The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not grant a quick, pre-election review to a new Republican appeal to exclude Pennsylvania absentee ballots received after Election Day.

Election Day is November 3rd, but casting a ballot will look different this year. WESA reporters have compiled a list of candidate profiles, issues and legal updates.

We've also answered your questions on Pennsylvania mail-in ballots and voting in person.

Pittsburgh’s western suburbs may not have seen as much of the coronavirus as other areas, but the pandemic is still a key concern in the race for state House District 44. First-term Republican House member Valerie Gaydos says she has been encouraged to see that residents of her district — which sprawls from airport-area suburbs like Moon to Ohio River Valley communities like Sewickley — follow COVID guidelines. She says residents will make “smart” decisions on their own, but the state’s guidance has been confusing and should be more transparent. 

The coronavirus is spreading throughout all corners of Allegheny County.

Pennsylvania’s public school children are being shortchanged by $4.6 billion — and those in the poorest school districts, who have fallen the furthest behind, are owed the most, according to a new analysis commissioned by advocates seeking to overhaul the state’s education funding system.

Nearly 50 teachers and parents asked the city school district’s board Monday to reconsider its plan to return students to classrooms in-person on November 9.

The police commissioner in Philadelphia said Wednesday that her department will release 911 tapes and footage from police body cameras “in the near future” in the shooting death of a Black man following two nights of protests that set off clashes with police and break-ins of stores on the other side of the city.

Dozens of Hazelwood residents and people from surrounding communities spoke out against a non-profit sponsored shuttle service at a public meeting Wednesday evening. Nearly 200 people joined the video call, which lasted just over two hours. 

The 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. As such, it’s readily contextualized alongside the spikes in nativist rhetoric and white-nationalist violence that have plagued the country in recent years.

“Abuse of Power Comes As No Surprise.”

“Protect Me From What I Want.”

A controversial natural gas well at a US Steel Plant near Pittsburgh suffered a setback Thursday night. The East Pittsburgh Borough zoning hearing board denied an appeal by a fracking company to have a lapsed permit for the well reinstated. 

A team of Harvard researchers found elevated levels of radioactivity on air particles measured downwind of fracking sites around the country.

More than one-third of respondents in a recent WESA/Campos survey said their financial health has changed for the worse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People without a bachelor’s degree were more likely to say their finances were worse off than those with a degree, and Black survey respondents were more likely than whites to say their finances are now worse.

Pennsylvania plans to offer $20 million in relief to the state’s beleaguered hospitality industry, the governor announced Thursday, an amount trade groups called woefully inadequate for helping bars and restaurants survive the pandemic.