Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers voted "overwhelmingly" to approve a strike authorization vote, their union announced Monday, bringing the district one step closer to the first citywide teachers strike in four decades. The vote was called by the union representing more than 2,000 Pittsburgh teachers and educators last month after a period of prolonged and unproductive contract talks with the district. The vote was conducted by mail-in balloting and the results announced Monday saw 94 percent of union members vote in favor of the strike authorization option. It's important to note that the vote does not guarantee a strike will happen, and the union would have to give 48-hours notice if and when it did. Regardless, some are urging district officials to have contingency plans ready for the tens of thousands of students and families that stand to be affected. Here's how the district and union got to this point.

Opioid prescriptions have decreased in Allegheny County over the past year but remain high, with Allegheny County physicians still writing enough prescriptions quarterly to medicate each resident of Pittsburgh, TribLive reports. Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, said local insurance providers have been at the forefront of the effort to lower opioid prescriptions here, adding, "They're doing a whole variety of different types of efforts to get people to decrease the amount (of prescriptions), from education to the identifying of high-prescribers and specifically speaking with them." And while the decrease is a step in the right direction, experts say the numbers of prescriptions are still far higher than expected.

Our latest Who's Next class is here and it's all about the people behind the scenes asking for money to support important causes, managing non-profit accounting and volunteering their time in support of civic good. It's Who's Next: Philanthropy, and we'll be celebrating our latest class with an event later this month at Moxie. Come join us, and meet the people helping to grow Pittsburgh's philanthropic community.

Valentine's Day is coming up and what better way to celebrate than with love notes to the City of Pittsburgh? Being that you're busy and all, we did the work for you, compiling a list of Pittsburgh-centric Valentine's celebrating everything from Mayor Bill Peduto's love of bike lanes to the irreplaceability of the Log Jammer. So this Valentine's Day spread the love, Pittsburgh style. Like they say, home is where the heart is.