Oh, if "Celebration" were more than a 30-year-old chart-topper.

If it were a sentiment that could be espoused worldwide, where everyone could -- indeed -- celebrate good times, come on ...

Tough times, lamentably, hold serve these days. Global economies are struggling, joblessness is rampant, Iraq and Afghanistan are still military cauldrons, and the threat of terrorism is elevated -- again.

Kool & the Gang's 1980 hit may endure as a hit at weddings and parties, but it isn't an anthem for the year.

Many residents of the PG East region will be ecstatic when the ball falls in Times Square late tonight. In 2009, in addition to the aforementioned woes, they have dealt with widespread flooding, UPMC Braddock's imminent and contentious closing, the killing of a Penn Hills police officer, the train tragedies in Derry Borough, and the closing of a Westmoreland County landmark and the smouldering destruction of another.

There has been pleasant news, of course, including the Franklin Regional High School band's return to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, plans to develop the old Carrie Furnace site and Lenny Santimyer's comfortable retirement after 50 years of public service to North Irwin.

Iron City's departure was a blow to Lawrenceville, but a boon to Latrobe, where it would be brewed at the former Rolling Rock site.

The PG East staff -- editor Rick Shrum and reporters Deborah M. Todd and Moriah Balingit -- have selected 20 top news stories in the area for 2009. Nos. 11-20 are listed in a box on this page.

Here, in inverse order, are excerpts of Post-Gazette stories from the top 10:

(March 12 edition, By Moriah Balingit and Jonathan D. Silver)

McKeesport officials acknowledged yesterday that seven police officers were suspended without pay last week after an internal investigation revealed they logged overtime hours they never worked and were paid for court appearances they never made.

City officials would not say exactly how the officers bilked the system, but Mayor Jim Brewster said that as far as he knew, no officer missed a scheduled court appearance.

"It's my understanding that no cases were jeopardized at all. I don't get the sense that anybody missed testimony," he said.

The seven officers were able to collect between $1,000 and $3,000 in unearned overtime pay, the mayor said, but the money was recovered from their unpaid suspension period.

The investigation was prompted last week by inconsistencies that Chief Joseph Pero found when auditing the officers' court cards, documents recording each officer's court time, which contain the date, time and names of the officer and defendant.

After cross-referencing the cards with other court documents, he said he discovered "discrepancies involving time." The cards at issue stretched back to a month and a half ago, but only dealt with cards for court time at the Court of Common Pleas. No discrepancies were found in cards from local magisterial district courts.

The chief did not provide details about the investigation.

McKeesport District Judge Eugene Riazzi said an assistant chief came to his courtroom within the past two weeks and asked him to verify his initials on about 100 index cards presented by police officers making appearances in cases before him. Judge Riazzi said all the initials checked out except one, which belonged to another district judge.

After conferring with the mayor, Chief Pero decided on a five-day unpaid suspension for the seven officers, which included patrol officers and detectives.

[The seven suspended officers included all four members of the department's narcotics squad.]

(July 30 East, by Deborah M. Todd.)

Taps are on, yeast is fermenting and employees are back to work at the former Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe.

But with less work to do than in past years and dozens of brewers in Lawrenceville out of work, the reopening is bittersweet.

The brewery, now owned by City Brewing Co., of LaCrosse, Wis., opened for business last week to bottle for a new company -- Iron City.

But as members of Locals 22 and 144B returned to the line after an eight-month layoff, 50 employees at the Lawrenceville plant were laid off by the closing there. Many of them are in the same unions, under different contracts.

"I feel bad for them because I went through that. I don't know what to tell them," said Doug Hughes, a label operator at the Latrobe plant.

Denny Holzer, a 28-year employee, said he empathizes with employees in Lawrenceville but is glad to be back to work and excited about the impact the brewery's July 22 reopening could have on his hometown.

"We needed to get back," he said. "It was good for not only employees but for the community."

He noted that on top of taxes Latrobe will collect from employees, the community will cash in on the brewery's high-volume water use.

"This not only puts revenue back into the community, it restores our pride."

Controller Zack Mazzoni said brewery officials would like to re-establish plant tours and a community baseball team the brewery had when it was owned by Rolling Rock. The focus for now, however, is on increasing production.

In the past, Mr. Mazzoni said, the brewery produced an average of 45,000 cases of beer per day, but put out only 4,400 cases its first day of bottling for Iron City. He said the ultimate goal is to produce about 15,000 cases for every eight- to 10-hour shift.

(Jan. 25 edition, by Marylynne Pitz)

With a wood-paneled dining room that overlooks the Chestnut Ridge, a white gazebo perfect for weddings and suites packed with amenities, the Mountain View Inn Conference Center attracted guests such as Harrison Ford and the Dalai Lama as well as Ligonier's landed gentry.

Burdened by financing problems and the recession, the 85-year-old hotel off Route 30 in Unity closes today. First Commonwealth Bank on Friday refused to renew a revolving line of credit the innkeepers said they needed to see the hotel through the four slowest months for the hospitality industry.

As the front desk phone rang constantly last week with calls from customers who were trying to redeem gift certificates, Vicki Booher, who runs the inn with her husband, Vance, and the couple's three sons, refused to second-guess herself or past business decisions.

"We created a beautiful space for people to enjoy with us. We've met so many wonderful people," Mrs. Booher said.

Her son, Douglas, said the hotel had 60 weddings booked, 20 more than at this time last year. During the peak months from May through October, the inn employed 140 people, some of whom were part-timers because they were full-time students at Seton Hill University or Saint Vincent College.

The hotel hosted Fred Rogers, Arnold Palmer, Bernadette Peters, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Guy Lombardo played the Highlands ballroom. Harrison Ford showed up in a baseball cap and stayed because a helicopter was being custom-built for him in the area.

Like ducks on the swiftly flowing spring water in nearby Loyalhanna Creek, the Boohers paddled furiously to stay competitive as national hotel chains sprung up in the region.

Visible for miles because of its tall tower, the Mountain View Inn is surrounded by the Courtyard by Marriott, Comfort Inn, Rodeway Inn, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn and Four Points by Sheraton.

"It's always a problem for an independent business to deal with chains," Mrs. Booher said.

A former first-grade teacher who also runs a business called Wild Indigo Floral Designs, Mrs. Booher arrived at the 12-acre property in 1982, pouring creativity into decorating rooms, planting flower and vegetable gardens, installing a fish pond and dealing with crises, such as the time a ceiling actually fell on a bride.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Boohers invested $4 million in building two new wings, doubling the inn's capacity to 90 rooms.

Six years ago, the couple added an outside terrace off the main dining room. The inn also offered entertainment, such as The Vogues and Johnny Angel and the Halos, and hosted a popular antiques fair until the explosion of eBay.

(Nov. 12 East, by Tina Calabro)

Party infighting in Penn Hills reached a new high last week as longtime school board member and Democratic Committee Chairwoman Erin Vecchio lost her bid for a fourth term following a negative campaign staged by some Democrats.

On Friday, three days after the election, Ms. Vecchio filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Revenue and state Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, claiming that she was harassed and fired from her job as a manager in the tax collection unit because she testified in December before a grand jury investigating Mr. DeLuca. No charges have been filed against Mr. DeLuca as a result of that probe.

A representative from the Department of Revenue told the Post-Gazette that Ms. Vecchio's position was among 85 that were eliminated due to budget reductions in August.

Mr. DeLuca refused to comment on the lawsuit, which he said he had not seen. He added that he did not know the purpose of the grand jury inquiry and was not called to testify.

In the election, Ms. Vecchio placed last in a field of five, receiving 15 percent of the vote. Re-elected to the school board were Robert Hudak, with 24 percent, and Carolyn Faggioli, with 22 percent. Newly elected members were Linda Gallo, 22 percent, and Carl Barbarino, 16 percent. All candidates, including Ms. Vecchio, were cross-filed as Democrat and Republican.

During her 12 years on the school board, including one as president, Ms. Vecchio, 49, was as known for championing public concerns as she was for making blunt, often deprecating, remarks to or about administrators, staff and others.

At Tuesday's board meeting -- Ms. Vecchio's last as a member -- several people praised her service, albeit often with a caveat about her communication style.

School Director Margie Krogh and others said they believed that a tabloid-type campaign flier mailed to residents figured prominently in Ms. Vecchio's loss.

"It ripped her to pieces," Ms. Krogh said. "It took away from anything positive she did. I don't necessarily like the way she does many things, but I'm sad about the way [the loss] happened."

The campaign piece recommended Mr. Barbarino, Ms. Faggioli and Ms. Gallo, in addition to other Democratic candidates. It was paid for by "Friends of Kuhn and Kincaid," referring to Penn Hills council members Sara Kuhn and J-LaVon Kincaid. Ms. Kuhn and Mr. Kincaid were re-elected last week.

A bulk postage permit belonging to Mr. DeLuca was used to mail the piece.

"It's my political campaign bulk mailing permit, not a state permit," he explained.

The candidates involved with the mailer, he said, were Penn Hills Democrats who formed a coalition called the Unity Team "to run independent of Mrs. Vecchio."

Ms. Vecchio has been on the other side of political controversy. In 2004, she challenged then-U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's claim of Penn Hills residency, which would have entitled his children to continue to have their cyber school tuition covered by the district, even though the family lived in Virginia most of the time. The Santorums' claim of residency was upheld, and Mr. Santorum lost his re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Bob Casey.

(Nov. 19 East, by Moriah Balingit)

The announcement that DISH Network would close its 600-person call center in McKeesport in March was a devastating blow to a city already saddled with a 10.3 percent unemployment rate.

But Brooks Robinson Jr., of the Regional Industrial Development Corp oration, which owns the colossal structure that houses the call center, said he saw opportunity.

He said he hoped to turn over the 100,000-square-foot facility, which was refurbished specifically to accommodate DISH, to another company.

"Hopefully, there is another company or organization that will see the benefit of 600 very capable workers and a facility that is in great shape [so] that we can get it back filled as soon as possible," he said.

In the meantime, the state Department of Labor and Industry announced more bad news: 37 of the 600 employees would be laid off in January, before the slated March 5 closure of the facility.

The company informed the department of the layoffs last week, saying it was a business decision and that the jobs were being moved to another call center facility in New Jersey.

McKeesport is still reeling from the closure announcement, as public officials begin to tally the losses that will come with the shutdown.

The call center is one of the city's top-five employers and its employees constitute nearly three-quarters of people who work in the city's main industrial park.

City Administrator Dennis Pittman said the most immediate and apparent loss would be in the emergency service tax.

Anyone who works in McKeesport is billed $52 a year to support the city's fire and ambulance services. The DISH closing will amount to more than a $30,000 loss for the city, which Mr. Pittman said he had to work into next year's budget.

Beyond that, Mr. Pittman worried about the businesses on the city's main drag, which include a drugstore, a handful of restaurants, a grocery store and a gas station. He said those businesses benefited from having the 600 employees nearby.

(Feb. 5 East, by Moriah Balingit)

As of yesterday, North Versailles owed more than $400,000 in bills.

Fourteen municipal employees and 19 police officers who are due to receive paychecks Tuesday, at a total cost of $80,000 to the township, were told last week they wouldn't be paid.

Duquesne Light had shut off lights in the parking lot of the municipal building, and Waste Management, which collects the township's trash, was threatening to let it pile up if some of the $168,000 owed was not paid.

Commissioner George Beswick called the situation a "financial crisis."

Having failed to secure a tax anticipation loan to pay this month's bills and payroll, the township is relying on deposits from taxes or other money, such as the $30,000 Comcast franchise fee, to pay "bare necessities."

The town is wrangling with creditors and service providers to negotiate late payments, but no one knows when or how much money will come in.

North Versailles' financial troubles stem, in part, from a half-million-dollar shortfall in anticipated tax revenue last year, which meant some bills went unpaid for up to three months.

And the loan that was to help pay those bills and current year expenses could not be obtained because the application requires a 2007 audit, which was started only recently and will take several weeks to complete.

Making matters worse, no one seems to know or agree on how bad the township's finances are, a situation made murkier by the abrupt resignation of township Secretary Kathleen Merolillo.

Last week, commission President Kash Snyder admitted that no one in the municipal office or on the board of commissioners had a firm grasp on the township's money situation, though he and other commissioners were trying to figure it out.

Commissioners Dennis Dull and Ruth Grimes, who disagreed with the move to stop paying employees, were incredulous over Mr. Beswick's assertion that the town was nearly broke, saying they were certain money was available to pay people.

"We can always come up with the money to pay people," Ms. Grimes said. "This is just ludicrous ... you don't go and tell people under union contracts that they're not going to get money, that they're going to work for free."

Neither was consulted or informed of the decision to not pay employees, and they questioned the legality of making that decision without a vote of the board.

Last week, Sgt. Vince DiCenzo Jr., the police department's Fraternal Order of Police representative, said the police would take the township to court if they did not get paid. In addition to not getting paid, police officers were told they could not work overtime. Because six part-time officers were laid off Saturday, Sgt. DiCenzo is concerned that the police will be stretched thin.

The East Allegheny School District owes the township for police patrols of district's campuses but had yet to be billed. Mr. Snyder was hoping the district's reimbursement could cover a part of payroll.

(Nov. 5 East, by Sadie Gurman)

Another fatal train accident at a popular shortcut across Derry has renewed borough leaders' push to construct an enclosed overhead walkway across the tracks.

That plan has drawn ire from some residents of this Westmoreland County town, where neither wire fences nor the threat of lofty fines can bar trespassers from darting across the tracks.

As they did after 15-year-old Douglas Albright was killed while crossing the tracks on East First Avenue in July, borough leaders and residents gathered to ponder solutions to the perils Monday, after pausing to mourn Sheila Singer, 37, and her 2-year-old son, John Smart, who were fatally struck Friday.

There was no shortage of suggestions, and no agreed-upon solution. Ideas ranged from surveillance cameras and a jitney to fences and a walkway across the Norfolk Southern tracks, an option favored by some officials.

A spokesman for Norfolk Southern declined to comment on the accidents, and would not say what the railroad's preferred solution to trespassing would be.

The way council President Allen Skopp envisions it, the bridge would be accessible by elevators or ramps and would be enclosed. Though the borough is seeking estimates, he said, similar structures in other areas have cost $800,000 to $1.5 million, a price tag that raised the eyebrows of some residents.

Leaders say they will seek state and federal money as well as donations and grants. But many at the meeting feared that such a move would mean tax increases.

"It's amazing, the mind-set that we're going to pay taxes for this," Mr. Skopp said. "Here's a public safety issue. We've had three people die in 31/2 months, and they're worried about 40 cents more a day in taxes. The priorities seem a little bit off to me."

In coming days, workers will mend a 57-foot break in a fence that would bar trespassers. But they know it will likely be torn down again.

Most agreed the difficult task will be breaking the long-held mentality that it's OK to walk on train tracks. Railroad safety is taught in the Derry Area School District. But it's not necessarily taught at home, resident Colleen Kuhns said.

"We need someone to tell these kids -- listen, this is not safe," she said. "Some people don't use common sense. You can spend money up the wazoo, but someone needs to tell these people -- listen, you should not do this."

[Mayor Susan Bortz announced Dec. 13 that the borough will work with Veterans Cab to provide discounted trips across the Route 217 bridge to bring residents to the business district.]

(Dec. 17 East, by Deborah M. Todd)

Clutching a vase of red roses with one hand and the palm of her 7-year old grandson, Ryan Summers, in the other, Elaine Walshesky approached the memorial for Penn Hills police Officer Michael Crawshaw last Thursday with teary-eyed reverence.

A Mount Caramel Road resident, Ms. Walshesky said she first met Officer Crawshaw when Ryan called 911 out of boredom two years ago.

An inquisitive child with a limited contact list, he made that call several times over the years, and each time Officer Crawshaw returned with kind words and a message for Ryan about the proper time to call for emergency services.

"He was so nice about it," Ms. Walshesky said. "He said he'd rather come for something like this than something worse. I never forgot that."

Ms. Walshesky's story was just one of hundreds that poured out in the heavy days following the Dec. 6 shooting of Officer Crawshaw in his cruiser and the long, sorrowful procession to his grave Friday at Christ our Redeemer Northside Catholic Cemetery following his funeral that day at St. Boniface Church on the North Side.

[Ronald Robinson, 32, of Homewood, who is charged with the slayings of Officer Crawshaw and another man Dec. 6, has a long criminal history and a record of repeatedly violating terms of his parole.]

Officer Crawshaw, who lived in Verona, was a native of Shaler and a 1996 graduate of Shaler Area High School.

During the postseason banquet for the Shaler Area High School football team Monday at Heinz Field, the team honored the memory of Officer Crawshaw, who played linebacker before graduating in 1996.

The team also plans to give the officer's jersey to his father, James Crawshaw III, who still lives in the community.

Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton said efforts to honor Officer Crawshaw's service went beyond the Penn Hills and Shaler police departments. West View, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County police were described as especially helpful during the funeral, and just about every department in the region reached out in some way.

Penn Hills Mayor Anthony L. DeLuca said he had received e-mails from across the country offering condolences.

"When a police officer's life is lost, it affects all police officers," he said. "I saw [officers] coming in from Philadelphia and all over."

(Oct. 17 edition, by Jerome L. Sherman and Karamagi Rujumba; with contribution by Mark Roth)

In the past half-century, Braddock has lost movie theaters, pharmacies, department stores, homes, thousands of industrial jobs and more than 80 percent of its population.

Yet yesterday's official announcement that UPMC plans to close the borough's 103-year-old hospital on Jan. 31 has stunned Braddock locals and elected officials, who had been seeing small but promising signs of economic renewal in recent years.

"No matter what, we've always had a hospital here," said Vicki Vargo, 52, executive director of the Braddock Carnegie Library and a resident of North Braddock. "I just can't imagine the community without a hospital."

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato called UPMC's plans "disappointing and unacceptable." On Monday, he and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills; Braddock Mayor John Fetterman; and state Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, plan to meet with the hospital system's executives, including President and CEO Jeffrey Romoff, to ask that the closure be taken "off the table."

UPMC officials said yesterday that the Braddock hospital has lost $27 million in the last six years and has seen a 21 percent drop in patient admissions from 2004 to this year.

Although he acknowledged the hospital's fiscal woes, Mr. Onorato argued that UPMC, as a recipient of significant sums of tax dollars, should not be in a position to unilaterally make a decision that could affect all of the Mon Valley, an area where Mr. Onorato has heavily focused economic redevelopment efforts.

He cited the county's ongoing projects, such as the $50 million renovation of the Rankin Bridge; the $15 million development of an apartment complex for senior citizens next to the hospital; and the county's plans to market the old Carrie Furnace site for new development.

In recent months, the hospital has been putting finishing touches on a new entrance facing Braddock Avenue, a project that included $3 million in public money.

UPMC officials have promised to return the money, Mr. Onorato said.

Many Braddock residents believed that such investments were part of a long-term commitment to the community.

"They're putting in new windows. How could they close?" Anita Esposto, who has worked at nearby Mele Brothers and Sister Florist for 25 years, asked her mother this week when she first heard rumors of the hospital's possible demise. "It doesn't make any sense."

In a dozen interviews along and near Braddock Avenue yesterday, people praised the convenience of having a hospital within walking distance.

Ms. Esposto said she takes her mother there once a month for blood tests. Nancy Ernst, 45, an administrative assistant at the 4 Kids Learning Center, said she regularly goes for asthma treatment. James Manns, 62, ended up in the emergency room two months ago, after he fell from his bike and broke two ribs.

"Where do we go now? Where do you go if you don't have your own transportation?" said Ms. Vargo.

[Many Braddock hospital supporters also are upset that UPMC has invested $250 million into building a hospital in Monroeville, which already has the Forbes Regional campus of West Penn Hospital.]

The shutdown will affect 652 employees at [UPMC Braddock], including 70 residents of the Braddock ZIP code, but UPMC spokesman Paul Wood said most would be offered jobs at other facilities in the vast hospital system.

(June 19 edition, by Amy McConnell Schaarsmith; with contributions from staff writers Moriah Balingit, Sadie Gurman, Rich Lord, Jim McKinnon, Martine Power, Kaitlynn Riely and Jon Schmitz.)

Storms could soak weather-weary residents of southwestern Pennsylvania again tonight, potentially causing additional damage and complicating the process of cleaning out basements, salvaging stranded cars and repairing flood-ravaged roads and bridges.

After working through the night to deal with Wednesday's storms, city of Pittsburgh crews are preparing for more downpours, swirling and flooding, Public Safety Director Michael Huss said.

"There is the potential for some severe weather tomorrow afternoon," he said at a news conference yesterday. Crews are clearing catch basins, culverts and storm sewers in the hope that they will not become clogged and overwhelmed.

"People are urged not to drive through the flooded areas" if flooding resumes, said Mr. Huss, who advised motorists to call 911 if their cars become trapped in floodwater. "Don't drive into standing water."

Beginning at about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a series of slow-moving cloudbursts socked the region with a record-setting 2.92 inches of rain, nearly all of which fell over a few hours. The total is nearly three times the previous record of 1.07 inches, set June 17, 1973, according to the National Weather Service.

Some areas got even more rain than the official mark. Murrysville got 3.78 inches, Churchill got 4.02 inches and a weather gauge at the University of Pittsburgh recorded 4.03 inches.

The wild weather spawned several funnel clouds, along with a spectacular and sometimes frightening barrage of lightning and thunder. By the count of one meteorologist, 3,000 lightning strikes hit the region in five minutes at the height of the storm. The heavy rains produced flash flooding that turned streets into rivers that washed away everything in their paths.

Despite the mayhem, the region mostly was spared serious damage. None of the funnel clouds touched down, no major river flooding has been reported and no major injuries were reported. Most of the damage came in the form of flooded basements, downed trees and stuck cars, Mr. Huss said.

He said 29 people were trapped in cars, and Emergency Medical Services crews rescued 14 of them. The others escaped on their own or with help from others.

One area of Allegheny County that was hard hit was Electric Avenue in East Pittsburgh, which dips below Route 30, where an underground storm water pipe burst near an abandoned house on Wednesday.

A chocolate-colored geyser of water ripped through the sidewalk and front of the home, reaching as high as the power lines and carrying away the structure's three-story front porch. Within minutes, the roadway turned into a river that sucked tree trunks, Dumpsters, chunks of sidewalk and pickup trucks down the street. At some points, the water was up to 6 feet deep, completely engulfing cars in its path.

"It looked like a tidal wave," said Clayton Ott, who watched the river of water rip down the street from the safety of his elevated front porch.

Among those picking up the pieces were Najat and Henry Nazarian, owners of a Najat's Cuisine, which makes and sells Lebanese food to restaurants and grocery stores and at farmer's markets.

Yesterday, a mucky water line ringed the store about a foot above the ground and a thin residue of mud covered the tile floor. In the basement, where the water rose to the ceiling, large bags of onions and bulk containers of olive oil were strewn about among buckets and milk crates, making it totally impassable.

The couple estimates the storm did about $10,000 to $15,000 worth of damage. They have no flood insurance and wonder how they'll get back on their feet.

Down the road, the Borough of Turtle Creek -- one of the hardest-hit communities -- remained under a state of emergency yesterday, said Mayor Adam Forgie.

Thirty homes were evacuated when the community was inundated with floodwater as Turtle Creek, Thompson Run and Saw Mill Run burst their banks, and the deluge from Electric Avenue flowed into town.

Excessive damage from the storm also destroyed Balint Lane Bridge in Wilkins and forced officials to declare a state of emergency in the area.

Officials in Westmoreland County also declared a state of emergency yesterday while crews continued to assess the damage, including flooded houses and damage to roads and smaller bridges.

Hardest hit were Greensburg and Jeannette, said Sandy Smythe, a spokeswoman for Westmoreland County 911.

Officials in Penn Township, Hempfield and Jeannette also declared a state of emergency in their municipalities she said, while Greensburg, North Huntingdon, Export and Penn Borough planned to make the same declaration.

[The Federal Emergency Management Agency twice denied the state's request for aid to assist flood victims.]