Tom Davidson stories, Page 19

Children exposed to lead have lower IQs and are more likely to develop attention deficit disorders, and adults who are exposed are at greater risk for heart disease. That’s what a leading researcher of the problem told Pittsburgh City Council members Tuesday. While the effects of exposure to lead have...

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto plans to sign legislation passed Tuesday by city council that restricts the use of facial recognition software and predictive policing technology by police, mayoral spokesman Tim McNulty said. The legislation passed with no opposition. Councilman Anthony Coghill abstained. Councilman Ricky Burgess voted in favor of the...

Closed since the pandemic started in March, the Ace Hotel in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood has been the subject of complaints to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office over unreturned deposits for scheduled weddings. A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office confirmed the office has received complaints but declined further comment....

Children who live in Pittsburgh remain more likely to have higher lead levels than those who live in other areas of the country, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. City officials are working to change that trend. For several years, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has worked to replace...

People accustomed to buying gas and coffee at one of the 38 CoGo’s locations in the region will soon see a new logo, as Canonsburg-based Coen Markets Inc. moves forward with rebranding its stores. The gas will carry the Amoco brand and the stores will be known as Coen Markets....

With 22 seminarians now studying at St. Paul Seminary, Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop David A. Zubik is ending daily livestreams of Mass and instead will be streaming one weekly service, on Sundays at 10 a.m. Zubik has been livestreaming Mass daily from Boyle Hall Chapel at the seminary. With the return...

Two girls get into a fight at school. Neither are seriously hurt, but the police are called. In addition to any punishments from the school district or their parents, they’re now involved in the juvenile justice system — and have to face legal consequences. In the months that follow, the...

Three Pittsburgh protesters have been charged by police for a pattern of disorderly conduct Sept. 5 that started at the McDonald’s on Liberty Avenue and continued to an area outside Sienna Mercato on Penn Avenue. Parts of the protest were captured on video that went viral on social media nationwide,...

There’s no video footage of the 43-second pursuit of Romir Talley by Wilkinsburg police in December 2019, which ended in Talley’s death after being shot seven times by police. But an emergency medical services log obtained by the attorney representing Talley’s family indicates that police may have been going after...

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine called on college students to follow the coronavirus safety guidelines recommended by their institutions and by health care professionals. The bulk of Levine’s message Monday was directed at people between the ages of 19 to 24, many of whom are college students, where...

An Australian entertainment company that initially touted a floating cinema tour of U.S. cities, including a stop scheduled Wednesday through Friday in Pittsburgh, now says it is postponing the events because of the coronavirus pandemic. Officials with the Pittsburgh Special Events department and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pittsburgh auxiliary unit...

Pittsburgh residents have several ways to provide input about the city’s 2021 budget, which will be introduced later this year because of uncertainties surrounding the covid-19 pandemic. “It is obviously going to be challenging budget year for the city, with estimates of a $100 million shortfall, so we are greatly...

In a post-covid-19 future, executives with FNB Corp. meet with clients at its 24-story headquarters Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District and walk across the street to PPG Arena, entering through the FNB Gate to seats in the FNB Club section in time for the puck drop at a Penguins game. Now...

The fate of a 62-year-old statue of Christopher Columbus that towers over Schenley Drive near Phipps Conservatory in Oakland will be decided Sept. 23 by the Pittsburgh Art Commission. Before the commission meets, it is working to gauge public sentiment about the statue, one of Pittsburgh-based Italian artist Frank Vittor’s...

Terri Shields remembers when the Hazelwood neighborhood was the heart of Pittsburgh’s industrial base. The steel mill, operated by Jones & Laughlin and later LTV, was on the shore of the Monongahela River there. “I remember when it was a stinky mill. All of the stinky air,” said Shields, 59....

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx met privately Thursday with Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials about the region’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic. She also visited Harrisburg and met with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, according to the Penn Capital-Star. News: White House COVID task force coordinator Deborah Brix...

A safe, effective vaccine for covid-19 will not be the end of the coronavirus pandemic, UPMC doctors said Thursday. The disease is “incredibly dynamic,” said Dr. Oscar Marroquin, UPMC chief health care data and analytics officer. The ways people respond to the virus and how doctors treat it keep changing....

Before she was found dead May 4 in a refrigerator in the hallway of a McKees Rocks apartment building, Kristy Jefferson told her mother that if anything ever happened to her, Daryl Jones would be the man to blame, according to court documents. Jones, 41, was charged Thursday with homicide...

Restrictions on using facial recognition software and predictive police techniques proposed by Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor don’t go far enough, a handful of computer science researchers told council Wednesday. Instead, council should consider a full-fledged ban on using such software and techniques, said David Widder, a doctoral student in...

The coronavirus pandemic’s toll on Pittsburgh’s finances could mean the city collects $100 million less in revenues than projected, Treasurer Douglas Anderson told council members Wednesday. This year will be a “weird budget cycle,” Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle said, as council heard from Anderson about how the 2021 city budget...