Latest News
‘Mighty Harlan County,’ film about the Blackjewel miners, will be shown through the Battle of Homestead Foundation
by Jody DiPerna On May 11, the Battle of Homestead will show the film ‘Mighty Harlan County,’ followed by a conversation with film director Jared Hamilton moderated by the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. UPDATE: The May 11th event at 7:30 is the roundtable discussion with the filmmaker. Viewers will want to view the film,…
Keep reading
Incarcerated person dies after jumping from building in downtown Pittsburgh
Brittany Hailer William Spencer, 24, a man in custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, jumped from a building on the 300 block of the Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh. He died after being rushed to UPMC Mercy Hospital on Monday, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner. The Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit…
Keep reading
Pa. Lt. Gov. Davis joins multi-state abortion alliance
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis announced on Monday that he has joined a national group of lieutenant governors to expand and protect access to reproductive rights nationwide. by Cassie Miller for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star Known as The Reproductive Freedom Coalition, the group of 22 Democratic lieutenant governors is focused on protecting abortion access in their states, including through…
Keep readingLoading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
PINJ has paid particular attention to the Allegheny County Jail throughout the pandemic, tracking the deaths of those in custody as well as the conditions incarcerated individuals have been forced to endure.
View all of our coverage on the Allegheny County Jail by clicking here.
More News
The Short-Stories in Jolene McIlwain’s New Collection, ‘Sidle Creek’ Are Essential Tales of Northern Appalachia
by Jody DiPerna Kittanning author’s new story collection simmers with country community, pain and perseverance Jolene McIlwain was an outside kid; she was always out of doors, getting dirty and wet in the high grass, roaming the power cuts, hills and creeks of western Pennsylvania. Her storytelling springs from being in these places and creating…
Keep readingThree Short Stories from “Sidle Creek”
by Jolene McIlWain from “Sidle Creek” courtesy of the author and Belt Magazine Eminent Domain Cheezer worms up behind me, covers my eye sockets with his cold hands and breathes into my neck the word, “Guess.” He has something to tell and he loves rumor so much it makes him tremble; when he spreads it,…
Keep reading
Labor, Solidarity and Nursing
Soon, nurses saw the gulf widen between their values and those of an increasingly commodified healthcare system by Eva Rosenfeld for Belt Magazine “Why do nurses strike?” A nurse and state union leader named Nadine Furlong delivered a speech with this title at a 1984 ethics conference sponsored by the University of Michigan. Furlong was…
Keep readingLoading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Advocating for accommodations has been a constant, but largely quiet, struggle for college students with disabilities since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990.
Read from our award-winning series, Leveling the Playing Field, here.
Books
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Novel, “Chain-Gang All-Stars” Is Singular Story-Telling for Our Time
by Jody DiPerna From the first page of his brilliant novel, “Chain-Gang All-Stars,” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah brings the reader into a prison system of the future based entirely on history to lay bare harrowing truths about the carceral system. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has created a world in the not so distant future wherein incarcerated people…
Keep reading
“The Songs of Betty Baach” Is a Modern High Lonesome Ballad with a ray of hope
by Jody DiPerna Glenn Taylor’s home state of West Virginia inspires his fiction. He tells stories of the resilience, struggle and joy of working people. There are labor battles, timbering, and coal mining; there is murder, environmental calamity and activism. Taylor grew up in Huntington and now lives in Morgantown, where he teaches at West…
Keep reading
New Book “This Is My Jail” Digs Deep on the History of Jails in America
by Jody DiPerna Melanie Newport is an historian who teaches urban history and criminal justice history at the University of Connecticut at Hartford. Her book, “This Is My Jail: Local Politics and the Rise of Mass Incarceration” has just been released by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Melanie Newport wanted to understand the history of…
Keep readingEducation
Kindergarten camps aim to fill in social and emotional gaps for students who missed preschool during the pandemic
Important learning time has been lost in kindergarten as teachers had to work with students who were not used to the routines of school By Mary Niederberger The start of the new school year was weeks away, but at Duquesne Elementary School a small group of students was already in a kindergarten classroom in late…
Keep reading
Pittsburgh Public Schools summer programming gives students a BOOST from pandemic learning losses
By Mary Niederberger Addison Boehm, Kerria Scanlon and Tamia Day, all soon-to-be sixth graders in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, had their heads bent over a laptop and a small robot made of Legos as they worked together on a recent morning in a classroom at Pittsburgh Langley K-8. “You are in control so you are…
Keep reading
Does tutoring + culturally relevant lessons + double math periods = math proficiency?
District leaders look for solutions to alarmingly low math proficiency—especially among Black students By Mary Niederberger Illustration by Kinsley Stocum If all goes as planned, next year students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools who are struggling with math will be able to access a tutor around the clock whether they are stumped by homework after…
Keep readingLoading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Education in Pittsburgh was upended in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly closed schools. Since then, as multiple virus waves have swept the nation, students have been in and out of physical classrooms, learning sometimes online, sometimes in person, sometimes not at all. How will they rebound?
Commentary
Exiles Living in a Church
By Kristin Kovacic, Belt Magazine It certainly isn’t cool, or edgy, or funny–the things people say about what it must be like to live in a church. It’s relentless. . . . Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever.—Psalm 83 St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist…
Keep reading
In Pittsburgh, local journalism is worth the fight
Having two major news sources in the city owned by notoriously anti-worker management can’t be good. For local journalism to be good, local journalism jobs need to be good. By Noelle Mateer, Belt Magazine Local journalism is the best journalism, and I know this because I’ve seen its opposite. I grew up in Pennsylvania, went…
Keep reading
Pa.’s criminal legal system increases overdose deaths and makes recovery impossible | Opinion
By Sean Fogler and Carla Sofronski , Pennsylvania Capital-Star In 2021, over 5,300 Pennsylvanians lost their lives to a preventable drug overdose. Pennsylvania policy makers and local government officials have led the charge in fueling this historic public health crisis. While there are many factors contributing to this horrific toll, Pennsylvania’s criminal legal system stands…
Keep reading
Social Justice