Marita Garrett working inside her Wilkinsburg office.
Jake Mysliwczyk / Pittsburgh Current
There’s a mayoral trend happening in western Pa.
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Emily Previti/PA Post
Jake Mysliwczyk / Pittsburgh Current
Marita Garrett working inside her Wilkinsburg office.
From The Context, PA Post’s weekday email newsletter:
James and Deborah Fallows appeared at Midtown Scholar to discuss their book “Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey Into America’s Heartland” with Smart Talk host Scott LaMar this week. They visited 42 towns and said public libraries became a reporting itinerary staple. A locally-owned pizza shop is my go-to (you can take the Sicilian girl out of Jersey … ). -Emily Previti, Newsletter Producer/Reporter
Pa. cities, small and smaller
Jake Mysliwczyk / Pittsburgh Current
Marita Garrett working inside her Wilkinsburg office.
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Chardae Jones recently became the first black female mayor of Braddock, joining four other women currently serving with the same distinction in Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Current’s Bethany Ruhe pulled together this profile.
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Aqua America Inc. plans to challenge a rate hike that would generate $60 million for the struggling city of Chester and avoid what city officials say would be an even greater increase. Delco Times reporter Alex Rose wrote about what he heard on the multibillion-dollar utility’s recent call with shareholders, along with applicable background, in this story. I did this explainer a while back on why Pa.’s water is so expensive.
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Technically Pa.’s smallest city, Centralia’s population has dwindled to fewer than a dozen people due to an underground mine fire (which is slowly migrating). A 100-foot sinkhole recently opened up in the tiny town — but it’s unrelated to the fire. This story explains what’s going on.
Best of the rest
Eric Friedman / Submitted
A sinkhole that opened at Lisa Drive in West Whiteland Township, Chester County.
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StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Susan Phillips did a deep dive into Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan’s investigation of the Mariner East 2 pipeline on the latest episode of WHYY’s The Why. Listen here.
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Counties have to upgrade their voting machines before the 2020 primary in Pennsylvania as part of a lawsuit settlement. It’s expected to cost the between $125 million and $150 million collectively. Gov. Tom Wolf proposed rebating counties at least half that over the next five years, but the GOP-dominated Legislature has to approve it. The issue was the main focus of a Department of State budget hearing, which Katie Meyer covered for WITF.
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“We Buy Houses” — certainly, you’ve seen the posters. Katie Blackley went behind the signs for this WESA story.
