Specials category

Impact of property tax relief from gambling revenue clouded by outdated formula

Before casino floors across Pennsylvania were filled with the clatter of slot machines and the flashing lights of jackpots, supporters of legalized gambling promised the expected revenue would be a sure bet to reduce property taxes. Today, state gambling officials and creators of Act 1, known as the Taxpayer Relief...
Carson Street comeback: South Side works to spiff up tarnished image

Pittsburgh’s best-known bar and nightlife district has been attracting attention lately for all the wrong reasons. This summer, a spike in trouble on South Side drew a heavy police response to control unruly crowds. Malcontents threw fireworks at officers, leading the head of the police union to label the neighborhood...
Rolling Rock Town Fair debuted at Westmoreland Fairgrounds 25 years ago todayVideo

If you grew up in Western Pennsylvania during the rise of alternative and grunge rock in the ’90s and early 2000s, there’s a good chance you recall hearing radio commercials for the annual Rolling Rock Town Fair. For a handful of years, some of the biggest names in modern rock...
Rooney family connection with Saint Vincent College spans generations, runs deeper than Steelers football

No matter where you look on the Saint Vincent College campus, it’s hard not to find the influence of the Rooney family. From Rooney Hall and Chuck Noll Field to Verostko Center for the Arts and the under-construction Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center, the Rooneys — and by extension...
Route 30 crash hot spots a concern for motorists, property owners, police, PennDOT

A note left on the door of their new Hempfield home 21 years ago was the first sign of trouble for Kristie Harvey’s family. It was from a young driver, admitting to having hit a perimeter wall on Harvey’s lot just off the Cedar Street exit of Route 30. It...
For American Gold Star Mothers, Mother’s Day holds extra meaning

Kathleen Hanley sits on a red folding chair among the rows of headstones that stand in perfectly aligned rows at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil. She doesn’t notice the sounds of cars rushing by on the highway or the funeral processions driving through. She is focused on...
5 years after covid struck, Pennsylvanians assess the pandemic’s impact

Five years ago this month, Pennsylvania’s chief executive scrambled to manage a global health crisis for which no one in the world was prepared. As leader of the nation’s fifth most-populous state, then-Gov. Tom Wolf found himself winging it like everyone else. He had no playbook for covid-19. “It looked...
Breakthrough treatments offer some sickle cell sufferers a cure, but barriers remainVideo

Esther Nkemakolam runs her fingers through kinetic sand and sings a “Moana” song as UPMC Children’s Hospital nurse Taylor Brennan gets to work drawing blood. Esther is back for her monthly blood transfusion. It’s a frigid February morning, but the routine is familiar for Esther, a bubbly 7-year-old first grader...
Wilkinsburg rising: Scrappy suburb sports signs of long-sought revivalVideo

One late January morning, Dontae Comans pushed his two youngsters in a shopping cart down the tidy aisles of Wilkinsburg’s new Aldi supermarket, the latest success story in the tattered borough’s ongoing revival. Moments earlier, Comans, Wilkinsburg’s first-term mayor, had presided over a grand-opening ceremony before joining scores of his...
From brownfield to crown jewel: Piatt’s $740M Esplanade project aims to spur Ohio River revival

When drivers emerge from the Fort Pitt Tunnel, they’re greeted by a majestic view of Pittsburgh’s dazzling rivers, the iconic Point State Park fountain and the city’s soaring skyline. And when Lucas Piatt glances left as he drives along the Fort Pitt Bridge, he can already envision the massive Ferris...
A year later, families of teens killed in North Park crash remain overcome with grief while fighting to move onVideo

Twice a week, Ellie Tourney eats lunch on a stone bench near her son’s grave. She doesn’t want her youngest boy to feel like he has been forgotten. Nearly a year has passed since Jonathan Tourney and Taylor Orlowski were killed on Christmas weekend when the speeding SUV they were...
High anxiety: 2024 election takes heavy toll on stressed-out voters

World War III. A crippled economy. Unbridled immigration. Civil war, with American democracy in the crosshairs. These are the apocalyptic scenarios preoccupying supporters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. As election season enters its final hours of the 2024 race for the American presidency, Pennsylvanians find themselves balanced on a...
How Namdar Realty profits from Pittsburgh Mills and other ‘dying’ malls

The owner of Pittsburgh Mills mall has built a real estate empire by buying dying malls and letting them deteriorate before selling off property and walking away, leaving helpless communities in its wake, according to officials where Namdar Realty Group owns assets. New York-based Namdar boasts a portfolio of nearly...
Urban oasis: Farms sprout in Pittsburgh’s food deserts

Ebony Lunsford-Evans would like nothing more than to spend all day tending her crops and chickens. “I spend a lot of my time out here,” the woman known to some as Farmer Girl Eb said on a recent August morning, gesturing at the farm she runs in Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood....
Young voters in Western Pa. talk issues, candidates ahead of presidential election

The economy. A woman’s right to choose. A divided America. These are issues weighing on the minds of young voters as they ready themselves for the November presidential election between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump. More than half of young voters between 18 and 29 plan...
Plum community to observe Rustic Ridge anniversary 1 year later with no answers

As a Plum community pauses to remember those who died in a fatal house explosion a year ago, questions about the cause remain unresolved, and a mayor is demanding answers. Six residents of the Rustic Ridge neighborhood died as a result of the massive Aug. 12 explosion, which sent shock...

1 2

Partner News