PITTSBURGH
Council rejects 'In God We Trust' motto
PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County Council has voted 8-6 against posting the national motto, “In God We Trust,” in its chambers.
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald had threatened to veto the measure, which he called “a movement by the right-wing evangelical Christians across the country basically to impose Christianity” in public buildings.
Fitzgerald is a Democrat, as are the eight council members who opposed the display, which would also have included Pennsylvania's state motto “Virtue, Liberty and Independence” and another U.S. motto, “E Pluribus Unum.”
All five Republicans on council voted for the display, as did Democrat Bill Robinson.
A Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, Councilman Charles Martoni, voted against it saying, “The more I looked at it, it's unnecessary.” Another Democrat co-sponsor, Councilman John Palmiere, didn't attend Tuesday's meeting. Council has 15 members.
PITTSBURGH — A reform school van driver has been shot while dropping off a student in Pittsburgh.City public safety spokesman Sonya Toler says the man drove a van for The Academy Schools, a network of reform school that teaches youths who are court-ordered to attend.He was shot about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while dropping off a student at his home. The student wasn't injured and the van driver's shoulder was grazed by a bullet.Toler says the driver, whose name isn't being released by police, drove himself to UPMC Mercy hospital for treatment.Police were continuing to investigate Wednesday.
PITTSBURGH — The trial of a Pittsburgh medical researcher charged with fatally poisoning his neurologist wife with cyanide has been delayed.The murder trial of 65-year-old Dr. Robert Ferrante was to have begun with jury selection on Sept. 22.But at a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning postponed jury selection until Oct. 14 after attorneys for both sides complained they hadn't received all of the evidence each is entitled to from the other side. That exchange is known as discovery.Manning says testimony will begin Oct. 16.Ferrante is charged with lacing an energy drink with poison to kill his wife, Dr. Autumn Klein, in April 2013.Ferrante has repeatedly denied that and has said he's devastated by her sudden death.
