March 24, 2025 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Special education teacher Sara Traeger from McKeesport poses for a portrait while sitting at her classroom desk. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
During Women’s History Month, writer Vickie Babyak is putting a spotlight on several area women:
Sara Traeger of McKeesport began her teaching career in 2006. She started off as an instructional assistant with the Norwin School District, and the following school year she was hired full-time as a special education teacher for McKeesport Area School District. She has been with the district ever since.
Traeger said: “My mom was a school counselor who worked with the special education students, and she definitely had an influence on my career choice.”
Traeger said she always knew in her heart that she wanted to be a teacher. After graduating from McKeesport high school in 2001, she attended Duquesne University, and working with special needs students was infused into her undergraduate studies, she said.
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March 21, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, North Versailles Twp. News
A North Versailles Twp. man is being treated at AHN Forbes Hospital after being struck by a car Wednesday night near Walmart.
Allegheny County police said the driver of the car fled the scene of the accident and was arrested Thursday. Keontae J. Hamilton, 38, is charged by county police with leaving the scene of an accident involving death or personal injury, failing to stop and render assistance and failing to notify police.
He was arraigned Friday morning and remains free on his own recognizance pending a preliminary hearing April 8 in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.
Court records list addresses for Hamilton in the east end of Pittsburgh.
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March 20, 2025 |
By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
Allegheny County Courthouse. (File photo by “Dllu” via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
An audit by Allegheny County reveals most public defenders face excessive caseloads and a lack of resources, putting clients at a disadvantage.
It showed 36 of 42 trial attorneys carry caseloads above the national average.
Robert Perkins, attorney for the Allegheny Lawyers Initiative for Justice, said the state has a history of underfunding public defenders, allowing only $100,000 per county annually. But he added it is the first time the county controller’s office has reviewed public defense, focusing on areas of improvement in a neglected system.
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March 20, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, North Versailles Twp. News
A local man is hospitalized in critical condition after being struck by a dark-colored sport utility vehicle in North Versailles Twp., Allegheny County police said.
The driver then fled the scene.
In a prepared release, Allegheny County police said a pedestrian was in the intersection of Greensburg Pike and Hyer Avenue, near the Versailles Castle Apartments, when they were struck just after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The victim’s name was not released by police. The county police collision reconstruction and homicide unit responded to the scene. No further information was released.
County police said detectives are working to identify the vehicle involved.
Anyone with information concerning the incident is asked to call county police at 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Callers may remain anonymous.
March 20, 2025 |
By Stacy Alderman | Posted in: White Oak News
Gala Jewelers owner Chuck Gala is saying farewell to longtime customers after more than 40 years in the jewelry business. With an eye toward retirement, his store in Oak Park Mall is for sale. (Photo special to Tube City Almanac)
When Gala Jewelers announced via social media that the store would soon be closing, calls, emails and texts from customers and well-wishers started pouring in almost immediately.
Owner Chuck Gala couldn’t be more grateful. “I am so thankful and blessed to be a part of peoples’ happy moments,” he said, remembering gifts that were purchased for engagements, weddings and holidays. “The community has been so good to us.”
His father opened Gala Jewelers in McKeesport in 1948 and spent decades at various locations on Fifth Avenue.
Multiple family members worked for the business over the years, and Chuck began attending trade shows when he was just fourteen. In 1994, the store moved to its Oak Park Mall location in White Oak and it’s been a staple for the community ever since.
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March 18, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: State & Region
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
Entrance to Kennywood in West Mifflin. (File photo from 2005 by Ski2007, via Wikimedia Commons)
One of the Mon Valley’s most beloved attractions is getting a new owner — and returning to family ownership.
Herschend Family Entertainment — which operates Dollywood near Pigeon Forge, Tenn. — announced Tuesday that it has reached a definitive agreement to purchase Kennywood Park in West Mifflin and its sister parks, Idlewild near Ligonier and Sandcastle in West Homestead.
Herschend, based in the Atlanta area, is acquiring the three amusement parks from Madrid, Spain-based Parques Reunidos, which purchased them in 2007 from the founding McSwigan and Henninger families, ending more than 100 years of local ownership.
The deal was confirmed by Parques Reunidos’ U.S. subsidiary, Palace Entertainment.
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March 18, 2025 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Commentary-Editorial
(Tube City Almanac file photo)
Ann Belser is publisher of Print, a monthly newspaper serving Pittsburgh’s East End, and volunteers as chair of the board of directors of Tube City Community Media Inc. After receiving a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she moved to Squirrel Hill and was a staff writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 20 years. She writes:
March 16 marks the start of Sunshine Week in the Keystone State.
In Florida, the Sunshine State, where public access to records is baked into just about every law, every week is Sunshine Week.
But here in Pennsylvania, we might as well have the keystone sitting on many records that should be public.
Most police records are closed and the Right to Know Act gives public bodies five days to respond to a request for information, at which point they always say they need more time, and then another 30 days beyond that to produce records. Generally, from a news point of view, interest tends to die after a month or so.
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March 16, 2025 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Bus driver Stephanie Pollock speaks to the McKeesport Area School Board. She and other drivers are asking for more help with discipline on school buses ‘so that we can put our eyes back on the road.’ (Adam Reinherz photo for Tube City Almanac)
Two drivers implored McKeesport Area School Board to protect area children and increase the number of people working as monitors on bus rides.
Sidney Walker and Stephanie Pollock spoke at Thursday’s meeting and recounted alleged incidents involving strife, violence and misbehavior, while cautioning listeners to act before potential tragedy strikes.
Walker and Pollock, who both drive for Krise Transportation, emphasized that neither is a representative of the company and were merely speaking as private citizens concerned with the wellbeing of local children.
“You have no clue what we as bus drivers have to go through,” Walker said. “I implore you to come ride with us one morning, going to Francis McClure. I have been called out by name. I have been spat on. I have been accused of all kinds of foul things, not only from the children but from the parents.”
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March 16, 2025 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Jah-Chant Robinson. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
Jah-Chant Robinson is a 2013 graduate of McKeesport Area High School and resides in Port Vue. She began her career as an English teacher, and worked her way up to principal at Homeville Elementary School in the West Mifflin School District.
Robinson credits her drive to success from having a strong support system that included her parents and mentors. She said they instilled in her a sense of purpose and understanding that she could pave the way for others, and an unshakable faith in the importance of education as a tool for change.
“Growing up in McKeesport, I was acutely aware of the challenges that came with navigating systems that weren’t always designed with people like me in mind,” Robinson said.
Representation matters, and seeing so few women of color in leadership roles motivated her to push through the obstacles. Robinson said she has endured struggles like many other women of color experience, from being underestimated to having to work twice as hard in proving herself.
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March 13, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, Duquesne News
A Homewood man is being held on homicide charges in connection with a Jan. 20 shooting in Duquesne that claimed two lives.
Ishmeil A. Muhammad, 28, was arrested Thursday by Allegheny County Police and was awaiting a preliminary hearing, according to court officials.
Muhammad, who police said is known by a variety of aliases, including “Cash” and “Tim,” is charged with criminal homicide in connection with a shooting inside a home on Commonwealth Avenue that claimed the life of Sean R. Johnson Jr., 30 of Turtle Creek and Catherine Lawing, 39, of Duquesne.
Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office, while Lawing died three days later at UPMC Mercy Hospital, Uptown.
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