The soon-to-be-illegal games have become a way of life and a source of reliable revenue in places like Ambridge By Sean D. HamillNewsWorks Lab contributor As a vendor handed Darla Talerico a 4-inch wad of $1 and $5 bills from the till box in a crane machine game at her namesake restaurant in Ambridge on Tuesday, …
Continue reading “Skill games removal will cost bars, clubs and small towns”
Battle of independent schools brings focus on programs looking to rebuild Story by Jonathan Callard. Art by Sophia Lucente.NewsWorks Lab contributors Editor’s note: NewsWorks Lab has embedded with the Baldwin football team for the 2026 season to document its departure from the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) for an independent schedule. The Highlanders, …
Continue reading “Rebooting high school football: ‘You want to be out here on Friday nights’”
Republicans Kelly and Reschenthaler also receive large shares of out-of-state donations, federal records show By Namira Haris NewsWorks Lab data journalist Rep. Summer Lee has raised more money from California than from her home state of Pennsylvania for the first time in her three congressional election cycles, a NewsWorks Lab analysis of federal campaign records …
Continue reading “California donors top Democrat Rep. Lee’s campaign contributions”
Proposed skill games laws could bar people convicted of running illegal video gambling machines By Sean D. HamillNewsWorks Lab contributor John “Duffy” Conley was just 22 in 1985 and not yet known as the kingpin of video gambling in western Pennsylvania with over 4,000 illegal video poker machines. Over the next 40 years his rap …
Continue reading “Pa. lawmakers debate opening skill games to former criminals”
By Hannah Frances JohanssonNewsWorks Lab staff writer Bob Sink doesn’t necessarily miss his neighbors, knowing they got a good deal on their properties. He can’t say exactly when they left, or when their homes were demolished, since the whole thing took so long. “I’m the last man standing, basically,” he said. “I’m the mayor of …
Continue reading “Last man standing: What happens when coal companies buy up an entire village?”
After three decades in courtrooms, Pittsburgh litigator Paul Robinson finds himself on the defense after prosecutors say he crossed a line to protect his son. By Jason McGahan of NewsWorks Lab and Megan Swift of TribLive It’s gray and boxy, roughly a foot high, 2 feet deep and 2½ feet wide, according to the former …
Continue reading “Once-hidden safe pulls Pittsburgh attorney into Penn State cocaine prosecution “
The father of a former Penn State University fraternity member accused of being the second-in-command of a suspected cocaine trafficking ring in State College is speaking publicly about the case for the first time. Paul Robinson, 59, of Churchill, is a civil attorney and managing partner at a downtown Pittsburgh law firm. He is also …
Steep hills, herbicide bans and human disturbance create ideal conditions for invasive species to take over. Conservationists cannot keep pace. Story by Eric Jankiewicz. Art by Tim Robbibaro. NewsWorks Lab contributors. Visitors to Pittsburgh who stand on the overlook beneath Mount Washington’s flagpole this fall are more likely to see a vista of surrounding treetops and …
Continue reading “Invasive weeds block out Pittsburgh’s Grand View”
Fraternity pledges and fellow brothers allegedly chopped, weighed and packaged the drug By Megan Swift, Tribune-Review, and Jason McGahan, NewsWorks Lab Former Penn State fraternity brother Thomas Robinson turned the Delta Upsilon pledging process into something akin to a secret audition, according to court documents — testing whether pledges’ hands were steady enough for an undisclosed …
By Namira HarisNewsWorks Lab data journalist State Rep. Dan Moul, an Adams County Republican who owns and operates his own manufactured home community, has spent the past year trying to convince his colleagues to cap how much companies can raise lot rent. The issue is one plaguing many residents in communities across state as they …
