Free Republic

Black people in Pittsburgh were feeling poorly about crime: Too many of them were in the news accused of killing, robbing, assaulting, jacking, shooting, stealing, rioting, breaking, burgling, harassing, intimidating, threatening, fighting, throwing, running, stoning, smoking, drinking, escaping, drugging, firing, and destroying. So in 2011, black leaders got together to do something about it: Not stop the crime. Just stop reporters from letting us know about it. Because it is a little-known fact of psychology that drawing attention to black crime actually causes more black crime -- which draws more attention, which creates more crime. And on and on until...

In a 1½ hour span Wednesday night, Carrick lost a community tradition some six decades old. The St. Basil Catholic Parish summer festival — the parish’s biggest annual fundraiser — will cease to exist after brawling teenagers prompting its early closure out of fear for public safety, according to the parish’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen Kresak. --snip-- Father Kresak said the festival has been plagued by brawls before. He said a small group of teens who came from outside the Carrick community cause problems, and he believes the festival gave teenagers a place to congregate without being noticed as out...

Organizers of this weekend's EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta said Friday they canceled all scheduled boat races because of hazardous river conditions

Tyrone Harris’ life ended Monday morning on a crowded Bon Air road, moments after he aimed a rifle out the window of a stolen car and fired at officers, police and witnesses said. Five officers returned fire, striking Harris and killing him. It marked the end of a chaotic 30-minute period in which officers said Harris, 20, began opening fire about two blocks away from his previous home in Knoxville, stole a car from a man on Rochelle Street, and fired at a sheriff’s sergeant, prompting a chase through busy city streets. Anthony Miess, 33, of McKees Rocks watched from...

Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) and Astrobotic Technology Inc. are pleased to announce a joint effort to facilitate the development and delivery of the first payload from Latin America to the Moon. Astrobotic and AEM have entered into an agreement outlining a commitment by both organizations to enable a Mexican payload to the Moon. Through this partnership, AEM will take its first step to another planetary body. "Opening access to the Moon is precisely at the core of Astrobotic's mission," said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic. "AEM's rising space science and exploration community is yet one more example of the immense...

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pride in the Street is expected to draw protesters to downtown Pittsburgh Saturday, prompting police to make “sight and sound locations” available to demonstrators. “The purpose for these locations is to provide a safe venue for the expression of dissenting perspectives while securing reasonable separation between groups to prevent violence from occurring. It is the role of police to maintain reasonable separation to ensure the safety of all,” police Chief Cameron McLay said in a statement. --snip-- Protesters within the LGBT community are upset over the Delta Foundation’s leadership because they believe people of color and other...

Pedal Pusher: Peduto sets Pittsburgh on down cycle by Daniel Clark “It isn’t the way it was in 1970,” says Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto. “Not everyone’s dream is to have their own car and use it to get to work.” Actually, you’d have to go back a lot farther than 45 years to find a time that having a car was “everyone’s dream.” The Model T had made that a reality half a century earlier. By 1970, it was just a normal facet of life in a civilized Western nation. Well, we can’t have that, now, can we? Peduto vowed...

President Barack Obama got four mayors to fully endorse his nationwide program to “build welcoming communities” for millions of “new Americans” and roll out the red carpet. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — who recently made headlines for terminating his city’s fire chief over a Christian book that described homosexual behavior as sin — signed on late last month to join three other mayors of major American cities: Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and Nashville’s Karl Dean. Reed’s message to the millions of refugees and immigrants entering the country: Come to Atlanta. “Reed became the nation’s fourth mayor to...

A woman was hit in the back of the head by a foul ball in Monday night's Cubs-Pirates game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The woman was standing in the first row behind home plate with her back toward the field when Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro fouled a ball straight back against the protective screen. The ball was hit with such force that it struck the fan. She immediately collapsed grabbing her head. After initial treatment by PNC Park and Pittsburgh EMS personnel, she was placed on a stretcher, moved to a nearby ambulance and brought to the hospital for...

Former Pittsburgh school police officer Robert Lellock has been arrested and charged with raping 22 male students he was hired to protect. A federal lawsuit notes that school officials should have known about the abuse, as Lellock was frequently taking boys out of the classroom to rape them in a janitor’s closet. According to the Tribune-Review, Robert Lellock worked for the Pittsburgh public school system as a school police officer where he repeatedly sexually abused at least 22 boys. One victim claims that Lellock removed him from class at least two dozen times to rape him in a janitor’s closet....

April 10, 2015 Polamalu retires from football Jim Wexall Troy Polamalu called Dan Rooney last night to inform him he was retiring from football. The Steelers had asked Polamalu to retire in February, but he resisted until the realization came upon him in church this week, the Holy Week of the Greek Orthodox Church. “It’s all about family,” said Polamalu in a phone interview. “I live here in Pittsburgh now, and since the end of the season I’ve had a chance to enjoy my family on a level I never had before. It was awesome.” Polamalu retires after 12 seasons,...

PITTSBURGH — A Norwin High School health and physical education teacher was arrested on charges of dealing heroin, officials said. Agents charged the defendant, 37-year-old Lisa Rodnicki, with one count each of delivery of heroin, possession with intent to deliver heroin and possession of heroin, Attorney General Kathleen Kane said. According to the criminal complaint, agents made a controlled purchase from Rodnicki utilizing a confidential informant, who paid Rodnicki $300 for 45 bags of heroin. According to Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE, Rodnicki is the daughter of the district’s superintendent.

The City of Pittsburgh has been granted a stay in the National Rifle Association’s lawsuit against a firearm ordinance. That means, the city’s “lost or stolen” ordinance is allowed to stand as the lawsuit proceeds, though the NRA had requested it be halted during the case. “We think that the court made an error, made a series of errors in fact,” said Jonathan Goldstein, outside counsel for the NRA. “We don’t think they were entitled to that stay, we think that what Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have done is very much out of step with the courts that have already...

We to Monroville Mall about an hour ago. There were three ambulances and a few cops cars outside one of the Macy's entrances....I parked at an adjacent Macy's entrance. As I put the car in park and grabbed my purse, I noticed large numbers of people streaming from all the exits in my view, and the cars around mine suddenly came to live & drove off. I got my 7 year old out and was heading inside when a nice, older blonde lady with broken English said "don't go in....they shoot". As soon as we returned to the car, massive...

"He’ll happily walk you down the aisle, marry you, serve the wedding cake, catch the bouquet and more."

Hanging out at the mall instantly became less cool for teenagers on Monday, when Franklin Park Mall officials said that anyone 17 or younger must be accompanied by an adult on mall property after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Mall officials said the new policy is not a response to any specific event and is a proactive move taken after conducting research among shoppers, retailers, and the Toledo community. But the change follows a weekend incident where police tried to remove a large group of people from the mall when a fight broke out, leading to several arrests and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PafsIomt7Q

A Missouri woman pleaded guilty this morning to fatally shooting her cousin at an Upper St. Clair home last month. "I truly am sorry for everything that happened, and I wish it wouldn't have happened," Stephanie Munizza, 28, told Judge Jeffrey A. Manning of the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. Ms. Munizza pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor, and the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office withdrew a felony count of third-degree murder. She was in Pittsburgh visiting family when, on Nov. 1, she and her cousin, Joshua Poremski, were drinking and talking about Ms. Munizza possibly getting a concealed...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — At the start of every month, the same image of a pistol points from the same place on the front page of the New Pittsburgh Courier, above the same caption: Under Attack By Us! The only thing that changes is the number of the dead. “75 of 91 homicides Black lives,” read a recent headline in the renowned Black newspaper’s crusade against Black-on-Black violence. It was accompanied, as always, by a literal body count: The name, race and manner of death for every homicide in Pittsburgh in 2014 — with victims being overwhelmingly Black, as the headline...

Cyanide killed hospital employee, official saysPITTSBURGH (AP) — A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center employee found dead at work earlier this month was killed by cyanide poisoning, but the medical examiner who made the determination Friday said it's too soon to know whether the death was a suicide, a homicide or an accident.