COMING SUNDAY: The Pittsburgh Union Progress announces its high school basketball all-star teams
While there are plenty of adjectives to describe the top basketball players in the area, nearly all of them have one thing in common — a championship pedigree. Now there is one more accolade to throw on that superlative pile — a Pittsburgh Union Progress all-star. While the PIAA basketball tournament culminates this weekend in…
PIAA Class 1A boys basketball championship: Neighborhood Academy holds on late to top Sankofa Freedom, 60-51, earns first title
HERSHEY — Neighborhood Academy had picked up the sweetest win in program history on Feb. 27 when the Bulldogs won their first WPIAL title. Exactly one month later, though, the Bulldogs got one even sweeter, and it came, of course, in Chocolatetown, USA. Syncer Nicholson scored a team-best 18 points and Neighborhood Academy took a…
PIAA Class 3A girls basketball championship: Dynamic duo propels Loyalsock Township past Shady Side Academy, which goes cold in fourth quarter in 55-43 loss
HERSHEY — Shady Side Academy got caught up in a numbers game in Thursday’s PIAA Class 3A championship. While the Bulldogs featured one of the state’s top players in the classification, their opponent had two of them. That terrific tandem propelled Loyalsock Township to its first state title, while sending the Bulldogs back to Western…
Pregaming the state championships
PIAA girls basketball championship preview: Shady Side Academy, South Fayette, Upper St. Clair going for gold against formidable foes
When Upper St. Clair meets District 1 champion Perkiomen Valley at 6 pm. Friday for the PIAA Class 6A championship at Giant Center in Hershey, longtime Panthers coach Pete Serio might need to pinch himself to make sure he’s not stuck in a flashback. Friday’s game will mark a full-circle moment for Serio and his…
PIAA boys basketball championship preview: South Allegheny, Neighborhood Academy to shoot for first titles; Sewickley Academy will lean on its defense to try to win a fourth title
The South Allegheny basketball program has had quite a few lows over the years, among them a one-win season just nine years ago and a winless campaign four years before that. These days, though, being a South Allegheny Gladiator is pretty cool. “It feels like we’re all a bunch of superstars walking around the school…
Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic preview: Brashear’s Tamara Humphries ready to take center stage, ‘carry torch’ for City League in nation’s most prestigious all-star dual meet
After dazzling the Giant Center crowd in Hershey earlier this month, scoring multiple upsets while posting a 4-1 record on her way to a third-place finish in the 112-pound bracket at the PIAA individual championships, Brashear senior Tamara Humphries thought her high school wrestling career was over. Not so fast. Following her inspiring performance in…
Riverlife begins revamp of Allegheny Riverfront Park as part of ‘Three Sisters Experience’
More than 30 years ago, Carol Brown, first president of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was the driving force behind the creation of Allegheny Riverfront Park. At the time, she had the vision to eliminate a lane of traffic from Fort Duquesne Boulevard to create a unique strip of park land overlooking the river from Stanwix…
Crossovers highlight road work this weekend
Getting around the Pittsburgh area gets more complicated this weekend with crossovers in two areas and other projects kicking into gear. Here’s the rundown:
Welcome to the world, USS 8. Fans watch as bald eagle parents Stella and Irvin tend to their baby
Irvin and Stella, the eagles nesting near U.S. Steel’s Irvin Plant, welcomed the first eaglet of the season, USS 8, during the overnight hours Thursday. It’s the eighth successful hatch at the nest, according to U.S. Steel media representative Andrew Fulton. Stella produced three eggs this season, but it is believed that the first egg…
PennDOT’s local construction season features five new major projects
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation expects to award contracts for 57 road and bridge projects worth about $537 million in Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties this year. And it is obvious the emphasis is on major projects. The agency expects the five most expensive projects to cost more than $200 million, and no other new…
Mon Valley Clean Air Fund awards first grants to nonprofits following U.S. Steel Coke Works fire settlement
The Jefferson Regional Foundation awarded $336,600 in first-time grants from the Mon Valley Clean Air Fund to 11 nonprofit organizations committed to improving community public health and air quality in the Mon Valley. The fund was created after a U.S. Steel Coke Works fire in 2018, according to a foundation news release. The grant recipients…
Civil engineers: U.S. infrastructure grade rises to C in past four years
Following unprecedented investment during the Biden administration, the chronically bad condition of infrastructure in the United States is heading in the right direction. In its quadrennial report card on the nation’s infrastructure released Tuesday, the American Society of Civil Engineers said the grades for the condition of infrastructure averaged out to a C. That’s up…
Proposed transit cuts come at tough time for state leaders, riders
Joan Monroe grew up in Trafford, a borough of about 3,300 people that straddles the border of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties along Route 130 just east of Monroeville. She moved away, then returned as a senior citizen about 10 years ago to find some changes, but many things the same. The town still has a…
Vietnam veterans will tell their stories at 50th year anniversary event at Heinz History Center
Rose Gantner volunteered as a Donut Dolly during the Vietnam War, bolstering young soldiers’ morale and offering them a diversion from the hell they were in. Bill Silver, a U.S. Marine Corps corporal from Aliquippa, fought in Vietnam’s jungles from 1969-70. Silver made a commitment to honor God however God wanted if he made it…
‘Tis the seasons
WPIAL baseball season preview
Sure, it’s only March 14 and the Pirates don’t play their season opener for another two weeks, but for WPIAL baseball teams, this is opening day. Here are some top baseball storylines, teams and players to watch for when the season begins for WPIAL teams on Friday. Top stories Three-peat, anyone? Only once has a…
WPIAL softball season preview
Ready or not, the spring sports season is already upon us — and there is plenty to catch up on before the games get underway later this week. Here are some top softball storylines, teams and players to watch for when the season begins for WPIAL teams on Friday. Big stories TJ’s “Road Warriors” gearing…
WPIAL track and field season preview
Sophia Mazzoni is a dog lover. Mazzoni and her family have two as pets — a cane corso named Bruno and a boxer named Luca — but her affection for canines extends beyond her home, with Mazzoni working part time at a nearby business that provides grooming, boarding and day care services for pooches. “It’s…
In other news …
Teens capture Hill District life through a ‘Saturday Light Brigade’ women’s oral history project
Darlene Moore has lived in the Hill District for 60 of her 67 years. When she raised her children there, she said it was a very wealthy community. But then it disintegrated, and it became a struggle to live there. She and her friends had to travel for their everyday needs, such as day care.…
Working people find they have value in this year’s race for Pittsburgh mayor
Steve Kelly, a tall man wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt, stood at a small podium in Downtown’s Mellon Square Park on Tuesday morning and talked about the importance of his union, SEIU 32BJ. Its members keep Pittsburgh and its offices clean. In Kelly’s words, they are “the heartbeat of the city.” Kelly then looked up…
Work resumes on walking bridge to Pittsburgh’s Riverview Park
Construction resumed this week on the Davis Avenue pedestrian bridge that will connect Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood with Riverview Park. The project, which had been scheduled for completion last year, was delayed for several months due to a supply chain issue with the fabricated steel needed for the new bridge, said Jacob Williams, spokesman for…
