Julia Burdelski stories, Page 24
Pittsburgh seeks to allot up to $2M per year to aid tenants fighting eviction
Jala Rucker was nearly evicted nine years ago from her home on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Rucker didn’t know where she would take her kids if she got kicked out of her Manchester apartment — and she didn’t know what would happen to the dozens of neighbors in her building who...
‘Completely unacceptable’: Committee tours site of Trump assassination attempt
A bipartisan congressional delegation got a firsthand look Monday at the place where a 20-year-old nursing home aide came within a hairsbreadth of killing Donald Trump. After climbing the same Butler County roof from which Thomas Crooks fired shots from an AR-15 rifle, members of the U.S. House Committee on...
Rivers Casino workers, fearful of gambling on health, rally behind effort to ban smoking
Alicia Monahan blames secondhand smoke for two fainting episodes she experienced while working at Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. The table games dealer said she’s otherwise healthy but sometimes feels the effects of the smoke getting to her. Since she started working at the casino in 2019, she collapsed...
Pittsburgh councilman seeks to restore in-person option to obtain permits
More than four years after the City of Pittsburgh moved all permitting services online because of the covid-19 pandemic, a councilman wants in-person services restored. Pittsburgh has been without an in-person option for those who need permits since March 2020. A new city office building Downtown called 412 Boulevard of...
Backlash prompts Pittsburgh URA to remove for-sale signs on nearly 600 properties
When Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority this summer began placing for-sale signs on hundreds of properties it owns throughout the Hill District, Randall Taylor was alarmed. Taylor, a community leader with the Hill District Consensus Group, said he was concerned that land speculators could see the signs and gobble up land...
Pittsburgh hearing on property taxes puts focus on ‘broken’ system
Regular state-mandated property reassessments would provide school districts with more predictable revenue streams from property taxes and ensure all property owners pay no more than their fair share, experts and local officials said Monday. During a Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing in the Allegheny County Courthouse, officials urged lawmakers...
Innamorato asks judge to toss Pittsburgh Public Schools lawsuit on reassessment
Allegheny County and its top official, Sara Innamorato, on Monday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Pittsburgh Public Schools that is trying to trigger a countywide property reassessment. The school district sued in April to force a countywide reassessment, something that hasn’t been done since 2012. Pittsburgh Public...
Security guard charged in Penn Hills hookah bar killing says gun accidentally discharged
Police said they don’t believe the security guard who is accused of killing a woman at a Penn Hills hookah bar last month had any motive to shoot her, but he will face trial for criminal homicide. Chaz Jackson, 42, of Pittsburgh was charged in connection with the death of...
State bill guarding Pittsburghers from big property tax hikes heads to Shapiro
State legislation passed this week paves the way for Pittsburgh to exempt or defer tax increases for longtime homeowners whose property values have jumped since they purchased their houses. The goal is to protect longtime residents from being taxed out of their homes in developing neighborhoods where skyrocketing property values...
First lady Jill Biden to visit Pittsburgh on Saturday
First lady Jill Biden is expected to visit Pittsburgh this weekend, her second visit in just over a month. The first lady is scheduled to arrive at Pittsburgh International Airport around 4 p.m. Saturday before delivering remarks at an Italian Sons and Daughters of America dinner in Pittsburgh. On the...
Pittsburgh council creates new fund for festivals … but without any money
Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a fund to support festivals and events that were disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic — but they don’t have any money for it. Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, last month introduced legislation to create a fund from the city’s allotment of federal pandemic...
Pittsburgh councilwoman pushes to end pot testing for medical marijuana card holders
A Pittsburgh councilwoman wants to ban employment discrimination for people with medical marijuana cards. Legislation introduced Tuesday by Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, would make medical marijuana cardholders a protected class. The bill would ban almost all employers in the city from testing prospective employees and current workers for cannabis use...
Tim McNulty, ex-reporter, Peduto and Penguins spokesman, dies at 54 after cancer battle
Tim McNulty, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter who went on to serve as a spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto and then the Pittsburgh Penguins, died Friday at his North Side home after a long battle with cancer. He was 54. City Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith plans to introduce legislation Tuesday to...
9 months after Hamas attack on Israel, rally in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood calls for release
Alon Ohel, one of more than 100 people captured by Hamas during an Oct. 7 attack on Israel, remains a hostage nine months later. He was taken by Hamas at the Nova music festival, an outdoor dance party near the Gaza border. Jeff Finkelstein, CEO of the Jewish Federation of...
Pittsburgh opening 6 cooling centers as temperatures climb Monday, Tuesday
Pittsburgh will open six cooling centers Monday and Tuesday as temperatures are expected to climb above 90 degrees. The cooling centers will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., city officials said. The cooling centers will be available at Healthy Active Living Community Center sites throughout the city: •...
1 injured in Stowe Township shooting
A man is in critical condition after a shooting in Stowe Township Saturday, according to Allegheny County police. First responders were alerted to a shooting in the 600 block of Broadway Avenue after 4 p.m. Saturday. Responders found a man shot inside a second floor apartment. The victim was taken...
New Kensington man, ‘a friend to everyone,’ found slain; former roommate charged with murder
David Risher is remembered as a trusting person with a love of fishing. He was “a friend to everyone he encountered,” said his sister, Brenda Lee Johnson. Risher, 58, of New Kensington was found dead early Saturday morning in his home after Johnson reported him missing on Friday. Police charged...
Plans for Pittsburgh festival fund move forward but lack key element: money
Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday voted to move ahead with a plan to create a fund to support arts and cultural events that were impacted by the covid-19 pandemic — but they don’t seem to have any money for it. Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, last month introduced legislation to...
Pittsburgh finds way to avoid forfeiting nearly $9M in federal covid relief funds
Working against a ticking clock that gives the city only six months to put under contract all remaining federal covid-19 relief dollars, Pittsburgh officials are changing funding streams for projects that might be too slow for the federal government’s looming deadlines. The goal, Director of the Office of Management and...
Staff concerns at Highland Park pool spurred new chaperone policy
Twelve-year-old Miracel Eaton excitedly urged her mother toward the entrance to Pittsburgh’s Highland Park pool on a sunny Thursday afternoon. Tamra Eaton, 55, of Highland Park, said she would’ve tagged along with her daughter for a pool day anyway, but a new rule at the site now requires all kids...
City hasn’t paid Pittsburgh Juneteenth organizer, leaving him fuming at Gainey
Weeks after Pittsburgh City Council authorized a $125,000 payment to a popular Juneteenth event organizer, the city still has not paid him a dime — and it’s unclear if it ever will. William “B” Marshall was set to receive money from the city’s fund of federal covid-19 relief dollars to...
Pittsburgh clears way for UPMC Presby work to resume after permit flap
Pittsburgh officials on Wednesday approved an electrical permit for construction of the UPMC Presbyterian hospital tower, a city spokeswoman said, after some work was halted last week. A Pittsburgh inspector last week found the project did not have all the necessary permits, according to Maria Montaño, a spokesperson for Mayor...
Pittsburgh OKs Lawrenceville apartment complex despite aesthetic concerns
Mel Ngami skewered the renderings of a proposed apartment complex in Lawrenceville, calling them “very strongly depressing.” Peter Quintanilla, his colleague on the Pittsburgh Planning Commission, panned the design as a large box that “looks too flat.” Despite the commissioners’ misgivings about the looks of the planned 5-story apartment building...
Pittsburgh council’s Charland trashes unwieldy city system for garbage citations
Pittsburgh Councilperson Bob Charland wants to make it easier to cite people who leave trash on their property. Charland, D-South Side, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would allow city inspectors to issue citations and fines for people who leave garbage on their property, improperly store garbage cans or leave garbage...
Kids 15 and younger need adult supervision at Highland Park pool
Children ages 15 and younger will need to be accompanied by an adult to enter Pittsburgh’s Highland Park pool this summer, a city spokesperson said Monday. The rule that kids must be supervised by someone who is at least 21 years old is not in effect at any other city...
