A team of international scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of the oldest-known fossil primate skeleton, Archicebus achilles, uncovered in an ancient lake bed near the modern Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province.
Christopher Beard, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, said the fossil’s discovery has profound implications for understanding eras of human evolution that remain shrouded in mystery.
A four-story building being demolished collapsed Wednesday on the edge of downtown, injuring 12 people and trapping two others, the fire commissioner said.
Rescue crews were trying to extricate the two people who were trapped, city Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. The dozen people who were injured were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, he said.
An 18th century replica cannon was fired for the first time Wednesday morning at the Fort Pitt Museum at Point State Park.
A six-person crew of colonial re-enactors used all the proper protocol and ceremony in firing a blank round in the 600-pound cannon, which was made entirely in Western Pennsylvania.
Andy Masich, president and CEO of the Senator John Heinz History Center, said only an expert could tell this gun from an original.
A task force's review of weapons policies at Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities could last through the beginning of the fall semester.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is re-examining gun policies after state lawyers raised concerns that campus-wide bans of firearms possession could be vulnerable to state and federal constitutional challenges.
Kenn Marshall, a state system spokesman, says schools have been advised to create site-specific bans in the meantime.
Before the Point was a state park, the space was used for warehouse and parking space, as shown in this photo from the 1950s.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1947 plan for the Point Park Civic Center had 13 levels, was 175 feet high and had 4.5 miles of circular auto ramp, lined with shops and other features. The proposed urban development plan was turned down.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
The Manchester Bridge crossed over the Allegheny River and connected the Downtown and North Shore neighborhoods from 1915 to 1970 when it was replaced by the Fort Duquesne Bridge.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
This 1970s photograph shows Three Rivers Stadium and the construction site of the Point State Park fountain after the demolition of the Manchester and Point bridges.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
The fountain’s original opening in 1974 drew a crowd.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
A crowd of people watch at the 1974 grand opening of the Point State Park fountain.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
This 1974 photo shows the fountain at its full height.
Credit Courtesy Riverlife
A group of children watch the fountain’s 150-foot stream in 1979.
After years of reconstruction, the fountain at the Point will be turned back on this Friday.
Since April 2009, Point State Park has undergone a $35 million renovation, including $9.6 million for the fountain makeover.
Point State Park's history goes back decades, with planning for the space beginning in the 1930s. Construction didn’t start until the 1960s, and the original fountain opened in 1974.
Credit Image by Pressley Associates, courtesy Riverlife
This 2009 photo shows the Point State Park fountain prior to its renovation but after the completion of renovations to the city side lawn and Great Lawn, woodland areas and riverfront promenades.
Credit Image by Pressley Associates, courtesy Riverlife
After four years, the Point State Park fountain is ready to flow again, but some Pittsburghers won’t be getting as close as they had hoped.
The Great Lawn, located on the fountain side of the Portal Bridge, will be fenced off and closed to the public Friday night during the celebration at the opening of the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
Pittsburgh Brashear Co-Principal Kimberly Safron, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Linda Lane and NMSI's Dale Fleury accept a grant from the Heinz Endowments.
A new-to-Pennsylvania program is hoping to increase enrollment in advanced placement classes in two Pittsburgh high schools, with the ultimate goal to ensure more kids, especially kids of color, are prepared for higher education – whatever form that may take.
More than 100 students at Pittsburgh Brashear High School are currently enrolled in advanced placement, or AP, classes. Through a partnership with the National Math and Science Initiative, or NMSI, and a grant from the Heinz Endowments, work will get underway to increase that number.
Tempers flared at the third and final state Senate hearing focused on the governor's liquor privatization proposal and related plans to change the way alcohol is bought and sold in Pennsylvania.
By the end, the committee's chairman was barely closer to nailing down the details of a proposal, saying a final plan should allow Pennsylvanians to buy alcohol in "more places," while phasing out the state wine and spirits stores, and without necessarily getting rid of the state-owned wholesale system.
In the wake of the deadly bridge collapse in Washington, interest has increased in the current condition and safety of Pennsylvania’s bridges. With the average age of bridges on the state system well over 50, PennDOT must evaluate the numerous bridges and consider the needs and costs of the state infrastructure. According the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Allegheny County has 2,247 bridges yet many of them are categorized as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and if it’s up to two Pennsylvania politicians, the rest of the nation will flatter Pittsburgh’s Manchester-Bidwell Corporation.
Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA-14) have introduced legislation modeled after the local program.
The National Program for Arts and Technology Act would help communities create centers to teach unemployed and underemployed adults and at-risk-youth the skills needed to be competitive in the marketplace.
This year the city will get a new mayor who will appoint a new police chief. However, will the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board have a say in the selection of the new chief? City council recently passed a bill giving the board a chance to review proposed amendments to policies.
Guest: Beth Pittinger, Executive Director of the Citizen Police Review Board
Dr. Martin-Liao is President of Independent Chinese PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) and Poet and musician Liao Yiwu will read from his prison memoir
The Pittsburgh based online magazine, Sampsonia Way, seeks to protect and advocate for writers in asylum, educate the public about threats to literary expression, and to create a community where endangered writers can thrive. This is made possible by the Northside's City of Asylum Pittsburgh.
Exiled Voices of China and Tibet is an event taking place this weekend at the City of Asylum. Notable international writers will for the first time, be able to talk about the exercise of fundamental human rights in China. For many of these writers, they've never been in the same room at the same time or been able to speak freely about human rights.
Thanks to the presence of disease and tree-killing insects such as the emerald ash borer, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is reminding residents of the firewood quarantine in place.
People are asked to not move firewood more than 50 miles from its origin, and wood products cannot be moved out of Bucks County at all because of thousand cankers disease.
The fate of a pilot program affecting county human services programs is getting more scrutiny this week as state lawmakers consider proposals to expand it gradually or scrap it altogether.
The pilot program allows 20 counties to collapse the funding of several distinct human services into one big funding pot, removing the constraints on each service’s designated silo of funding and giving administrators more control over how the money is divvied up.
Each year more than 200,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer, and now doctors in Pittsburgh have confirmed that a less-invasive surgical procedure for women with early stage breast cancer is as effective as traditional surgery.
According to Dr. Thomas Julian, associate director of the Breast Care Center at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH), a 10-year follow up on a clinical trial involving 5,611 women with invasive breast cancer showed no significant difference in overall survival or disease-free survival.
The US Department of Justice released a report last Friday stating that a Pennsylvania State prison violated the civil rights of inmates with serious mental illness and/or intellectual disabilities.
The investigators found that the Cambria County prison they investigated placed mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time as a way of "warehousing" them.
The percentage of prisoners on the state's mental health roster has increased by more than 50 percent, since 1999, accounting for more than 20 percent of all inmates in the PA prison system.
As lawmakers in the state House teed up the legislative vehicle for a state budget Monday morning, Senate Democrats offered their view on what the final spending plan should look like.
The Senate Democrats' plan amounts to about $28.4 billion — roughly $56 million above what the governor proposed. It depends on the so-called modernization of the state's liquor system, keeping a business tax the governor wants to eliminate, and the state's participation in a federally authorized expansion of the Medicaid program.
Many students rely on free and reduced price meals during the school year and still need help over the summer.
In 2012, the Department of Agriculture served 2.3 million children at 38,800 sites on a typical summer day through the Summer Food Service Program.
Free meals are available at sites all over the country to anyone 18 and under, or 21 and under if disabled, according to Cindy Moore of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. People can go to any location — no registration or documentation is necessary.
Artist Florentijn Hofman's giant floating rubber duck will make its way to the Steel City in late September as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s International Festival of Firsts.
Allegheny County is hoping to fight blight by offering as much as a $3,000 discount to anyone looking to take ownership and improve abandon properties.
The Allegheny County Vacant Property Recovery Program usually charges individuals or entities that want to acquire the properties the assessed value of the parcel plus about $3,000 in fees. Between now and July 15 the county will waive between $1,600 and all of the fees.
Whether it’s hiking, biking or some other activity, outdoor recreation is big business. A coalition of non-profits in the region is proclaiming this the Summer of Outdoor Recreation. for those looking to get into the business of recreation, The Progress Fund supports local entrepreneurs in the tourism industry. Trail Towns is also a resource for businesses along the Great Allegheny Passage.
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