Category: News || By Staff and Wire Reports

City native and Law and Order: SVU star Tamara Tunie will headline the annual "All That's Jazz" student scholarship benefit for Penn State's campus in McKeesport.

The sixth-annual fundraiser for the Greater Allegheny Campus Scholarship Fund is slated for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, a campus spokeswoman said.

At "All That's Jazz," Tunie will sing along with her husband, vocalist Gregory Generet, as guests dine and dance.

The setting will be an Irish pub, created inside the campus' Student Community Center, complete with cocktails, desserts and imported beers.

A graduate of Steel Valley High School and Carnegie Mellon University, Tunie plays medical examiner Melinda Warner on the NBC-TV drama and previously had a recurring role on NYPD Blue as Lt. Arthur Fancy's wife.

The Tony Award-winning actress and producer is currently directing the film The Science of Cool, slated for 2010 release.

Since 2004, "All That's Jazz" has raised $214,000 for the scholarship fund at the McKeesport campus.

"Scholarship funds have become increasingly important to our students and their families," Greater Allegheny Chancellor Curtiss E. Porter said in a prepared statement. "These funds can make the difference between students staying in college or having to make some hard decisions about their futures."

Tickets are $75 each or 10 for $600. To make a reservation or get more information, call (412) 675-9048.

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Training for Care Home Staff: Penn State's Greater Allegheny Campus in McKeesport is one of three system-wide now offering professional training for nursing home administrators.

The 100-hour Personal Care Home Administrator Training program had been offered at Penn State's Beaver Campus since 2006 and was expanded to DuBois and McKeesport this year.

Coursework covers 19 topics from resident rights to fire prevention and budgeting issues and includes a certification test prepared under the guidance of the state Department of Public Welfare.

For more information, call the continuing education office at (412) 675-9058 or email JeanMarie Jacob.

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Local Train Buffs Rejoice: The Fall 2009 issue of Classic Trains magazine features several pages of photos taken in the 1960s around the Mon Valley, and an informative map of local railroad lines.

Taken during a March 1962 visit to the Pittsburgh area, the images by J. David Ingles, Jerry Pinkepank and Hank Goerke include images from Westinghouse Electric's East Pittsburgh Works, West Mifflin and the old Baltimore & Ohio station on Grant Street in Pittsburgh, where Mon Valley commuter trains once called.

The above image by Ingles, reproduced from page 70 of the Fall 2009 issue, shows the old Pittsburgh & Lake Erie trackage that once ran down the middle of Fourth Avenue, Downtown.

At left is the former U.S. Steel National Works machine shop, while The Daily News Building can be seen at right.

Although the tracks (now owned by CSX Transportation) remain in place, the pavement of Fourth Avenue was torn up in the 1960s.

A Kalmbach publication, Classic Trains is available at most area newsstands and bookstores. Back issues can be purchased from Kalmbach's website.