the week in review
A BRIEF ROUNDUP OF THE NEWS OF THE WEEK
Let’s talk journalism. Not just the kind that we deliver to you in the pages of the Post-Gazette and at post-gazette.com. But the journalism that is still being taught to those who will help inform the readers of tomorrow.
Trinity Lule, for example, is a high school senior studying journalism at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, Beaver County. She recently set out to land a phone interview with the national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Thomas Robb, successor to the infamous David Duke. Trinity, who is biracial, thought to give readers of her school paper, The Siren, “a unique perspective.”
Staff writer Abigail Mihaly, a young journalist of our own, last week talked to Trinity, 18, about what it was like to interview one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacists.
Trinity said she and Mr. Robb talked about racial heritage, white culture and minority treatment in America. Trinity reported that over the course of their conversation, Mr. Robb spewed hate and told her that black people don’t have the same compassion as white people.
“That’s why they all kill each other for a pair of sneakers in Chicago,” he said.
This is not fake news. SEARCH: TRINITY
And this is how we learn to overcome
The teaching process at Sto-Rox Upper Elementary hit a road bump recently when school counselor Katie Couch found out that the district was running out of copier paper and had no money left in the budget to order more.
So who do you turn to when you are in need? Why, the internet, of course.
Ms. Couch tapped a social media vein that yielded a mother lode of nearly 70 boxes of donated school supplies: paper, markers, tissues, pencils, erasers, notebooks, tape, Clorox wipes, folders and snacks.
Staff writer Alexis Johnson wrote that the donations will be a boon for the school, which serves McKees Rocks and Stowe, where just over a quarter of residents live below the federal poverty level. But it isn’t all a feel-good story. There’s a problem somewhere in here that needs to be addressed.
“There are inequities in the funding,” said Heather Johnston, the school’s principal. “We have all of these bills that need paid before we could even look at supplies.”
SEARCH: STO-ROX
100 years can have a lot of ups and downs
Alexis also had a story about Kennywood’s famed Jack Rabbit, the second-oldest continuously operating roller coaster in the United States. The ride turns 100 this year.
So the amusement park has launched a “100 Years, 100 Memories” campaign, asking visitors for stories about what makes the park and its rides special to them. The top 100 entries will win a 2020 season pass.
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JACK
Hey, this is what folks are talking about
It isn’t often that you see a sports story on our front page, but on Tuesday we had a pair of them. Staff writer Jason Mackey was there in Bradenton, Fla., as the Pirates took the field for the first time with their new manager, Derek Shelton, and his staff. And then there was staff writer Brian Batko’s Steelers story — which is always good for a few internet clicks — after coach Mike Tomlin ripped ESPN for what he thought was a onesided interview about the Myles Garrett-Mason
Rudolph controversy.
Jason reported that Pirates administrators, players and even some of the fans who turned out for the start of spring training detected a new feeling in the air. The manager’s message to the team: Be intentional with your work. But also make sure you have some fun while doing it.
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A little more forceful than a challenge flag
Coach Tomlin’s message wasn’t nearly so cheery.
Tomlin rarely does interviews this time of year, but he appeared on ESPN’s “First Take” to slam the network’s coverage of Garrett, the Cleveland Browns star defensive end who was reinstated by the NFL last week and then reiterated his claim that Rudolph, the Steelers quarterback, called him a racial slur during the November incident that earned Garrett his suspension.
“I fully support Mason Rudolph, we as an organization fully support Mason Rudolph, and to be quite honest with you, we were hacked off with what we saw this weekend,” Tomlin said.
Any chance this will be the end of this back-andforth?
“That ball’s in their court,” Tomlin said. “I know our position is we had a desire to move on from it the moment it happened, and that’s what we attempted to do, but when this interview came back up this weekend, we thought Mason needed to be defended. We were placed in these circumstances. That’s not something we desire, to be quite honest with you.”
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Caution: Road ahead is precariously pitted
You know what else people are talking about? The weather.
We’ve had some mighty mild temperatures in February, and we all know what that means: springtime for potholes.
Staff writer Lauren Rosenblatt dug deep into some high-tech ideas that are being considered to make road maintenance more manageable. RoadBotics, for example, is an East Liberty company that uses smartphones and machine learning to pinpoint poor road conditions.
“Having this tool lets you come in with scalpel precision,” promised co-founder and President Benjamin Schmidt.
SEARCH: POTHOLES
Noting Pittsburgh’s deep theater roots
Staff writer Sharon Eberson was busy last week, filing several stories. One told of a new exhibition planned for the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Downtown. Another listed the students who were winners in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest. She also crafted a wonderful obituary for Joan Apt, the theater’s co-founder, who died Feb. 15 at age 93.
August Wilson, a Pittsburgh native who won two Pulitzer Prizes and two Tony Awards for his plays about the black experience, died at age 60 in 2005. The 1,800square-foot exhibition about his life will be presented in three sections: “The Coffee Shop,” inspired by Eddie’s, the Hill District eatery where a young Wilson was known to scrawl notes on napkins when he had an inspiration; “The Office,” a replica of Wilson’s home office in Seattle; and “The Street,” described as, “A symbolic walk through Wilson’s American Century Cycle.”
“August Wilson: A Writer’s Landscape” is expected to open in the fall.
“It has long been our goal to create a permanent exhibition that celebrates the life of August Wilson, the Pittsburgh community that inspired him, and the ways in which his work and the issues he tackled continue to speak to audiences around the globe,” said Janis Burley Wilson, CEO and president for the center. “‘A Writer’s Landscape’ will extend his legacy even further and allow all who come to the center to immerse themselves in his world and his art.”
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The very substance of the ambitious
The funny thing about those students who won the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 26th annual Shakespeare
Monologue & Scene Contest is that they come from different backgrounds. Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Regardless, they all turned in some pretty great performances. More than 1,000 students representing 110 schools and independent actors in grades four to seven (Lower Division) and eight to 12 (Upper Division) took parts. The Showcase of Finalists was held Monday at the O’Reilly Theater, Downtown.
The Rob Zellers Award for Excellence in Arts Education this year went to Linda Addlespurger, of Hope Academy, the East Liberty school that sent more than three dozen participants to the finals and had victors in two division categories.
The list of winners might not include anyone you know, but it might include someone that you will know ... someday. We know who they are, but know not what they may be.
SEARCH: SHAKESPEARE
Remembering Joan Apt
It is difficult to recount Joan Apt’s decades of contributions to the city’s cultural vitality. She was co-founder of Pittsburgh Public Theater and a driving force in local arts and charitable organizations, whose leaders remembered her last week as “a visionary, a cheerleader and a wise counselor.”
“Joan Apt not only helped create Pittsburgh Public
Theater, she remained the company’s heart and soul, and its fiercest advocate, throughout 45 seasons,” said Ted Pappas, a longtime artistic director of the Public Theater. “She believed in beautiful shows, balanced budgets and joyous opening nights.”
Let us share some of the many tributes to her.
SEARCH: JOAN APT
It’s not like we have many bad buildings
Hurricanes and tornadoes don’t have any trouble knocking down dilapidated buildings, but for county governments, it can be an expensive and time-consuming proposition.
That’s why the state passed a law in 2017 allowing counties to add a $15 fee on deeds and mortgages. That would raise money to demolish blighted buildings and safety hazards.
Trouble is, Allegheny County never got on board, meaning an estimated $2 million slipped through the government’s pockets in each year since.
Staff writer Ashley Murray reported that County Councilman Robert Macey looks to rectify that with a bill he introduced last week.
“I apologize to my district and to Allegheny County for not doing this sooner … but anything is better than nothing,” Mr. Macey said.
SEARCH: BLIGHTED
Did they at least send a thank-you note?
You kind of like to see Carnegie Mellon University on a list with institutions such as Yale, MIT, Penn and Cornell.
But not when that list is naming 10 schools that the U.S. Department of Education says have been remiss in disclosing a total of $3.6 billion in foreign gifts.
“If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom,” U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement.
But staff writer Bill Schackner quoted CMU spokeswoman Julianne Mattera as saying the university “has always taken seriously our obligation to report contracts with and donations from foreign persons and entities. We believe we have accurately disclosed these contracts and donations in compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.”
SEARCH: CMU
The legal department never forgets
You can’t expect the residents of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium in Highland Park to live up to requirements of the lease with the city. They’re animals, for goodness’ sake.
But the people who run the zoo have been asked to fulfill the requirements of the lease, which requires the facility to maintain its accreditation with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. The Pittsburgh zoo dropped its membership in 2015 over a disagreement about staff contact with elephants.
Staff writer Don Hopey reported Friday that the city’s legal department told zoo officials if the facility is not accredited by the AZA, it is in “material breach” of its lease, which runs through 2022.
“That cheapens the zoo in a major way,” said Dr. Brian Bonsteel, a Shadyside dentist and Humane Action Pittsburgh’s president and founder. “To have a zoo this large without AZA accreditation is just a crying shame.”
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