After little more than a year, Andrew Egan has resigned as chancellor and chief academic officer at Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus in McKeesport.
Penn State on Thursday announced Egan's resignation and the appointment of Jacqueline Edmondson, Penn State associate vice president and associate dean for undergraduate education, as the new chancellor and chief academic officer for the 600 student undergraduate campus.
Edmondson has been appointed for a three-year term and will lead a national search for her own permanent replacement, the university said in a statement.
“Jackie brings tremendous knowledge of the university to this position, along with her experience as an accomplished leader in program and curriculum development, and general education," said Madlyn Hanes, Penn State vice president for commonwealth campuses and executive chancellor.
"She will provide excellent guidance and directions, with deep understanding of enrollment trends, the teaching-learning enterprise, and faculty development across the University,” Hanes said. “Jackie also appreciates the importance of our campuses to their respective communities, and the good that comes from collaborative ventures.”
A West Mifflin man was arrested after police said he shot his wife in the chest during a domestic dispute.
The victim was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.
Richard Kadish, 55, is charged by Allegheny County police with attempted homicide and aggravated assault in connection with the incident at the family's home on Rossmoor Drive.
Although the victim's name was not released by police, court records identify her as Karen Kadish.
(Photos courtesy Elizabeth Forward School District)
A teacher from Elizabeth Forward Middle School is one of 52 educators from around the United States who's been honored for his efforts to incorporate digital technology in the classroom.
Stephen Hartnett, who teaches eighth-grade American history and also serves as assistant coach of the boys' soccer team, was named a PBS Digital Innovator by the nation's public broadcasting TV network.
The honor was announced by WQED-TV (13), Pittsburgh's public television station.
George Hazimanolis, senior director of corporate communications at WQED, said that over the coming year, Hartnett will partner with WQED personnel to help other teachers use digital audio, video and text and technology in their classrooms.
Hartnett will have access to exclusive training with PBS, as well as resources from PBS LearningMedia; and will be invited to the upcoming 2017 PBS Digital Summit in San Antonio, Texas, which is being held alongside the International Society for Technology in Education conference.
Duquesne and East McKeesport are among four municipalities newly designated at "Live Well Allegheny Communities."
The designation by the Allegheny County Health Department signifies that the municipalities are committed to helping residents get better access to exercise and healthy food options and limit unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking cigarettes.
In Duquesne, officials announced that they are partnering with the Steel Valley Trail Council to promote the city's connection to the Great Allegheny Passage hiking and biking trail, and to encourage residents to use the trail. In addition, the city is seeking funding to provide better pedestrian and bicycle access to the trail from the neighborhoods on the other side of Route 837.
In addition, Duquesne is partnering with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to provide and encourage residents to purchase fresh food from farmers' markets, and is encouraging buildings and playgrounds to go smoke-free.
(Above: Photo of S.S. McKeesport while under construction courtesy of Steamship Historical Society of America. To purchase this photo, visit the Steamship Historical Society of America website.)
After 74 years, there is probably no one left alive of the 67 crewmen who were aboard the S.S. McKeesport when it sank in the North Atlantic on April 29, 1943.
The merchant marine vessel was part of a convoy of supply ships that was returning to the United States from Europe when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
But McKeesporters haven't forgotten their namesake ship. At 12 noon this Saturday, veterans and volunteers will gather at McKees Point Marina along the Youghiogheny River to remember the S.S. McKeesport.
"We're trying to keep its memory alive, not just for the merchant marines who served, but for all of our veterans," said Mary Ann Goldie, one of the organizers of the annual remembrance ceremony, which has been held each April 29 for nearly 20 years.
A 14-year-old was shot to death at a home on Ridge Street Tuesday afternoon, Allegheny County police said.
The teen-ager, a student at Founders' Hall Middle School, was identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as William Chaffin. Chaffin was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, police said.
McKeesport police were dispatched to a home in the 1300 block, just off Versailles Avenue, at 2:35 p.m. when callers reported that a young man had been shot.
County police Sgt. Scott Scherer said in a statement that Chaffin was a visitor to the home where the shooting occurred, and a close friend of the occupants.
All of the parties involved in the incident have been identified, Scherer said, and no charges have yet been filed. However, Scherer said, all of the investigative information will be turned over to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., who will decide whether charges are warranted.
(Above: Jason DeFelice, U.S. Air Force senior master sergeant (retired), and McKeesport Mayor Mike Cherepko. Tube City Almanac photo.)
Four people were honored this month by McKeesport Mayor Mike Cherepko and the McKeesport Message Committee for upholding the values of respect, dignity, hope and love.
A subgroup of the mayor's Select Committee on Crime and Violence, the committee accepts nominations from the public and makes the selections four times per year.
Citations were presented at the April 5 city council meeting to U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. (retired) Jason DeFelice; Sharon Soles; Coach Gerald Grayson; and McKeesport Area High School senior Hannah Klingensmith.
Annunciation of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church will hold a Greek Food Festival from 12 noon to 8 p.m. May 13, featuring lamb shanks, gyros, pastitsio, spanakopita, chicken, grape leaves, rice pilaf, Greek pastries, loukoumades (honey balls) and more.
The church is located at 1128 Summit St., White Oak. For more information about the church, call (412) 673-1224 or visit the website.
(Above: Mary Rose Bendel, director of adult education and outreach at Carnegie Library of McKeesport, hands out gloves and trash bags to young volunteers on Saturday morning. Tube City Almanac photo.)
More than 150 people turned out Saturday morning at Earth Day-themed cleanup events throughout the city of McKeesport, while in neighboring communities such as Port Vue and Glassport, residents woke up early to get organized.
Tom Callahan of Port Vue was helping to man one of several large trash bins set up behind the Romine Avenue ballfields. "I do this every year," he said, adding that he was planning to be back at his post on Sunday morning as well. "It's a lot of garbage so far," Callahan said.
In the city, leaders of cleanup groups met at the Palisades on Water Street for breakfast and to plot strategy before meeting up with 15 groups of volunteers ranging from six people to more than 20 people throughout McKeesport.
One woman volunteered to clean the intersection of Walnut Street and Eden Park Boulevard by herself.
Mayor Mike Cherepko said the turnout was heartening.
"I would be lying if I said I was surprised, because here in the city of McKeesport, that's one thing that we're always blessed with is volunteers," he said. "No matter what it is --- no matter what the occasion --- this is just another example of people pulling together for the betterment of the city."
An eighth-grader from West Mifflin Area Middle School took first place in a county-wide contest to create a poster to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow.
Meanwhile, many communities --- including McKeesport, East McKeesport, Glassport, Jefferson Hills and Port Vue --- are preparing to mark the 47th annual Earth Day on Saturday with community-wide clean up events, while West Homestead will have a flower-planting event.
Lauren Jacobs' colorful poster, shown above, won the poster contest, sponsored by the Allegheny County Health Department. This year's theme was "brighter paths in preserving energy."
Jacobs' poster features suggestions such as using energy-efficient light bulbs, installing solar panels, and trying alternative and renewable energy sources.
UPDATED with identity of the second victim, cause of death of the first victim.
Two people are dead following a shooting early Thursday morning near the Crawford Village housing complex in the city.
The victims are Raffel Greene, 49, of Clairton, and Jessica Taylor, 32, of Finleyville, Washington County, according to the Allegheny County police and the medical examiner's office.
Neither victim is a resident of Crawford Village, a police spokesman said in a statement, and it's still unclear what they were doing in the area.
County police said McKeesport officers were dispatched just after midnight to Building 39 after callers to 9-1-1 reported hearing shots fired.
UPMC McKeesport and its sister hospitals will participate in a prescription drug "take-back" day on April 28.
A spokeswoman said the event is being organized in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in an effort to get unused prescription drugs --- particularly painkillers, which have the potential for abuse --- off the streets.
Drugs will be collected from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first floor of the Crawford Building at UPMC McKeesport's Aging Institute Resource Room, and in the main lobby of UPMC East hospital in Monroeville.
Additional collection locations include UPMC Presbyterian hospital and Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland; UPMC Mercy hospital in the uptown section of Pittsburgh; UPMC Mercy South Side hospital; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville; Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside; and various locations at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland.
Tube City Community Media Inc. is seeking one or more freelance writers to cover occasional news and feature stories in the McKeesport area.
Contributors will be paid on a per-assignment basis. These are not salaried or contracted positions and these positions may be eliminated at any time, with or without warning.
The position currently to be filled is:
White Oak borough correspondent
Writers will be expected to, at minimum, attend the monthly council meetings and file a report within 24 hours. Other topics may, from time to time, be assigned.
High school and college students seeking work experience are encouraged to apply; Tube City Community Media is willing to work with students who need credit toward class assignments.
The death of a West Mifflin woman at the Allegheny County Jail on Tuesday morning has been ruled a suicide.
Jamie Gettings, 33, was found hanging in a cell at the Pittsburgh facility just after 2 a.m., said Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper.
"Medical (personnel) responded to render medical assistance, however, she passed away," Harper said in a statement. Allegheny County Police are investigating, he said.
The Sons of the American Legion of Dravosburg Post 380 will hold an "all-you-can-eat" spaghetti dinner from 2 to 6 p.m. April 29 at the legion hall, 51 Duquesne Ave., Dravosburg.
The cost is $8 for people 12 and older, $5 for ages 5 to 11, and under 5 eat free. Take out orders also will be available and there will be a basket raffle, a spokeswoman said.
Above: Lay minister Ray Albright and the Rev. David Else nail sins to a wooden cross at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Downtown, during Good Friday services there.
Christians around the world are marking Easter weekend, the three days that commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ as recorded in the New Testament.
Churches in the Western and Orthodox traditions calculate holy days using different calendars, but this year, both are celebrating Easter Sunday at the same time --- a relatively rare event that will not happen again until 2025.
A guard at the Allegheny County Jail has been arrested and accused of providing a cell phone to an inmate.
John "T.J." Wierzchowski III, 40, of West Mifflin is charged by Allegheny County Police with providing contraband to an inmate, criminal conspiracy and tampering or fabricating evidence.
Wierzchowski is free pending a preliminary hearing at 8 a.m. May 23 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Manning.
In a prepared statement, county police Sgt. Mike Peairs and Lt. Richard Mullen said the cell phone was found April 4 on an inmate at the jail, triggering an investigation that led to Wierzchowski's arrest.
Two teen-agers have been charged in connection with an alleged kidnapping that began April 5 in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood and ended a few hours later with a suicide in Swissvale.
D'Ambrosse Garland, 17, of Pittsburgh's North Side and Zanaya McKenzie, 17, of Ambridge, Beaver County, are being held in the Allegheny County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Wednesday (April 12) before Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning.
Both are charged as adults, Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said in a prepared statement.
They are charged with conspiring with Andre Williams Jr., 20, of McKeesport to kidnap a 19-year-old woman and a 1-year-old child following a violent dispute early on the morning of April 5.
The former postmaster of West Newton has been sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with a drug trafficking ring out of Texas.
Joseph Borrelli, 49, of Glassport also was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab to five years of supervised release following his prison term, acting U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song said.
At trial, prosecutors said that Borrelli helped Dante Lozano of Brownsville, Texas, by providing addresses of vacant houses in Westmoreland County that were served by the West Newton post office.
Lozano would then mail packages of cocaine to those addresses, said investigators, who believe that between 2011 and 2015, dozens of packages totalling 18 pounds of cocaine were shipped into the Pittsburgh area that way.
When the packages to the West Newton area couldn't be delivered and were rerouted to Borrelli, prosecutors said he would deliver them to Jeffrey Turner, 36, and April Racan, 38, formerly of McKeesport and Elizabeth, for sale.
A complete overhaul of McKeesport's zoning ordinance represents a vision of what the city could look like in the future.
One of the biggest changes is a newly created zoning district along the Monongahela River waterfront that allows single-family homes and townhouses like those at Homestead's Waterfront development.
On Wednesday, city council by an 7-0 vote adopted the 139-page comprehensive zoning ordinance, which is the outgrowth of a planning process begun in August 2013 with help from what was then called the Twin Rivers Council of Governments.
"This is really about envisioning what the city is going to look like after we're all gone, 20, 30, 40 years from now," Mayor Mike Cherepko said Wednesday. "This is designed to help us market the city."
A McKeesport man is dead after what Allegheny County police are describing as a standoff following an abduction.
Andre Williams Jr., 20, died this morning in Swissvale after county police said he shot himself in the head with a handgun, said the Allegheny County medical examiner's office, which will perform an autopsy.
Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said in a prepared statement that the county homicide unit is investigating and would like to speak to anyone with information about the incident. Investigators may be reached at (412) 473-1300.
Police said the incident began just after 2 a.m. in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood when callers to Allegheny County 9-1-1 reported a violent domestic dispute was in progress in a home there.
Pittsburgh police arrived and determined that a 19-year-old woman and her infant child had been abducted, county police said. Pittsburgh police notified Swissvale police that a Ford Explorer believed to be involved in the incident may have headed to their borough.
McKeesport Area High School will showcase Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" beginning Thursday in the high school auditorium.
Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, with an additional 2 p.m. matinee Saturday.
Tickets are $5 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for adults. To help ease the crowd, patrons will not be able to select their seats for tickets purchased the night of the performances.
During the performances there will be a Chinese auction, a 50/50 raffle, as well as flowers to buy for the performers and a general concession.
Since January, the cast, musicians and crew have practiced nearly every day after school, dedicating just over three months of work leading up to their performances.
"Although I have been involved with the musical for the past six years as program designer and photographer, this is my second year in the role of producer," says MAHS staff member Carolyn Carreiro, co-producer with director Tina Stewart.
An infant is in foster care after McKeesport police responding to a reported heroin overdose discovered the child living in what officers described as "deplorable" conditions.
According to an incident report, McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service paramedics and city police were dispatched to a home on Banker Street at 9:39 a.m. March 12 for a suspected overdose. When they arrived, paramedics were able to revive the overdose victim, 20, with a dose of the antidote Narcan.
Book clubs, the return of "Wise Walks" and daytime movies are a few of the activities scheduled for April at Carnegie Library of McKeesport, a spokeswoman announced.
Activities are at the main library, 1507 Library Ave., unless otherwise noted. For more information, call (412) 672-0625 or visit www.mckeesportlibrary.org.
