Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA

How Can Residents Demand More Of Pittsburgh’s Development Process?

Pittsburgh needs more housing, but housing that reflects what neighborhoods want and need. That was the driving sentiment behind a meeting in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood Tuesday night, where attendees discussed ways to influence the development process.

Read More
Lucy Perkins / 90.5 WESA

Constituents Press Lamb On Impeachment, Gun Control At Town Hall

Matt Rourke / AP

How To Get Rid Of Property Taxes? Lawmaker Looks To Retirement Income

Politics & Government

Constituents Press Lamb On Impeachment, Gun Control At Town Hall

By • 16 hours ago
Lucy Perkins / 90.5 WESA

U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb was challenged on the issue of impeachment and gun control at a town hall in Allison Park on Tuesday evening. 

Western PA Planned Parenthood Loses Nearly $400,000 In Title X Funding

By • Aug 20, 2019
AP

Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania will lose nearly $400,000 of annual funding it received through Title X, a federal program that provides reproductive health care services to low-income Americans.

Allegheny County’s Fraud Fighting Tactics ‘Reek of Corruption,’ DA Candidate Says

By • Aug 20, 2019
ROSS MANTLE / BUZZFEED NEWS

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office reportedly pursues more insurance fraud cases than any other agency in the state. An investigation by BuzzFeed News found that the office gets evidence and money from insurance companies to handle claims filed by customers.

Science, Health & Tech

This Year's Thrival Festival To Focus On Pittsburgh's Tech Strengths

By • Aug 20, 2019
Thrival Festival

Technology, education and music will come together next month for the seventh annual Thrival Festival,  Sept. 18-20 in Oakland. This year's event has a local theme: "By Pittsburgh, For Pittsburgh, For the World."

Cleanup Continues Days After Downburst Hits Lawrenceville, Millvale

By & • Aug 19, 2019
Sarah Kovash / 90.5 WESA

Central Lawrenceville buzzed with the sounds of chainsaws Monday, after strong winds and rain from a weekend downburst uprooted several trees in the Allegheny Cemetery. Crews spent Monday afternoon cutting off branches from a particularly large tree hovering over a grassy patch near the cemetery’s gates off Butler Street. 


Identity & Justice

Man's Death While Held In PA County Prison Raises Questions

By Michael Rubinkam | Associated Press • Aug 20, 2019
Michael Rubinkam / AP

Carmen Riley bent over her unconscious son, looked into his eyes and knew. It didn't take a mother's intuition or a doctor's prognosis to figure out that Ty'rique was gone.

Several days earlier, 21-year-old Ty'rique Riley had been jailed after an altercation with his father. Now he lay in a hospital bed, his body covered in lacerations and deep, dark bruises. He was missing teeth. His kidneys were failing.

How did this happen? And who was responsible?

Seven weeks after his death, Riley's family and supporters are pushing for answers.

Allegheny County Among The Nation's Top Prosecutors For Insurance Fraud

By , & • Aug 16, 2019
Ross Mantle / BuzzFeed News

On today's program: Allegheny County is a hotbed for false insurance fraud claims; Pittsburgher David Greene sheds a tear for another lost Pirates season; the airport solicits local venders to be part of its new terminal build; and WESA's Chris Potter draws a fuzzy line between political rally and campaign stop.

Education

Carnegie Library Workers Vote To Unionize For A ‘Seat At The Table’

By • Aug 14, 2019
Sarah Schneider / 90.5 WESA

Nearly 60 percent of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh librarians, library assistants, clerks and IT professionals who cast ballots Wednesday voted in favor of unionizing.

Good Question!

google maps

Why Are There So Many 'Run Roads' In The Pittsburgh Region?

From Saw Mill Run to Nelson Run to Glass Run, there are about 80 roads in Allegheny County that include the word “run” in their names. No one sprints down these streets, but the word is ubiquitous in the region.

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Kathleen J. Davis / 90.5 WESA

Pittsburgh's Underground Railroad History Sheds Light On City's 'Militant Abolitionist Community'
Katie Blackley / 90.5 WESA

Where Do The Abandoned Third Set Of Tracks At Steel Plaza Lead?

Development & Transportation

How Can Residents Demand More Of Pittsburgh’s Development Process?

By • 9 hours ago
Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA

Pittsburgh needs more housing, but housing that reflects what neighborhoods want and need. That was the driving sentiment behind a meeting in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood Tuesday night, where attendees discussed ways to influence the development process.

Transportation Is Getting More Connected, What Could That Mean For Personal Data?

By • Aug 20, 2019
Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA

Pittsburgh officials have announced efforts aimed at shaping the city’s transportation future, from a pilot program aimed at linking modes of transit to long-range plans. City leadership has been intentionally slow to adopt personal modes of transport such as electric scooters, but it welcomed companies interested in testing autonomous vehicles; a self-driving shuttle to connect Oakland and Hazelwood remains a possibility.

Arts, Sports, & Culture

After 33 Years, Arts Group Bids Farewell To The Strip

By • Aug 19, 2019
Courtesy of the artist

When Contemporary Craft moved to the Strip District in 1986 the neighborhood wasn’t exactly a magnet for arts groups. True, Downtown was within walking distance, and the adjacent Penn Avenue corridor hosted retail produce stores and a few restaurants. But the historic Produce Terminal – at one end of which Contemporary Craft made its new home – marked a stretch of Smallman Street still dominated by wholesalers.

Riverhounds Expand With Land Buy & New Training Facility

By , & • Aug 15, 2019
Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds

On today’s program: Soccer attendance is on the rise in Pittsburgh, likely thanks to the U.S. Women's team; PFAS chemicals were discovered near Pittsburgh International; a poet reckons with her multi-racial identity; and Shady Side Academy teens reflect on their student Emmy Award nomination. 

Memoirist Recalls Her Journey From White To Black

By • Aug 15, 2019

Growing up in Wexford, Sarah Valentine felt secure and loved by her family and friends. Still, there were moments: the basketball coach who assumed teen-aged Valentine was accompanied by the black woman she stood next to in line, rather than by her own father, who was white; the counselor who suggested Valentine look into scholarships for minorities.

Environment & Energy

Game Commission Recommends Deer Feeding Ban

By • Aug 20, 2019
Greg Sousa / AP

A committee of Pennsylvania Game Commission staff has recommended a statewide ban on feeding white-tailed deer. 

The agency biologists say that banning artificial feeding stations would help slow the spread of wildlife diseases. They're asking residents to voluntarily stop feeding deer.

Pennsylvania Wants To Know What You’re Throwing Away

By Rachel McDevitt | WITF • Aug 20, 2019
Matt Rourke / AP

Pennsylvania is going dumpster diving as part of two multi-year, statewide studies of the commonwealth's trash and recycling systems.

Research Shows Thousands Could Be Saved With Better Air Quality Standards

By Marie Cusick | StateImpact Pennsylvania • Aug 19, 2019
Reid R. Frazier / StateImpact Pennsylvania

New research from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh shows thousands of lives could be saved each year if air quality standards were tightened.

Economy & Business

How To Get Rid Of Property Taxes? Lawmaker Looks To Retirement Income

By • 8 hours ago
Matt Rourke / AP

One state House lawmaker is trying to pitch a new solution to a very old Pennsylvania problem: the reliance on school property taxes.

Lebanon County Republican Representative Frank Ryan acknowledged Tuesday, his still-unintroduced property tax elimination plan would be a big, difficult pill for the commonwealth to swallow. That’s mainly because the plan contains nearly five-percent tax on all retirement income except Social Security.

Local Headlines

GOP Retains Pennsylvania House Seat In Special Election

By • 3 hours ago
Matt Rourke / AP

Republicans easily won a special election to retain a seat in the state House of Representatives in a GOP-leaning district in central Pennsylvania.

Republican David Rowe won Tuesday's special election in parts of Union and Snyder counties by a nearly two-to-one margin over Democrat Jennifer Rager-Kay.

The former incumbent, Republican Rep. Fred Keller, was elected to Congress. With Rowe's victory, Republicans will have a 110-93 majority over Democrats in the state House.

Ex-Uber Driver Sentenced For Kidnapping, Assaulting Woman

By • Aug 20, 2019
Sarah Kovash / 90.5 WESA

A former Uber driver convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a woman he picked up while off-duty in Pittsburgh has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail.

Soumana Dao received a 364-day term on Monday and will get credit the roughly four months he has already served. The 32-year-old city man will also serve five years of probation and 15 years as a registered sex offender.

Food & Drink

Lots To Sample On A Weekend Visit To Pittsburgh's Dining Scene

By Melissa Rayworth | Associated Press • Aug 19, 2019
Galley Group via AP

When celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich decided to open a restaurant in Pittsburgh's Strip District in 2001, she arrived in a neighborhood filled with warehouses and factories.

This narrow stretch of streets in the shadow of the city's downtown office towers had long been home to food purveyors like Wholey's Fish Market and the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, known to locals simply as Penn Mac.

But a high-end restaurant helmed by a James Beard award-winning chef? That wasn't something anyone expected.

National & International

New Trump Policy Would Permit Indefinite Detention Of Migrant Families, Children

By • 2 hours ago

The Trump administration has announced it is ending a federal court agreement that limits how long migrant families with children can be detained.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan outlined the new policy Wednesday, which replaces the Flores settlement agreement. That's been a longtime target of immigration hard-liners in the Trump administration, who contend the settlement has acted as a lure to families in Central America.

Where the News Comes Together

The Confluence
Weekdays at 9 a.m., newsmakers and innovators join host Kevin Gavin for one-on-one interviews and in-depth conversations about stories important to the Pittsburgh region.

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