Pittsburgh All Local

Students are returning to Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School as investigators look into a weekend bus crash. News Radio KDKA's

The Aliquippa school district is holding a meeting tonight for parents with concerns about Saturday's incident. The meeting at the high school's Black Box theater starts at 5:30 p.m. Saturday morning's school bus crash in Economy Borough left 21 of the 28 people on the bus injured, primarily Aliquippa Junior High football team members, also coaches and the school bus driver. One of the students needed surgery. The vast majority of the students are out the hospital. But their head coach Jay Sparrow is worried about the days ahead. There will be additional supports at the school this week to address any mental health related concerns. RT NR KDKA]

Pittsburgh fire officials are reporting a significant uptick in lithium-ion battery fires due to the growing number of e-bikes and scooters. Assist Fire Chief Brian Kokkila [co KILL uh] says these fires are a result of a thermal runaway of cells in the battery.

Kokkila says lithium-ion fires are dangerous, spread rapidly and are a challenge to extinguish.

A Philadelphia man is accused of driving a 17-year-old girl to Pittsburgh to have sex with another man for 2-hundred dollars. Darnaill Foster was arrested by Northern Regional Police in an undercover operation after an officer monitoring an escort website replied to an ad Tuesday night and agreed to meet Foster and the teen at the DoubleTree in Cranberry. Frederick Woodard with The Asservo Project, a non-profit fighting human trafficking and child exploitation. Foster is charged with trafficking, prostitution and exploitation crimes and was denied bail.

Storm preparedness is on the agenda at a public meeting this evening in Downtown Pittsburgh.State Rep. Abigail Salisbury is urging residents and small business owners who were impacted by recent severe storms to attend tonight's public meeting hosted by a newly formed storm response review committee. The Special Committee on Emergency Preparedness was formed to investigate the response to the April 29 storm that left approximately 400,000 residents without power for several days. Salisbury recently introduced legislation that would strengthen state legislative storm preparation assistance. Tonight's public meeting starts at 5 p.m. at the Allegheny County Courthouse. Duquesne light is scheduled to attend.

A billionaire businessman has emerged as a “serious contender” to buy the Penguins. That's according to a report by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, who says David Hoffmann is trying to buy the team for 1.75-billion dollars. Forbes estimates Hoffmann is worth 2-billion dollars and owns a company that operates dozens of businesses. He also owns a minor league hockey team in Florida. Earlier this summer, reports said former Pens owners Mario [MARY oh] Lemieux and Ron Burkle were interested in buying the team back from Fenway Sports Group. Friedman's report says their offer wasn't big enough.

There's an arrest in the threat that prompted Shaler Area schools to postpone the start of classes until Wednesday.

28-year-old Daniel White is in custody. Police paperwork says White threatened to kill two people Sunday at Crisis RESOLVE in Point Breeze and also said: "I am a murder, and I will kill everyone. I will shoot up schools, especially the ones with little white kids at Shaler Elementary." The Allegheny County Sheriff's office says a deputy recognized White’s name from his involvement with Mental Health Court, knew White was due in the courthouse today and arrested there him a short time later. White is facing three counts of terroristic threats. Shaler Area classes were supposed to start tomorrow but a letter from the superintendent said the threat was the reason the first day of classes is now Wednesday.

As students head back to school, the FBI is stepping up efforts to educate young people about the dangers of online hoaxes and threats. FBI Special Agent Christopher Giordano says the agency takes every threat as credible until proven otherwise.

Giordano says calling a fake threat of violence, even if it's meant to be a joke, is a state and federal crime.

A man is facing DUI, but not homicide charges in the death of an 11-year-old Natrona girl. Police say 65-year-old Jeffrey Glowatski drank 12 beers before getting behind the wheel of the SUV that hit Roxanne Bonnoni last summer. Allegheny County Police charged him with DUI and careless driving in connection with the crash but Glowatski is not charged with causing the girl's death. The criminal complaint says Glowatski's blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit several hours after his Jeep struck Bonnoni as she was crossing the street. The charges were decided by the Allegheny County DA's office. Asked if any additional charges could be filed, a spokesperson said the case was appropriately charged based on the evidence.

The Pennsylvania Senate approved Tuesday both a budget bill and another to fund a transit plan. The Republican-controlled Senate passed two major bills along party lines, one of which was a general fund appropriations bill, and the other was regarding a $1.2 billion transit plan. The proposed bill would put $293 million to transit agencies and the same amount to road and bridge projects across Pennsylvania during this fiscal year, in part by dipping into a transit trust fund. 40 million would go to Pittsburgh Regional Transit to avoid service cuts and fare hikes, but the bill clashes with legislation passed Monday by House Democrats. That bill calls for the same amount of transit funding but would increase the share of sales and use tax revenues to do it. An impasse remains unresolved, the state is without a budget and lawmakers don't return to Harrisburg until next month.

Governor Josh Shapiro is visiting US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works this afternoon. He'll be joined by Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and other local officials at the 1 p.m. news conference. So far, just one of the two workers killed in yesterday's coke battery explosions has been identified as a 39-year-old Westmoreland County man. Timothy Quinn was a single father of three children. A second man pulled from the blast debris last night will be identified by the Medical Examiner's Office.