Julia Burdelski stories, Page 3

Maria Snell feels her work as an Internal Revenue Service contact representative is under attack. She worries about her job, given President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce and end collective bargaining with federal labor unions. “Federal jobs, they used to be secure,” Snell...

Pittsburgh City Councilperson Bob Charland stood Tuesday morning in a Knoxville alley where food wrappers and paper plates poked out of discarded garbage bags and a box of hypodermic needles lay smashed on the road. “I am sick and tired of our neighborhoods looking like no one cares about them,”...

The Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh’s Strip District is planning an expansion that will include a new theater, exhibition space and classrooms. “The expansion will help secure long-term sustainability for the museum and further position the History Center as a premier cultural attraction in Pittsburgh,” Brady Smith, a...

Government health officials warned Monday that $20 million for equipment to conduct disease testing at a new Allegheny County laboratory could be in jeopardy because of drastic spending cuts by the Trump administration. The federal government is trying to block $11 billion in public health grants that flow through the...

Cori Fraser last week was preparing to take their 18-year-old child for a gender-affirming surgery at UPMC. But Salem, Fraser’s child who also uses they/them pronouns, found out just days before the surgery that it was canceled. Fraser said UPMC had scrapped planned gender-affirming treatments for patients under 19 to...

Corey O’Connor pledged Thursday that if elected Pittsburgh mayor he would oversee a range of public safety improvements. They would include bettering recruiting and retention of public safety workers, opening resource centers throughout the city and asking Pittsburgh’s hospitals to pay for new ambulances. O’Connor, who is Allegheny County’s controller...

Democratic candidates facing off in Pittsburgh’s mayoral race on Wednesday shared with potential voters their visions for Downtown, affordable housing and supporting the city’s Jewish community. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey boasted of the reduction in homicides since he took office and the NFL’s decision to bring the draft to the...

More than two dozen people joined Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in East Liberty on Tuesday to rally in support of the neighborhood’s Social Security office, which had been targeted for possible closure by President Donald Trump’s administration. The office — along with the Greensburg Social Security Administration buildings and the...

A yearlong renovation to Market Square in Downtown Pittsburgh scheduled to begin Tuesday will cause a shift in traffic patterns. Construction will start in the north half of the square, including McMasters, Market and Graeme streets. One-way traffic heading toward Downtown on Forbes Avenue from Wood Street to Stanwix Street...

The field to replace Pittsburgh Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith just shrank. Two Democratic candidates vying for her seat on City Council will not appear on the ballot in the May primary following a court ruling. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay last week determined that David Binkoski, 36, of Duquesne...

As Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey faces a critical primary showdown in May, turmoil has engulfed his administration. Personnel shakeups, public outbursts, pushback by a newly rebellious City Council — all the drama is making some political observers question whether Gainey may be vulnerable to rival Democrat Corey O’Connor. Among critics’...

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey is vowing to fight housing discrimination in the city, even as President Donald Trump rolls back such protections. Gainey on Friday signed two executive orders meant to ensure everyone has equal access to housing, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or whether the government helps...

Corey O’Connor offered a sobering assessment Thursday about the finances of the city he wants to run. “Despite the current administration’s rosy projections, our budget is barely held together by strings and Band-Aids,” O’Connor, who wants to be mayor of Pittsburgh, told reporters during an appearance in the city’s Knoxville...

Pittsburgh officials preparing for the 2026 NFL Draft will face a unique logistical challenge never before encountered by a host city: how to get hundreds of thousands of fans around an event spanning two sites separated by a river. No one struck panic mode Wednesday during a discussion on the...

Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved Mayor Ed Gainey’s nominees for the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh board. Jala Rucker, now the board’s vice chair, will serve an additional term. Joining her are newcomers Wasi Mohamed, who serves as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale;...

One of the nation’s most outspoken vaccine experts believes the U.S. is already forgetting a critical lesson reinforced during the covid-19 pandemic: Vaccines save lives. Dr. Peter Hotez said increased vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and politicization are jeopardizing people’s health. As dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor...

The Penn Hills Police Department is asking the public to help locate a missing man. Courtney Charles, 35, of Mount Oliver, was recently reported missing by his family, police said. He was last seen near McKeesport Hospital. Police said they had also received a tip that Charles may have been...

No one was injured Sunday when a fire destroyed a house in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, public safety officials said. The blaze was reported around noon at the intersection of Herman and Adair streets, near Lowrie Street. The main building collapsed. Heavy smoke poured out of the building, widely visible...

When covid-19 struck, Natalya Rodriguez, fresh out of nursing school, watched as a flood of overwhelmed colleagues abandoned the health care field. Nothing had prepared nurses in the U.S. for a pandemic — or the death and fear it brought. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing estimated 100,000...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has too much power as he advises President Donald Trump and spearheads efforts to slash the size of the federal government through his DOGE Service, Isaac Elias said Saturday. It’s the reason Elias, 43, of Baden in Beaver County, helped organize a series of protests outside...

Jala Rucker loves Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood so much she tells her kids that when she dies, she wants to be buried in her backyard. She loves her neighbors. She loves that her kids are known in the area. She loves how the tight-knit Manchester community prides itself on keeping its...

A recount has confirmed Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor won the Allegheny County Democratic Committee’s endorsement for Pittsburgh mayor in the spring primary, beating out Mayor Ed Gainey by a razor-thin margin. The final vote was 274-270, said committee Chair Sam Hans-Greco. Six Pittsburgh committee members did not vote. Hans-Greco...

A $31 million overhaul in Downtown Pittsburgh that will create an outdoor recreation and event space earned approval Tuesday from the Planning Commission. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is looking to breathe new life into an underutilized, 4-acre site that stretches down 8th Street from Fort Duquesne Boulevard along the Allegheny...

Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor on Sunday narrowly beat out Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey for the Allegheny County Democratic Committee’s endorsement in what is shaping up to be a hotly contested mayoral primary in May. The committee in a social media post said the tally was close enough to trigger...

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey on Friday announced an initiative to protect longtime homeowners in the city from property tax hikes. The goal, the mayor said, is to ensure that people who own homes in neighborhoods where property values are skyrocketing don’t find themselves struggling to pay their taxes if their...