After losing money in 2022, Pittsburgh’s Highmark Health rebounded last year.
The health insurance giant posted net income of $533 million even as it grappled with operating losses at its Pittsburgh-area hospitals.
That compares with a $346 million loss in 2022, due largely to struggling investments during a bear market, officials said Monday during a conference call on Highmark’s 2023 financial results.
One month after announcing the closure of more than 150 stores nationwide, Rite Aid is adding 32 more to that list.
The company submitted a list of additional closures in a court filing. Two of those closures are in the Pittsburgh area: 623 Smithfield Street in downtown and 4934 Second Avenue in Hazelwood.
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Nine stores are either closing or have already closed in the Pittsburgh region. The list includes these stores:
Several local PNC Bank customers reached out to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 to report that their bank accounts were charged large amounts of money after they pumped gas over the weekend, and they have not been reimbursed.
“I used my debit card in the reader, and then that night I got declined buying something else,” said Julie Remaley “I checked my bank account and there were three separate charges, one for $126, one for $13 and one for 11 totaling $165 of charges, and I only got $26 worth of gas.”
Remaley said a PNC Bank representative told her that the charge was was a hold, placed by gas stations to guarantee their bill will be covered. Holds are typically charged once and immediately reimbursed.
Michelle Tenk also filled up at a local gas station on Saturday, and noticed similar charged.
“I had had multiple charges on my account, and when I looked, there were two identical holds, $126, along with my gas charge,” said Tenk.
Tenk also uses PNC Bank.
In a statement, a spokesperson for PNC Bank wrote:
PNC is aware of an issue impacting a limited number of customers in which certain transactions are pending more than once. Our teams are engaged and working to resolve the issue, and these pending transactions will be corrected on customers’ accounts as soon as possible.
Another craft brewer has opened a tap room in Greensburg, the fifth to be selling its own beer within a mile of the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Jeremy and Jennifer Shearer opened their Stone Bridge Brewing Co. tap room at 239 E. Pittsburgh St. this week.
The GetGo Cafe + Market gas station and convenience chain expects to have a downtown Greensburg location open by early August, taking the place of a shuttered Family Video store that was razed to make way for the new business on South Main Street, near Euclid Avenue. It’s a change in the local retail scene that represents larger shifts on the national level — as home video rentals give way to streaming services, demand is high for convenient food on the go.
Blockbuster is mostly a memory since the company shuttered all its locations — except one in Bend, Oregon. But eagle-eyed fans of the the famed video rental chain of the 90s noticed something change on the company’s official website and quickly took to social media to discuss their findings.
Getty Images The interior of the last remaining Blockbuster store, in Bend, Oregon
Upon visiting Blockbuster.com, a screen with the company’s logo appears with the phrase, “We are working on rewinding your movie.”
The operator of eight McDonald’s restaurants in the Pittsburgh region has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Rice Enterprises filed the Chapter 11 petition Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. It listed 11 creditors, including McDonalds USA.
The filing lists a total of 435 employees and says the action is necessary to keep paying them.
The franchises are located primarily in the South Hills.
Drivers in Pittsburgh with the rideshare apps Uber and Lyft took to the picket line this weekend, demanding better wages and safety protocols.
A study of the apps released this month by UCLA’s Labor Center found that, while prices for rides in New York City have skyrocketed in the last four years, driver pay has not.
In April 2022, Uber and Lyft took a 30% or more cut of the passenger fare for nearly a third of all rides in the city, according to the study. In comparison, the companies took just 9% of passenger fares in February 2019.
Drivers in Pittsburgh said they have seen a similar trend.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – There are very few things we all need, and toilet paper is one of them. But did you ever look at your store receipt after buying it? One Murrysville woman did and doesn’t like what she saw.
“It’s something that we all use. We all need to buy, and I have no idea why this is continuing to occur,” said consumer advocate Mary Bach. She’s got the time, the interest and the receipts.
“That’s correct. I do have the receipts,” she said.
She sent us her receipts from the Walgreens in Murrysville that show sales tax added to a purchase of toilet tissue.
Bach took Walgreens to court and the magistrate judge in Export sided with her. She says the fix would “take a nanosecond,” but it didn’t happen yet. She just filed a complaint against the Walgreens in Penn Hills for the same issue, planning to argue in front of the magistrate judge there in March.
Channel 11 tried calling L.S. Jewelers in Robinson. The store’s voicemail box is full and is not accepting any more voicemails.
“L.S. Jewelers is currently a tenant,” said Zamagias Properties Senior Legal Counsel Daniel Gustine. “Beyond that, we can’t provide any further comment at this time.”
“It’s just extremely frustrating,” said a customer named Katie Bonwell. “I brought it in for a simple repair, and now I can’t get it back.”
WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. flights were slowly resuming departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that had forced a halt to all U.S. departing flights.
More than 6,000 flights were delayed and nearly 1,000 canceled according to the FlightAware website as officials said it will take hours to recover from the halt. The numbers were still rising.
The deal comes as the workers at the Post-Gazette continue to strike over unfair labor practices.
The CEO of the Post-Gazette’s parent company said they want to support independent journalism and that’s why they’re buying City Paper. But the head of one Post-Gazette union that is on strike expressed concern about the purchase.
The state liquor store in Greensburg will reopen, but not in time for partygoers to buy their favorite libations for a New Year’s Eve bash. The Fine Wine & Good Spirits store at 105 Harrison Ave. will reopen Monday after being closed since August because of potential safety concerns for employees. The Liquor Control Board said those issues have been addressed.
A “temporarily closed” sign remained in the window and door of the business Thursday. Store shelves are stocked.
The LCB is in the process of restaffing the store, said Shawn Kelly, an LCB spokesman in Harrisburg. The employees who worked there were reassigned to other liquor stores, Kelly said.
The building’s owner, John Rause, could not be reached for comment.
After the liquor store was closed, Rause said he had contractors assess moisture issues in the basement. The business uses the basement for storing some stock.
The upper part of the building houses the Slavonic American Home of Greensburg, known as the Ash Club.
I want everyone who is dealing with the problems we’ve been facing, whether you haven’t been able to get to where you need to go or you’re one of our heroic Employees caught up in a massive effort to stabilize the airline, to know is that we’re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation.
And please also hear that I’m truly sorry.
Here’s why this giant puzzle is taking us several days to solve. Southwest is the largest carrier in the country, not only because of our value and our values, but because we build our flight schedule around communities, not hubs. So, we’re the largest airline in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S.
Cities where large numbers of scheduled flights simultaneously froze as record bitter cold brought challenges for all airlines.
Our network is highly complex and the operation of the airline counts on all the pieces, especially aircraft and crews remaining in motion to where they’re planned to go. With our large fleet of airplanes and flight crews out of position in dozens of locations. And after days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up.
We’re focused on safely getting all of the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle. You know, I have nothing but pride and respect for the efforts of the people of Southwest who are showing up in every way. The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well, 99 percent of the time; but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now.
I’m apologizing to them daily and they’ll be hearing more about our specific plans to ensure the challenges that they’ve faced the past few days will not be part of our future.
I reached out to Secretary Buttigieg earlier today to continue the discussions we’ve been having with the DOT through the holiday – sharing all the things that we’re doing to make things right for our Customers.
We always take care of our Customers. And we will lean in and go above and beyond as they would expect us to. Teams are working on all of that: processing refunds, proactively reaching out and taking care of Customers who are dealing with costly detours and reroutes, as just a few examples. Our plan for the next few days is to fly a reduced schedule and reposition our people and planes, and we’re making headway and we’re optimistic to be back on track before next week.
We have some real work to do in making this right. For now, I want you to know that we’re committed to that.
A new eatery is opening in an old dining spot familiar to many Leechburg residents. Frankie’s on 2nd will have a soft opening starting at 7 a.m. Saturday, serving breakfast in what was formerly Pappy’s restaurant and, before that, Bonello’s. It is located at 81-83 Second St.
New owner Frank Failla, 62, of Springdale Township and his sister, Tina Rafalowski, will share the cooking duties.
“I’m most excited about this new adventure for my brother,” Rafalowski said. “He’s the one who taught me to cook.”
Rafalowski of Bethel Park will make the trek to Leechburg on weekends to work in the kitchen.
“I would drive two hours for my brother,” she said.
The siblings grew up surrounded by the restaurant biz. She first learned how to make pizza from her older brother.
Their late father owned and operated the former Don Nicolas pizza shops, with locations in Baldwin Township, Dormont and Pittsburgh’s Overbrook neighborhood.
“That was during the 1980s, and I took over after my dad died,” said Failla, who also works full time in travel management.
The US has granted Chevron limited authorization to resume pumping oil from Venezuela following the announcement Saturday that the Venezuelan government and the opposition group have reached an agreement on humanitarian relief and will continue to negotiate for a solution to the country’s chronic economic and political crisis, including a focus on the 2024 elections.
Ford (NYSE: F) and Volkswagen served as Argo’s largest backers, investing over $1 billion into the startup over the years that at one point put its valuation at more than $7 billion.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Starting Thursday, Giant Eagle shoppers in central Ohio will have to bring their own bags to lug groceries home — or cough up a nickel for a paper one.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said in a news release that Post-Gazette management failed to end what the guild calls the paper’s “illegally declared impasse to contract negotiations, lift the unilaterally imposed working conditions and reinstate the terms of the previous collectively bargained contract, and return to the contract bargaining table to reach a fair contract with the 101 journalists the Guild represents.”
“The workers who produce the Post-Gazette are taking a stand against the hostile and illegal treatment at the hands of John and Allan Block,” Newspaper Guild President Zack Tanner said in a statement. “We, the workers, are standing together today, ready to fight to win back our contract and work toward signing a new collective bargaining agreement that preserves the Post-Gazette for the Pittsburgh region.”
The Newspaper Guild said it has been in negotiations for a contract with PG management since 2017.
PITTSBURGH — Citizens on Tuesday will start the process of closing half of its Giant Eagle branches. Within nine days, 15 will be replaced by Citizens Virtual Assistant kiosks. A second round will begin on Jan. 10.
In all, 28 will transition to kiosks and 28 full-service branches will remain within the Pittsburgh-based supermarkets.
Burgers and shakes are off the menu at the former Steak ’n Shake in Hempfield, as it is being emptied to make way for a new business. An auction is scheduled Monday, Oct. 17, at the Greengate Centre restaurant known for its black, white and red 1950s decor
The auction comes two years after the Hempfield restaurant closed its doors when it became one of more than 100 Steak ’n Shake locations — including those in Center Township, Frazer, Munhall, Pleasant Hills and Robinson — to temporarily shutter as the burger chain moved toward a franchise-based model.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette employees belonging to unions representing production, distribution and advertising workers went on strike as the day began Thursday in response to what they view as unfair labor practices by company management.
The unions include the Communications Workers of America Locals 14842 and 14827, Teamsters Local 205/211 and Pressmen’s Union Local 24M/9N.
Workers in those unions say they have been working without a collective bargaining agreement since March 2017, have not received a pay raise in the past 16 years and maintain that management has refused to bargain in good faith and made unilateral changes to their health care plan.
Unions and management reached a tentative deal early Thursday, averting a freight railroad strike that had threatened to cripple US supply chains and push prices higher for many goods.
The deal with unions representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors was announced just after 5 a.m. ET in a statement from the White House, which called it “an important win for our economy and the American people.”
A verbal agreement between the two sides was reached at about 2:30 am ET according to sources, and the final hours were spent getting the details worked out.
President Biden praised the agreement as a “big win” for workers and the rail companies.
Drivers in Pittsburgh with the rideshare apps Uber and Lyft took to the picket line this weekend, demanding better wages and safety protocols.
The US has granted Chevron limited authorization to resume pumping oil from Venezuela following the announcement Saturday that the Venezuelan government and the opposition group have reached an agreement on humanitarian relief and will continue to negotiate for a solution to the country’s chronic economic and political crisis, including a focus on the 2024 elections.
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