March 19, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Announcements, Crime and Police News, Duquesne News, McKeesport and Region News, North Versailles Twp. News, White Oak News
Local police departments are modifying their procedures in response to concerns over the spread of novel coronavirus.
Officers will respond immediately to emergency calls to 9-1-1, police said, but tours and routine visits are cancelled indefinitely.
Police in Duquesne, McKeesport, North Versailles Twp. and White Oak are asking residents not to come to their stations in person for routine requests.
Information requests, general complaints and reports about suspicious behaviors should be telephoned to non-emergency numbers, and will be handled by phone. If an officer needs additional information in person, they will make arrangements to meet the other party, police said.
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March 04, 2020 |
By Nick Zurawsky | Posted in: Duquesne News, McKeesport and Region News
Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby speaks during a town hall Feb. 26 sponsored by Take Action Mon Valley. (Nick Zurawsky photo for Tube City Almanac)
Community leaders discussed issues ranging from water quality and access to public transportation, to police accountability and merging public services during a forum hosted by Take Action Mon Valley.
The event was held Feb. 26 at the gymnasium of the Salvation Army in McKeesport. About 20 people attended.
Elected officials at the meeting included Allegheny County council members Bethany Hallam and Olivia Bennett as well as Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby.
Nesby was the first to speak and said her priorities in Duquesne are combatting “not only street violence and gang violence, but structural violence.”
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March 02, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, Duquesne News
A 17-year-old from West Mifflin has been charged as an adult in connection with a February shooting in Duquesne.
Terril Leverett was arrested Friday by Allegheny County police and charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of a firearm by a minor. He is free on $15,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing March 13 before Allegheny County Judge Kim Berkeley Clark.
According to police reports, an unidentified 19-year-old man was shot in the 600 block of West Grant Avenue at around 12:30 p.m. Feb. 16.
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February 27, 2020 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements, Duquesne News
Human Services Center Corp. will hold an HIV/AIDS awareness day event for women and girls from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 11 at First Presbyterian Church of Duquesne, 719 Duquesne Blvd., a spokeswoman said.
The event will include speakers, prizes, free dinner and confidential HIV testing.
Reservations can be made by calling Deanna at (412) 829-7112 or emailing dsupancic@hscc-mvpc.org. Attendees who want to be entered into a raffle must RSVP by March 2.
January 22, 2020 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: Announcements, Duquesne News, Entertainment
Under the name “Demonstration,” Michael Roberts and Marcus Glover are raising money to build a community center in the East End or Mon Valley by selling apparel. The two are hosting a mixtape party and concert at 24 in Duquesne on Thursday. (Photos via Instagram.)
Marcus Glover and Michael Roberts are working the streets in Pittsburgh's East End and Mon Valley communities, selling athletic apparel from their mobile “storefront,” a small white folding table.
Last summer, the friends started “Demonstration,” a non-profit organization they hope to grow into a brick-and-mortar community center as a safe haven for disadvantaged youths.
They're organizing a mixtape release party to be held at 9 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 23) at 24 (formerly Kanczes City Saloon) on Duquesne Boulevard near Kennywood. The event will feature live music by Aaron Goode and the Goodfellas as well as rap and jazz music, according to Glover.
The desire to reach out and help kids evolved out of the pain that Roberts and Glover experienced as teenagers, each losing a loved one to street violence.
“We started talking and sharing stories,” Glover said. “I told him about how my best friend was murdered at 15, he told me his story, his older brother was murdered when he was 15, we bonded over our similar tragedies. Everything we are trying to do with our organization is from personal experience.”
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January 10, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, Duquesne News, North Versailles Twp. News
The Allegheny County SWAT team raided a Duquesne home on Thursday night, looking for a man wanted in connection with a North Versailles Twp. homicide.
Although the wanted man wasn't found, county police arrested a woman after they said they found suspected drugs, a loaded handgun and ammunition inside the house.
Police said Erik Desean Addison, 23, of Pittsburgh remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous.
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December 18, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: Duquesne News, McKeesport and Region News
(Submitted photo courtesy Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring)
Two local school districts are partnering with Literacy Pittsburgh to bring volunteers age 50 and older into kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms to help students work on their reading and writing skills.
Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring is already working in the Wilkinsburg, Woodland Hills and Pittsburgh school districts, and is now expanding into Duquesne and McKeesport Area schools.
“We only go into places where the districts want us to be there, so I commend all these districts because we know there is a high correlation between low literacy and poverty and these are high poverty districts,” said Carey Harris, Literacy Pittsburgh's chief executive officer.
Harris commended McKeesport Area and Duquesne for being proactive about seeking partners to provide additional enrichment support.
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December 11, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: Duquesne News, McKeesport and Region News
Linda Iverson, Wilkinsburg school superintendent, says some of her students are dealing with multiple generations of poverty and trauma. (Richard Finch Jr. photo)
School superintendents who attended a press conference in McKeesport on Thursday said most urban school districts in the Mon-Yough area --- and across the country --- face similar challenges created by poverty.
In the Wilkinsburg School District, about 99 percent of approximately 1,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, said Linda J. Iverson, superintendent.
Some of them are coming from generations of poverty and "fragmented" home environments, she said.
“It's not just that they're coming in from trauma-informed instances," she said. "They may not have had food or sleep the night before, or they may not have clothes.”
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December 04, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: Duquesne News
Citing a lack of funding, Duquesne will suspend any additional hearings on demolishing abandoned buildings until the beginning of 2020.
But normal bills will be paid as usual, a city official said.
“We don't have the funds in order to take out the advertisements and the things that need (to be) done,” City Solicitor Myron Sainovich told council.
“The city will not hold any hearings on property demolitions until the beginning of next year, due to lack of funding,” he said. “We are running on a bare minimum budget until the end of the year. So some of these things are going to be put off.”
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December 04, 2019 |
By Richard Finch Jr. | Posted in: Duquesne News
Duquesne will seek $1 million in state funding to upgrade the city's sewer and water infrastructure.
City council voted to pursue the grants from the state Department of Community and Economic Development's Commonwealth Financing Authority.
The city is requesting the maximum grant amount of $500,000 through the Pennsylvania Small Water and Sewer Grant Program and $500,000 request from the H20 PA program.
The Small Water and Sewer grant is designed to assist with the construction, improvement, expansion or rehabilitation or repair of a water supply system, sanitary sewer system, storm sewer system, or flood control projects.
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