Mary Ann Thomas stories, Page 55

The young black bear spotted Tuesday in Penn Hills along Frankstown Road likely is the same one spotted later that evening in Turtle Creek and Monroeville, according to social media reports and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. It is hoped the young bear, which is looking for safe territory, will find...

It’s the season for well-fed eaglets to leave the nest and learn to fly under the tutelage of their parents, and one of two young bald eagles in the Pittsburgh Hays nest apparently cleared for take-off Tuesday. Robert Bevan of Pittsburgh’s Lincoln Place captured a photo of one of the...

Pittsburgh native Becca Droz and her teammate, Floyd Pierce, are back on their worldwide adventure in Croatia at 8 p.m. Wednesday on CBS’ “The Amazing Race.” Droz and Pierce, aka “Team Fun,” are among only six teams left vying for a $1 million prize on a 25,000-plus mile journey around...

The 13,000 daily motorists who use Route 366, also known as Greensburg Road, should allot more travel time when a nearly $1 million bridge replacement project begins next week and reduces the busy road to one lane near Millers Lane in Lower Burrell. Single-lane traffic will be regulated by a...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission received several reports Tuesday of a black bear running along Frankstown Road near the McDonald’s in Penn Hills. The bear, believed to be about a year-and-a-half old, is on the move and was likely pushed out by his mother as she gets ready to breed, according...

It’s been said before, but something continues to be mighty attractive about the Tarentum Bridge to the peregrine falcon. The current pair is raising three young falcons in a special nest box under the bridge deck. This is the fourth time that the once endangered raptor has successfully raised young...

In Pennsylvania, if a local government decides to open up Marcellus shale drilling throughout a community, even a residential area, it might not be challenged in court because of a recent, precedent-setting case in Allegheny Township. The courts didn’t buy the role of local governments as environmental stewards when it...

A rare Andean Condor chick, a downy, grey-white baby bird the size of a grapefruit, hatched Friday at the National Aviary. This is the first Andean Condor chick to hatch at the National Aviary since 2007, and is currently the only Andean Condor chick to hatch this year at an...

Not all bald eagle rescue stories end so happily. But the bald eagle saved from the middle of a busy Chester County highway in a motorcyclist’s flannel shirt has been successfully rehabbed and released back into wild. Motorcyclist Dandon Miller of Lancaster, who stepped up to help the bird stranded...

Pittsburgh native Becca Droz and her teammate, Floyd Pierce, survived more adventures to reach another round on CBS’ “The Amazing Race.” Droz and Pierce, aka “Team Fun,” are now among six teams vying for a $1 million prize on a 25,000-plus mile journey around the world. They competed on the...

Powdermill Nature Reserve will present Cicadapalooza! from 2 p.m. to about 4 p.m. Sunday at its Rector, Westmoreland County, facility. The event is free to the public. Staff will discuss the periodical cicada Brood VIII currently resurfacing at Powdermill and elsewhere around the region. The event features a lecture on...

Boating season might begin after all. The Allegheny and Kiski rivers are expected to clear and settle down this weekend as the National Weather Service lifts a weeklong recreational boating advisory in Pittsburgh. More than 3 inches of rain soaked the region within three days last week and the significant...

A dozen bands will play Friday and Saturday for the Back the Blue benefit concert honoring fallen New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw at the Quality Inn ballroom in New Kensington. Tickets are $10 at door, which opens at 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The first band plays at 6...

Plastic bags, straws, food containers — it all adds up for just one person in just one day. Plastics pollution is the latest buzz, with numerous reports of wildlife dying after eating or becoming entangled in various plastic trash. Laws are being changed over the situation. According to an Associated...

UPS will hold a recruiting event on June 13 from noon until 2 p.m. at the PA CareerLink at 151 Pavilion Lane, Youngwood. According to the UPS website, there are at least 14 jobs currently within a 15-mile radius of Youngwood. In a Facebook announcement, UPS is promising advancement opportunities...

The Kiski Watershed Association will hold a “By Land Cleanup” on June 15 from 8 a.m. to noon, starting at the River’s Edge Canoe & Kayak, 3158 River Road in Gilpin. The cleanup along the river will be coordinated with the larger River Sweep, a region-wide cleanup along the banks...

Due to high water, the Allegheny River Development Corp. and with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have decided to keep four locks closed in the Armstrong County portion of the Allegheny River. The closed locks are located in South Buffalo, West Kittanning, Boggs, and Madison townships. During the summer,...

The top of her cap and just a sliver of her face were all you could see of 5-foot-2 Violet Stivason at the lectern as he spoke of her life when accepting her honorary high school diploma at Leechburg Area High School auditorium Thursday night. Just an hour earlier, the...

Her anger was still palpable when she woke up the morning of what would have been the seventh birthday of her son Jesse, one of 26 people killed six months earlier by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. That’s when Scarlett Lewis said she began...

The Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh will throw a free public star gazing party at Kunkle Park in Washington Township on June 15. If conditions are right, the public will be treated to views of the moon’s craters, rays, plains and mountains as well as brightly colored double stars, star...

During Wednesday night’s episode of CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” Pittsburgh native Becca Droz and her teammate Floyd Pierce ranked third, keeping them in the running for next week’s primetime reality TV show, according to the GoldDerby website. Droz and Pierce, known as “Team Fun,” are among seven teams currently vying...

A Lancaster man used his flannel shirt to rescue an injured bald eagle that had plopped down in the middle of a Route 30 bypass, stopping traffic, in Downingtown, Chester County, on Saturday, according to media reports. Dandon Miller was on his motorcycle when he encountered the traffic jam and...

After flying on the world’s longest zip line in Dubai and winning first place in one of two episodes of CBS’s “Amazing Race” last week, Pittsburgh native Becca Droz again will be featured on the prime time adventure reality show tonight at 8 p.m. The excitement continues with Droz and...

The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers Local 37 in Bellevue need to fill 40 open apprentice positions, according to a representative at the union’s Joint Apprenticeship Committee on Monday. The Union has jurisdiction in a number of counties in Western Pennsylvania including Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Indiana, Somerset,...