PUP awards!
PUP boys basketball Player of the Year: Neighborhood Academy’s Courtney Wallace
Not long after leading Neighborhood Academy to a Christian league championship in seventh grade, Courtney Wallace and teammate Shamar Simpson began pleading with school administrators about joining the WPIAL. “I remember that week, that moment, talking to [athletic director Gary] Shawley and Brent Jernigan, who was head of the middle school at the time,” Wallace…
PUP girls basketball Player of the Year: Peters Township’s Natalie Wetzel
Having faced off against Peters Township star Natalie Wetzel not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times this season, nobody is more qualified to evaluate her credentials than Thomas Jefferson coach Matt Gould. “She took literally all of our attention,” Gould said. “She’s that good. You can’t leave her open at the 3-point line.…
PUP boys basketball Coach of the Year: South Allegheny’s Tony DiCenzo
As director of public works for West Mifflin Borough, Tony DiCenzo’s responsibilities include supervising garbage collectors and the folks who salt and plow the streets. As basketball coach at South Allegheny, DiCenzo took over a program that, let’s just say was not very good, and this season helped them collect a first WPIAL title and…
PUP girls basketball Coach of the Year: South Fayette’s Bryan Bennett
After watching a historic WPIAL championship four-peat slip through his team’s hands, South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett couldn’t stop beating himself up and second-guessing what he could have done differently to change the outcome in that devastating defeat against Peters Township. Sometimes, all you need to do is phone a friend in a time of…
Meet the third annual PUP girls basketball all-star team
Another memorable high school basketball season has finally come to a close — but before we say goodbye, it’s time to hand out some hardware to the area’s brightest stars. In a nod to the All-NBA teams released at the end of each season, the Pittsburgh Union Progress sports staff decided to compile its own version…
Meet the third annual PUP boys basketball all-star team
Guess who’s back, back again? When the Pittsburgh Union Progress published its all-star team back in 2023, it was expected to be the one and only. But, two years later, some of the area’s top journalists remain on strike with the Post-Gazette (it’s now been more than 29 months!), so the PUP is back again…
How many people has Trump pissed off the past three months? We got a hint on Saturday
Last week was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT week for our president. The whole entire country paid attention to him A LOT. He got a visit from Kid Rock, a GREAT entertainer, who wore a ketchup red suit covered with July 4 knickknacks we saw at the Dollar Store last summer. Then the president got…
PennDOT ready to deal with chronic ‘bathtub’ flooding in Downtown Pittsburgh next year
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and its consultants have designed an estimated $34 million project to keep “the bathtub” dry most of the time and prevent the Monongahela River from overflowing onto the Parkway East in Downtown Pittsburgh. Beginning after the National Football League draft in April next year, the department will reconstruct the flood…
UPMC called out for throwing transgender youth under the bus to appease Trump
On the 73rd day of Donald Trump’s second crack at the presidency, the stock market tanked on fears of a trade war, a far-right conspiracy nut sat in the Oval Office and talked the president into firing six members of his national security team, and a TV doctor known for promoting questionable diet supplements was…
Worries about Social Security in the age of MAGA spill out at East Liberty rally
Much of the news these days emanates from an opulent Florida golf resort with gold fixtures, so it felt appropriate to seek another view Tuesday in front of a homely one-story brick building in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. The building is where people in neighborhoods such as Garfield, Homewood and Point Breeze sign up for…
REAL ID faces real deadline May 7
With just over a month to go before REAL ID or another federally approved ID is required to take commercial flights or enter federal facilities, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will offer extra hours so residents can get a special driver’s license or ID card. At a news conference Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said…
North Allegheny product Matthew DiMarsico, Pine-Richland’s Dane Dowiak play critical roles in leading Penn State to NCAA Division I Frozen Four ripe with local talent
In the wake of scoring a life-changing goal, Matthew DiMarsico returned to his Penn State locker room at Allentown’s PPL Center and looked at his phone. Among the messages the Nittany Lions sophomore forward received, one text in particular stood out. DiMarsico, fresh off scoring the game-winning overtime goal to send Penn State to its…
In other news …
Pittsburgh Regional Transit pushes for coalition to help press for more state transit funds
Thirteen riders and transit advocates spoke at Friday’s first meeting of Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s board of directors since the agency proposed 35% service cuts and a 25-cent fare hike last week to deal with a lack of a state funding increase to support agencies across Pennsylvania. The board moved public comments to the start of…
Riverlife begins revamp of Allegheny Riverfront Park as part of ‘Three Sisters Experience’
More than 30 years ago, Carol Brown, first president of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was the driving force behind the creation of Allegheny Riverfront Park. At the time, she had the vision to eliminate a lane of traffic from Fort Duquesne Boulevard to create a unique strip of park land overlooking the river from Stanwix…
PennDOT’s local construction season features five new major projects
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation expects to award contracts for 57 road and bridge projects worth about $537 million in Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties this year. And it is obvious the emphasis is on major projects. The agency expects the five most expensive projects to cost more than $200 million, and no other new…
