January 05, 2026 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: White Oak News
White Oak police officer Nate Werderber was introduced to the community at the borough’s December council meeting after being sworn in earlier in the day. He became the White Oak police department’s 10th officer in addition to the chief of police. (T.J. Martin photo for Tube City Almanac)
The White Oak Police Department continues to grow. At borough council’s December meeting, Mayor Ina Jean Marton introduced the department’s newest officer, Nate Werderber, who she had sworn in earlier that day.
Marton said Werderber is a 2020 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School and afterwards served for five years in the U.S. Marine Corps. In November of 2025, he graduated from the Westmoreland County Community College Police Academy and, Marton said, was at the top of his class in academics, firearms and driving proficiency.
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January 05, 2026 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Brooke Auckerman has turned her lifelong love of reading into a series of inspirational books for children. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
Growing up in McKeesport, Brooke Auckerman remembers being relentlessly bullied in grade school and high school. The non-stop teasing, she said, was traumatic for her.
“I get anxiety attacks from the type of bullying I endured,” Auckerman said.
In 2023, Auckerman — who still lives in the city — gave voice to her experiences through her first book for children, “Be Kind, Loretta Owl.” She said she wanted to help children realize the importance of kindness and to understand their feelings about friendship.
There are now five books in the series. The newest is a coloring book.
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January 05, 2026 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Work to relocate a water main will resume Tuesday (Jan. 6) on Dravosburg Hill, said a district spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said work will continue, weather-permitting, on State Route 2045 (Pittsburgh McKeesport Boulevard and Richland Avenue).
Single-lane restrictions will occur from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through late January in the northbound direction between Fifth Street and Bettis Road. Overnight work may occur. Crews from Alex E. Paris Contracting will conduct water main relocation operations for Pennsylvania American Water.
The work is being done in preparation for the construction of an interchange with Pennsylvania Turnpike Route 43, the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
PennDOT is not involved in this work and is providing this information as a public service announcement only, Cowan said. For additional information contact PA.Communityrelations@amwater.com.
January 05, 2026 |
By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
It may not feel much like a happy New Year for the almost half-million Pennsylvanians who rely on plans from the Affordable Care Act marketplace for their health coverage. Enhanced federal tax credits have expired, raising monthly premiums for an estimated 21 million Americans who get their coverage through the ACA.
Tori Baggot, owner of SuperMutt Press, a small, custom printing business near Pittsburgh, said the increase came as an unwelcome surprise — and that ACA tax credits through Pennie, the state marketplace, have been her best option for affordable health coverage.
“I was paying $197 a month for this whole past year for the care that I have,” she explained. “And the same plan — I didn’t change a single thing, I re-enrolled in the same plan — it went from $197 (to) $365.”
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January 05, 2026 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: White Oak News
White Oak residents will see no real estate tax increase under the 2026 budget passed by the borough council as 2025 drew to a close.
Finance Committee Chairman Jason Russell said the budget has expenditures of $6.75 million and will be balanced against revenues with $161,559 added from the fund balance. The tax rate is 9 mills.
Last year’s budget was $6.67 million.
Russell said some highlights of the 2026 budget include funding for 13 police officers including the chief of police and seven public works employees, $200,000 in a capital fund reserve for future street paving projects and a $25,000 payment to be spread over the next two years as the borough’s matching fund to a grant of $50,000 from the state Municipal Assistance Program to pay for an update of the borough’s zoning ordinance.
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December 28, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A 13-year-old boy from Wilmerding died Saturday after being struck by a car in West Mifflin, East Allegheny School District officials said.
Terrel “T.J.” Byars Jr. was a sixth-grade student at Logan Elementary School in North Versailles Twp., the district said in a prepared release.
West Mifflin police said Route 837 near Kennywood was closed just after 5 p.m. Saturday due to a “vehicle accident” but had released no other information on Sunday. The road reopened about four hours later.
Tube City Almanac has reached out to West Mifflin officials for more information.
A report from the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office was not available.
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December 22, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A shooting Sunday night at the Steelview Manor apartments left a Wilmerding woman dead and another man in critical condition, Allegheny County police said.
Lisa Sharnell Epps, 50, died Sunday night in the emergency room of UPMC McKeesport hospital about an hour after the incident, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said.
Allegheny County police said callers reported a shooting to 9-1-1 dispatchers at 8:48 p.m. First responders found two victims — a woman, identified as Epps, and a man whose name has not yet been released.
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December 22, 2025 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News, White Oak News
White Oak and Allegheny County police are investigating the chain of events that took the life of a McKeesport woman in a one-car collision on Sunday.
The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office said Keisha Fortner, 45, was pronounced dead at AHN Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville following the collision on Route 48 near McClintock Road.
White Oak police Chief Jason Binder said Fortner was the driver of a Chevrolet SUV that was traveling north when the crash occurred just before 4 p.m. Sunday. A male passenger in the vehicle was taken to an area hospital where he was in critical condition, Binder said.
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December 18, 2025 |
By Farah Siddiqi - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
Pennsylvania health care advocates warn a pending vote in Congress could sharply raise insurance costs for hundreds of thousands of residents, as federal tax credits that help people afford coverage under the Affordable Care Act are set to expire at the end of the year.
At a press call this week, advocates said Pennsylvania could be among the states hardest hit if the credits are not extended, pointing to data from the state’s insurance marketplace showing steep premium increases ahead.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, said the impact would be immediate for families relying on the ACA.
“What they have said is that the average premium increase — average — will be 102 percent,” he said. “So a family that today is paying five hundred dollars a month overnight will be paying a thousand a month.
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December 16, 2025 |
By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1873 and forms the nucleus of what is now called the Mon Valley Works. (Mark Dixon photo via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)
According to a new analysis, the U.S. steel industry is falling behind as the global market shifts toward cleaner production.
Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel could help reverse it, with $6.5 billion planned for upgrades at Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley Works, Indiana’s Gary Works, and a new mill, potentially creating jobs and cutting emissions.
Justine Hackimer, industrial decarbonization program manager at the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the report updates their 2023 findings, showing without investment in clean steel, the Mon Valley’s legacy operations could fall further behind, but a shift to green steel — made in electric furnaces, not coke- or gas-fired blast furnaces — could boost the region’s economy.
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