PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Public Schools have adopted a new Title IX compliance rule designed to give girls a better chance at playing basketball in fourth and fifth grade — but critics say the new rule might wind up sacking boys’ teams at city grade schools.

The new policy was prompted when the girls’ basketball season was canceled at one school last year because there weren’t enough girls’ teams at other city schools to play. Parents eventually helped that school fashion a three-game schedule against schools outside the district.

This year, schools must field separate teams for boys and girls — or none at all.

Dad, sons, rescued during muddy hikeCORAOPOLIS — Police had to rescue a father and two sons from a muddy hillside during a holiday visit to the Pittsburgh area.Moon Township police say 44-year-old Mark Koeppen called 911 about 4 p.m. Tuesday when he and his sons could not climb off a hillside trail about 150 feet above University Boulevard, a busy road about 10 miles west of the city.Koeppen, of Fairfax Va., was visiting in-laws when he decided to take his 8-year-old son Will and 6-year-old son Ian for a hike. The trail was muddy due to several hours of rain and Koeppen says the trio kept slipping and falling as they tried to get off the trail.

Police: Bank robber claimed to have gunPITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police are searching for a black-clad bank robber who demanded only $20, $50 and $100 bills and claimed to have a gun, though he never produced one.Police have released two surveillance photos of the man who robbed the PNC Bank branch in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood just before noon Tuesday.The robber appears to be a white man in his 20s, who was wearing sunglasses and black clothes.Police say the man told one teller, “Don’t move and give me $20s, $50s and $100s. No bait. No alarm.” The man then told a second teller he had a gun.