Kiley Koscinski

Attorneys for the family of a man killed by Wilkinsburg Police have filed a federal lawsuit citing excessive force. Romir Talley was fatally shot by Wilkinsburg Police officer Robert Gowans in December 2019.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, also includes claims of unreasonable seizure and improper training of officers by the police department.

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. 

East Liberty-based Duolingo announced Wednesday a multi-year fund to support local artists and arts organizations. The language-learning app developer made the announcement as the company officially unveiled a new public mural on the Duolingo headquarters on Penn Avenue. 

The company says it will put up $150,000 over the next three years to fund public art projects and support arts organizations. The first art grant has been awarded to two local artists towards the creation of a new mural in East Liberty.  

The foundations behind the Hazelwood Green development site have proposed funding a long-debated shuttle between Oakland, Hazelwood and the former steel mill site. Almono LP released preliminary plans for the electric shuttle route Monday, ahead of public meetings to discuss the proposal.

Supporters of President Donald Trump caravanned through the city of Pittsburgh midday on Saturday. 

Most of the more than two dozen charges against activist Lorenzo Rulli, stemming from six racial justice protests in Pittsburgh this year, will proceed to trial. Rulli appeared in Pittsburgh Municipal Court Friday.

New data from Carnegie Mellon University allows users to see the percentage of people who wear masks in their county. COVIDcast, which already localized collected data about coronavirus activity, began asking survey respondents about face coverings and test access last month. 

School districts across the Pittsburgh region have reported cases of COVID-19 since the academic year began, causing some districts to temporarily close schools. There aren’t, however, any set rules from the state about how a school district informs parents about a positive COVID-19 case. As a result, communication polices vary district to district.

A postcard from a statewide nonprofit group has confused some Pennsylvanians ahead of the general election. More than a dozen voters reported receiving a malier from The Voter Project to ProPublica’s ElectionLand tipline. 

Halloween will go on in Pittsburgh this year, according to city officials. But residents are urged to follow several precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 

Dozens joined Put People First Pennsylvania for a march Thursday at Mellon Green downtown. The public health care advocacy group is holding seven marches across the Commonwealth this week to call for Medicaid for all. 

Three Hill District projects are getting a boost from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh. The URA announced $250,000 in grants Tuesday afternoon from its Neighborhood Initiatives Fund. 

Businesses are starting to recover from pandemic-related layoffs and economic activity, according to a new survey from PNC. One hundred fifty small and mid-size Pennsylvania business owners and executives responded to the survey.

Carnegie Mellon University is sending another rover to the moon in 2022. MoonRanger, developed with CMU spinoff Astrobotic, will explore the region around the lunar South Pole in search of ice.

Three local activists are heading to trial to face charges in connection with a June protest at 941 Saloon downtown. The majority of charges against Dena Stanley, Nique Craft and Christian Carter were held for trial at a preliminary hearing Friday.

A report published Tuesday makes the case for a low-income fare program for public transit in Allegheny County. Pittsburghers for Public Transit, a grassroots organization of transit riders, advocates and operators, called on the Port Authority of Allegheny County to allow the lowest-income riders to use public transit for free. 

According to Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry, funds provided by the federal Lost Wages Assistance program, which offers an extra $300 per week to qualified unemployment recipients, have run out. The Federal Emergency Management Agency-run program – which was initially slated to run through December, or until funds were depleted – will now only cover a span of six weeks. 

Qualified claimants have not yet received their first checks.

Some Pittsburgh Public Schools students experienced slow connections or none at all on the first day of online classes Tuesday. All classes are being held online through at least the first nine weeks of school.

Mark Stuckey, the district’s interim chief technology officer, said there was a configuration issue with the district’s Internet bandwidth provider, causing students to bottleneck through a smaller backup server when trying to access the district’s web resources. 

Footage of a weekend protest in Downtown Pittsburgh went viral—and now President Donald Trump has spoken out about the incident, calling protesters “anarchists” and “thugs.”  

Members of Nurses of Pennsylvania and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania are calling on state legislators to include nurses in talks about pandemic recovery policies. The groups have held multiple virtual town halls since March.

Three people are facing felony charges in connection with a mural painted in Wilkinsburg in July. The mural depicted the face of Romir Talley, a 24-year-old man who was shot and killed by Wilkinsburg police in December.

Pittsburgh Police are still searching for those responsible for the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in Spring Hill. Officials appealed directly to the public Tuesday to submit any information that could help their investigation.  

A 133,000-square-foot solar array is now functional at Hazelwood Green’s Mill 19. It’s a project that marries the story of Pittsburgh’s past with its future: bridge workers applied 4,784 solar panels to the frame of a former steel mill now home to robotics nonprofits and one of the several autonomous vehicle developers which call the city home.

One week after a cyclist was arrested during a Civil Saturdays protest, hundreds marched through East Liberty with little interference from police.

Fall sports could be back on at high schools across Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League announced Friday an end to their two-week delay in favor of starting the season Monday. 

Protesters are expected to march through Mayor Bill Peduto’s Point Breeze neighborhood Wednesday evening for the third time this week. Organizers say their only demand is a conversation with the mayor about the Black Lives Matter movement, something activist Lorenzo Rulli said he has been requesting for months. 

Students are arriving on campus at the University of Pittsburgh this week. But instead of crowded crosswalks and lines for parking, students pushed freshly sanitized moving carts to their dorm rooms with little downtime.  

The university’s arrival staff worked with its health and safety advisory board to draw up a move-in plan that took months to revise and finalize, according to Olivia Phillips, Pitt’s arrival coordinator. 

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League, or WPIAL, said Monday that fall sports can be played safely and criticized what it called "inconsistent messaging” from state officials.

In a press conference, WPIAL Executive Director Amy Scheuneman said the league agrees with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s move last week to postpone mandatory sports events for two weeks rather than cancel play through the fall. As of now, WPIAL plans to start its football season Sept. 10th.