Tom Davidson stories, Page 3
America’s debt surpasses $36T and would keep growing under Trump bill. How did we get here?
As it begins its 249th year in business as a country, the United States owes more than $36 trillion in debt and spends nearly $2 trillion more per year than it collects. Those numbers won’t be decreasing if the One Big Beautiful Bill Act becomes law. The legislation, named and...
CMU’s Tartan Driver takes autonomous driving off Pittsburgh’s beaten path
All-terrain vehicles one day may be able to venture where no human dares to go using their own artificial intelligence. It could be to fight a raging wildfire or to rescue someone trapped in a remote location. And they may do so using a successor to Carnegie Mellon University’s TartanDriver....
Gambling regulators approve bans for 15 scofflaws who join 1,390 others who can’t bet in Pa.
Three people who left children unattended while they gambled at Philadelphia-area casinos were among those banned from gambling at casinos, using online betting sites or video gaming terminals in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday placed a total of 15 people on its involuntary exclusion lists. There are...
Giant Eagle workers to see 3% to 5% raises under new union contract
More than 5,000 unionized Giant Eagle employees will see pay raises ranging from 3% to 5% each of the next four years under a new contract. The workers also will continue to have no-cost health benefits, a 401(k) and pension plans, depending on their role with the Cranberry-based company, according...
Pa. Sens. Fetterman, McCormick support attack on Iran, but Reps. Lee, Deluzio question Trump’s authority
The Pittsburgh region’s congressional delegation shared mixed views after President Donald Trump announced U.S. airstrikes against three Iranian targets thought to be part of Iran’s nuclear program. Both of Pennsylvania’s senators, John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Dave McCormick, R-Squirrel Hill, and one of its Republican congressmen, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, voiced...
Where to beat this heat? Here are some places to cool down
Even the most Pittsburgh of dads is ready to turn the air conditioning on as the first heat wave of 2025 is underway. For those who lack some form of a/c, here’s a roundup of cooling centers and their hours for Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. For those seeking other options:...
U.S. Open’s economic impact in Oakmont, Verona is minimal, businesses report
The borough of Oakmont has been running like a broken clock twice a day this week. Before and after U.S. Open competition started each day, traffic was at a standstill on Hulton Road as players and fans made their way to Oakmont Country Club. Aside from those times, however, Oakmont...
Harder rains have fallen in Pittsburgh, but 2025 has been a wet spring
With rain showers persistently soaking the region since April 1, it begs the question: When will the flowers come? It’s the second weekend in June and it appears as if it will be soggy, at least in scattered areas in Western Pennsylvania, according to Jason Frazier, a meteorologist for the...
Former Steelers WR Antonio Brown known as much for off-field antics as game play
Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown is facing criminal charges. Again. He is as known for his antics off the gridiron as for his prowess between the hashmarks. A 36-year-old Florida man, Brown is wanted on a charge of attempted murder stemming from a shooting at a May celebrity...
U.S. Open offers chance to market Pittsburgh, but economic impact is modest, experts say
Economic development leaders hope to show the Pittsburgh region is a diamond beyond the rough at Oakmont Country Club as the U.S. Open unfolds this week before a national audience. Tens of thousands of fans are expected to flock to the world-renowned golf course and millions more will tune in...
Pitt QB shaves head for girl recovering from transplant, family facing immigration issues
Pitt Panthers quarterback Eli Holstein, his teammates and coaches are doing their part to boost the spirits of Julia Espinosa. The 13-year-old patient at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has complex health issues that prompted her to decide to shave her head after she lost most of her hair. Her...
Talking Heads video stars Saoirse Ronan, illustrates surreal daily existence
Saoirse Ronan embodies the je ne sais quoi that is 50 years of Talking Heads music in a video for the venerable art rockers’ “Psycho Killer” that dropped this week. Ronan captures the ennui of everyday existence and how masses of humanity lead lives of quiet exasperation. The video also...
New covid vaccine guidance pits ‘common sense’ vs. science, data
If pregnant women and healthy children follow new federal guidance, they won’t receive the covid-19 vaccine and will face a greater risk for complications from the disease, three public health experts told TribLive Wednesday. “This particular decision undermines years of medical research,” Dr. Syra Madad said of U.S. Health and...
Pa. set to expand cellphone ban for drivers — aiming to shift focus from phones to freeway
Fair warning: Come June 5, it will not be legal to hold a cellphone — even during calls — while driving in Pennsylvania. The new law expands the state’s restrictions on cellphone use while driving. Those who are caught violating the law will receive written warnings until June, 5, 2026....
South Side sushi bar evacuated, man hospitalized, after chemical scareVideo
An automated sushi bar in the South Side Works appears to be open after two cleaning chemicals were mixed, potentially exposing more than a dozen people to chlorine gas, Pittsburgh police said. The man who mixed the chemicals was treated at a hospital. No one else was injured, police said....
Levi unloads Dockers to focus on core denim business
Levi Strauss & Co. is shedding its Dockers khakis from its corporate closet to focus on what it does best, for what seems like forever: Blue jeans. The 172-year-old San Francisco-based clothier is selling its Dockers line to Authentic Brands Group for $311 million. The price could surge to $391...
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, in Pittsburgh, joins Springsteen to denounce TrumpVideo
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder doubled-down in support of freedom of speech and joined fellow music legend Bruce Springsteen’s denouncement of President Donald Trump’s policies. And he did it during Sunday’s show at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh before the band launched into its version of Neil Young’s First Amendment...
UPMC doc on Biden: ‘It’s impossible to screen your way out of advanced prostate cancer’
More than half of Joe Biden’s peers also likely have prostate cancer. They may not know it because they’re not showing symptoms and doctors generally stop screening for it at age 69. “We don’t often actively look for it at this age,” said Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, chair of the Urology...
Some Bruceton jobs spared, but unions say HHS still pushing major cuts
Although some of the federal jobs at the Bruceton Research Center won’t be cut after all, the national unions representing the workers warned Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services is still moving forward with deep cuts to its workforce. Dozens of positions at the Bruceton center, located...
Springsteen, Trump, Kid Rock trade political barbs
Bruce Springsteen’s songs have chronicled the working American’s hopes and dreams for 50 years. In that time, The Boss’ political bent has never been buried. Sure, some Reaganites may have misunderstood “Born in the U.S.A” as a patriotic anthem, but “American Skin (41 Shots)” clearly details the fears some have...
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee reintroduces resolution for reparations
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee introduced a resolution Thursday that would effectively provide reparations to the descendants of Black American slaves amid a flurry of actions by President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress to remove what they term “woke” policies. Lee, a Swissvale Democrat who represents parts of Allegheny and...
Dozens of Pittsburgh-area federal workers at Bruceton Research Center to keep jobs
Dozens of the 200 federal employees whose jobs were set to be cut at the Bruceton Research Center south of Pittsburgh will keep their jobs,U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio said Wednesday. The employees are respirator certification workers at the center. In layman’s terms, they test the efficacy of things like the...
End of universe sooner than once thought, research says
This just in: The end is near(er) than we thought. Turn back the ultimate doomsday clock by more than a thousand megaannum — that’s the millennium equivalent of 1 million years — so 1,000 megaannum would be 1 billion years. If research by Dutch scientists published this week meets muster,...
Latest Pittsburgh mayoral debate focuses on GOP candidates vying to reverse 100-year-trend
Pittsburgh’s Republican candidates for mayor were grilled for a solid, commercial-free hour Tuesday night during a live debate on WTAE. Artificial intelligence, education, economic development, homelessness and public safety were some of the issues the candidates touched on as they explained why Pittsburgh needs to break from a century of...
Down with Nazism, Zionism, Hindutva? CMU’s Fence briefly said so on commencement weekend
A message that included references to nationalist philosophies of Nazism, Zionism and Hindutva was placed on The Fence during graduation weekend at Carnegie Mellon University. It is unclear who placed the message, but it spurred a few people to make social media posts. “The Fence has long served as a...
