out at East Liberty rally
Much of the news these days emanates from an opulent Florida golf resort with gold fixtures, so it felt appropriate to seek another view Tuesday in front of a homely one-story brick building in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. The building is where people in neighborhoods such as Garfield, Homewood and Point Breeze sign up for…
REAL ID faces real deadline May 7
With just over a month to go before REAL ID or another federally approved ID is required to take commercial flights or enter federal facilities, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will offer extra hours so residents can get a special driver’s license or ID card. At a news conference Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said…
PRC household chemical collections start April 12 in Butler County
Pennsylvania Resources Council will launch its 2025 household chemical collection campaign on April 12 with a drive-thru event in Butler County to provide residents with an opportunity to safely dispose of household cleaners, automotive fluids, paints, pesticides and other products containing potentially hazardous components. This first PRC household chemical collection of the year will take…
Pittsburgh to use automated enforcement to ticket cars parked in street-sweeping areas
As Pittsburgh begins its seasonal street-sweeping program Tuesday, the city will use a new tool to encourage residents not to leave their vehicles parked on streets scheduled for sweeping. Rather than having personnel issue tickets in person when public works crews encounter vehicles parking on the wrong side of the street, the city will use…
Pittsburgh takes steps to make North Side corridor safer
After more than 10 years at the drawing board, Pittsburgh has started work to improve safety for pedestrians and motorists on three blocks of North Avenue near Allegheny General Hospital and Allegheny Commons park. Although work started a couple of weeks ago, city officials held a ceremony Monday to kick off the $5 million project…
Advocacy groups taking it to the streets to push back against Trump and Musk cuts to federal agencies
March 16’s forecast qualified as a First Alert Weather Day – high winds, lightning, heavy rain, hail and possible tornadoes predicted throughout the region. And Indivisible Pittsburgh and its partner organizations had an Oakland march and protest against U.S. Department of Education cuts planned for 12:30 p.m. Organizers canceled the walking part, watched weather reports…
Rates of PTSD and depression in East Palestine are similar to those found in Flint after water crisis, study shows
You hear a lot of talk these days about post traumatic stress disorder and depression in East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding communities. Residents say they’re still struggling with the psychological effects of that 2023 toxic train derailment. A new study sheds some light on the subject, but we don’t yet know the details because…
You can still get there from here, but it might take a while
More road projects enter different phases this week. Here’s the rundown:
From the Next Generation Newsroom: Allegheny National Forest could see more logging under Trump, local officials hope
Local officials are pushing for more logging in Pennsylvania’s only national forest, and the federal government might grant their wish. In two executive orders this month, President Donald Trump warned of a reliance on imported wood amid threat of Canadian lumber tariffs and called for more logging in federal forests. The Allegheny National Forest spans over 500,000 acres,…
PUP awards
Meet the third annual PUP girls basketball all-star team
Another memorable high school basketball season has finally come to a close — but before we say goodbye, it’s time to hand out some hardware to the area’s brightest stars. In a nod to the All-NBA teams released at the end of each season, the Pittsburgh Union Progress sports staff decided to compile its own version…
Meet the third annual PUP boys basketball all-star team
Guess who’s back, back again? When the Pittsburgh Union Progress published its all-star team back in 2023, it was expected to be the one and only. But, two years later, some of the area’s top journalists remain on strike with the Post-Gazette (it’s now been more than 29 months!), so the PUP is back again…
States: Western PA goes 2 for 6
PIAA championship notebook: Surprise! South Fayette’s Juju Leroux has an unexpected visitor — sister Ava — for championship win
HERSHEY — Shock. That was the first emotion Juju Leroux said she felt upon hearing that older sister Ava was involved in a serious automobile accident near their South Fayette home in December 2023. “I couldn’t believe this was happening to my sister,” Juju said. “My whole life changed overnight. I was worrying constantly. It…
Great shots: The PIAA basketball championships in photographs
I spent three days with reporter Brad Everett in Hershey documenting six games in the 2024-25 PIAA state basketball championships that each featured WPIAL teams — three boys teams and three girls teams. From the intense effort on the court to the raw emotions after the game, there were a lot of great moments to…
PIAA Class 6A girls basketball championship: Upper St. Clair goes cold in 58-27 loss to hot-shooting District 1 champ Perkiomen Valley
HERSHEY — Upper St. Clair was able to hang with Perkiomen Valley for a quarter Friday. That’s when the wheels came off for the Panthers, who saw their drive for a second state title break down on their way to a lopsided loss. Fueled by a pair of Division I-bound seniors, District 1 champion Perkiomen…
PIAA Class 5A girls basketball championship: South Fayette pulls stunner, defeats four-time defending champion Archbishop Wood to win first title
HERSHEY — Of the six WPIAL teams that played for PIAA titles this week, none might have been as big of an underdog as South Fayette, which faced an Archbishop Wood team that had won four consecutive titles. But when it comes to defending, it was South Fayette, and not the four-time defending champs, that…
PIAA Class 3A girls basketball championship: Dynamic duo propels Loyalsock Township past Shady Side Academy, which goes cold in fourth quarter in 55-43 loss
HERSHEY — Shady Side Academy got caught up in a numbers game in Thursday’s PIAA Class 3A championship. While the Bulldogs featured one of the state’s top players in the classification, their opponent had two of them. That terrific tandem propelled Loyalsock Township to its first state title, while sending the Bulldogs back to Western…
PIAA Class 3A boys basketball championship: After a hot start, South Allegheny goes cold in a 60-51 loss to West Catholic
HERSHEY — Pressure creates diamonds, and as South Allegheny learned the hard way Saturday at Giant Center, it also produces PIAA gold. West Catholic used its defensive pressure to turn South Allegheny over and reverse the tables on the Gladiators, as the Burrs bounced back from an early double-digit deficit to capture a 60-51 win…
PIAA Class 2A boys basketball championship: Last-second shot misfires as Sewickley Academy sees fourth-quarter lead evaporate in 55-54 loss to Linville Hill Christian
HERSHEY — Mamadou Kane caught a pass in the middle of the paint from Lucas Grimsley and threw up a shot from about 12 feet that bounced off the left side of the rim just before the final buzzer sounded. That’s how close Sewickley Academy came from winning its fourth state title Friday. Stephen Smucker…
PIAA Class 1A boys basketball championship: Neighborhood Academy holds on late to top Sankofa Freedom, 60-51, earns first title
HERSHEY — Neighborhood Academy had picked up the sweetest win in program history on Feb. 27 when the Bulldogs won their first WPIAL title. Exactly one month later, though, the Bulldogs got one even sweeter, and it came, of course, in Chocolatetown, USA. Syncer Nicholson scored a team-best 18 points and Neighborhood Academy took a…
Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic: Thomas Jefferson’s Maddox Shaw shines for Pennsylvania All-Stars with thrilling win over top-ranked foe; Brashear’s Tamara Humphries goes out with a bang
Despite his lofty reputation as a two-time state champion and four-time PIAA medalist at Thomas Jefferson, there were some observers who believed Jaguars senior Maddox Shaw didn’t stand a chance Saturday at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic at Peters Township’s AHN Arena. Let this be a lesson to the doubters and the naysayers — sleep on Shaw…
‘Tis the seasons
WPIAL baseball season preview
Sure, it’s only March 14 and the Pirates don’t play their season opener for another two weeks, but for WPIAL baseball teams, this is opening day. Here are some top baseball storylines, teams and players to watch for when the season begins for WPIAL teams on Friday. Top stories Three-peat, anyone? Only once has a…
WPIAL softball season preview
Ready or not, the spring sports season is already upon us — and there is plenty to catch up on before the games get underway later this week. Here are some top softball storylines, teams and players to watch for when the season begins for WPIAL teams on Friday. Big stories TJ’s “Road Warriors” gearing…
WPIAL track and field season preview
Sophia Mazzoni is a dog lover. Mazzoni and her family have two as pets — a cane corso named Bruno and a boxer named Luca — but her affection for canines extends beyond her home, with Mazzoni working part time at a nearby business that provides grooming, boarding and day care services for pooches. “It’s…
In other news …
Pittsburgh Regional Transit pushes for coalition to help press for more state transit funds
Thirteen riders and transit advocates spoke at Friday’s first meeting of Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s board of directors since the agency proposed 35% service cuts and a 25-cent fare hike last week to deal with a lack of a state funding increase to support agencies across Pennsylvania. The board moved public comments to the start of…
Riverlife begins revamp of Allegheny Riverfront Park as part of ‘Three Sisters Experience’
More than 30 years ago, Carol Brown, first president of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was the driving force behind the creation of Allegheny Riverfront Park. At the time, she had the vision to eliminate a lane of traffic from Fort Duquesne Boulevard to create a unique strip of park land overlooking the river from Stanwix…
PennDOT’s local construction season features five new major projects
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation expects to award contracts for 57 road and bridge projects worth about $537 million in Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties this year. And it is obvious the emphasis is on major projects. The agency expects the five most expensive projects to cost more than $200 million, and no other new…
