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🚨 Is Pittsburgh doing enough to reform its police?
It’s okay to stare. | Tag #theinclinepgh to be featured in our Instagram of the Day.
What Pittsburgh is talking about
Protests and policing
🚨 Is Pittsburgh’s police reform push ambitious enough? The answer, according to a coalition of local activists, is no. Here’s a look at their demands, including the resignation of a police union president. (Pittsburgh City Paper / The Incline)
✏️ The push to remove police from Pittsburgh public schools now has the support of two school board members. (90.5 WESA / PublicSource)
🚔 Good: State lawmakers advanced a bill yesterday that would create a misconduct database for officer background checks. Less good: That information would still be kept from the public. (Spotlight PA)
➡️ These Pittsburghers remember the riots that followed MLK’s assassination in 1968, and they see progress and parallels in the protests of today. (90.5 WESA)
🖌 Say their names. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Antwon Rose II, Ahmaud Arbery, immortalized Downtown. (1Hood on Twitter / 90.5 WESA)
Today’s COVID-19 briefing
📊 COVID-19 by the numbers — as of Monday:
- 2,086 cases in Allegheny County so far, up seven from Sunday (more data and demographics here)
- 357 hospitalizations in Allegheny County, no increase from Sunday
- 173 deaths in Allegheny County, no increase from Sunday
- 79,121 cases with 6,243 deaths in Pennsylvania (more data and demographics here)
- 2.11 million cases with 115,000+ deaths in the U.S. (more data and demographics here)
📉 New COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania have hit their lowest level since March, while other states around the country are seeing big jumps. Supporters say this proves Pennsylvania’s coronavirus restrictions worked. But critics are far from satisfied — and Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is being asked to intervene. (Reuters / Associated Press)
➡️ Federal fines are coming for a Beaver County nursing home at the center of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. (Beaver County Times / Spotlight PA)
🖥 Telemedicine had a moment during this pandemic. But a recently vetoed bill in Harrisburg is raising plenty of questions about its future. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
👟 Yes, gyms are open again. But read this before you go. (TribLIVE)
🏡 Pent-up demand has western Pennsylvania’s housing market roaring back after months of silence. (TribLIVE)
What else you need to know
📷 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Michael Santiago is leaving the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after his high-profile removal from protest coverage. (Michael Santiago on Twitter / The Incline)
🌎 Meet Julie Mallis, the new head of Pittsburgh’s influential branch of the Jewish social advocacy group Repair the World. (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)
📚 Curbside book pickups and returns will begin on June 23 at Carnegie Library locations in Allegheny, Brookline, East Liberty, Hill District, and Oakland. (90.5 WESA)
🌳 Why a mobile outdoor stage could be just the thing to help Pittsburgh’s performing arts groups bounce back after the shutdown. (90.5 WESA)
🌗 Pittsburgh industry’s newest quest: Putting American robots and people back on the moon. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Some levity
🎤 Tune in tonight to hear a local 12-year-old on America’s Got Talent. (TribLIVE)
🛍 Reminder: Father’s Day is Sunday. Here are some local gift ideas. (Very Local Pittsburgh)
🎺 Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival with a one-time-only virtual event curated by the August Wilson Center and trumpeter Sean Jones. (TribLIVE)
🐒 A local artist + 150 hours of quarantine = this giant cardboard chimpanzee looking for a good home. (KDKA-TV)
🍽 Jessica Iacullo is Hungry Grl Big City, a social media fixture, Pittsburgh foodie, and Ritter’s die-hard. (pgh.ink)
🚀 It’s not rocket science anymore
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Today
🇮🇹 Celebrate the launch of the History Center's new book "Highlights from the Italian American Collection: Western Pennsylvania Stories” (Online)
🙌 Use your hands, wool, soap, and water to make felted beads for jewelry, garlands, buttons, and more (Online)
🏠 Hear about all things Lawrenceville with Lawrenceville United’s monthly virtual community meeting (Online - multiple dates)
Tomorrow
🌬 Keep your cool with this Ellis School workshop on employing wellness and mindfulness strategies at home (Online)
🎉 Celebrate World Refugee Day virtually with stories from local refugees and immigrants, amazing recipes, beautiful arts and crafts, and inspiring speakers (Online)
🎨 Explore the history of Millvale’s St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, home of the one-of-a-kind murals of immigrant artist Maxo Vanka (Online)
🖌 Join artist Rachel Rose and Carnegie Museum of Art Director Eric Crosby as they discuss the museum's newest online exhibition (Online)
Thursday
🎙 Dream of hosting your own podcast? Learn how to make your concept a reality in this Chatham webinar (Online)
💻 Hear Professor Gabriel Weimann discuss "The Virus of Hate: Far-Right Extremism in Cyberspace" in this virtual event from Classrooms Without Borders Pittsburgh PA (Online)
Friday
🚘 Check out cool cars at the Black LGBTQ Liberation Car Cruise (Oakland)
🐝 Explore the plight of bees in this film screening from the flowery folks at Phipps (Online)
😸 Enjoy excellent cat videos and support independently owned movie theaters with the first-ever Quarantine Cat Film Fest (Online)
📹 Celebrate the weirdness of video calls with this improvised Zoom session from Arcade Comedy Theater (Online)
Saturday
👟 'Take Steps' to help the local chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation through this fundraiser (Online)
🎶 Rock out with this virtual version of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (Online)
🏆 Trap vs. Dance Hall: Dance it out at this virtual dance party from Pittsburgh DJ Wavy Bunch Sound (Online)
🍷 Join a virtual sewing circle, bring your projects — and your favorite drink (Online)
Sunday
🖼 Slow your pace in this 30-minute guided art meditation through Carnegie Museum of Art (Online)
🌙 Join with women across the world for a New Moon Women's Circle & Meditation hosted by The Millvale House (Online)
One more thing ...
We strive to keep this newsletter locally focused, but sometimes a national story is so important and relevant to our readers that we need to include it.
Today that story is the U.S. Supreme Court ruling — delivered yesterday, mid-Pride Month — that protects workers from being fired because they’re gay or transgender. (Far less encouraging is the rollback of Obama-era health care protections for transgender patients already underway.)
The Supreme Court’s ruling on workplace protections is an especially big deal in Pennsylvania, where anti-discrimination laws include sex but not gender identity or sexual orientation.
Love is love.
We’ll see you back here on Thursday.