Free Republic

Ben Roethlisberger broke pandemic restrictions to get his hair cut and beard trimmed, along with a small recording crew, for a video the Steelers quarterback put out on his Twitter account Monday. Governor Tom Wolf doesn’t want Roethlisberger, or anyone to break coronavirus restrictions in that way. “My concern is just a general concern and anybody who puts himself or herself into harm’s way is something i think we ought to try to avoid,” Wolf said in response to a question about Roethlisberger specifically. "And when you go to something like a barbershop and you’re not protected, I don’t care...

A Pittsburgh radio station is again under scrutiny after one of its reporters called Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, “sir” at least three times during a Tuesday press call. The incident happened while KDKA-AM personality Marty Griffin was asking a question about what the state’s “end game” is for reopening after the coronavirus, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. A Pittsburgh City Paper transcript shows Griffin called Levine “sir” in both his initial question and follow-up, leading her to tell him “please don’t misgender me,” and that it was “really insulting.” Griffin later apologized on Twitter...

The deer have the streets to themselves.

A researcher killed in an apparent murder-suicide was close to “making very significant findings” related to the coronavirus, his department at the University of Pittsburgh said. ADVERTISING Two shootings that happened over the weekend in Ross Township appear to be a murder-suicide, according to police. On May 2, police said 37-year-old Dr. Bing Liu was found dead in his home on Elm Court from apparent gunshot wounds to his head, neck and torso. Investigators say they now believe his death is a homicide. (Photo Credit: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine) Liu was a research assistant professor at the University...

Attorneys for the city of Pittsburgh are asking a state court to overturn a judge’s order striking down firearm restrictions approved after a 2018 mass shooting at a synagogue. The three ordinances were approved in April 2019 following the October 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 worshippers. Gun rights advocates fought the ordinances, and a judge struck down the measures in October, saying Pennsylvania law forbids municipalities from regulating firearms and the ordinances were “void and unenforceable.” City lawyers argue in briefs filed late last week that neither lawmakers nor the state’s highest court...

Bing Liu "was on the verge of making very significant findings" in a SARS-CoV-2 research project at the University of Pittsburgh, his department said. WTAE Updated: 6:25 PM EDT May 4, 2020 ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man who police said was found shot dead at his Ross Township home was a research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was working on a coronavirus research project. Police said they believe that Bing Liu, 37, was shot inside his Elm Court townhome by a man who then went outside to his car and shot himself. Liu's death is...

PITTSBURGH — Furries are hoping to descend on Pittsburgh once again this summer for their annual Anthrocon convention despite the coronavirus outbreak. The group says they’ve been in daily contact with VisitPittsburgh, local hotels and the David Lawrence Convention Center. As of right now, the group says, plans for this year’s convention are still progressing, according to an update on the Anthrocon 2020 website. Organizers are also taking looking for the best way to hold the event safely for everyone and say health officials may decide it may not be safe to hold the event this year.

Local Radio traffic update during the Rush Limbaugh Show stating that traffic is snarled in Downtown Pittsburgh due to "a large horn-honking protest of cars circling the City-County Building". That's 2 protests in Downtown Pittsburgh in 5 days!

As labs around the world race to develop a vaccine, my colleagues and I are trying to find a better way to deliver it than the standard, cringe-inducing shot. I am an immunologist and dermatologist, and my colleagues and I have been working on vaccines against the very related coronaviruses that cause MERS and SARS. We were able to use the resources and systems we had already developed to very rapidly create a vaccine candidate for this new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that we have tested in mice. Called the PittCoVacc vaccine, it is a simple protein vaccine that is made from...

The 39 million N95 masks the Service Employees International Union announced it had discovered turned out to be an elaborate scheme, according to the FBI. In late March, the union rushed out a press release: The union launched an exhaustive search for masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) five days ago in response to pleas from frontline healthcare workers that they need more protection and feel unsafe on the job as they treat the growing number of COVID-19 patients. SEIU-UHW has 97,000 members who work in hospitals across California. Within 48 hours of painstakingly calling leads and potential suppliers,...

Take this with a small grain of salt at least for the moment, or perhaps a grain of sugar in this case. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine believe that they have found an effective vaccine against COVID-19 and want expedited FDA approval for Phase 1 testing. The school’s extensive work on the previous SARS and MERS outbreaks left a roadmap for defeating this coronavirus, they claim in a new peer-reviewed paper — and they have also developed a safer method for delivering it: Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine believe that they’ve...

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine announced Thursday a potential vaccine for the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. The vaccine has been effective on mice when delivered through a patch on the skin that researchers say feels like Velcro on the skin. Researchers say production of the patches and vaccine is scalable and if effective, can be produced in large quantities. Scientists are awaiting approval from the F-D-A for expedited human trials. It is the first study to be published after it was critiqued by other scientists “at outside institutions that describes a candidate vaccine for COVID-19.” During a news...

PITTSBURGH -- On Friday, James Coen is folding and unfolding, arranging and rearranging the piles of colorful St. Patrick's Day T-shirts he has displayed on folding tables outside one of the three sports retail stores he owns. The stores are all large historic buildings with big, shiny, planked hardwood floors, all snuggled in a three-block radius between assorted assemblages of late-19th-century buildings along what is affectionately called "The Strip" or "Strip District." No one calls him by his given name. He is "Jimmy Yinzer," the unofficial mayor of the city and purveyor of all things Pittsburgh. He's mostly known for...

PITTSBURGH — A Family Dollar store in Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood says so many people are stealing from them, it may put them out of business. Neighbors said they rely on the store for their essentials, which is within walking distance of many homes and schools. The manager of the store said a regional team is looking into inventory and what could be done, if anything, to help the business stay afloat. A neighboring business said extra cameras and a policy of no backpacks and no more than two kids in the store at a time have helped cracked down on...

A retired federal administrative law judge from Mercer County pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of buying an assault rifle for his boyfriend, a North Side felon described by the FBI as obsessed with Nazis and mass shootings. Karl Alexander, 78, who splits his time between Pittsburgh and Grove City, admitted to lying on a federal firearm form in buying an AR-15 for Dennis Alan Riggs, 50, of Troy Hill, who was arrested on illegal gun charges in January after a raid on his house that turned up seven guns among portraits of Hitler, swastikas and Nazi banners. Riggs can't...

A nonprofit law firm run by a former member of President Donald Trump's now-disbanded voter fraud commission is suing Allegheny County for its alleged failure to maintain its voter rolls. The Public Interest Legal Foundation, of which J. Christian Adams is president and general counsel, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday accusing the county of violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by not undertaking a "reasonable effort" to remove the names of ineligible voters from its registration lists. Under state and federal law, the county is supposed to remove voters who have moved out of state,...

Not many people would complain about a 60-degree day in February. But this winter’s temperature spikes could mean even earlier exposure to one of spring’s downsides: potholes. Tech gurus can’t stop the weather conditions that cause asphalt to weaken and crack — eventually opening up gaping holes large enough to swallow a Goodyear tire or mess up a Jeep’s alignment. But armed with smartphones, algorithms and self-healing asphalt, they’re trying to make road maintenance a little more manageable. While some are experimenting with high-tech ways to fill the pothole once it pops up — like using a 3D printer and...

The Westmoreland County home of Pittsburgh Pirates legend Bill Mazeroski and his wife will go to the highest bidder, with the sale coming less than three months after memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career and other household items attracted hundreds of people to a New Year’s Day auction. Bids on Bill and Milene Mazeroski’s house on Walton Tea Room Road, located in Hempfield, are scheduled to be taken March 22, according to Mark Ferry Auctioneers of Unity. The 1,700-square-foot house has three bedrooms, three baths and sits on 19.6 acres, according to an auction listing. The modest single-story ranch...

What happens if the retired space telescope and former spy satellite crash into each other? ______________________________________________________________ Leo Labs, a venture-based company that monitors satellites in Low Earth Orbit, tweeted yesterday that it was tracking two satellites that will come within 15 to 30 meters of each other January 29, just before 6:40 p.m. EST. The two satellites are IRAS, a decommissioned NASA space telescope, and GGSE-4, a US Naval Research Lab intelligence satellite. They're set to sweep past each other in the skies above Pittsburgh at an altitude of about 559 miles above Earth's surface. _____________________________________________________________________ LeoLabs, a company that...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has temporarily shelved a proposed rule change that would further restrict American sales to Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, after some officials in the Defense Department and other agencies argued that the measure, which was intended to protect national security, could actually undermine it, according to people familiar with the matter. The rule change, which multiple government agencies were reviewing, would close a loophole that allowed technology companies like Intel and Micron to continue shipping chips, software and other products to Huawei despite a ban that prevented the Chinese company from buying some American products....