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Could City Council's Gun Legislation Have Unforeseen Consequences For Minorities?

Local community members, journalists and officials will gather at the Ace Hotel Wednesday night for a discussion about gun control legislation that would seek to include the unique experiences of women, minorities and religious groups. 

The event, hosted by CityLab, will feature reporter Brentin Mock and Wilkinsburg Mayor Marita Garrett among a larger panel that will discuss inequality in gun legislation

According to Mock, more focus should be applied to the root causes of violence across these affected communities.

“If white supremacy and racism aren’t dealt with, then yes, African Americans will continue to feel vulnerable to being victimized by that kind of violence,” he said.  

The community conversation “What it Means to Be Protected in Urban Spaces” is free and open to the public. 

Credit Courtesy of Lauren Zarar
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Courtesy of Lauren Zarar
Water droplets on a petri dish depict an illustration of a penguin.

Later in the program: 

After the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island’s nuclear reactor in 1979 left areas of the facility highly radioactive and unsafe for humans, some young researchers decided to send in robots to clean up the damage. For StateImpact Pennsylvania, WESA's Amy Sisk reports that their work, which helped expand the fledgling field of robotics.

Ray Sprigle, a white journalist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, went undercover in 1948 as a black man to uncover stories of racism and discrimination in the Jim Crow era for Northern readers. 90.5 WESA’s Bill O’Driscoll spoke to Bill Steigerwald, author of “30 Days a Black Man: The Forgotten Story That Exposed the Jim Crow South,”about how this reporting impacted the end of legal segregation in the United States.

And new research from Penn State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that clear droplets of water can produce brilliant iridescent color as a result of "structural color." Lauren Zarzar, an associate professor at Penn State and a leader of the research team, joins The Confluence to discuss how her research could inspire future innovations in paint, cosmetics, bacterial detection in public water supply and more.

The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in weekdays at 9 a.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators join veteran journalist Kevin Gavin, taking an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Kiley Koscinski covers city government, policy and how Pittsburghers engage with city services. She also works as a fill-in host for All Things Considered. Kiley has previously served as a producer on The Confluence and Morning Edition.
Julia Zenkevich reports on Allegheny County government for 90.5 WESA. She first joined the station as a production assistant on The Confluence, and more recently served as a fill-in producer for The Confluence and Morning Edition. She’s a life-long Pittsburgher, and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She can be reached at jzenkevich@wesa.fm.
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