Tom Davidson stories, Page 7

Pittsburgh City Council members gave preliminary approval Wednesday for the police department to buy two small robots equipped with cameras. But they did so only after discussion among members and asking the police department’s Special Deployment Cmdr. Ed Trapp about how the robots will be used. “It’s just distressing to...

Parents, teacher, administrators and other Pittsburgh Public Schools leaders will advise the school board as it decides how to allocate more than $100 million in new federal coronavirus recovery money that’s coming to the district. The school board on Wednesday approved forming a 21-member Public Stakeholder Advisory Committee to provide...

A $17,500 state grant that will pay for a study of Homewood’s properties will be a key to implementing an improvement plan for the neighborhood, Pittsburgh City Councilman Ricky Burgess said Thursday. The city received the grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development. It will identify vacant...

Pittsburgh will install speed humps on Merrimac Street next month to slow traffic, the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure said Thursday. They will be installed between Grandview Avenue to Woodruff Street in an effort to slow traffic on Mt. Washington. The city collected data in the spring that showed...

The team behind the plans to redevelop the former Civic Arena site in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District made their case again Wednesday as the long-awaited project awaits further regulatory approvals, this time to the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. The URA board will vote on the plans when it meets at...

Democratic Pittsburgh mayoral candidate Ed Gainey may face a Republican opponent in the fall, based on early results of write-in votes released Tuesday. Retired Pittsburgh police officer Tony Moreno, 51, of Brighton Heights, has received 1,379 Republican write-in votes thus far. Moreno ran a populist campaign as a Democrat, but...

People who test positive for covid-19 should ask their health care providers about receiving monoclonal antibody treatment as soon as they are diagnosed, UPMC doctors said Wednesday. “Earlier is better. It is important for high-risk patients,” said Dr. Meredith Chuk, allocation, distribution and administration lead for the federal department of...

A $1.75 million grant to help restore the landmark, but long vacant, New Granada Theater in the Hill District and a $1.7 million grant to continue the development at Hazelwood Green top the list of the latest awards from the Heinz Endowments, announced Tuesday. “Strengthening community development is core to...

StarKist says it plans to close its corporate headquarters on Pittsburgh’s North Shore next year. Known for its packaged tuna, StarKist will be moving to Virginia in the Washington, D.C., metro area. The Pittsburgh headquarters will close March 31, 2022. The company “will maintain a presence in the region,” the...

Pittsburgh residents voted for change when they chose Ed Gainey as the Democratic nominee for mayor. On Friday, Gainey said he intends to deliver. “Our young folks want to see a city of justice,” Gainey said in an interview with the Tribune-Review. “That’s a change that creates opportunities for everybody...

Shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s supporters were in the banquet room of a South Side union hall watching their candidate’s lead wither. The mood was strikingly different from two hours prior. Early returns had Peduto with a comfortable lead of more than 3,000 votes. It was...

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said Guardian Angel Academy will be the name of the school formed from merging Saint Margaret of Scotland, located in Green Tree, with Saint Philip school in Crafton. The naming, announced Wednesday, comes amid a formal appeal to the Vatican to stop the merger. The...

Two of the four Pittsburgh City Council races were contested in Tuesday’s primary election. Unlike the mayoral race, where Bill Peduto failed in a re-election bid, the council races saw the incumbents move on with two-to-one support. Council President Theresa Kail-Smith defeated challenger Jacob Williamson in the District 2 race...

No-knock warrants will be banned in Pittsburgh and solitary confinement will be restricted at Allegheny County Jail after voters overwhelmingly approved two ballot questions in Tuesday’s election. Voters petitioned to add the questions to the ballot and they had broad support from both city and county residents, according to Brandi...

Pittsburgh’s Independence Day celebration will return this year, and other summertime events may also resume as coronavirus restrictions are eased, the city announced Monday. The traditional gathering at Point State Park will include patriotic music and food vendors from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with the fireworks starting at dusk....

Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board was given expanded powers to audit the city’s police bureau when voters passed a referendum last year. This week, city Controller Michael Lamb released an audit of the board itself, the first outside scrutiny of the board since it was created in 1997. “As the...

Get a covid vaccine. Win $1 million. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that the state will award five vaccinated adult residents $1 million as an incentive to get more people vaccinated. About half of Ohio’s 8.4 million adults have at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccination. Two weeks...

With federal funding from American Rescue Plan set to be distributed to state and local governments, the leaders of Pittsburgh’s city government and school system outlined this week the processes by which the money may be allocated. The city of Pittsburgh is set to receive about $355 million, while the...

Allegheny County and Pittsburgh voters will be asked to decide separate criminal justice issues on ballot questions in the May 18 primary. If approved, the ballot questions would ban Pittsburgh police from serving warrants without announcing themselves, and the use of solitary confinement would be restricted at Allegheny County Jail....

Pittsburgh’s mayoral race pits two political insiders, the incumbent and a longtime state representative, against two outsiders, a retired cop and an Ivy League-educated math tutor/ride-hailing driver. Talk of equity and reform unite the men, but each have different approaches to the subject. The May 18 Democratic primary likely decides...

Pittsburgh’s Black community is shrinking and some who remain in the city say they are fed up with generations of neglect by city officials, systematic racism and development projects that have caused departures. Between 2014 and 2018, U.S. Census data shows, Pittsburgh’s Black population dropped by about 10% — or...

Election clerks are still needed in six municipalities and three of Pittsburgh’s wards, but most positions at polling places are filled and workers have been trained, Allegheny County Administrative Services Deputy Director Jessica Garofolo told the elections board Tuesday. Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco said Tuesday he is concerned that...