News

The Responsible Hospitality Institute (RHI) was contracted with the City of Pittsburgh almost a year ago to develop a so-called Sociable City Plan. That plan aims to improve the city’s nighttime economy while also ensuring public safety.

Several restaurant and bar owners from Pittsburgh’s South Side gathered on Wednesday to discuss progress and future steps.

Updated Post: 4:56 p.m.

Senate Republicans, backed by rural-state Democrats, blocked legislation Wednesday to tighten restrictions on the sale of firearms, rejecting personal pleas made by families of the victims of last winter's mass elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Attempts to ban assault-style rifles and high capacity ammunition magazines also faced certain defeat in a series of showdown votes four months after a gunman killed 20 elementary school children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed an agreement Tuesday making Chile and Pennsylvania "Sister Chambers" by fostering job growth and business development opportunities between the two governments. The agreement came at the end of the governor's trade mission to Brazil and Chile.

The state's First Lady, Susan Corbett, is reaching out to the Chileans in a different way, announcing a cultural exchange program based in Pittsburgh and Santiago. 

A panel of Commonwealth Court judges in Pittsburgh heard opening arguments Wednesday from attorneys challenging the way Act 80, a law that affected various human service programs statewide, was enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly last year.

The lawsuit Billie Washington vs. The Department of Public Welfare was filed last fall. Washington is a Philadelphia woman and one of more than 60,000 Pennsylvanians whose $200-a-month general cash assistance was eliminated as part of Act 80.

Pittsburgh police responded to a report that a box labeled "pressure cooker" with a Massachusetts return address was delivered to a city office building — only to find it really was a pressure cooker, ordered by an employee.

Police Lt. Shirley Sloan said the police response Wednesday was born out of an abundance of caution in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

"It was really tense there for a while," Sloan said.

The FBI has said Monday's blasts were caused by homemade bombs crafted using pressure cookers.

Pittsburgh City Council unanimously voted on Wednesday to give preliminary approval to a bill that would terminate a $10,000 "imprest fund" used by the mayor at his own discretion primarily for travel expenses.

Though he didn't suggest that Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has improperly used the 18-year-old fund, sponsoring Councilman Corey O'Connor said he thinks the mayor should go through the same process of reimbursement for travel expenses that's followed by all city employees.

The National Rifle Association will operate a major sports and outdoors show in Harrisburg next year.

The NRA was selected from among 17 applicants to take over running the event that was known as the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show and help raise its national profile.

President David Keene called the cancelation a “tragedy” which his organization plans to rectify with the new Great American Outdoor Show.

Municipalities are calling for changes to the state’s law on collective bargaining arbitration.

The 1968 statute sets the rules for how contract awards for police and firefighters must be decided if they come to an impasse with the city, since such public safety workers aren't allowed to go on strike.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlawski said the modifications being suggested are minor, but important - like requiring the arbitrator to consider what kind of award a city would be able to pay.

One year ago, a group of local brewers and craft beer enthusiasts gathered with an idea — a week-long celebration of the Pittsburgh region’s craft beers. The first year was deemed a success, and now, in its second year, organizers are hoping for an even bigger showing.

“We’ve got all of Pittsburgh’s craft beer heroes here pulling out all the stops putting together the best Craft Beer Week we can put together,” said Scott Smith, owner and founder of East End Brewing.

Growing Movement

  Pennsylvania Turnpike CEO Mark Compton is on a mission to repair the image, and possibly the roads, of the scandal plagued agency. He talks about the "pay to play" allegations and the status of the State's EZ Pass plans.

  The only sure things in life are death and taxes. Now that tax day has passed its time to consider advance care planning and health care decisions. We'll begin the dialogue with Nancy Zionts, chief operating officer and chief program officer for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Have you mapped out your end of life plans? How do you talk about it with your loved ones?

Visit Closure.org for information about Living Wills

  This week, the 200th performance of the touring broadway show Anything Goes will be performed in Pittsburgh. The current incarnation of this Cole Porter classic won a Tony in 2011 for best musical revival and choreography.We'll talk with Pittsburgh native Kathleen Marshall, the Director and Choreographer of Anything Goes.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Tuesday that he found errors on more than 1,250 corporate tax returns, totaling a net gain of $35.4 million for the state.

Some corporations overpaid by a total of $5.5 million, but many more underpaid by a total of $40.8 million.

DePasquale said the Department of Revenue must now "aggressively go after that money" to reclaim as much as possible before the state budget deadline of June 30.

Pittsburgher Karen Harr finished the Boston Marathon Monday well before the explosions that killed three and injured more than 170 people.

She could have been back at the hospitality suite in the hotel where she was staying, but a decision to head back to the medical tent to get a dose of asthma medicine put her just yards away from the blast.

Harr wasn't hurt, but she said the experience will not prompt her to hang up her running shoes. 

The chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee is introducing a plan that would hike motorist fees and some traffic ticket surcharges as a way of coming up with $2.5 billion for transportation infrastructure.

The measure marks the first legislative follow-up to the governor’s $1.8 billion funding plan, which many in industry and the legislature deemed to be too small.

But Republican Sen. John Rafferty of Montgomery County is giving Gov. Tom Corbett credit for taking the first step to roll out a funding proposal in the first place.   

Marathon organizers across the country are examining how they can better prepare their races for an incident like the one seen this week in Boston, but much of the ground work for such a discussion was already laid in Pittsburgh following a scare at the 2010 race. 

Not long after the Pittsburgh race started that year, an abandoned microwave oven was found near the finish line, and organizers and police had to spring into action.

Citing students' abysmal voter turnout numbers in the last mayoral primary, a few dozen students at the University of Pittsburgh have formed a new group meant to forge a stronger student voting bloc for the May 22 primary election this year.

Students for Building Power (SBP) said it has secured 1,500 commitments to vote since its campaign began about three weeks ago. The group has a goal of 3,000 confirmed student voters by election day.

For children who have seen the images of death and destruction and have heard the heartbreaking stories surrounding Monday’s terrorist attacks in Boston, there may be a lot of confusion and fear. They may wonder if they are safe, if their caregivers are safe and how this will affect their daily lives.

Jeff Magill, Project Coordinator for Emergency Management at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at UPMC, said children’s responses will vary according to their age and the perspective in which they have been exposed.

Computer Information Security Specialist John Adamczak was leading a team of 6 Pittsburgh volunteers at the finish line in Boston. 90.5 WESA’s Mark Nootbaar spoke to him  about Monday's explosions as he waited at the Boston airport for a flight back to Pittsburgh.

And Karen Harr is a Pittsburgh area runner and Director of Running Groups and Outreach for Fleet Feet Sports Pittsburgh. She ran in the Boston Marathon on Monday and is coordinating runners for the Pittsburgh Marathon. She talks about her experience in Boston and why she's going to keep on running.

The bombing of yesterday's Boston marathon left three people dead, including an 8 year old boy and at least 176 people injured. As the investigation into who was responsible for the bombing continues, Pittsburgh Marathon officials are busy planning for the Steel City's annual 26 mile race, now less than 3 weeks away. We'll talk with Dicks Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon Executive Director Patrice Matamoros about plans to beef up security in the wake of yesterday's events. New Hampshire Public Radio Executive Producer Keith Shields, is a veteran runner of the Boston marathon and he comments on the Boston Marathon's security.

Before she became the Essential Pittsburgh's business contributor and Director of Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University, Rebecca Harris ran a bakery. Today, we'll look at the business of bakeries and what it takes to turn a hobby into a business.

Read more about the business of baking:

Among those at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday when the bombs exploded was Pittsburgher John Adamczak. Adamczak has volunteered at the finish line for 20 years and leads a team of other Pittsburghers to the event each year.

The long-awaited legislative follow-up to the governor’s own transportation funding plan is expected to be announced Tuesday.

Transportation Committee Republican Chair John Rafferty has been working on the issue for months, insisting that it won’t be a victim of what legislators refer to as linkage – trading votes on one issue for support on another.

Pittsburgh leaders are following up on the success of two miniature water parks, known as "spray parks," by building more of the facilities to open in three city neighborhoods this summer.

After the Act 47 state financial oversight team found that the city was spending too much money on swimming pools in 2004, Pittsburgh was forced to close 13 pools. One of those reopened a few years later thanks to a nonprofit organization, but the others remained unused for years.