On today’s episode of The Confluence: WESA government and accountability editor Chris Potter updates us on the special election to replace Mayor Ed Gainey in the state legislature and other key races on the horizon; Catapult Greater Pittsburgh has committed to helping low-income and minority families become first-time homeowners with a fund to help pay closing costs; and a new game show based on a card game that encourages contestants to learn American Sign Language has just wrapped up filming in Pittsburgh.
Special elections are coming up to replace Pittsburgh-area state house representatives, and campaign finance reports are in for U.S. Senate candidates
(0:00 - 7:14)
Half a dozen hopefuls will compete for the Democratic nomination to take over Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s term in the State House. The special election for this seat will be held April 5.
Candidates who wanted their party’s nomination needed to file a letter of intent and pay the filing fee yesterday afternoon. A number of familiar community activists have announced their candidacy, including Randall Taylor, a formal school board member, and La’Tasha Mayes, a long-time reproductive rights activist in the city.
This weekend the Democratic committee will convene to decide who the nominee will be.
“The committee members in question are those who represent the voting wards and districts of this legislative district, which includes Wilkinsburg and Eastern Pittsburgh neighborhoods,” says WESA government and accountability editor Chris Potter.
On April 5, voters will have a choice between Democratic nominees and candidates from other parties, but the field outside the Democratic party is small.
“Republicans may choose somebody [as a nominee], they have not been active in these seats before, they’re heavily Democratic. The Green [Party] may decide to run somebody, and people can run independently as well,” says Potter. “In a special election, funny things can happen, it’s kind of a low turnout election, and voters can have a choice.”
When it comes to campaign finance, a lot of money has been spent by candidates vying to replace U.S. Senator Pat Toomey. On the Democratic side, John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor, is outraising his colleagues. By the close of the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, he had brought in just shy of $12 million total, and had spent nearly $6.7 million of it.
“He begins this year with almost $5 million in the bank. That’s a lot of money, and it comes from a large, sort of grass roots online donor base who knows about John through media coverage over the years,” says Potter.
Congressman Conor Lamb is also running for Toomey’s seat, but is not as financially strong. He’s brought in just shy of $4 million, and has spent $1.8 million.
No democratic candidate secured the Democratic committee endorsement, because it required getting two-thirds of the committee’s votes, but Lamb came the closest.
“Lamb is running an electability campaign, and you can kind of see that,” says Potter. “Fetterman’s argument is, ‘Look I have all this grassroots support and I’m capable … of connecting with white working class voters in a way the party needs to’.”
On the Republican side, longtime television celebrity physician Mehmet Oz loaned himself $5.2 million in the early days of the campaign, easily outstripping nearly every other candidate on either side of the aisle. The financial picture of former Bridgewater CEO Dave McCormick’s campaign is unclear because of his late announcement.
Catapult Greater Pittsburgh’s new fund is helping families achieve homeownership
(7:20 - 13:08)
Catapult Greater Pittsburgh has started a new fund to help first-time homebuyers. The program, Next Steps Fund, has issued up to $30,000 in closing cost and down payment assistance to its participants since it launched in September.
“Coming up with a down payment and closing costs up front can be the barrier [to home ownership], and so we really wanted to help bridge that gap,” explains Brettney Duck, Catapult’s Director of Homeownership. “We were funded through PHFA [the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency] and through a group of donors who also donated money for what they call reparations, and they wanted us to use it for black homeownership.”
Duck says she expects they will issue more grants when home buying picks up, typically around March.
The majority of participants served by Catapult Greater Pittsburgh are low to moderate income, and Duck says their programs aim to help families achieve financial stability.
In addition to programs to help participants save, Catapult also offers credit counseling and entrepreneurship programs.
“One of the things we always preach is this generational wealth,” says Duck. “So, understanding that homeownership, entrepreneurship, these are ways to start building generational wealth for your family.”
SignTasTic! turns learning ASL into a game
(13:14 - 22:30)
A new television game show has wrapped up filming in Pittsburgh.
It’s not a game of trivia, or silly physical antics: Instead, two contestants are challenged to learn 50 sign language words before the show, and throughout the episode, have to prove what they’ve learned through games. It’s called “SignTasTic!”
Dan Cook and Heather Gray are co-hosts on the show.
Transcript:
Kevin Gavin: It's the Confluence on 90.5 WESA, I'm KG:.
KG: A new television game show was filming in Pittsburgh. It's not a game of trivia or silly physical antics. Instead, two contestants are challenged to learn 50 sign language words before the show, and throughout the episode, have to prove what they've learned through games. It's called SignTasTic! Dan Cook is the host of the show. He joins us now interpreted by his co-host Heather Gray. Dan, welcome to the Confluence.
Dan Cook: Oh, thank you so much, Kevin.
KG: Dan, you and all the other performers on the show. Besides, the contestants are deaf, which I don't think I've ever seen on a televised game show before. So would you give us an idea of the mechanics of the game?
DC: The game show is kind of like the same concept as other game shows. We have two contestants come out and Heather is my co-host and I'm the host. And so we ask them trivia questions, some trivia questions, and they have to sign the answers.
DC:The performers who are deaf and they come and they do gestures and signs, and then the contestants need to figure out like maybe a word that they are describing from a list that they learned. And also, we also ask questions of the performers like, they have stories and gestures. And they are like three key words within their story that the hearing contestants have to figure out and identify.
KG: Do I understand this correctly: The idea of the show came from a card game that you developed.
DC: That is correct, yes. I developed a card game a long time ago, maybe 20, 25 years ago. I've been a teacher of ASL for many years at many different colleges. And when I was teaching my classes, I noticed that, you know, 'Oh, here's your name, what's your name?' All these kinds of things and people would fall asleep. They would get bored in class.
DC: But then I introduced game playing and we would play games with cards, and the students would wake up and get involved and energized about learning. And so I thought, 'I'm going to call this card game SignTasTic,' because it mixes 'sign language' and 'fantastic' together. So, I kind of put those words together and made it into 'SignTasTic.' And I've kind of been holding on to that idea for a long time.
DC: And then a few years ago, one of my friends told me that I should probably just do it because I had been hosting trivia game shows called 'Test Your Knowledge' at deaf events around America. And I would do that in ASL, and people were just really fascinated by it, and it was a huge challenge in teaching people these. Like, 90 percent of America is hearing. And so, it's really interesting. I just wanted to be, you know, this game show host. And I watched like, 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and all those shows. And I think that deaf people love signing and hearing people love games. And I just think it's a really great fit.
KG: What happened when you got the green light to actually do the TV game show?
DC: I just felt like I was a kid again because we are filming this in Mister Rogers Neighborhood at WQED, and it just took me back to my childhood. I loved Mister Rogers growing up. I loved game shows, and we didn't have captioning, closed captioning back then. So I would just watch it, and I got a warm feeling from Mister Rogers, even without being able to know what he was saying.
DC: And I thought, you know, the purpose of this game show and being filmed there at WQED is great. We want to teach a warm, family atmosphere. We want to have hearing and deaf people come together in one world and be able to all communicate together.
KG: That communication, are there too many barriers right now? Are they difficult to overcome between the speaking world and the signing world?
DC: I think that we can break down barriers because I think with technology like Face Time, video phones, voice changes to text: I think all of this technology has really kind of made it possible for deaf and hearing people to communicate, and I think in the future we can make it better. I think we can all go through this and I think that teaching people basic signs, so that when they interact with the deaf person, is going to really benefit everyone.
KG: SignTasTic has finished filming the first 11 episodes. When can we expect to see it?
DC: We're in the process right now of editing the show. It may take two months or so and we are in connection with some VIPs and we'll be sending people, streaming services and networks, information about that. So we do just want to get the word out. We haven't signed any deals yet with anyone, any company about distribution.
KG: So when it does start airing, what do you hope viewers will take away from it?
DC: I hope that people learn basic signs so that they are motivated to learn more. That they can say, 'Wow, ASL is pretty cool and I can learn another language!' You know, and maybe they'll take a class and get to know deaf people in their own community.
DC: In the past, what was it, 2010 I think it was? The average class size that I had was maybe 12 or 14 students. And then, after [the ABC show] 'Switched at Birth' happened, I got like an increase of like twenty five students were in my classes. And I asked them, 'Why are you guys learning sign language? Why? Why this increase?' And they said it was because of that show, 'Switched at Birth' and there was a hearing and a deaf family there.
DC: And the students were saying, 'Wow, we love this and it inspired us to watch this show, and then we were inspired to learn the language.' And so I think that this show will really motivate people to learn that too. I'm super grateful that they have helped open the doors to sign language in the media.
KG: Heather, you've been interpreting for Dan during this conversation. What's this experience been like for you as co-host of the game show?
Heather Gray: Well, Kevin, right now I'm going to sim com [short for simultaneous communication], which means that I'm going to voice for you and your hearing audience, and I'm going to sign as well so that Dan on the Zoom call can see what I'm saying. I mean, I'm an interpreter. I'm a certified interpreter. Yes, I have 30 years of experience on stage, in theater and different things that I've done for performance, and I was not originally going to be the co-host. I was supposed to just be the voice of Dan because we've been friends.
HG: We developed this game together and it wasn't something that I thought was going to happen. But the producers approached us and said, 'Hey, let's make a change to the gameplay.' Visually, our director, Doug Sicchitano, he said that he was preaching on stage one day about how, 'Look, Dan is here on this stage and then Heather is here, and she's the bridge between the hearing people who are the contestants.' And he was just really excited about this visual look of the set and how we could have hearing and deaf people really collaborate to make the show great. And so that's how I kind of got roped into being the co-host.
KG: Give us a hint you filmed 11 episodes. Have the contestants grasped ASL words? Have they done it? Has it been successful? Any funny moments you can just tease us about?
Heather Gray, for Dan Cook: Dan says, yeah. I remember in the beginning of the show there was maybe a little bit of tension [laughs] between the hearing and the signing because people didn't know any of the signs and it was new and awkward. But after I met the people, I really think, it was really important. I mean, just growing up, meeting deaf people and meeting hearing people and just telling people, 'You can do this, you know?'.
DC: And I just, I watch people sitting there signing and learning this for the first time and they're like saying, 'Good morning, good night.' [laughs] And I would say, 'Hey, well, this is how you actually do that sign. I want you to put your palm orientation this way'.
DC: And I would say, 'Nice to meet you.' And some people said it with two fingers, and that's really not the right sign. Like two fingers saying 'nice to meet you' is much different than one finger, 'nice to meet you.' And so we were just laughing so hard. We were crying sometimes, and it felt really like a family environment. And I would love to see everyone again, and I just think that it would be great for them to keep learning sign.
KG: We've been speaking with DC: and Heather Gray, co-hosts on the new Pittsburgh-based game show SignTasTic. Thanks so much for joining us!
DC: Yes, Kevin, thank you so much for having us. Thanks so much. Bye bye.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
