Identity & Justice

Pennsylvania's highest court has put a stop to a local policy that allowed streaming of Philadelphia criminal trials over the internet.

Thirteen people who are accused of committing crimes while participating in a civil disturbance in Lancaster on Sunday night sat behind bars Tuesday, with bail for seven of them set at $1 million.

After nearly two years of evidence-gathering and hundreds of interviews with people who have been held at the Allegheny County Jail, civil rights lawyers have sued the county and jail officials for the alleged mistreatment of inmates with psychiatric disabilities.

Legal advocates are lining up on both sides of actor Bill Cosby’s appeal as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prepares to review his 2018 sex assault conviction.

Black girls in Allegheny County were 10 times more likely than their white counterparts to be involved in the juvenile justice system last year, according to a study released Monday. The county’s Black boys, meanwhile, were seven times more likely than local white boys to end up in the system, the research shows.

Police deployed tear gas on a crowd of people protesting early Monday after an officer shot and killed a man in Pennsylvania while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

Cheers, chants and tears filled the streets of Pittsburgh’s East End neighborhoods Saturday as the group Black, Young and Educated made their final collective in-person push for changes to Pennsylvania’s police use of force law.

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.”  

On Tuesday morning, Jason Kiefer went to get his mail and found two copies of an eviction notice taped to the door, scheduling a court hearing for Sept. 10. The address of the Lehigh County Courthouse was crossed out, replaced by “Zoom” in scribbled red letters.

Federal agents searched two nursing homes Thursday near Pittsburgh, one of which had the worst coronavirus outbreak of any in Pennsylvania and was already being investigated by the state on suspicion of criminal neglect.

Around 10 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2013, a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled over a minivan on Interstate 81. He later wrote that he had seen a GPS device mounted on the car’s windshield, possibly obstructing the driver’s view.

A cacophony of car horns filled Downtown Pittsburgh and a handful of other city neighborhoods Monday as demonstrators called for the extension of a statewide eviction moratorium. 

Hundreds of demonstrators occupied the intersection of Forbes and Murray avenues in Squirrel Hill for over two-and-a-half hours Saturday afternoon, as some speakers challenged participants to redouble their efforts on behalf of the cause.

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.

At least eight residents of a long-beleaguered apartment complex in Penn Hills will be forced to move out by Monday – the same day a moratorium that has protected Pennsylvania renters from eviction during the coronavirus crisis is set to expire. 

Devereux, the Villanova-based behavioral health organization where an investigation recently uncovered systemic sexual abuse, also holds a federal contract to house unaccompanied immigrant children in Pennsylvania.

Faced with the financial burdens of COVID-19 and a lack of state support, drug and alcohol treatment facilities in Pennsylvania could begin closing at an alarming rate, even as overdose deaths rise and the need for treatment is expected to grow.

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.  

Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday he does not have the legal authority to extend Pennsylvania’s moratorium on evictions and foreclosures beyond the end of the month, meaning that renters will no longer be shielded from losing their homes for failing to pay rent during the pandemic.

About 10,000 state prison inmates in Pennsylvania fraudulently applied for unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said in announcing charges Tuesday against 33 people.

A white Bedford County man shot into a crowd of about 50 peaceful civil rights marchers who were crossing through Pennsylvania during a pilgrimage from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C. last night, injuring one in the face.

Pittsburgh’s annual Pride celebration will have new leadership next year. Trans YOUniting and the PGH LGBTQ Coalition say they will oversee the June festival and parade in 2021. 

Starting Monday, certain Pennsylvania residents with state parole warrants can voluntarily surrender and most likely avoid getting sent back to prison for violating the terms of their supervision.

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

Mayor Bill Peduto announced changes to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s protest policy on Friday afternoon, following a week of confrontations between police and demonstrators.

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. 

A small number of protesters who remained outside the home of the mayor of Pittsburgh overnight were dispersed by police Wednesday morning and the mayor issued a statement decrying residents being “harassed and threatened."

Every election year, the country has the chance to reimagine who speaks for the people: What if more voters of color came out? More naturalized citizens? More young people?