Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system's users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.

Under the new rules, from Thursday-Sunday, between the hours of 3 p.m. and midnight, youth under 18 will only be permitted to be in the plaza if they are accompanied by someone 21 or older. It comes after some Market Square businesses have complained about groups of teenagers behaving disruptively.

Pitt unveiled a new, state-of-the-art research laboratory, which could impact fields from transportation to medicine, and attract new talent to the region. The Western Pennsylvania Quantum Information Core allows researchers to study how matter reacts under extreme pressures and temperatures.

Next up are 10 houses in Sheraden and Elliot. The properties have all been reviewed through Pittsburgh’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections standard enforcement process, are owned by the city and have been marked as imminent safety risks.

A former trade school in the Hill District is celebrating a new rooftop solar array that will cover more than 20% of the building’s electricity needs. The Energy Innovation Center is home to university research labs, incubator space for new energy companies and workforce training programs.

According to the amended policy, school staff will now be required to “provide reasonable and realistic advance notice to parents/guardians when instruction is planned that may conflict with sincerely held religious and/or moral beliefs.”

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala confirmed Wednesday that his office is investigating the City of Pittsburgh for the potentially wrongful use of public money intended for youth programs and other initiatives.

Social media companies operate in a sort of gray zone: They’re expected to remove harmful content, but generally not liable for what users post. But in a recent Calif. trial, lawyers pushed past content guardrails and focused on how social media applications are designed to keep users scrolling.

Trying to get around town during the 2026 NFL Draft — dodging road closures and maneuvering through traffic — could test even the most prepared drivers. Public officials have told Pittsburghers “don’t drive,” but life goes on.

“The current funding climate for science … just didn't feel at all safe to kind of gamble on that,” said researcher Jason Walsman. “Especially when there was a good job waiting for me in China.”

Pennsylvania’s primary election will take place on Tuesday, May 19, and the WESA Voter Guide has everything you need to know about the races taking place in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and statewide:

The 2026 NFL Draft is expected to be the largest single event Pittsburgh has ever hosted. Businesses and hotels on the North Shore and near Downtown Pittsburgh are steeling themselves for a swell in sales. Local governments are bracing for an influx of tax revenue.

With Pittsburgh Public and several charter schools operating online during the NFL Draft, city recreation centers are stepping in to provide students with safe spaces to learn.

The city of Pittsburgh has moved the spring 2026 yard debris collection up by one week to this coming Saturday. The original date for the twice-annual collection was April 25, but officials moved it due to a conflict with the NFL Draft, which is being hosted in Pittsburgh this year.

An immigrant from Brazil who was taken into custody by federal immigration officials, despite having a daughter in the midst of treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, appears to be headed back to his family in Sewickley.

1st Home Allegheny is getting $3 million to help low- and moderate-income families buy houses. The program, financed by the county’s Residential Finance Authority, used $2.6 million last year to get 56 buyers into their first homes across 34 municipalities.

The legislation looks to expand services to more children and increase wages for Head Start workers. The 60-year-old, federally-funded program provides health and social and education services for some 800,000 children from birth to 5 years old.

As many as 700,000 people are expected to swarm Downtown and the North Shore for the 2026 NFL Draft this month. But businesses and institutions across Pittsburgh are hoping visitors will venture farther from the main event and spread the wealth across the city.

Three additional town halls will be held online in the coming days: Arsenal Elementary on April 14 Miller Elementary on April 21 Manchester Elementary on April 28

President Donald Trump’s administration announced Thursday it wants to fund research on microplastics and pharmaceuticals in public drinking water and examine their potential health impacts. The proposal could help environmental regulators create future drinking water restrictions.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority on Thursday voted to approve a plan that would take a portion of tax revenue from new developments in Downtown, the Strip District and North Shore to pay for public infrastructure improvements in the central business district.

Pittsburgh will get a bonus free summer concert in Point State Park courtesy of Pennsylvania’s official America250 celebration. Rock band Third Eye Blind and hip-hop artist Nelly were named Thursday as co-headliners for the June 27 concert in Point State Park.

About 70 people testified in front of DEP air quality experts at Penn State Beaver’s auditorium about the future of Shell’s ethane cracker in Monaca. The massive plant, which turns natural gas into plastic, began operations in 2022. Shell received a $1.65B tax credit, the largest in state history.

Starting this fall, Pennsylvania will join 29 other states in requiring students to take a standalone personal finance course before they graduate. The state’s new academic standards include lessons on financial goal-setting, types of income, developing a budget, saving and investing.

Pittsburgh City Council voted unanimously to formally ban police and city staff from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Councilors put forward a multi-bill package at the end of March in response to ongoing concerns about ICE operations across the region.

State and local leaders met in the halls of Westinghouse Academy this week to tour the high school’s career and technical education facilities. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and minority chair of the state’s Senate Education Committee,  Sen. Lindsey Williams heard from students enrolled in programs as well.

President Trump is holding a press conference at 1 p.m., his first since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran more than a month ago. The press conference comes days after Trump formally addressed the nation from the White House last week and said the conflict would end "shortly."

The scorecard looked at state policies covering areas such as whether building codes are uniform across the state, if homeowners associations are allowed to restrict solar adoption, permit fees, and what criteria is used to judge systems.

Many have called Pittsburgh a shot-and-beer kind of town (which is true), but the city offers a number of excellent cocktail bars, breweries and places to grab a drink filled with personality.

Below Cleveland, in a subterranean world many surface dwellers don’t know exists, miners extract a crucial winter mineral — salt. The Whiskey Island salt mine helps supply road salt across the Northeast and Great Lakes, where a colder, snowier-than-usual winter has driven demand.

Pittsburgh is full of great places to eat. From traditional diners that showcase the city's characters to fine dining establishments, there's no shortage of delicious options around town.

The Allegheny County jail last week began paying people who work while they're incarcerated in the facility, nearly half a decade after county leaders first floated the idea.

Nippon Steel ranked second from the bottom of 18 companies surveyed by SteelWatch, a European-based environmental group that looked at how well these firms are transitioning away from coal.

Councilors put forward the multi-bill package last week in response to ongoing concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across the region. In a meeting Wednesday morning, one portion of the legislative package received council’s preliminary approval.

As morning traffic whizzed by the U.S. Steel Tower Tuesday morning, a small group of Christians were gathered on the sidewalk reading scripture in honor of Holy Week. But the group stood outside of UPMC’s headquarters to mark another occasion: Trans Day of Visibility.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. The judge said the First Amendment right to free speech “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh has charged six Pittsburgh-area residents with violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, obstructing justice, and conspiring to obstruct justice in relation to an attack on a young Jewish man in Oakland in late September 2024.

Butler County saw the most percentage growth at 0.44% while Fayette and Greene counties saw the greatest declines, losing 0.76% and 0.75%, respectively. Though Allegheny County saw the largest influx of people moving from abroad — 2,485 — it was not enough to offset the number of people who moved.

Candidates for office in Pennsylvania are using AI tools to generate parody images of their rivals, create campaign materials, and answer questionnaires.

Protesters gathered along Grant Street in front of Pittsburgh’s City-County building Downtown for a third round of the nationwide No Kings protests Saturday. More than 15,000 people were in attendance, according to city officials.

Point Park is leveraging state support to give its students free, healthier meal options. It's received nearly $70,000 through the commonwealth’s Hunger-Free Campus grant program to expand its food pantry for students and staff, host monthly produce pop-up markets and launch a campus garden.

The latest measure, which was approved on a mostly partisan 104-95 vote, would see the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour rise gradually to $15 an hour in 2029. It would jump to $11 an hour in 2027, another two dollars in 2028, and then $15 in 2029.

“Do not drive that week,” said Pittsburgh Regional Transit CEO Katharine Kelleman. “Let us get you there.” Draft organizers on Wednesday unveiled a transportation plan that includes road closures, enhanced transit routes, and information for navigating Downtown and the North Shore on Draft days.

Following in the footsteps of Allegheny County and other municipalities around the region and the country, a group of Pittsburgh city councilors want to limit the city’s interaction with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

O’Connor’s proposed amendments, set to be introduced to Council on Tuesday, would reopen the budget, and would withdraw additional $6.5 million from the city’s coffers this year to balance out the revised spending estimates.

Marksmen contracted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture help in selected parks, taking out weaker deer in a process called “targeted harvesting.” The program is now finishing up its third year, with this year’s round of targeted harvesting set to finish by the end of this month.

Pa. isn’t very represented in this year’s crop of Academy Award-nominated films, but the state has a long history on the silver screen. Delco diners, Butler County farms, and Pittsburgh steel mills are just a few of the Pennsylvania settings that have gotten the Hollywood treatment over the years.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman cast the deciding vote to advance the nomination of Markwayne Mullin as the new head of Homeland Security Thursday morning, breaking once again with his own party.

In a near-unanimous vote, the Pennsylvania state Senate this week passed a measure that seeks to add safeguards for children who interact with artificial intelligence chatbots.

With the notable exception of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman — who spent much of his allotted time in the hearing criticizing his own party — Mullin faced some sharp queries from Democrats, as well as Kentucky Republican Rand Paul.