Kiley Koscinski

High school fall sports have not been canceled yet, though sports activities have been paused for two weeks. The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association said Friday it was delaying sports amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19, though it said it believes schools can safely move forward with their programs under new COVID-19 precautions.

The University of Pittsburgh will lead a consortium of institutions to study how autonomous vehicles can be made accessible to those with physical disabilities. The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the school a $1 million grant last week. The department awarded grants to four new University Transportation Centers to advance research and education programs that address transportation challenges. 

In a virtual hearing Wednesday evening, Pittsburgh Public Schools administrators heard public comment about a proposal to start the school year exclusively online instead of a hybrid model that would include some in-person instruction. The majority of statements were in favor of the remote-only model.

It’s getting harder to get tested for COVID-19 without symptoms in the Pittsburgh region. The Allegheny County Health Department suggests people who think they may have been exposed but are not experiencing symptoms skip the test and instead quarantine for 14 days.

Local unions representing bus drivers, hospital food service workers, care providers and janitors marched down Forbes Avenue in Oakland Monday morning. The demonstration was part of a national #BlackWorkersMatter movement which seeks to draw attention to income inequality and systemic racism within labor.

Pennsylvania’s lottery sales have rebounded after taking a big hit this spring when the statewide shutdown took effect. While other state lotteries are facing huge deficits as people buy fewer tickets when they head out for essential items, Pennsylvania's rebound comes via a spike in online lottery sales, according to PA Lottery executive director Drew Svitko. 

When Kyley Coleman started an Instagram page at the end of May to promote Pittsburgh’s Black-owned businesses, she thought she might collect a few thousand followers. But a little more than a month later, her curated posts on @BlackOwned.PGH reach 14,000 Instagram users.

The family of Marcus White, a 15-month-old boy who died in a 2013 East Hills shooting, called for the state to step in to prosecute their case Tuesday. They filed a victims’ rights complaint against the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office Monday.

For the first time in more than 160 years, the Big Butler Fair has been canceled. Like county fairs across the country, fairs in Western Pennsylvania have been called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But a handful of food vendors are still serving sausage sandwiches, fresh lemonade, funnel cakes and fried Oreos this summer.

It’s been two years since the bronze statue of Pittsburgh-born composer Stephen Foster and a barefoot black man playing a banjo was removed from Schenley Plaza. The statue was denounced for decades, but the criticism gained steam in the aftermath of a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Va. over the removal of Confederate monuments.

Demonstrators marched from Freedom Corner in the Hill District to the City County Building downtown Thursday afternoon in a protest organized by the groups Trans YOUniting and 1Hood Media. 

Five Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh locations will begin curbside pickup service June 23: Allegheny, Brookline, East Liberty, Hill District and Oakland. Patrons will be able to take home books and other materials, as well as return borrowed materials. 

Hundreds of people marched peacefully through a handful of Pittsburgh neighborhoods on Friday afternoon. This marked the seventh straight day of local demonstrations against police violence, following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day.

Salons, gyms and spas can reopen Friday after months of restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Some businesses are taking the weekend to ready their locations for appointments and social distancing beginning next week.

Scores of people surrounded East Liberty Presbyterian Church on Wednesday for an afternoon vigil, marking the fifth straight day of local demonstrations in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody last week.

Pittsburgh’s cooling centers might not be able to open this summer. The facilities are typically housed in senior centers, which serve a community most vulnerable to severe effects of the coronavirus.

According to a city spokesman, senior centers will be primarily focused on offering meals and activities to the elderly. It’s unclear if the facilities will later be able to open to the general public as a place to cool off. 

Cleanup crews got to work all over Downtown Pittsburgh on Sunday morning to remove debris, spray paint and broken glass. Public Works and Pittsburgh citizens scrubbed graffiti from statues, windows and buildings.

State Health Secretary Rachel Levine has stressed the importance of taking it slow when reopening businesses in Pennsylvania. “Yellow means caution,” she said at a recent press conference. That sentiment has been echoed by Pittsburgh’s religious groups grappling with whether or not to reopen their doors to worshippers.

Farmers markets are beginning to return to the Pittsburgh region and like most entities, COVID-19 has changed the way they operate. Some markets have pushed back opening dates to make time to figure out what needs to change in order to maintain social distancing and keep vendors safe.