Mike Wereschagin

4 days ago | post-gazette.com | Michael Sallah |Mike Wereschagin

The firm that poured millions of dollars into a massive steel factory in the heart of Appalachia had no office, no phone, no website, nor any employees. To nearly everyone, Veroni Alloys LLC, was a mystery. In an elaborate scheme, the company moved the money through a network of more than a dozen bank accounts to finance the purchase of the bustling facility that had employed generations of steelworkers, records show.

1 week ago | post-gazette.com | Michael Sallah |Mike Wereschagin |Jimmy Cloutier

President Donald Trump last week issued executive orders designed to revive the use of coal in power plants, a practice that has been steadily declining for more than a decade. But the effort is likely to fail, energy experts said, because the fossil fuel faces some hurdles. The power that coal plants produce typically can't compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives. And many plants that burn coal are simply too old and would need extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running.

1 week ago | post-gazette.com | Mike Wereschagin |Ford Turner |Megan Tomasic

A 38-year-old man from Harrisburg set fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion early Sunday, hours after the state’s first family celebrated the first night of Passover, according to police. What to know• Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg was charged with attempted homicide, arson and terrorism. • Police said Balmer used beer bottles filled with gasoline to set fire to the governor's mansion. • Balmer said he would have beaten with Shapiro with a hammer if he encountered Mr. Shaprio, police said.

1 week ago | post-gazette.com | Mike Wereschagin |Ford Turner |Megan Tomasic

A Harrisburg man said he was harboring a “hatred” toward Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro when he walked an hour from his home to the Governor’s Mansion, broke into the property and tossed several incendiary devices that caught the home on fire while the governor, his wife and guests were inside early Sunday morning, causing significant damage hours after the family had celebrated the beginning of Passover, according to court documents.

2 weeks ago | gazettextra.com | Mike Wereschagin

A group of prominent U.S. senators is demanding answers about the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to a mine health and safety agency whose largest office is just outside Pittsburgh. The Democratic senators - including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Mark Warner of Virginia - warned in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the layoffs of hundreds of federal researchers and investigators could endanger the lives of coal miners throughout Appalachia.