☑️ Pennsylvanians’ ballots will not only feature the presidential and U.S. Senate contests, but also hundreds of races for the state House and Senate, which could determine the direction of state policy for years to come and receive comparatively little attention.
Voters will also choose representatives for Pennsylvania’s 17 congressional districts and statewide offices for attorney general, auditor general and treasurer.
We created a nonpartisan voter guide to help Southwestern Pennsylvanians learn about who will be on their ballots and how to cast their votes.
Check it out at the 🔗 in our bio.
This voter guide was assembled by Charlie Wolfson and Spencer Levering, designed by Natasha Vicens and fact-checked by Amber Frantz.
Pittsburgh Public Schools is reviewing a proposal to close 16 schools across the city and reconfigure the grade structure and magnet programs at many others. A revised set of recommendations is expected Oct. 15.
As the district considers new closures, communities hit hard by past consolidations brace for more changes.
Read more of this story at the 🔗 in our bio or at wesa.fm.
✍️ Story by Lajja Mistry and Jillian Forstadt
With the 2024 general election less than a month away, high school teachers in the Pittsburgh region are navigating approaches to teaching civics and combating misinformation. Against persistent social media exposure, some educators recognize the importance of equipping students with the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate the complex landscape of political information.
Baldwin High School teacher Adam Foote pulled up an online article claiming an FBI agent implicated in the Hillary Clinton email leaks was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. What did his students think of the article, he asked, encouraging them to dissect it and check for false information.
“If you saw this article when it came out, would you think twice before believing it?” Foote asked, instructing the students to look up the publication — Denver Guardian — on another tab, revealing that it was a fake news website.
“This concept of lateral reading — like you’re reading across something. You’re reading across the tabs up here,” Foote explained. “If I’m truly trying to verify how correct something is, this is what you want to do — multiple sources, multiple tabs.”
The students were participating in a newly formed course titled Media Literacy, an initiative helmed at Baldwin by Foote. He sees the class as a way to bridge instructional gaps around how students access and interact with information at their fingertips.
Read more at the 🔗 in our bio.
✍️ Story by Lajja Mistry
🎥 and 📸 Videos and photos Stephanie Strasburg
Catch up with some news you may have missed recently with our audience engagement intern, Evans!
Full length stories can be found at publicsource.org.
🎥 Evans Toviave
“It’s important for our readers to have data they can trust from us. Because we are here, rooted in the community.” — Halle Stockton, PublicSource Editor-in-Chief (@hallepgh)
A partnership among the Google News Initiative, The Associated Press and the Institute for Nonprofit News has helped PublicSource deliver timely, in-depth election coverage to our readers — and it will be critical again on Nov. 5.
The @apnews is making 2024 elections data widely available and accessible to local newsrooms around the country. By providing access to the AP’s data and visualizations, this partnership is empowering local newsrooms to deliver timely, in-depth coverage to communities quickly and easily.
✍️ Read @publicsource’s Election 2024 stories at the link in our bio and be sure to follow along with our coverage throughout the season to stay informed.
Between each cable news segment or disappointing Pirates inning, Pittsburgh voters are subjected to a barrage of political ads, many attributed to groups with vague names. “WinSenate is responsible for the content of this ad,” some say. Others are claimed by “FF PAC.”
Messages like “Keystone Renewal is responsible” may leave viewers wondering, “So who is responsible for Keystone Renewal?”
A PublicSource and @905wesa analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission and AdImpact found that to a large extent, the ads Pittsburgh voters find on TV are funded by a small group of billionaires spread across the country, and by so-called “dark money” groups whose tax status exempts them from disclosing their donors’ identities.
Read more of this story at the 🔗 in our bio.
✍️ Charlie Wolfson and Tom Riese, WESA
🎥 PublicSource intern Evans Toviave
#politicalads #ads #adfunding #pittsburgh #pa
The process of enacting measures outlined by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration to overhaul zoning codes began Tuesday with a City Planning Commission briefing. The reforms will get a commission hearing and vote later this year and City Council will have final word.
Read more at the 🔗 in our bio.
✍️ Eric Jankiewicz
📸/🎥 Stephanie Strasburg and Ryan Loew
#zoningcodes #pittsburgh #affordablehousing
Keep an eye on our stories for the next 6 weeks; we'll be sharing links that highlight our election coverage, tell you why each story matters, and invite you to support our nonprofit newsroom. We hope you'll find it useful and informative as the election approaches.
Immigrant restaurateurs are spicing up the region’s food scene with their cuisine, but also with their tenacity, creativity and collaboration — both with the communities in which they’re based and with other restaurants. Many of these restaurant owners are able to launch their food businesses with the help of local resources, such as Small Business Development Centers [SBDC], including ones based at University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University.
PublicSource spoke to several immigrant owners about their experiences opening a food business — often while learning a city, a culture and even a language.
Click the link in our bio for more!
✍️ @brianabindus
Reel by @evanstoviave
At 20, the man who opened fire at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler was too young to buy a handgun in Pennsylvania. But his weapon of choice wasn’t a pistol or revolver.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, legally bought the AR-15 style rifle he used to shoot into the crowd, killing one, wounding two others and injuring Trump’s right ear. He was over 18 — the minimum age for buying a long gun in the state, which gun safety advocates say is dangerously low.
And it’s possible he slipped through a loophole in the state’s background check system: private long gun sales. FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Wednesday that Crooks bought the gun from his father — an individual seller who didn’t need to perform a background check the way a licensed gun dealer would. That transaction between father and son is legal in Pennsylvania.
But it might not be if the state General Assembly had acted to ensure universal background checks. A bill proposing background checks for all firearm sales, regardless of barrel length, passed the state House of Representatives in May 2023.
“And it’s been languishing in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, untouched for over a year,” said Josh Fleitman, campaign director of CeaseFirePA, which advocates for gun violence prevention laws in the state. Wray said during his testimony that Crooks bought the gun from his father in October 2023.
Senate Judiciary Chair Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne County, told a reporter in November she has no plans to advance the bills. But she said she would consider other proposals that are “constitutional, enforceable and practical.” Other legislators have taken the position that existing criminal charges, like reckless endangerment, already address negligence by gun owners.
Click the link in our bio for more.
✍️ @venurisiriwardane
Reel by @evanstoviave
The boards of the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] and the Sports & Exhibition Authority [SEA] voted Thursday to transfer nearly an acre of the Hill to the Penguins-related Pittsburgh Arena Real Estate Development LP [PAR] for construction of a Live Nation music venue. Transfer of an adjacent parcel will wait.
The board also approved the use of $2 million in federal funds to restore and preserve the New Granada Theater on Centre Avenue, in the Middle Hill, which is owned by the nonprofit and registered community organization Hill Community Development Corporation.
PAR triggered Thursday’s action through a formal request to the URA. The music venue and garage were formerly treated as one site. Plans for the area have been in the works since 2019 and first received approval from the City Planning Commission in January 2023.
✍️ @ericjankiewicz
🎥 @evanstoviave
