Deb Erdley stories, Page 35

Pennsylvania’s approach to the opioid epidemic will be front and center Monday at the National Governor’s Association’s Summit for New Administrations in Washington, D.C. Gov. Tom Wolf will address the gathering on Pennsylvania’s multi-faceted attack, which the American Medical Association has highlighted as a national model for battling the opioid...

Excela Health System’s two top executives, CEO Robert Rogalski and COO Mike Busch, will step down immediately as the Westmoreland County hospital system seeks “fresh perspectives,” board chair Teresa Petrick said Friday. Petrick announced the unexpected personnel changes in an email. “We have been privileged to have Bob and Mike...

Students considering summer school can fill in all the blanks at Westmoreland County Community College’s Express Enrollment Day on April 6. WCCC will be hosting a “one-stop shop” for prospective students from 10 am. until 2 p.m. at its campuses and centers in Hempfield, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, New Kensington, Murrysville,...

Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will have new latitude in setting tuition under a policy the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of High Education approved Thursday. Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will have new latitude in setting tuition under a policy approved Thursday. Annual tuition rates for the schools...

A rural Indiana County township that fought a gas company’s plan to put an injection well within its boundaries has lost its fight in court in federal court and must pay the gas company’s legal fees. StateImpactPA reports a federal judge has ordered Grant Township, a small northern Indiana County...

More than 100,000 Pennsylvanians now have passports to medical marijuana. Doctors have approved more than 102,000 certifications allowing patients to buy medical marijuana at licensed state dispensaries, state officials announced this week. “Realizing 100,000 patient certifications and seeing the first Phase II grower and processor operationalized is a testament to...

A key Pennsylvania lawmaker Wednesday signaled that legislators will be taking a critical look at how demographics are affecting higher education. Senate Majority Policy Committee Chair David G. Argall (R-Schuylkill and Berks) said the Senate will examine the impact of changing demographics on higher education during a public hearing on...

Aryanna Berringer never dreamed she’d have to go to war to find a workplace where equal work meant equal pay. But looking back, the 36-year-old businesswoman, author and social activist said that’s exactly what happened. Speaking at Tuesday at Seton Hill University’s annual Equal Pay Day Rally at Courthouse Square...

A coalition of transportation agencies Monday issued the latest alert on a looming transportation crisis, driven in part by the law that ordered the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to send $450 million a year to PennDOT. The Southeast Partnership for Mobility, which includes the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), the Pennsylvania...

The University of Pittsburgh went halfway around the world to find a new president for its Bradford and Titusville campuses. Pitt officials Monday announced Catherine Koverola, inaugural provost and senior advisor at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, Africa has been named president of its Bradford and Titusville campuses, effective...

This might be as rare as lightning striking twice in the same place. The odds of picking all five numbers in Pennsylvania’s Cash 5 lottery game start out at just a hair below one in a million — one in 962,598, according to the Pennsylvania Lottery Commission. On Saturday, two...

When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the average American woman earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by men. More than five decades later, a new analysis found Pennsylvania women still earn less than men for doing the same work, with the disparity equaling...

Adrianna Branin says she has never seen herself as a hero; others do. Last week, former Vice President Joe Biden honored the petite coed with the Biden Courage Award for intervening to stop a sexual assault outside of an off campus party at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Branin, a 20...

The rare Ewing sarcoma cancers that struck 12 children and young adults in southeastern Westmoreland County between 2011 and early 2018 did not reach the threshold to be considered a statistically significant cancer cluster, a state health department spokesman said Thursday. “We looked at all the cases and determined there...

Seton Hill University students will demonstrate in Greensburg next week to mark Equal Pay Day. The university’s Feminist Collective and Griffins for Human Rights are sponsoring a rally at Courthouse Square from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. The annual event is held to draw attention to pay disparities between...

When the call went out for innovative concepts that could change the way America lives and launch an entrepreneur into the stratosphere, a team of Seton Hill University students jumped. The five students came-up with a concept they dubbed U-TREKS, an athletic shoe with retractable spikes that could take trail...

Western Pennsylvania human services agencies will play a major role in a new pilot program designed to help individuals battling opioid addiction remain in treatment and find stable housing. Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced that agencies in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties are among 16 in...

State officials pushing proposals to reduce student debt and offer free tuition at public colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are scheduled to rally Wednesday morning in Harrisburg. A spokesman for Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said Hughes is expecting hundreds of students from Pennsylvania’s 14-state-owned universities to join lawmakers, university faculty...

Pennsylvania is among 27 states participating in a new effort to bridge the gender gap in cyber security. The free online program, Girls Go CyberStart, seeks to engage girls in grades 9-12 in the world of cybersecurity, where women make up 20 percent of the workforce in a growing industry,...

Seton Hill University will host Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, as the featured speaker at May’s undergraduate commencement exercises. Markham will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the ceremony, set to begin at 10:30 a.m. May 11 in the Salvitti Gymnasium at the...

The Erie Catholic Diocese will pay $2 million to settle claims with a man who said he was sexually abused by former priest and convicted pedophile David L. Poulson. The abuse occurred when Poulson was serving at St. Michael’s Church in Fryburg, Pa., from 2002-10 and St. Anthony of Padua...

Robert Morris University’s Women’s Leadership & Mentorship Program will present its 4th Annual Women & Transformational Leadership Symposium, from 8:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. March 28 and 29 at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel, 1160 Thorn Run Road, Moon Township Demeatria Boccella of FashionAFRICANA will be keynote speaker for the...

State officials Monday ordered the remaining students at a Delaware County reform school removed immediately as a probe into decades of allegations of violence and abuse against students at the Glen Mills School deepened. Glen Mills, the nation’s oldest school for delinquent boys, once housed more than 600 youth, aged...

Farmers swamped by last year’s record rainfall may be eligible for relief aid thanks to a disaster declaration from the federal Farm Service Agency. Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday urged eligible farmers to apply for aid in advance of the next growing season. Farmers across the region said they suffered...

When freshman state Sen. Lindsey Williams, a Democrat from West View, learned Philadelphia Sen. Vincent Hughes was crafting a bill to tackle student debt refinancing, she quickly agreed to circulate a co-sponsorship memo. Williams, 36, and fellow freshman state Sen. Katie Muth, a 35-year-old Democrat from Montgomery County, are among...