The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has opened a new lab to study the genetic makeup of the virus that causes COVID-19, which will help health officials learn more about variants that are circulating in the region.

Pittsburgh Democrats have set a calendar for choosing their nominee to fill the City Council seat left vacant by Corey O’Connor this summer. But it appears that Doug Shields, who held the seat before O’Connor, will not be running for it again.

Salman Rushdie's agent says the author is "on the road to recovery" two days after suffering serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York. Andrew Wylie continued to caution that although Rushdie's "condition is headed in the right direction," his recovery would be a long process.

The second “Field of Dreams” game is Thursday night in the cornfields of eastern Iowa, near the site of the beloved 1989 movie. But Major League Baseball wants to wait before making a decision on a third date in Dyersville. In the meantime, The Associated Press asked several sports and entertainment figures where they would take a major league game if they had a choic

The orange and black-winged monarch butterfly has been declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Pittsburgh native died earlier this week. McCullough was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote about historical figures like John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and the Wright Brothers.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman returned to the campaign stage on Friday evening in Erie, accompanied by his wife Gisele and the AC/DC rock anthem “Back in Black.” After a stroke that sidelined him from public appearances for months, he addressed hundreds of supporters in a speech that was short on policy but long on digs at his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, has been attacked and apparently stabbed in the neck by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man confront Rushdie on stage at the Chautauqua Institution and punch or stab him 10 to 15 times as he was being introduced.

The judge in a case brought by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration against three counties that aren’t reporting mail-in ballots lacking handwritten dates on their return envelopes says she'll rule as quickly as possible.

The August Wilson House hosts its grand opening Saturday with on-site programming to come

Five people incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail have received GED certificates since April when testing resumed for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Before the shutdown, instructors from the state-run Allegheny Intermediate Unit taught classes in preparation for the test that equates to a high school diploma. Live instruction was paused for two years but students in the program received work packets weekly.

The federally-funded multi-year study will involve thousands of families across the country .

Fetterman has largely been out of public view since he suffered a stroke just before winning the Democratic primary in May.