Allegheny to ban public vapingAllegheny County will become the second county in Pennsylvania to ban vaping in public places where cigarette smoking is already prohibited.The county council on Tuesday voted 8-5 to adopt the ban, which will take effect when County Executive Rich Fitzgerald signs it.Vaping will be prohibited in schools, indoor workplaces, restaurants, theaters, transit stations and sports centers.Supporters say vaping could be as dangerous as breathing smoke from cigarettes. Opponents disagree and say vaping is an effective way to quit smoking.Philadelphia banned vaping in most indoor places in 2014.

Long-delayed trial for mother slatedA woman accused of drowning her two young sons in a bathtub is set for a non-jury trial nearly three years after the incident.The trial for 43-year-old Laurel Schlemmer has been repeatedly delayed because of questions about her mental competence.The McCandless Township woman is charged with homicide and accused of holding her 3- and 6-year-old sons underwater in April 2014 after hearing “crazy voices.”Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning has previously ruled Schlemmer mentally incompetent to stand trial after a psychiatrist testified Schlemmer was delusional, couldn’t cooperate with her defense attorney and had been refusing psychotropic medications.Manning ordered her hospitalized last summer so she could be properly medicated and returned for trial.The attorneys can’t comment because of a gag order.