News

Take a ride on the Duquesne Incline. Its cars have carted Pittsburghers up and down Mount Washington since 1877. And it sounds like it.

Co-owner of Lawrenceville’s House of the Dead, Chuck Cramer believes Pittsburgh stands little chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Adam Nelson plays games and thinks you should, too. Nelson ruminates on how games can change a city’s landscape and its citizens for the better.

Winner of the 2012 Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year award, Adam Paul Causgrove ruminates on the past, present and future of the mustache.

PennDOT is touting the savings resulting from smarter management of its vehicle fleet. The agency expects to save $4 million a year by changes that include reducing its fleet of state-assigned cars by 30 percent.

It's not a huge amount in an annual budget of more than $6 billion, but it's better than nothing.

"The bottom line is, is money is tight," said department spokesman Steve Chizmar. "So we have to look at every possible angle for additional efficiencies."

The Allegheny County Health Department says one person has been treated for Legionnaire's disease-related pneumonia at a Pittsburgh senior-citizens apartment building.

Officials at York Commons say crews have flushed water lines, shower head and faucets with hot water meant to kill the bacteria that health department officials have determined sickened an unidentified female resident last month.

When Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb isn't busy minding the city's books, he's reading history and genre fiction. 

U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA-12) says 12 years is more than enough time in elected office.

The freshman congressman from Sewickley says he's backing a Constitutional amendment that would limit House members to six consecutive two-year terms and senators to two consecutive six-year terms in their seats.

Rothfus said he thinks term limits will give Congress new perspectives.

Since February 2006 when it was first discovered, White-Nose Syndrome has caused the deaths of 5.7 million to 6.7 million North American bats, many of those in Pennsylvania.

Greg Turner is a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Diversity Section of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. He counts and identifies hibernating bats and conducts migratory telemetry on our federally endangered Indiana bats.

When searching the abandoned Durham Mine in Bucks County, he found just 23 were alive and over 10,000 bats were dead.

  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriter emeritus Bob Dvorchak gives us a recap of the Frozen Four weekend in Pittsburgh and talks about Pitt's new women's basketball coach Suzie McConnell-Serio.   

  Call it thrifty or frugal, people watching their budgets are always on the hunt to save a few dollars. If you’re looking for things to do that won’t cost you a dime Matthew Spangler is making it his mission to tweet about free deals.  He’ll tell us how his Twitter account ItsFreeBurgh is helping people find free deals in the Steel City.  

  Money, everybody wants it, everybody needs it, yet we struggle to understand it and to talk about it. Especially those of us who have never had much money to speak of. At this point in financial literacy month we want to take a look at money management from the perspective of generational poverty. What circumstances and financial habits perpetuate poverty and how can families prevail? Tammy Thompson is a Community Liaison and Certified Housing Counselor for NeighborWorks Western PA, she works with adults, kids and families on financial planning at all socioeconomic levels.

A new insurance plan from Highmark allows employers to nudge their employees toward particular hospitals when they need risky surgeries.

Employers using the "Blue Distinction" program can give incentives, such as waived deductibles and co-pays, to employees who choose hospitals that have proven track records for certain surgeries.

The company can also choose to increase co-pays or even “carve out” coverage for any other hospital when the specialty surgery is needed, according to Highmark Vice President of Regional Sales Eric Hays.

Each weekend, 90.5 WESA Weekend Edition host Noah Brode previews some interesting events going on in the Pittsburgh Area.

Under a new state bill, any Pennsylvania company contracted by the state that’s also investing in Iranian energy would be forced to make a choice.

Rep. Dan Frankel’s (D-Allegheny) legislation, which passed the state House Tuesday, would bar any company that invests more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector from entering into a state contract worth more than $1 million through the Department of General Services (DGS).

Gov. Tom Corbett's tax reform plan is getting a closer look from state lawmakers.

The proposals would lower the state’s corporate net income tax and complete the elimination of another tax on businesses.  

Department of Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser said the net effect will be more than $1 billion in new tax revenue over the next 17 years.  

"That comes from personal income growth, that comes from employment, and that comes from sales tax revenues that are derived from those who are now working that weren’t before," he said.

The number of venture capital dollars and deals across the U.S. has been generally declining over the last several years, but Pittsburgh is bucking that trend.

“Since 2009 we’ve had the credit crisis, and probably the most severe national recession we’ve ever had, and during that period Pittsburgh has seen an increase in early stage capital and the number of financings," said Lynette Horrell, managing partner with Ernst & Young Pittsburgh. "The number of financings has grown over 50 percent.”

The company that collects the trash from businesses at the Pittsburgh International Airport is overbilling its users according to an Allegheny County Controller’s audit released Thursday.

Controller Chelsa Wagner said Allied Waste Service of Pittsburgh incorrectly billed tenants from December 2007 through August 2012 resulting in extra charges of about $195,000.

Wagner’s office launched the audit after a customer complained to the Airport Authority, which then passed the complaint to the county’s fiscal watchdog.

"There's this huge disconnect where both sides need each other, but we've got to find a way to get there," said US Attorney for Western PA David Hickton about the need to improve relations between residents and law enforcement.

The new owners of Heinz are tapping Burger King CEO Bernardo Hees as the company's next top executive, a move that installs one of their own at the helm of the ketchup maker.

It also signals other big changes could be in store for the 144-year-old company, which had been run by CEO William Johnson for the past 15 years.

A state Senate committee has passed a proposal to restrict abortion coverage in health insurance plans provided through Pennsylvania's federally mandated exchange.

Last session, similar measures passed the House and Senate independently, but neither one made it through the entire legislative gauntlet.

But with the 2014 operational date for health care exchanges right around the corner, Senate GOP spokesman Erik Arneson said this measure may go to the finish line.

As talks about gun legislation continue in the U.S. Senate, groups have descended on the state capitol in Harrisburg urging legislators to close a loophole in Pennsylvania's gun laws. State Reps. Steve Santarsiero and Dan Frankel join us to talk about balancing Second Amendment rights with public safety.

A growing protest movement has triggered discussions about our country's emphasis on public school standardized testing. According to parents such as Kathy Newman, a Pittsburgh Public School parent, CMU English professor and volunteer coordinator for the grassroots education group Yinzercation, the pressures and stakes of assessments like the PSSAs are too high. So they're opting their kids out. Kathy joins us for a discussion about how standardized testing impacts the quality of a public school education.