Paul Guggenheimer stories, Page 43

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced Friday an aggressive plan to deal with disproportionately higher rates of covid-19 in African American communities. In order to reduce the spread of the virus in areas where people have a greater chance of contracting it, beginning Saturday testing sites will be opened in...

A little sweetness can go a long way in hard times. Just ask Robert Wyant, 47, who realized a lifelong dream two years ago when he created “Oh How SWEET It Is,” an old-fashioned candy store on Freeport Road in Harmar. “I’ve lived in this community for a lot of...

The state Department of Labor & Industry reported Friday that Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% in September, down 2.3 percentage points from August. The current figure is nearly double the unemployment rate of September 2019, which was 4.6%. Still, Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh...

Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Harmar has discontinued its outpatient rehabilitation services following a drop in patient volume because of the covid-19 pandemic. The cut in services, which took effect Sept. 30, affects patients who are not hospitalized but undergoing physical, occupational and speech therapy and recovering from bone breaks,...

A virtual “Yinz Citizen” concert and fundraiser hosted by 412 Food Rescue and featuring appearances by Wiz Khalifa, Anti-Flag, The Commonheart, Joe Grushecky, Donnie Iris and others is set for Nov. 12. The event is designed to raise money for 412 Food Rescue’s work to combat hunger and food waste....

Allegheny Valley School District Superintendent Pat Graczyk is proposing expanded in-person learning at Acmetonia Elementary School. “I’m asking the board for our elementary students (K-6) to come back four days a week for in-person learning starting on Oct. 26,” he said. Under Graczyk’s proposal students would be in classrooms Monday,...

Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, said Monday she is grateful for the support she has received after a stranger verbally attacked her at a grocery store near her home. “Everyone from the governor (Tom Wolf) to our attorney general (Josh Shapiro) to our senator (Bob Casey), they are...

The Allegheny Valley School District was notified Friday that a staff member at Acmetonia Elementary School has tested positive for covid-19. The last date of possible exposure at the school was last Tuesday. “We were made aware by the staff member that they tested positive on Friday,” superintendent Patrick M....

When Mario de Leon returned home from refereeing an adult league hockey game Oct. 2, his wife saw the cut on his nose and wanted to know what had happened. He decided not to tell her, but then a court summons showed up. A Buffalo Township man accused of attacking...

An economic summit focused on restoring the Pittsburgh region’s economy to pre-pandemic levels was held last week by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. As part of the summit, the organization prepared a robust report on how severely the region’s economy has been disrupted during the pandemic. The report did...

It’s been just over a year since Springdale Township commissioners approved merging the township’s police department with Cheswick’s to create the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department. The merger appears to be going smoothly with consolidation bringing more efficient policing. Both municipalities contribute equally to the department’s roughly $450,000 annual budget,...

Mozart may not have envisioned singers wearing masks when he created “Cosi fan tutte,” but that’s the plan when the Pittsburgh Opera performs it in front of a live audience. The opera, which revolves around the theme of fiancée swapping, is the opera’s opening production of its modified 2020-21 season....

Adult recreational hockey league players and referees said Thursday a player who allegedly assaulted a referee in an adult league game at Pittsburgh Ice Arena in New Kensington should be dealt with harshly. The incident happened Friday at the Craigdell Road arena. Jeremy Gregory Gilbert, 43, of Buffalo Township was...

Longtime WDVE disc jockey Sean McDowell has no doubts about guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen’s place in rock history. “I’ve always had him at number five on my list of the greatest rock guitarists ever,” said McDowell. “I’ve always had him there, at least since 1978, along with (Jimi) Hendrix,...

A Wilkinsburg woman well known for her writing about race, gender, parenting and culture is now receiving national recognition for her fiction. Deesha Philyaw is among five finalists in the fiction category of the National Book Awards for her story collection “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” her first book...

It was a long road back from the Tree of Life shooting, but Pittsburgh Police SWAT Officer Timothy Matson is on the job once again. Matson returned to work Monday, according to a social media post. He return comes nearly two years after he suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the...

Wayne Stewart remembers running home from school in Donora on Oct. 13, 1960. He was 9 years old and was hoping to make it in time to catch the end of Game 7 of the World Series between the Pirates and the New York Yankees on TV. The game was...

Workers making about $35,600 or less per year are eligible for overtime beginning Saturday in Pennsylvania. That’s when the state’s new overtime rule takes effect. “Tomorrow marks the first update to the commonwealth’s overtime regulations in more than four decades,” Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said in...

Imagine ordering a pizza, driving to pick it up and having a Super Bowl MVP run it out to your car. It could happen. October is National Pizza Month and Super Bowl XLIII MVP and former Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes is partnering with Caliente Pizza & Draft House. The...

Think solving a math problem isn’t exciting? Try telling that to John Mackey, part of a team of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and mathematicians that spent four months solving the last piece of Keller’s conjecture, a geometry problem that’s been out there for over nine decades. “I was really...