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Nov 14, 2024
The ongoing legal and political wrangling between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and his Republican challenger, David McCormick, should remind Pennsylvania...
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Nov 12, 2024
While Haitian immigration to the Mon Valley town of Charleroi became a campaign flashpoint, far more detrimental to the community’s success, and...
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Nov 11, 2024
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Nov 5, 2024
Editor’s note: In the early 1830s, French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville traveled the young United States, and compiled his observations in the...
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Nov 4, 2024
For months, Pennsylvania has been the focus of much of the American political world. The campaign of former President Donald Trump has been looking to the Republican stretches in...
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Oct 28, 2024
In a courtroom, there are rules about what can be introduced and when and how. For example, you can’t use evidence of a prior bad act as proof that someone did a new and different...
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Oct 21, 2024
People like to be reassured about their choices. It doesn’t matter what those choices might be. We read reviews of movies or TV shows because we want someone to tell us we aren’t...
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Oct 17, 2024
The 2024 election season, more than any in recent memory, has been defined by fear — of immigration, of crime, of autocracy, of our fellow Americans.
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Oct 10, 2024
The network spins short-selling into a hit piece on Republican challenger Dave McCormick’s business record.
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Oct 10, 2024
On Tuesday, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato put her first budget proposal on the table. The spending plan calls for $3.1 billion in expenses for county services....
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Oct 2, 2024
Political endorsements have always been at odds with the supposed objectivity of media organizations.
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Sep 25, 2024
Miles Jones said he feels a disconnect. “I’ve never really felt seen and heard as a voter,” Jones said. Jones, 29, lives in Pittsburgh’s East Allegheny...
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Sep 24, 2024
William Penn called America “the best poor man’s country.” Pennsylvania’s founder saw the opportunities in the colonies as a way for people to build a better...
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Sep 20, 2024
It was always a given that dehumanizing rhetoric around immigration would intensify as the presidential election approached. Unfortunately, in the turn...
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Sep 17, 2024
Cuts and fare increases would lead to fewer people on SEPTA buses, trolleys, and trains — further eroding fare revenue and trapping the system in a doom spiral.
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Sep 16, 2024
Pittsburgh may be making a payment to the victims of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse. What a victory for justice. What a ringing endorsement for government accountability. What an...
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Sep 13, 2024
In early May, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office instituted a new policy concerning the conduct of all state employees, citing a need for “moral clarity” during controversy...
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Sep 12, 2024
How do presidential candidates prepare for a debate? Former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump’s team claimed he didn’t do formal debate prep, but reports also say he...
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Sep 9, 2024
We think of violence — especially gun violence — as something that is lightning fast. A gunshot is almost a measure of something here one minute and gone the next....
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Sep 9, 2024
Act 77, the 2019 law that revolutionized Pennsylvania’s elections and ushered in mail-in voting, has made the elections process in the commonwealth like that of a river after a...
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Sep 5, 2024
A mid-year report of the City of Pittsburgh’s current and projected revenues presents a dire portrait of the city’s finances while completely...
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Sep 5, 2024
Math is universal. One and one is two, two and two makes four, four and four becomes eight and on and on and on. It doesn’t matter where it happens. It doesn’t matter if...
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Sep 3, 2024
How hard is it to report suspected sexual abuse of a minor? In recent years, we have been buried under an absolute avalanche of proof that children have been sexually abused, if not...
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Aug 23, 2024
Pittsburgh, as well as Allegheny County and Pennsylvania, have habitually overlooked one vital tool in revitalizing neighborhoods: demolitions.
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Aug 22, 2024
Why isn’t the Arnold police chief at work? No one knows. Well, the people of Arnold don’t know. The people who have placed Chief Josh Stanga on administrative leave...
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Aug 22, 2024
Barely a month ago, it was hard to imagine anything but a fraught and woebegone Democratic National Convention presided over by a post-debate President Biden sinking in the polls to
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Aug 21, 2024
Amid the overall dysfunction of the Gainey administration, the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) under Director Kim Lucas has been an undeniable...
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Aug 20, 2024
In Chicago, the last steps are being taken. With the Democratic National Convention in full swing and the Republican convention a month in the rear view mirror, we are in the last...
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Aug 20, 2024
There may not be much public awareness that the Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest investment in clean energy and climate action in U.S. history, but its consumer incentives are
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Aug 20, 2024
A local journalist’s lawsuit settlement, which affirmed that Allegheny County Bureau of Corrections employees may talk to the media as private citizens,...
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Aug 19, 2024
The facts of America’s fentanyl crisis are bad enough without having to resort to fabrication....
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Aug 2, 2024
On Thursday, Evan Gershkovich did what he has been waiting to do for 491 days. He left his prison cell in Russia. He got on a plane. He started his journey home. For former Marine...
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Jul 31, 2024
It’s a scandal that we even have to say this, because it’s so incredibly obvious: Pennsylvania election workers should be able to open...
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Jul 30, 2024
Public transit agencies did not receive all the funds Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed in this year’s budget address. The General Assembly should create...
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Jul 17, 2024
Thomas Matthew Crooks should never have been able to get on a roof fewer than 150 yards from former president Donald Trump, let along take several shots...
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Jul 16, 2024
New regulations reining in pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the powerful middlemen between pharmacies and insurance companies, reached Gov. Shapiro’s...
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Jul 16, 2024
There has never been a time when it was this important to consume the news critically. It is important to know what is happening. This is an Olympic year and an election year. There...
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Jul 8, 2024
Western Pennsylvania is not a melting pot of cultures. The people who have come to or passed through Pittsburgh and surrounding communities have not blended into a homogeneous puree...
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Jun 24, 2024
Attitudes toward four-year college degrees have changed rapidly over the past decade, yet schools that offer career-focused associates degrees are still...
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Jun 20, 2024
Penn­syl­va­nia gov­ern­ments will re­ceive and dis­trib­ute over $1 bil­lion in funds from the his­toric set­tle­ment with...
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Jun 20, 2024
With states admitting that incarceration for simply possessing marijuana did not always fit the crime, it’s time for new legal standards to be set and applied both retroactively...
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Jun 18, 2024
The coalition for school choice expands in the Keystone State. Will Gov. Shapiro fight for poor families this time?
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Jun 18, 2024
The abrupt closure of Pittsburgh Technical College last week left hundreds of students pursuing trade skills desperately seeking alternatives.
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Jun 17, 2024
Between “committee hearings and casting floor votes on pending legislation, a select group of party leaders will also negotiate a state budget with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro...
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Jun 17, 2024
Being poor in Pennsylvania is not a crime. It might be enough to get you punished, though, according to a new lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union and private law firms filed...
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Jun 14, 2024
The long-term mismanagement of nursing homes by private equity firms has reached a tipping point, resulting in over 20 bankruptcy filings in local elder care facilities in just a few...
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Jun 10, 2024
A bid by Penn­syl­va­nia Senate Re­pub­li­cans — with the sup­port of sev­eral of their Demo­cratic ol­leagues — to cut the...
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Jun 10, 2024
Republicans appear to be of two minds about mail voting as we approach the November General Election.
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Jun 5, 2024
The three branches of government can each do or not do their jobs independent of each other most of the time. The governor of Pennsylvania never has to ask permission for staying...
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Jun 3, 2024
Penn State is a football school. There’s no denying that. The university may excel in other sports and other areas, but football is the foundation upon which its national brand...
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May 30, 2024
A move to give nearly two dozen police recruits second chances to pass the psychological evaluation demonstrates the Pittsburgh Police department’s desperation to fill its...
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May 28, 2024
From the day Nippon Steel’s surprise acquisition of U.S. Steel was announced, the Post-Gazette Editorial Board has supported it as the best outcome for Pittsburgh’s...
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May 24, 2024
Philadelphia's first female mayor has shown a willingness to tackle big issues with a style that is both unconventional and pragmatic.
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May 23, 2024
Is the NFL Draft coming to Pittsburgh in 2026 really that big a deal? From a financial perspective, it definitely could be. It seems unlikely Pittsburgh will see a Super Bowl on the...
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May 22, 2024
The bankruptcy of Dallas-based Steward Health, which owns Sharon Regional Medical Center, highlights the headwinds facing America’s hospital system, especially in rural...
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May 17, 2024
On Sunday, May 5, a young man entered a church in North Braddock, pointed a gun at the pastor and fired. The gun clicked, but didn’t discharge.
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May 15, 2024
The state Senate tees up legislation to provide scholarships.
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May 15, 2024
Schools can be caught in a no-win situation when it comes to getting kids in the doors. Students are required to attend school until they turn 18 or graduate.
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May 14, 2024
The passage last week of a bill that will ban motorists from handling cellphones on Pennsylvania roadways was a testament to the determination of one grieving mother from Scranton...
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May 9, 2024
Thirteen states have taken action to ban the charges and protect consumers. In Harrisburg, a similar proposal has stalled in the General Assembly.
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May 2, 2024
Fifty-five years ago, I took an oath to “Do No Harm.” This promise is at the heart of the medical profession that I love, and having worked alongside thousands of...
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May 1, 2024
If the government can make a citizen pay for endless court challenges to get records released, those records are effectively closed to the public.
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Apr 29, 2024
Here we are again, another closed primary in Pennsylvania. I registered in a major party as soon as I could vote (1978).
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Apr 29, 2024
On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania primary confirmed what everyone already knew: President Joe Biden, a Democrat, will face off against former president and Republican Donald Trump in...
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Apr 23, 2024
Government transparency is black and white. Records are either open or they aren’t. A meeting is public or it isn’t. There are reasons for both. The majority of...
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Apr 11, 2024
After nearly six months of warnings from the Post-Gazette Editorial Board and, in recent weeks, from City Controller Rachael Heisler, both Mayor Ed Gainey and City Council are...
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Apr 10, 2024
Line up the state’s legislative delegation in a spectrum of liberal to conservative, and Lee won’t have anyone to her left.
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Apr 8, 2024
The sun does not hide behind the moon that often. OK, that’s not quite true. A solar eclipse happens about twice a year, even up to five times a year.
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Apr 8, 2024
State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre, recently broke the charging port in his cell phone. (We won’t ask him how.) But when the manufacturer told him the part could not be...
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Apr 4, 2024
Public meetings are meant to be public. Government isn’t supposed to happen in offices away from the eyes of the people. Oh, sure, much of the execution of government has to...
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Apr 3, 2024
The rules that make us safer always follow the examples of how safe we are not. In 1911, 146 people — 123 of them women and girls — died in Manhattan when the Triangle...
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Apr 2, 2024
After a solid decade of optimism that the city and surrounding region were creating a new economy that would support a growing population, one based on "eds and meds" instead of...
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Mar 27, 2024
A bid by Pennsylvania House Democrats to boost state funding for public transit as part of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal has passed through that chamber, and now...
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Mar 25, 2024
For more than a century, Philadelphia's sheriffs have been accused of voter intimidation, jury tampering, systematic extortion, and much more.
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Mar 25, 2024
A graduated income tax — one that collects a higher percentage of earnings from the wealthy than from those who bring home smaller paychecks — is more fair than a flat...
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Mar 19, 2024
Pennsylvania makes its agencies refund fees if permits take too long.
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Mar 15, 2024
Editor: With inflation continuing to hit us hard, now is the time to embrace policies that support jobs and strengthen our economy.
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Mar 13, 2024
Laurie MacDonald will not be the next representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. After a challenge to the Mt. Washington resident’s nominating...
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Mar 12, 2024
Republicans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are beginning to see that their campaign against mail-in ballots and other forms of early voting is hurting them at the polls.
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Mar 8, 2024
Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs program, a shrewd piece of bipartisan legislation, has met a serious unmet need: support for homeowners who can’t afford essential...
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Mar 5, 2024
There’s hardly a more humane — or economically sensible — use of resources in Pittsburgh than helping recent immigrants integrate into the city’s culture and...
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Feb 27, 2024
So much of American health care can be summed up with drugs. We often go to the doctor less to find out what is wrong than we do to get a prescription to fix the symptoms.
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Feb 26, 2024
The government of the City of Pittsburgh is in a state of dysfunction unparalleled in its modern history.
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Feb 20, 2024
Pennsylvania, the longtime national outlier for its appalling patchwork system for indigent defense, is finally making progress to beef up its support for defendants who can’t...
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Feb 20, 2024
Cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania are a different animal from the run-of-the-mill public school. A charter school is still a public institution. It doesn’t play by the same...
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Feb 15, 2024
It was an odd mid-winter special election, with all eyes turned to the Northeast on a Tuesday night as polls closed.
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Feb 14, 2024
We believe there’s something unseemly about legalizing marijuana in order to provide children with better educations.
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Feb 8, 2024
The governor’s focus on education equity, public transportation funding, and raising the minimum wage — all without new tax increases — provides legislators with a road map...
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Feb 7, 2024
Cyberattacks on essential services are happening more often. Hackers have hit at financial institutions. They have struck hospitals. In 2021, a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline...
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Feb 7, 2024
It took the Post-Gazette’s Mark Belko more than two years to acquire public documents from the Allegheny County Airport Authority detailing its unusual use of severance...
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Feb 5, 2024
Some things are too complicated for a campaign promise. That never stops anyone from making them, though. On Wednesday, former president and Republican front-runner Donald Trump said...
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Jan 30, 2024
Pennsylvania has some of the most restrictive open records laws in America, needlessly slowing or stopping the public from accessing documents and information.
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Jan 30, 2024
Why do you need a school superintendent? The job might seem hard to understand for some taxpayers. Teachers? That one makes sense.
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Jan 30, 2024
“No child should ever go to school and never come home.” Terra Campbell is absolutely right. She knows that better than anyone. Her son, Marquis, was shot and killed as...
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Jan 26, 2024
Nearly every news publication in the commonwealth has commented – why not Philadelphia’s paper of record?
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Jan 22, 2024
A few weeks ago, in a meeting with U.S. Sen Bob Casey, The Daily Item’s editorial board asked the senator why so many seemingly unrelated bills end up tied together.
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Jan 22, 2024
The war in Gaza might be the biggest dividing line among the candidates.
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Jan 16, 2024
A report issued this week by the Wren Collective is direct in its title: “Under-resourced And Ignored: Indigent Defense in Schuylkill County.”
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Jan 15, 2024
When we think about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as we do on the January holiday that celebrates him each year, the words of his most famous speech are the ones that most easily come...
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Jan 12, 2024
The Pennsylvania Republican Party may have to eat some crow — and thank Gov. Josh Shapiro for an electoral boost.
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Jan 11, 2024
More Pennsylvanians are registering to vote with visions of participating in what could be a record-breaking turnout for this year’s election cycle. That is very good news.
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Jan 9, 2024
A proposed affiliation between Pittsburgh-based UPMC and the Washington Hospital, which serves Washington and Greene Counties, highlights the struggles of rural health care systems...
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Jan 8, 2024
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, one of the Three Sisters that connect Downtown to the North Side, reopened after nearly two years of construction this New Year's Eve.
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Jan 5, 2024
Republicans can’t win elections with one hand tied behind their backs.
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Jan 2, 2024
Today’s review of 2023 should bring back some memories, both good and bad, of the year that was.