SOUTH PARK – A Pittsburgh-area family is crediting their quick-thinking pooch with alerting them to a fire in time to escape the flames.

Raven, an American bulldog, noticed the flames inside her South Park home early Sunday morning and started barking.

The dog’s parking rousted the family and they were able to get out of the house safely. The home was badly damaged.

Ryan Bougher tells KDKA-TV he’s thankful Raven saved his family. He says Raven is “an amazing dog.”

Fire officials say the blaze apparently started near the home’s fireplace. The cause of the fire is under investigation.



Pittsburgh Housing Authority seeks perp pictures

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Housing Authority wants law enforcement officials to hand over mug shots of anyone arrested on housing authority property to make it easier to watch for trespassers.

The housing authority adds anyone arrested on its property to an exclusion lists. But the authority says the 2,000-name list is nearly useless with pictures of those banned.

The authority says in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report that requests for photos from the Pittsburgh police have been denied.

Pittsburgh police say they can’t provide the photos to a non-law enforcement entity. The authority had its own police force before merging it with the city’s to save money in 2007.

The authority says it wants the state Board of Probation and Parole to provide photos instead.

 

Police: Man brandished gun in police station

UPPER DARBY – A suburban Philadelphia man is behind bars after authorities say he brought a gun into a police station and demanded his girlfriend’s release.

Investigators say 23-year-old Kenneth Stewart scuffled with officers then pulled a gun early Saturday morning inside the Upper Darby police station.

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood says Stewart’s girlfriend had been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct a short time earlier. Chitwood says Stewart also was under the influence when he entered the station and demanded she be released.

Authorities say Stewart initially left when told to leave the station but soon returned enraged and fought with officers.

Stewart is being held on $150,000 bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney for him.



Pittsburgh board apologizes for school experiment

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Public Schools board has apologized for failed changes to a chronically underachieving high school.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the board apologized last week to the predominantly black community that Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 School serves. The apology was prompted by board member Mark Brentley Sr., who is black. He wanted the apology to list reasons he believes expanding the school from a high school only have gotten off to a rocky start, including alleged racial segregation and the decision not to separate middle- and high school-aged students.

The school has also had turnover with administrators and scrapped a trimester system in addition to dropping single-gender classes after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue.

The board debated more than an hour last Wednesday before passing a simple apology that didn’t list Brentley’s specific concerns.



Police: Missing 87-year-old man’s car found in N.C.

STROUDSBURG – Police are probing the disappearance of an elderly northeastern Pennsylvania man whose car was found in North Carolina the day he was reported missing.

Authorities say 87-year-old Joseph Devivo was last seen Thursday night after a caregiver dropped off at his home in the Pocono Mountains community of Stroud Township.

Regional police say in the Pocono Record report that Devivo was reported missing on Saturday, the same day his car was found in North Carolina, in the area of Charlotte.

Stroud Area Regional Police Cpl. Kenneth Nevil says a man was driving Devivo’s car and had some of the missing man’s personal items with him, but haven’t determined a link between the two men.

 

Suspected drunken driver killed leaving bar

MCCANDLESS – Authorities have released the name of a man suspected of drunken driving who was killed leaving a Pittsburgh-area bar after the staff had reportedly called for a taxi cab to take him home.

McCandless police and Allegheny County detectives are still investigating Sunday night’s crash that killed 32-year-old Benjamin Bibler, of Pittsburgh.

Police say the crash happened about 7 p.m. in a movie theater parking lot near J. Clark’s All-American Restaurant and Lounge on McKnight Road, a busy suburban thoroughfare north of the city.

Police say the staff had called for a cab, but Bibler became argumentative, got into his car and drove off without his headlights on instead of accepting the taxi ride. Bibler was killed when his car hit a tree in the nearby parking lot.

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