the week in review
A BR IEF ROUNDUP OF THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
We hope you’re comfortable in your home, reading through your favorite Sunday newspaper — ‘cause, baby, it’s COVID outside.
Gov. Tom Wolf, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and then negative later in the week, on Thursday ordered a threeweek closure of a wide range of businesses where people gather indoors: restaurants, bars, theaters, casinos and fitness centers.
“The situation we’re in is dire,” Mr. Wolf said. “It’s not the government putting businesses at risk; it’s the virus. We’re not targeting anybody; the virus is.”
The shutdown, which aims to push back on the rising number of cases in our state, started at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and continues through 8 a.m. Jan. 4.
Pittsbugh Post-Gazette writers reported how the shutdown is expected to help. They also detailed how it’s expected to hurt.
“I understand having to do something because of the health concerns, the spiking and everything. But there has to be some sort of reimbursement from the government,” David Regan, owner of Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle in the Strip, told staff writer Dan Gigler. “They keep shutting us down and limiting what we can do, and how we can make a living without any reimbursement as to what we’re losing?”
Staff writer Kris B. Mamula reported that all in-person dining at food service outlets, including private clubs and private catered events, is banned, though takeout food and alcohol sales are permitted. Indoor gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited, except for places of worship. In-person businesses, such as retail stores, serving the public are capped at 50% capacity.
Outdoor gatherings of more than 50 people are included in the ban, along with in-person extracurricular school activities and all sports for students in grades K-12. In-person attendance at collegiate and professional sporting events is prohibited, but games can still be played, according to the governor’s order.
A rainy day fund for a long winter
The city’s largest philanthropy stepped up last week with more than $8 million worth of grants for COVID19 relief in the Pittsburgh region, bringing its total allocation for pandemic-assistance programs since April to more than $33 million.
Staffwriter Joyce Gannon told us the latest round of investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation includes: money for Downtown restaurant workers to feed the needy; grants for food banks in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties; gifts to arts groups in the city’s Cultural District; and funding for the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Fallingwater landmark in Fayette County.
The number of grants the philanthropy has approved this year is 93% higher than in 2019, and inquiries it has received from groups in need jumped by 130% over last year.
“The volume of work is sort of off the chart,” said Sam Reiman, director of the foundation that has $2.7 billion in assets. “It’s turning out to be a very long winter.”
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership will receive $1.5 million for a program that, beginning this week, will provide 1,200 meals a week to people experiencing food insecurity, said Jeremy Waldrup, president and chief executive of the partnership.
Grand jury work also suspended
Federal grand juries have also been suspended until Jan. 4.
Staff writer Torsten Ove reported that the chief judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mark Hornak,
on Monday ordered the suspension for grand juries convening in Pittsburgh, Johnstown and Erie.
Grand juries were halted in the spring for several weeks but had resumed throughthe summer and fall.
Judge Hornak said national, state and local governments had since reissued guidance regarding the need for “extraordinary nationwide measures” to restrict person-to-person contact and stop the spread of the virus.
Federal grand juries are the primary way the U.S. attorney’s office charges defendants. Typically, several grand juries are in session at any one time hearing a multitude of cases.
Judge Hornak said taking the action to protect the public health outweighed the best interests of defendants and the public in a speedy trial guaranteed by the Constitution.
Federal courts here and across the U.S. have been operating with skeleton crews since March, with most proceedings handled by video. All trials in this district have been suspended.
Schools to teach economics lesson
Pittsburgh Public Schools administrators intend to ask
the school board to approve a 2.6% tax increase for the 2021 budget.
Staff writer Andrew Goldstein quoted Ronald Joseph, the district’s chief financial officer, as saying the hike is needed for the second year in a row.
“We feel that given our financial situation that it is imperative that we maximize the amount of revenue that we can generate from year to year, and a tax increase is a way to do so,” Mr. Joseph said.
Two board members, however, said they would not support an increase because they believe the district has not done enough to cut expenses or generate revenue elsewhere.
“We have a habit of running an annual deficit, and we don’t look closely with a scalpel at where we can cut the budget,” said one member, Sala Udin.
The district in November proposed a $668.6 million general fund budget for 2021 with an approximately $32 million operating deficit. The deficit increased about $5 million since last year.
Board member Pam Harbin acknowledged that raising taxes was not ideal amid the pandemic, but she said she supported an increase because the district
needs more money to properly educate students.
“I do see that we have a need for more than what we are able to cut out of the budget,” Ms. Harbin said. “I’ve read this budget many times, and it’s not like there’s a lot of fat.”
The board will hold a public comment session Monday evening, with a vote on the budget and tax increase set for Wednesday.
City Council approves paid sick leave bill
City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill from the mayor requiring Pittsburgh employers with 50 or more workers to offer up to 80 hours of emergency paid sick leave.
Staff writer Ashley Murray reported that the legislation is expected to ensure that thousands of workers will be paid at a time when families are struggling nationwide.
The bill, passed 9-0 by council, will not sunset until the city’s or state’s emergency pandemic declaration expires — whichever comes first.
Several private businesses sued the city for its 2015 paid sick leave mandate. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the
city’s law in 2019, citing public health reasons.
A bitter pill for Morgantown
Staff writer Patricia Sabatini on Friday broke the news that Mylan’s flagship pharmaceuticals plant in Morgantown, W.Va., is on the chopping block as part of a restructuring plan aimed at slashing at least $1 billion in costs by the end of 2024.
The plant, which has been in operation in Morgantown near where Mylan was founded since 1965, is slated to shut down by the middle of next year, affecting some 1,600 people and likely having ripple effects on West Virginia’s economy.
The Morgantown plant makes oral solid-dose medications.
Viatris — the new company formed through the merger of Mylan and Upjohn — said that after the closure, it would maintain a “significant” workforce in Morgantown involving research and development and some business and administrative support functions.
“There will be no immediate employee reductions at the site. It is anticipated that the majority of production will continue for the next seven months, ending no later than July 31, 2021,” the company said. “The majority of employees impacted will remain employed until that time, when they will be offered comprehensive separation packages.”
Viatris plans to close, downsize or divest up to 15 manufacturing facilities globally that are deemed to be no longer viable either due to “surplus capacity, challenging market dynamics or a shift in [the company’s] product portfolio toward more complex products.”
Permits? Nobody saw that coming
Consideration of a controversial deep shale gas well proposed for U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill property along the Monongahela River was suspended last week.
Staff writer Don Hopey reported that the state Department of Environmental Protection halted the process because local zoning permits had not been obtained.
This project is opposed by some residents and environmental organizations because of safety and health concerns.
According to the DEP permit applications, the project would disturb 13.4 acres for construction of an unconventional gas well pad, two access roads, five freshwater storage tanks, a 2,770-foot natural gas pipeline and a 2,990-foot freshwater pipeline.
Thecompany’s plans show it could drill up to 18 wells on one pad within the 145-yearold steel mill’s industrial footprint. Each well would have been approximately 6,700 feet deep with horizontal laterals in the Marcellus shale formation extending out almost 2 miles under residential areas of Mon Valley communities.
URA explains slashing to Pens
The Penguins know that when you get slammed into the boards, you have to get right back up and skate headlong into the fight.
That’s the spirit the team is showing after the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority rejected a request to extend a deadline to buy the land needed for the first projects at the former Civic Arena site.
Staff writer Mark Belko said the team could lose 20% of the revenue it now generates by parking cars on the 28-acre lower Hill District tract unless it is able to develop 10.75 acres over the next three years.
Kevin Acklin, the Penguins’ chief operating officer, said the team fully expects to have the first wave of development started early next year.
“This is a technicality related to the delays all businesses are facing with the COVID pandemic and has no impact on the development,” he said. “We will be under construction in 2021 on the [First National Bank] tower, parking garage and Live Nation music venue, and first phase of housing, and creating thousands of badly needed construction jobs to helpour city recover.”
As it stands, 20% of the revenue the team gets in parking from the property will be held in escrow between now and Oct. 22, 2023. If the Penguins are able to catch up on their requirements in three years, the money will be returned to them.
Under the current agreement with the URA, if the team hasn’t developed the land by then, it could have to forfeit up to 40% of the parking revenue.
Some bad things come in cycles
A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh last week indicted 30 people involved with the Pagans Motorcycle Club for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, one of the most significant prosecutions of its kind here since the 1980s, the U.S attorney said.
“For decades, the Pagans have used violence to control cocaine, heroin and meth trafficking throughout Western Pennsylvania: That stops now,” U.S. Attorney Scott Brady wrote in a statement announcing the indictments.
Staff writer Mick Stinelli wrote that federal agents executed a search warrant Wednesday at the club’s McKees Rocks clubhouse and a dozen other locations in the Pittsburgh area where the Pagans hold “frequent, large gatherings” known as “church.” The search resulted in the seizure of 12 firearms, narcotics and $28,000 in cash and jewelry, including 10 Rolex watches.
In August, authorities began a wiretap investigation on 10 cellphones, leading them to intercept “thousands of communications relating to drug trafficking,” according to an affidavit.