Patrick Varine stories, Page 3

When Mark Spondike isn’t providing music education to students at Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts school, he’s appearing onstage in the region, incluing with the Pittsburgh Opera. Next month, he’ll have a man’s fate in his hands, as the foreman of the jury in Prime Stage Theatre’s upcoming production of...

Email news briefs and event information to pvarine@triblive.com. AARP Smart Driver class The AARP will host a “Smart Driver” class from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 6 at the Delmont Public Library. Participants can refresh their driving skills, learn safe, proven driving techniques and learn about navigating roundabouts. The...

Drivers who frequent Saltsburg Road through Murrysville are likely familiar with the “dead zone,” where their Verizon call is all but guaranteed to drop as they travel between Mamont and Ashbaugh roads. Verizon expects to address that gap in coverage by installing a 125-foot tower at a property on Lasher...

The staff at Caliente Pizza and Draft House are serious about their pizza. But not so serious that one of them can’t work up an entertaining routine blending acrobatics and pizza-dough stretching. It might sound like a way to pass the time during a slow business night, but in fact,...

The 19th annual Three Rivers Community Band Festival will be held 2-5 p.m. Saturday at Franklin Regional Senior High School in Murrysville. The East Winds Symphonic Band, which founded the festival and is comprised of players from Pittsburgh and its eastern suburbs, will be joined by the Community Band South...

In exchange for taking over Italy Road’s maintenance from the state, Export will be able to fund some long-awaited improvements on the section of the road that lies inside the borough. “I think this is going to be a great deal for Export,” borough Solicitor Wes Long said. Council unanimously...

A West Deer man was charged with attacking a doctor and nurse last month at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville. Gabriel A. Brewer, 34, of West Deer’s Russellton neighborhood, was taken by ambulance to the hospital on March 14 after he was found unresponsive on a bench in an Allegheny County...

A West Deer man was charged with attacking a doctor and nurse last month at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville. Gabriel A. Brewer, 34, of West Deer’s Russellton neighborhood, was taken by ambulance to the hospital on March 14 after he was found unresponsive on a bench in an Allegheny County...

Monroeville Police are seeking information to help identify a suspect involved in a series of thefts from Ulta Beauty store. Police say the suspect, believed to be a Hispanic man in his late teen or early twenties, has been seen on camera stealing merchandise from multiple stores, including an incident...

Two of four puppies found dumped in the woods in Connellsville on March 26 have died, according to a nearby shelter that is caring for the other two. Officials from Ninth Life Rescue Shelter in Connellsville received a call about the puppies found in the woods off Sandy Flat Road....

County detectives are investigating the death of a man found shot inside a McKeesport home Saturday night. First responders were called to a house on the 1700 block of Abraham Street just before 10 p.m., where they found an adult male who’d been shot, according to Allegheny County Police. The...

Old William Penn Highway will be closed Monday, March 31 between Evergreen Drive and Duff Road as work crews conduct demolition work on the Parkway East bridge that runs over the road. Old William Penn will be closed from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate the work. East of...

The westbound side of Route 422 has reopened following a fatal crash Saturday morning in Summit Township, police said. First responders were called to the highway just west of Mitchell Hill Road around 11 a.m., according to Butler County 911 officials. Ronald Litzinger, 43, of Butler, was found dead at...

Here are a few morning news items from across the region for Saturday, March 29, 2025. Teen charged with robbing delivery driver Pittsburgh Police arrested a teenager Thursday, charging him with assaulting a pizza delivery driver earlier this week in the city’s Elliott neighborhood. Police said Nae’Pear Clark, 16, of...

Robert and Joseph Tanyer weren’t even legally allowed to drink yet when the two brothers from Jeannette signed up for the Army and shipped out to Vietnam in the late 1960s. “I turned 21 while I was over there,” Joseph Tanyer said. “I didn’t think too much about it. I...

Pennsylvania Lottery officials presented a commemorative $1 million check on Thursday to a Fayette County woman at the Belle Vernon sports bar where she purchased the ticket. Brittnee Boot purchased the winning “$1,000,000 Winnings” ticket at Foster House II in Belle Vernon. Boot was joined by Foster House II co-owner...

Monroeville added three new officers to its police force this month, including its first officer fluent in Spanish, bringing the department to 49 officers. Grady Fagan, Michael Ragan and Miguel Armijo were sworn in at council’s March 11 meeting. For the past few decades, all of the officers that have...

Pennsylvania’s largest youth football league got a little smaller this week, as five Westmoreland County teams opted to leave and form a league of their own in the wake of a police investigation. The Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League, in which the Westmoreland teams had been playing, is under scrutiny...

Residents of the Holiday Hills mobile home park in Murrysville are cautiously optimistic after regular water service was restored. Renters in the park, off Logans Ferry Road, have dealt with inconsistent water pressure — and frequently no water at all — since late January. The private water line that supplies...

Delmont Council is looking at borough properties it can add to Shields Farm in order to mitigate a minor lease that doesn’t comply with federal covenants governing the land’s use. A 1998 1-acre lease for an above-ground gas tank on the former home of the R.J. Fields family farm isn’t...

Artist Aaron Gorson came to Pittsburgh as a portrait painter in the early 20th century. But a trip to the city’s Bluff neighborhood changed all that. “He looked up the Mon River and saw the spectacular show of the steel mills at night, with lights and flames flaring,” said Maxwell...

Jerry Deible of Murrysville can remember standing on the ground at a Vietnam firebase in the early 1970s, staring up at a massive C-130 airplane passing overhead. He craned his head back and snapped a photo of the plane as liquid streamed down from tanks strapped to its sides. The...

Asher Jaffre is no slouch in the kitchen, and he comes by it honestly. His parents own two — soon to be three — Jaffre’s restaurants in Westmoreland County. “My dad got me into cooking,” said Jaffre, 17, of Latrobe. “I used to help him bread zucchini when I was...