An extra $500 per month will soon arrive for 200 Pittsburgh households. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said the city will start to make the payments later this year as part of a universal income pilot program. The initiative is funded by philanthropic donors and will go to very low-income families with an emphasis on homes run by Black women.
Every weekend for nearly four months, activists with the group Black, Young, and Educated lead a series of protests dubbed Civil Saturdays. Hundreds if not thousands of Pittsburghers have participated in the demonstrations, which aimed to call attention to the state’s police use of force statute. The group recently stopped organizing, citing work, school and fatigue.
This week, a federal judge ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown orders and limits on in-person gatherings in response to the coronavirus pandemic were unconstitutional. Back in March, Wolf ordered all non-life-sustaining businesses to close and residents to stay home as much as possible. Butler County government, the main plaintiff in the case, said those restrictions violated the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and Judge William Stickman IV agreed.
Helping explain the headlines this week:
- Sam Dunklau, WITF capitol bureau chief
- An-Li Herring, government and accountability reporter
- Katie Blackley, digital editor and producer
Pittsburgh Explainer is hosted by Liz Reid and produced by Katie Blackley. New episodes come out every Friday. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.
