Three Assistants Join the 2019/2020 SGA

By: Ashton Caldwell

NEW KENSINGTON- Pa.- Three students have recently been appointed to be assistants to the 2019/2020 Student Government Association for the academic year. 

Their names are Gianna Foglia, Santrupth Vedanthi, and Anthony Manso. For each one of these students, they had a special reason for wanting to join the Student Government Association. 

“I wanted to join SGA to meet new people and help improve campus life for students and faculty,” said Freshman Anthony Manso. “Also, I figured it would be a great way to interact with my fellow students.”  

Westmoreland County Judicial Election Results

By: Ashton Caldwell

UPPER BURRELL, Pa. – On Tuesday, Nov. 5 Pennsylvania citizens throughout the commonwealth had their chance to go out and vote. 

The results for the Westmorland County Judicial elections shows that the country kept its incumbent judges and gained several new conservative judges. 

According to electionreturns.pa.gov[1], for the Superior courts Megan McCarthy King won with 45,498 votes and Christylee Peck won with 43,660 votes. 

For the retention election of the Superior Court, which is a “is a periodic process whereby voters are asked whether an incumbent judge should remain in office for another term,”[2] it was determined that Anne E. Lazarus, with a vote of 46,936 to 20,035 and Judy Olson with a vote of 47,493 to 19,077 will remain on the Pennsylvania Superior Court. 

Jon McCabe: Making Your Vote Matter (Part 1)

By: Nico Regoli
Staff Writer & Reporter

PSNK graduate turned PA House candidate, Jon McCabe, discussing his campaign. (Photo courtesy of Nico Regoli).

UPPER BURRELL, Pa. – On May 15, 2018, 10 days after graduating from Penn State New Kensington, Jon McCabe won his Democratic Primary race for a 54th District seat in the PA House of Representatives. On September 19, he returned to his alma mater to aid the club he helped found – PSNK’s My Vote Matters – in preparation for the new semester and upcoming election season.

“The Corner” to Participate in Sustainability Project

by Ryan Pawloski 

Staff Writer and Reporter

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. September 17—-A sustainability project will be occurring in downtown New Kensington on September 27 at the Corner, which is revitalizing the city.

A sustainability poster, created by Abigail McCormick, Kylie Meyer, Erika Finn, Ryan Pawloski, and Joshua Miller, that focuses on LED lighting.

The project will be focusing on how to bring attention to sustainable energy in the area with energy sources such as recycling, LED lighting, and more. This is another project in the overall goal of revitalizing New Kensington, with Penn State spearheading the program. The workshop will last from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m.

Franklin Regional Stabbing Suspect Sentenced

by Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

Franklin Regional stabbing convict, Alex Hribal. (Photo Courtesy of Pittsburgh Post Gazette).

Nearly four years after Franklin Regional High School stabbing, 20-year-old convict Alex Hribal has received a sentencing of 23 1/2 to 60 years in prison.

Hribal, a sophomore at the time of the stabbing, is accused of entering Franklin Regional High School before classes on April 9, 2014 and stabbing 20 students and a security guard with two eight-inch kitchen knives over a course of five minutes. Miraculously, all victims survived.

Hribal made the following statement in court January 22nd: “I would also like to say that bullying is such a problem these days. Treating each other the way people would like to be treated is the solution.”

Remembering Officer Brian Shaw

by Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

Since Brian Shaw was young, he knew he wanted to be a police officer.

“Ever since he was 17 or 18, that was all he talked about,” said friend Allie Wilhelm, in an interview with TribLive. “He was like, ‘It’s my calling.'”

New Kensington Police Officer Brian Shaw during the July 8, 2016 parade in Springdale. (Photo courtesy of the Tribune Review).

Unfortunately, Shaw’s dream was short-lived. Shaw was killed in the line of duty Friday, Nov. 17, when a routine traffic stop became an on-foot pursuit and ultimately resulted in at least six shots being fired at Shaw. Shaw was 25 years old.

According to his obituary, Shaw is survived by both his parents, Stephan and Lisa Shaw, brother and Penn Hills police officer Stefan Shaw, as well as his maternal grandmother, Bernadine Kristofik, and girlfriend, Haylee Oliver.

Lower Burrell Bookstore Doesn’t Let Legacy Go to Waste

by Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. – When Karen Watkins’ father, Paul Radion Jr., passed away in 2013, she decided to put her late father’s massive book collection to good use.

The Last Word Bookstore sign, located at 2909 Leechburg Road in Lower Burrell (Courtesy of Google Images).

She quit her tiring job and decided if she was going to be tired and overworked at the end of the day, it was going to be for the most important thing: herself and her family.

In April 2014, Watkins opened a small bookstore with her husband, Christopher, located on Leechburg Road in Lower Burrell, with thousands upon thousands of her late father’s books; a true collection. She named the store, “The Last Word.”

“The store’s name ‘is kind of a play on words, if you think about it,’ Watkins said. ‘You figure Dad’s dream, he never got to realize it. I took a bad situation and turned it into something good. It’s kind of having the last word and the last say on things,'” according to an article by Brian C. Rittmeyer of TribLive. 

Lower Burrell Parking Lot to Hopefully Become Home to New Tenant

By Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. – What was once a popular retailer in the United States is now not only an abandoned retail complex in a small town, but is rather a “delicacy.” And no, we’re not taking about Blockbuster Videos.

The Montgomery Ward sign in Lower Burrell (Courtesy of Flickr.)

Montgomery Ward, whose doors were opened in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, opened its doors in Lower Burrell in the late 1960s.

Wards left Lower Burrell in 2001 when the whole company went bankrupt and closed all of its stores that same year, but the business wasn’t the only thing that left Lower Burrell. The parking lot also consists of a closed J.C. Penney building. J.C. Penney’s closed its doors in Lower Burrell in  2005 and moved its business to the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer Township.

“IT’S ALIVE”: Penn Hills High School Performs Spring Musical

by Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. – Yes, master. It’s true. Penn Hills’ spring musical was Young Frankenstein. 

From L to R: Jamie Duncan, Sydney SeNay, Cameron Stefan, and John Jendrzejewski rehearing a scene from Young Frankenstein. (Courtesy of TribLive).

Young Frankenstein is about Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of a mad scientist who was killed for trying to bring creatures back to life. Frederick pronounces his last name FRONK-EN-STEEN to disaffiliate himself from his family. Dr. Frankenstein is told at the end of his class that his grandfather has passed away and he is to go to Transylvania to settle his grandfather’s estate.

“Anything But a Statistic”: Remembering Laura Hoover

By Ryan Fiore (Copy Editor)

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. – “She was a free spirit. She just loved life” is how Steve Hoover described his daughter, Laura.

In 2016, Laura Elizabeth Hoover was a Burrell High School student, but

Laura Hoover
Photo Courtesy of TribLive)

she wasn’t any ordinary student.

“She got it,” said Burrell High School World Cultures teacher, Adam Rossi. “She understood what life was about. She was an extremely old soul. She was mature beyond her years. She saw the big picture with everything. She was a force, a quiet force. She was the embodiment of everything that is good about humanity and that can’t be lost. We talked about everything; environment, politics, music, art, religion, spirituality. You name the big topic and we discussed it at length. You can tiptoe around those topics with other students her age, but she really had an understanding of those because she was well-read and she was well-versed; she knew what she was talking about.”