An-Li Herring

The coronavirus pandemic has coincided with a dramatic increase in the number of complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a study released Monday by the consumer advocacy group U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

A federal grand jury has indicted the former administrator of a local nursing home, alleging that the administrator directed employees to over-report their work hours in order to satisfy federal staffing requirements.

Allegheny County Council is expected on Tuesday to take up a third, pared-back proposal to form an independent police review board.

The idea of switching to solar power can feel intimidating, given high upfront costs and possible confusion about how the technology works and how reliable it is. But community groups in Etna, Millvale, and Sharpsburg hope to ease the transition by launching a solar energy purchasing cooperative.

Activists are one step closer to asking local voters to curb the use of solitary confinement at the Allegheny County Jail and to ban no-knock search warrants within the city of Pittsburgh.

State pardons officials and prisoner rights advocates continued their push Friday to expand chances for release for the roughly 1,200 Pennsylvanians serving life sentences for felony-murder.

While first responders have been given priority access to the coronavirus vaccine, evidence suggests local public safety workers are being vaccinated at different rates.

Members of Allegheny County Council blocked attempts Wednesday to scale back a proposed paid sick leave mandate. But with more amendments yet to be debated, council’s health and human services committee must meet again before returning the bill for a full council vote.

The Allegheny County Police Department will have a new superintendent next month, but the change comes too soon for critics who say the public should have had a say in choosing the department’s next leader.

After being identified as a key figure in the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol, Rachel Powell, of Sandy Lake, Pa., has been arrested for her alleged participation in the insurrection.

Employees at Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania are preparing for a vote to unionize. The election has yet to be scheduled, but on Wednesday the National Labor Relations Board said workers may vote by mail due to COVID-19, Planned Parent health care assistant Crystal Grabowski said.

As electric vehicles gain a foothold in the auto market and promise to drive down greenhouse-gas emissions, a new study says Pennsylvania ranks 17th among all states for taking steps to support transportation electrification.

Pittsburgh is expected to receive its first significant snowfall in weeks starting Saturday night and into late Sunday.

Although President Joe Biden’s actions on climate change have stirred anxieties about job loss in energy-producing states like Pennsylvania, a new report predicts that plans like Biden’s could create roughly a quarter-million jobs annually in the Commonwealth. And within hours after the report's release, local officials announced a small but symbolic down payment on green energy investment.

An Allegheny County Council committee resumed discussions Wednesday over a bill that would mandate paid sick leave at most workplaces in the county. But with several major changes to the bill still on the table, the panel will need to convene at least once more before the full council votes on it.

Local childcare providers likely have maxed out their share of a state program that gives $600 grants to childcare workers.

Two local men have been arrested in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Tuesday statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for western Pennsylvania. Jorden Mink of Oakdale and Matthew Perna of Sharon appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, the statement said, although it noted that the prosecutions will proceed in Washington DC.

Democrat Jim Brewster will be sworn in to represent state Senate District 45 on Wednesday morning, a week later than his peers and one day after a federal judge rejected a Republican attempt to toss out mail-in ballots in the race. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Ranjan said that the ballots were valid under a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, and that Republican Nicole Ziccarelli had failed to show why he should declare that decision unconstitutional.

The latest coronavirus relief bill included $7 billion to expand broadband internet access, and Pennsylvania is expected to get $850 million of the money, according to Gov. Tom Wolf’s office.

Both chambers of the Pennsylvania General Assembly on Tuesday side-stepped proposed rules changes that would have diminished the power of majority-party leaders to control the legislative agenda.

The fate of a state Senate seat in the Pittsburgh area remains in limbo even after the chamber started a new session Tuesday.

Most bills proposed in the Pennsylvania legislature never get a vote, but some lawmakers want to change that in the new legislative session, which begins Tuesday.

In Allegheny County and elsewhere, the end of 2020 brings worries that COVID-19 cases will rise due to holiday celebrations, but also hope that a new vaccine will finally curb the pandemic.

As the Pennsylvania legislature begins a new session next month, Allegheny County will find itself unrepresented among top leadership in the state House.

Pennsylvania’s two Senators say they support a new COVID-19 relief package that a bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled Monday. The plan would prioritize areas of agreement while leaving more contentious issues to be resolved later.

On Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf announced sweeping new restrictions Thursday to limit the spread of the coronavirus. And while it remains to be seen how strictly the rules will be enforced when they take effect this weekend, state agencies say they are “prepared to take more strict enforcement actions” – and at least one local critic of an earlier round of restrictions is tempering his criticism this time.

A bill that would establish an independent police review board for Allegheny County is slated for a January 26 vote. On Tuesday, county council’s public safety committee made a few amendments to a recently introduced version of the legislation, and Democratic committee chair Liv Bennett said the measure would return to the full council once the county executive’s office proposes additional modifications.

A campaign to unionize educators is underway at one of the region’s largest charter school networks, but organizers say administrators have tried to thwart the effort.