When the fire whistles sounded at 6:30 a.m. Jan. 12 in O’Hara, Butch Michalowski trudged out of his house and into the bitter cold — despite officially retiring two weeks earlier from his role as Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company chief.

Glynn Galloway steps into the basement of a Fox Chapel home, where a soft blue glow spills from a 300-gallon in-wall reef tank built between a recreation room and a former wine cellar.

To have your news or event listed in our briefs section, email editor Marje Horvath at mhorvath@triblive.com.

Fox Chapel indoor track coach Tom Moul didn’t expect anything spectacular during the first meet of the season at Edinboro University. The Foxes ended up turning in three school-record performances.

An overtime loss to Pine-Richland during the Peter Sauer Memorial Tournament had the Shady Side Academy girls basketball team on the war path. The Bulldogs bounced back from their second defeat of the season with three consecutive victories where they produced 60 or more points.

Fox Chapel boys basketball coach Zach Skrinjar recognized time is getting shorter. After the Foxes lost to New Castle at home, Skrinjar was happy because he felt maybe they had figured things out.

Plum senior Owen Campbell was an Allegheny County High School wrestling champion as a freshman.

Blawnox

Aspinwall has lost a legend.

Fox Chapel-area communities reorganized their local borough and township governments Jan. 5.