Tom Fontaine stories

Fewer than one in three registered voters in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties are expected to cast a ballot in this year’s primary. That may seem paltry, particularly compared with November’s hotly contested presidential election when voter turnouts in the two counties approached or exceeded 80%. But this year’s projected turnouts...

Iconic Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has described Pittsburgh’s Clemente Museum as one of his “top five places on the whole planet Earth.” Vedder — who returns to Pittsburgh this weekend for a pair of sold-out shows at PPG Paints Arena — isn’t just an admirer of the late baseball...

The Anti-Defamation League asserts college campuses have become an “epicenter of American antisemitism,” with nearly 1,700 incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence occurring on campuses last year alone. Western Pennsylvania’s two largest universities — the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University — say they have been working to...

Democrats are disappearing from elected office in the six counties surrounding Allegheny County. Just 13 Democrats combined serve as county commissioners or row officers in Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, compared to 57 Republicans. Only about a decade ago, nearly three times as many Democrats — 38...

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Friday the Trump administration is making progress toward finalizing trade deals with multiple countries. McCormick said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told him during a meeting this week that “a number of countries had come forward with very specific proposals, in the dozens,” and the...

Presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including a dozen in Pennsylvania, have co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government. Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian was the lone co-signer from a Southwestern Pennsylvania institution. A Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman...

More than 200 people filled a Swissvale church basement Wednesday night for a town hall featuring what organizers called two stand-ins for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick. One of the stand-ins, former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, told TribLive prior to taking the stage that he felt the...

Fresh from Donald Trump’s insult factory is a new word: Panican. Trump unveiled the linguistic invention Monday in social media posts calling out those critical of his newly imposed tariffs. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t...

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Monday after touring an East Pittsburgh manufacturing facility that it’s too soon to pass judgment on the sweeping tariffs imposed last week by President Donald Trump. “There’s a lot of uncertainty (over the tariffs) right now. I think over the coming days and weeks a...

A letter signed by more than 150 Carnegie Mellon University faculty, staff, alumni and students calls on the university to denounce what it calls the Trump administration’s “punitive withholding of federal funding and detainment and deportation of international scholars.” The letter also asks Carnegie Mellon not to comply with federal...

A paid event featuring U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman that had been scheduled for Saturday in Pittsburgh has been postponed. An Eventbrite listing for the event was updated Friday afternoon to announce the postponement, but it did not give a reason. Messages left for McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, and Fetterman,...

Dana Kellerman plans to protest Saturday in Pittsburgh. She just doesn’t know where yet. Complicating matters, Kellerman said she wasn’t sure where hundreds of other anticipated protesters should go or where they should set up their giant inflatable chicken. It all depends on where U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John...

Democrats are poised to reclaim control of the Pennsylvania House as McKeesport police officer Dan Goughnour rolled to a commanding victory Tuesday night in a special election to fill a vacancy in the chamber. The chamber has been gridlocked, with 101 Democrats and 101 Republicans, since the January death of...

Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman and their wives are holding a public event this weekend in Downtown Pittsburgh where the McCormicks will discuss their new book and participate in a discussion with the Fettermans about mentorship. McCormick is a Republican from Pittsburgh, Fetterman a Democrat from Braddock....

A special election in the Mon Valley will determine control of the state House. The chamber has been gridlocked, with 101 Democrats and 101 Republicans, since the January death of state Rep. Matt Gergely, D-McKeesport. Gergely had represented the 35th Legislative District for just under two years. Looking to fill...

Several significant policy changes affecting Social Security recipients and applicants get underway this month. One of the changes is designed to help the Social Security Administration more quickly recover money from people it overpaid. Another aims to limit fraudulent claims. A third could speed up the time it takes to...

A Democratic congressman from Western Pennsylvania has found some common ground — albeit, a small patch of it — with Republican President Donald Trump on the issue of tariffs. In an op-ed published Friday in The New York Times, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, said members of his party...

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, called out members of his own party for their protests during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night. “A sad cavalcade of self-owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday afternoon on the social media...

Democratic members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation railed against the budget blueprint that passed the House on Tuesday night, warning it could result in steep cuts to Medicaid. But an Altoona Republican who serves on a committee tasked with coming up with $880 billion in savings over 10 years says he...

A Sewickley attorney who formerly ran for governor is in line to become the next chairman of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, as both of his opponents have dropped out of the race. The Allegheny County GOP is scheduled to hold an election Saturday to replace outgoing Chairman Sam...

In his first road trip as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin made Western Pennsylvania his first stop, meeting Tuesday morning with steelworkers in Pittsburgh and campaigning in the afternoon with a state House candidate in McKeesport. Martin said the two stops signify what’s most important to him...

Paradise Gray was a young boy growing up in the Bronx when what would become known as hip-hop began taking shape. “We didn’t call it hip-hop back then — that wouldn’t happen until later. But the music, the culture was everywhere,” said Gray, 59, now of Pittsburgh’s North Side. Gray,...

An illustrated children’s biography of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente is back on shelves in Florida’s Duval County Public Schools after being reviewed and approved for use in classrooms and libraries. The school district said in a news release that its certified reading specialists are in the process of reviewing...

A large Florida school district has pulled an illustrated children’s biography of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente off its shelves to determine whether it is “developmentally appropriate for student use.” Duval County Public Schools, which includes the city of Jacksonville, said in a news release it is “taking further steps...

At some point on New Year’s Eve, Tom Walker and his wife of 48 years, Carolyn, will raise a toast in their Pine Township home to the man who Walker says saved his life a half-century ago: Roberto Clemente. “None of this, none of the blessings I’ve had in life,...