January 1, 2025 2:54 am
(WPXI) – A large police presence responded to reports of shots being fired and an assault outside the South Hills Village Mall. Bethel Park Police said they were called to the AMC Theater at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Officers said they found a man who had been assaulted and evidence of an unknown number of shots fired when they arrived. Ultimately, police found that no one was hit by gunfire. The Bethel Park Police Department said multiple suspects fled the scene but were taken into custody by neighboring South Hills police departments. There is no ongoing threat to the public, police say.
January 1, 2026 7:37 am
SOUTH STRABANE TOWNSHIP (WPXI) — After sitting abandoned for more than a decade, the Washington Mall is in its final days. Crews on Wednesday used an excavator to tear down what remained of the last portion, including the former JCPenney. Construction crews expect the structure to be fully down by the end of next week, about a month ahead of schedule, owner Vinnie Neiswonger said. Drone video over the property shows that most of the once-popular mall has already been reduced to rubble. The demolition will clear the way for a major retail redevelopment anchored by a Costco. Developers say part of the former grocery store structure will remain and be converted into an RV dealership. Two businesses on the property — China Buffet and Harbor Freight — are still under lease through the summer of 2026 and are tentatively expected to relocate on the site, according to local commissioners.
January 1, 2025 2:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain low despite a weakening labor market. U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 27 fell by 16,000 to 199,000 from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 208,000 new applications. Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Dec. 20 fell by 47,000 to 1.87 million, the government said.
January 1, 2025 2:54 am
PITTSBURGH — We have a winter weather advisory that will ring in the new year. Snow will continue through the evening and into New Year’s Day. Snow will be steady to heavy at times and could include snow squalls, especially during the evening hours. Travel is expected to be slippery and hazardous for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Bursts of snow will quickly cover roads, and visibility could drop to near zero. Total snow for much of the area will range from two to four inches for New Year’s Eve, and isolated higher amounts are possible. Most of the snow exits by early New Year’s Day morning.
December 30, 2025 5:01 am
CANONSBURG, Pa. — Snow squalls made for a busy day for road crews and had a serious effect on the Tuesday morning commute here in Washington County. Canonsburg officials say they got nine inches of snow. Crews started working around 11 p.m. on Monday to try to keep the roads clear with each round of snow. Canonsburg’s Borough Manager Angela Senay said it was a team effort to stay on top of the slow-moving band of lake-effect snow. Canonsburg’s director of streets said the borough went through 125-130 tons of salt on Tuesday alone as road crews prepare for the possibility of more snow.
December 31, 2025 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Federal Reserve officials who supported cutting a key interest rate earlier this month could have instead backed keeping the rate unchanged, minutes released Tuesday show, underscoring the divisions and uncertainty permeating the central bank. At their December 9-10 meeting Fed officials agreed to cut their key interest rate by a quarter point for the third time this year, to about 3.6%, the lowest in nearly three years. The minutes underscored the deep split on the 19-member policymaking committee over what constitutes the biggest threat to the economy: weak hiring or stubbornly-elevated inflation.
December 31, 2025 5:05 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Renee Hardman has been elected to the Iowa state Senate in a holiday-week special election, denying Republicans’ bid to reclaim two-thirds control of the chamber. Hardman bested Republican Lucas Loftin on Tuesday to win the seat representing parts of Des Moines’ suburbs. It became vacant after the Oct. 6 death of state Sen. Claire Celsi, a Democrat. Hardman becomes the first Black woman elected to the Senate. A GOP win would have given Republicans a super-majority once again, just months after a Democrat flipped a Republican seat in an August special election.
December 30, 2025 5:10 am
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has “hit” a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela. But the U.S. offered few details. Trump initially seemed to confirm a strike in what appeared to be an impromptu radio interview Friday. When questioned Monday by reporters about “an explosion in Venezuela,” the president said the U.S. struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs “load up.” Trump declined to say if the military or CIA was involved or where it occurred. He didn’t confirm it happened in Venezuela. The White House and Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for more details or comment.
December 30, 2025 5:09 am
Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, one of three grandchildren of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died after a battle with leukemia. Her family disclosed her death in a statement released Tuesday by the John. F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Schlossberg was 35. The daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, the journalist revealed she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at age 34 while in the hospital for the birth of her second child. In the essay titled “A Battle with my Blood,” Schlossberg recounted rounds of chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and clinical trials.
December 31, 2025 5:08 am
The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility. The institution’s president is accusing the performers of making their decisions because of politics. The Cookers, a jazz supergroup, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website. Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based in New York, said they would pull out of a performance slated for April, saying they “can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.” Musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance last week.
