Assault weapons and some types of ammunition and accessories would be banned in Pittsburgh under new legislation to be introduced to City Council Tuesday. A third bill in the package would temporarily prohibit a person from having guns if a family member or law enforcement deems the person to be a risk to themselves or others.

A longtime Allegheny County judge has resigned in the wake of her removal from two sex offender cases due to alleged bias.

Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel submitted her resignation Thursday.

The 72-year-old served on the bench for 33 years and has been praised for her compassion toward victims of sex crimes.

But twice in the last month the state Superior Court removed McDaniel from sex offenders' sentencing proceedings for allegedly showing bias against the defendants and their attorneys.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office didn’t have much to say when it released a scathing grand-jury report on how the city of Pittsburgh investigates police shootings last Friday.

Pennsylvania is making it easier for doctors to provide treatment for opioid addiction. 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie says that it will soon start accepting claims for compensation by survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy.

Janel Firestone found her son — the 24-year-old, just resigned mayor of the tiny Pennsylvania town of Mount Carbon — in what she assumed was a deep sleep. 

Pennsylvania released a list of 289 struggling schools Thursday that will have to develop "improvement plans" with the direction of state advisers.

The first major allocation of money from the Housing Opportunity Fund was approved Thursday. The loans will go towards more than 200 affordable housing units.

Port Authority buses and trains arrive on schedule less than 70 percent of the time, according to a new report from state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. While there’s room to improve, DePasquale acknowledged that the agency has come a long way.

In 2014, his office released an audit that covered 2007 to 2012. Port Authority’s fiscal house was really out of whack, he said.

“What gets me rolling is when you’re giving a former executive director free housing, a free car, while cutting routes,” DePasquale said. “That gets my blood boiling.”

Miriam Maletta opens her hair salon in Clairton, southeast of Pittsburgh, at 11 a.m. on Thursdays. Amid boxes piled boxes piled up on padded chairs, and her Yorkie, Neyno, who dances in little circles on the linoleum floor, Maletta says her salon is finally getting a facelift. She’s been in business for 34 years and she has lived in Clairton all of her life. That’s evident as a cousin or a nephew stops by the shop to drop off Christmas donations for a local family she’s helping, or just to check in.

An explosion and fire at a MarkWest energy facility in Washington County has left several people with injuries.

Two more casinos in Pennsylvania have started up with sports betting.

Apple will build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, break ground on smaller locations in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California, and over the next three years will expand in Pittsburgh, New York and Colorado.

A Pennsylvania state police trooper who was shot in a 2014 ambush has had his right leg amputated below the knee.

Trooper Alex Douglass underwent the surgery this week at a New York City hospital.

His friend Earl Granville says Douglass had some medical complications with his leg and decided to amputate it to improve his quality of life.

Granvillle, a veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan, says he and Douglass completed the New York City Marathon handcycle event last month. He says Douglass should be able to run marathons now with a prosthetic.

The body of a second Pennsylvania serviceman killed in Afghanistan has returned home.