Auditions will be held this week at McKeesport Little Theater for the group’s upcoming presentation of “Dearly Departed” by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones.
Acting auditions will be open on Friday and Saturday, and musical auditions will be open Sunday. To sign-up, visit the website. MLT is located at 1614 Coursin St.
The show, set in a small-town in the Southern United States, debuted off-Broadway in 1991 and has become a community theater favorite since then. The story revolves around the Turpin siblings, who have difficulty pulling themselves together and preparing a funeral for their deceased father.
Two student-journalists from Penn State’s campus in McKeesport have received Student Keystone Media Awards from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
Yousuf Ibrahim and Carlin Whalen, both students at Greater Allegheny Campus, will be honored during an awards luncheon April 26 in Harrisburg. Both write for the campus newspaper, the GA-Zette.
Whalen received an honorable mention in the category of “Ongoing News Coverage” for his series of campus updates on the transition process after former Greater Allegheny Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Edmondson stepped down. Whalen meets regularly with Megan Nagel, interim chancellor and chief academic officer, to keep readers informed of campus initiatives.
The Allegheny County elections division has released the list of candidates who have filed nominating petitions to run in the May 16 primary election.
Pennsylvania is a closed-primary state, meaning that only registered voters who have chosen one of the major political parties may vote for candidates in a primary election.
Winners of each party’s primary will face off in the general election Nov. 7.
Voters in many municipalities will be choosing members of their borough councils or township commissions as well as members of their school boards, while others will be choosing mayors and magisterial district judges.
School board and judicial elections are considered non-partisan, so candidates may choose to file in both parties’ primaries, or in just one.
The last day to register to vote in the primary is May 1. To register or to verify your voter registration, visit the state’s voter services website.
Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods continue to be desirable locations to shoot films of all genres and budgets.
The region “has a little bit of everything,” said film producer and writer Mark Cantu. “You can be in a very urban environment one minute and then drive 20 minutes away and be in a very rural farming community.”
Cantu recently completed his upcoming horror-comedy, “Wolf Hollow,” filmed in and around McKeesport and North Versailles Twp.
The movie, which will premiere April 1 at Dormont’s Hollywood Theater, follows a group of filmmakers as they journey to the fictional location of “Wolf Hollow,” searching for an area to shoot a new film only to discover that they are surrounded by a family of werewolves and must fight for their survival.
A fugitive wanted in connection with murder in South Carolina was arrested during an early-morning raid in the city.
Travis Robert Burton, 24, of St. Helena Island, S.C., was found by McKeesport police and the U.S. Marshal’s Service hiding in the basement of a house in the 600 block of Romine Avenue.
Court records showed no obvious link between Burton and the Mon Valley. It was unclear why he was hiding out in the city.
Andrew Knapp of the Charleston County, S.C., sheriff’s office told Tube City Almanac that Burton was wanted in connection with the Jan. 14 slaying of Jarnaro Middleton, 65, of Johns Island, S.C., in the backyard of a home there.
East Allegheny School Board has approved the public sale and auction of the former Green Valley School, located at 3290 Crestview Drive in North Versailles Twp.
Built in 1951, Green Valley School formerly educated kindergarteners through third graders. When the school closed in 2016, those students were combined with those at Logan Middle School, making Logan a K-6 facility.
The sale was authorized by 9-0 vote at this month’s meeting.
The district is asking for a minimum bid of $499,900 for the school and the successful bidder must get final approval from the board on the intended use of the building.
East Allegheny School Board will add its voices to those of other school districts asking the Pennsylvania General Assembly to reform its charter-school funding formula.
The school board by 9-0 vote this week approved a resolution to be sent to the state legislature. School directors said they regard as unfair the method used to calculate how much districts must pay for charter school tuition.
At a committee meeting earlier this month, school directors said the current formulas require school districts to send more money to charter schools than they need to operate their programs, significantly burdening each district’s resources and taxpayers.
A former city man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday in connection with drug and firearms charges.
Raymar McKenzie, 34, faces a possible life sentence and up to a $2 million fine, said a spokeswoman for acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan is scheduled for June 26.
Court records also list an address for McKenzie in Duquesne.
Prosecutors allege that on three separate occasions in August and September 2020, McKenzie sold fentanyl and crack cocaine to an undercover Allegheny County police officer.
In an effort to improve transparency and provide residents more information about the region’s air quality, the Allegheny County Health Department has launched a new dashboard dedicated to tracking hydrogen sulfide.
The dashboard, which was created in partnership with CountyStat, displays up-to-date information from the county’s two hydrogen sulfide monitoring sites located in North Braddock and Liberty Borough, a spokesman said.
Other information on the webpage explains the state’s hydrogen sulfide regulations and what the health department’s Air Quality Program is doing to monitor and enforce Pennsylvania’s standards.
The Allegheny County Hydrogen Sulfide Dashboard is available on the county’s website.
As the municipal primary election fast approaches, there is an urgent push for more voter education in Pennsylvania.
More than 8.7 million Pennsylvania voters could participate in the local municipal primaries on May 16.
Meghan Pierce, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, said every ballot will look a little different, depending on where you live. LWV is encouraging people to do some research before casting their ballot, to determine how the races could affect their lives.
“Whether or not you have a kid in school, you probably care about how your public school education system is funded,” Pierce said. “If you have a lot of potholes in your street, and you want to know why that is, you know, maybe look into what's going on with your city council. In Philadelphia, for example, there's going to be a mayor’s rac — very active election, lots of candidates running.”
She said Pennsylvania does not have same-day voter registration. You have to register before the strict deadline of May 1 to vote in the primary. The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is May 9.
