Katherine Schaeffer

Rick Santorum isn't the only 2016 presidential aspirant with Western Pennsylvania ties. As a former U.S. senator, Santorum's Butler County upbringing and years at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh are well known. Not so well known, perhaps, are the Pittsburgh-area backgrounds of John Kasich, Rand Paul, Martin O'Malley

Four generations of Civil War veteran Charles Kimpel's descendants gathered in the cool Friday morning air on a gently sloping hill near Kimpel's new headstone in Allegheny Cemetery. The South Hills Veterans Honor Guard presented Kimpel's family with a burial flag 125 years after his death, sounding three rounds of

Parents attending the Moon school board meeting Monday night expressed concern about construction at Brooks and Allard elementary schools with classes in session. The 2015-16 school year started Monday, a week later than originally scheduled because of the ongoing work at Brooks and Allard elementary schools. Still, Danielle Zieger, a

Finding a pre-kindergarten program can be difficult and expensive, even though experts say early childhood education is vital to students' success. Pre-K in Western Pennsylvania includes tuition- or grant-supported public school programs, private school programs and child care centers. “Especially in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, a full-day, full-year pre-K program can

Noteworthy: 2015-16 Albert Schweitzer Fellowship recipient Background: A student at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, Gondwe is working on a yearlong project with the Acculturation for Justice, Access and Peace Outreach to identify health needs in the African immigrant and refugee population in Allegheny County. She

A math lesson is under way Thursday morning in Jewel Method's classroom. As Helen Poole works to solve fraction problems printed on the whiteboard, Deborah Russell tackles problems on a worksheet. Method, a volunteer tutor with the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, has been helping Poole and Russell, both 62, prepare

Laurie Mushinsky remembers buying her first Schwinn bicycle as a kid growing up in Shaler. Her father, Jack Burkhart, loaned her the money on one condition: that she use the money from her paper route to pay him back. “I gave him 75 cents once a week,” said Mushinsky of

On his front porch in Brighton Heights, Mario Mancini holds a newspaper photo spread, yellowed with age and smoothed beneath a wooden frame. Mancini, 74, points to his teenage self in a photo, standing in New York City just hours after escaping one of the biggest modern maritime disasters —

Noteworthy: Don Charley was runner-up for Campus Safety Magazine's campus safety director of the year award. Age: 55 Residence: Ford City Family: Fiancée, Caroline Kissel; mother, Margaret Charley; brothers, David and Douglas Occupation: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's assistant vice president of parking and security for UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside and

A power outage Tuesday that briefly left 1,450 Duquesne Light customers in the dark shut down Sandcastle Waterpark for the day. A car crashed into a pole in Munhall about 12:30 p.m., cutting power for some customers in the area, said Duquesne Light spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling. The waterpark closed about

Walt Mizia said his father's lessons about valuing knowledge and family made an impact. Now a father, he said those lessons resonate even more clearly. “I remember back when I was in school, he would assign me a book to read,” Walt Mizia said of his father, Walter. “He was

Angela Hertz's Italian-American grandparents taught her to love her heritage — the food, the culture and the sense of family. But it wasn't until Hertz started college that she learned the language, studying abroad to hone her language skills. “I made it my career,” said Hertz, 38, who has taught

More than 80 percent of drivers exceeded the speed limit past tracking devices in Mt. Lebanon and Bethel Park recently, some as fast as 77 mph in zones with posted limits of 25 mph and 35 mph, data show. Police produced the speeding study with data obtained from electronic speed

When 80-year-old Rosella Capo broke her hip, doctors told her that her days of waitressing at Sub-Alpina Beneficial Society's Club in Turtle Creek were probably over. But Mrs. Capo treated that as a challenge, and within a year, she was back on her feet, waiting tables with a friendly smile.

As Cynthia Levy-Mendoza walks through the vacant, overgrown corner lot in her Observatory Hill neighborhood, she focuses on its potential. A neighborhood vegetable garden could thrive in the sunny stretch along the lot's far edge, a path could wind through the lot for dog walkers and a bench near the

The Ohio River Trail Council is moving forward with the first two phases of its Ohio River Greenway Trail, planning to begin construction in 2016 and seeking feedback on conceptual plans for phase two. If approved, the Ohio River Greenway Trail will have paved, well-marked bike lanes along low-speed, low-traffic

The general manager of Pittsburgh's NPR news station 90.5 WESA announced her resignation Monday. DeAnne Hamilton, 59, led the transition by the former WDUQ into the NPR news and talk station 90.5 WESA in 2011, and felt it was time to move on, said Elizabeth Baisley, WESA's director of marketing.

Art Mueller hoists himself up a narrow ladder to perch atop the USS Requin's conning tower high above the Ohio River, explaining that, for men stationed atop the submarine, the scenic view came with a dose of danger. “Sometimes waves were high enough to come over top of the tower,”

As a mother, a soldier in a military intelligence battalion and later, a leukemia patient, Bethany A. Bugay greeted every new acquaintance with a compliment and every one of life's trials with strength and laughter. “She was very determined,” husband John Bugay said. “She never gives up.” Born Sept. 9,

A paddling trail that follows parts of the Ohio River and other area waterways was named Thursday as a national recreation trail by the Department of the Interior and National Park Service. The Ohio River Water Trail, which runs for 69 miles through Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, was among