Around 2:45 p.m, yesterday, The University of Pittsburgh had a small explosion in the Clapp, Langley and Crawford Hall complex on Fifth Avenue, according to University of Pittsburgh spokesperson Joe Miksch. The hall houses the biological sciences and neuroscience department.

The explosion was contained by a fume hood designed to limit exposure to hazardous materials, according to Miksch.

Students were evacuated temporarily as a precaution. The Halls are back open except for the first floor of the Chevron Annex building.

One student was evaluated for an eye irritation.

A man is hospitalized after his pickup truck went over a hillside in Shaler Township not far from Route 8.

His truck hit the front of someone’s lawn, went through a wooden sign, across the street and over the hillside last evening.

April Vinski, who called 911 before rushing to help, said “The noise was like an explosion,”
“I just hoped he wasn’t dead.” She & another man lifted the mangled windshield to get to the driver.

Emergency crews used ropes to extricate the driver before he was taken to the hospital.

Police do not think drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.

Beaver County was visited this week by a delegation of high-level politicians within the Japanese government to learn how local officials approach emergency management situations involving nuclear power plants. The officials visited last year and when they learned that Beaver County Emergency Services was holding more training this month centered around the “radiological response to potential nuclear disasters.”, they decided to make the return trip .

Sandie Egley, chairwoman of the Beaver County Commissioners, said the county’s emergency management facility is new and equipped with cutting-edge technology, which likely played a role in the Japanese officials wanting to visit here.

“To catch the attention of international (delegates) is very prestigious,” she said. “For people in Tokyo to be noticing what we’re doing in Beaver County is really something.”

A Pittsburgh woman, Kexuana Sayles, pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a 2013 robbery gone wrong in Coraopolis that resulted in the death of one man, Thomas Cassano. Police said his two young children were home at the time of the shooting.

Records show Sayles, who was charged in October 2015… nearly two years after the incident, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy

Our U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus was on the chartered train heading to the GOP Retreat in West Virginia that collided with a garbage truck. One person on the truck was killed. Rothfus was uninjured and wrote “I am fine & safe but my prayers are with those who may be hurt,”

According to The Associated Press, the chartered train left Washington, D.C., for the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., before the collision with the truck just south of Charlottesville, Va., at about 11:15 a.m. Charlottesville is about 2½ hours south of the nation’s capital.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey,said on Twitter that he was not on the train.

The Ambridge Water Authority board of directors released a statement Wednesday afternoon stating that the planned route of the 97-mile Shell pipeline won’t cross the Ambridge Reservoir at any location, but is projected to cross three streams in the watershed that directly flow into the reservoir and will “intersect at some point with our raw water line from our reservoir to our plant.” The statement made clear that the Ambridge Reservoir is “our only source of raw water.” As such, “we value it incredibly, and we will do everything in our power to protect it,” the board said.

“This is not acceptable to us, and we will do everything in our power to try and have the pipeline relocated outside of our watershed and away from our main, and only, raw water line,” the statement read. “It is very unsettling and honestly dangerous to imagine this pipeline being constructed as it has been proposed.” The statement also made clear that the water authority did not grant easements or enter into any kind of agreement with Shell Pipeline regarding the Falcon’s route.

The lead character in the nationally touring show “Waitress” playing at the Benedum Center next month wants your pie recipe. It’s a contest co-sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. They want from-the-heart, whimsical pie recipes. From 3 finalists, judges will choose the winner during a taste-test on a live locally broadcast TV program.

Submissions will be accepted online through 11:59 p.m. Feb. 14. For more details visit TrustArts.org/PieContest.

“Waitress” will be staged March 6-11 at the Benedum as part of the 2017-18 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series. For tickets visit TrustArts.org, call 412-456-6666 or visit Theater Square Box Office at 655 Penn Ave., downtown.

Quaker Valley School District’s superintendent Heidi Ondek, who has worked for the school district since 2004, will be taking a position as the executive director of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, effective at the end of this school year.

In a prepared statement Ondek said “Serving as the superintendent of schools in the community where my family and I live — and will continue to live — has been the pinnacle of my career and has been an immensely rewarding experience. I am proud of our shared vision, everything we have accomplished together and of the exceptional education our schools provide,”