In response to stalled contract negotiations and company demands for steep concessions, newsroom employees of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will begin a byline strike against management.

Pittsburgh City Paper confirmed the action through several P-G staff members, who wished to remain anonymous. CP also read the email alerting employees of the action.

The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh represents reporters, copy editors and photographers at the P-G. Employees with the guild have been working without a contract since March 31, 2017.

On Jan. 11, President Donald Trump referred to African immigrants who utilize the U.S. lottery system as coming from “shithole countries.” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who was in the Jan. 11 meeting discussing immigration with Trump, said during a Jan. 12 press conference that the president’s comments were “hate-filled, vile and racist.”

KDKA television and radio personality Marty Griffin posted a tweet on social media Wednesday morning that appears to make light of sexual assault and harassment. The post comes in the midst of almost daily reports about men in positions of power sexually assaulting and harassing women.

At 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 6, Griffin tweeted from his account a meme of a toy elf recording four Barbie dolls sitting in a sink filled with bubbles with “elf on the shelf being investigated for sexual misconduct.” Griffin wrote on the tweet “Where does it end?”

Four people replied on Twitter and two of them didn't appreciate the post. One wrote “not funny” and another “Are you this dumb or are you playin' us?”

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape director Alison Hall says she is “disappointed” in Griffin’s tweet. “This is not a time to try to be silly about this topic. I would expect more of him.”

Pittsburgh City Paper emailed Griffin at 4:25 p.m. for comment and the tweet was deleted a short time after. CP has reached out to both Griffin and KDKA management for comment. We will post their comments when and if they respond.

On Nov. 8, Politico published a story many in the Pittsburgh region have seen too many times. Reporter Michael Kruse traveled to Johnstown, in Cambria County, to talk to the same people he interviewed for a  story published prior to Donald Trump being elected president. The reporting investigated whether Trump voters had soured on the president, and Kruse sought their input on the ongoing political and cultural wars nationwide. Like many dispatches from the Rust Belt by national publications, the story painted Johnstown as a no-hope town, overrun by drugs and blight, and still in love with Trump.

Since its publication, the Politico story has spread widely on social media, thanks to the explosive final quote in which a white, elderly Trump voter says NFL players are “Niggers for life.”

But progressives in Johnstown aren’t happy. Indivisible Johnstown, a progressive group that has held candidate forums for 2018 Democratic congressional candidates, responded on Facebook: “We are OUTRAGED that this POLITICO reporter and EVERY reporter who comes to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is only looking to tell a story of American Carnage. … Many, many citizens here are not misogynistic, racists like the Neanderthals in this article. They are working hard to make a difference.”

On Oct. 12, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Cranberry) discovered City Paper’s 2017 Shit List issue, which was first published on Aug. 2. Metcalfe wrote on his personal Facebook page, “I am sharing this pic with you to expose just how profane, vulgar and disrespectful the left is!” and included a picture of a cut-out paper version of his entry on the 2017 Shit List next to the poop-emoji used to illustrate the list.

Metcalfe claimed CP’s article was in the “same area” as an ad for a foster-care service provider in CP’s print issue. He then went on to claim CP and “the left” hate mankind, support abortion, reject morality, support homosexuality, and “hate God and reject His sovereign authority based on all of the above.”

Of course, most of Metcalfe’s claims are nonsense. One, the foster-care ad is actually several pages from the Shit List article. Second, there is no quantifiable way to judge if CP hates or loves mankind, but considering that we have written stories shining a light on issues facing Latino immigrants, African-Americans, LGBTQ Pennsylvanians, rural white people, Asian and African refugees, low-and-middle income Pittsburghers, the wrongfully imprisoned, people suffering from health issues, high-school students in Metcalfe’s district, etc., it’s easy to believe that CP falls on the love-mankind side of the spectrum.

Over the last several years, interest in complex policing stories has mushroomed. The Black Lives Matter movement, as well as immigrant-justice groups, have capitalized and propelled these stories, frustrated in how criminal-justice matters were too often swept under the rug.

University of Pittsburgh professor and well-known policing expert David Harris knows this all too well. For decades, he has been a go-to source for many media outlets (including Pittsburgh City Paper) for criminal-justice stories. He has even testified before the U.S. Congress on the subject.

And with all his available knowledge and expertise, Harris wanted to bring it directly to the the public. So last year, Harris started the Criminal (In)Justice podcast with help from former and current WESA staff members Josh Raulerson and Megan Harris. The first episode aired in March 2016, and this weeks marks the 50th episode.

It’s been a bad week for U.S. Senator Pat Toomey. Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator from Lehigh County went on a Philadelphia television news show and defended some of his stances, like how he believes Roe V. Wade, the Supreme Court decision making abortion legal, was the wrong choice, but was mostly confronted with repeated requests from the show’s hosts, asking him if he was going to vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“I will give you credit for serious persistence,” said Toomey on Fox 29 Philadelphia.

Toomey dodged hosts' questions 10 times on whether he will vote for Trump. He was so Trump-averse that he even dodge a question about whether Trump should release his tax returns. (Just like Toomey has yet to say whether he endorses the real estate mogul, Trump has yet to release his tax returns.)

Toomey said on the show that voters care more about his stance on security and economic issues than whether he endorses Trump. “I don’t think they care nearly as much as you guys do,” said Toomey to the hosts.

And on top of the all the Trump questions, Toomey has been getting for the past two months, and the consistent TV attack ads about his Wall Street background, Toomey has a new attacker.

On Nov. 3, the National Association for Gun Rights harshly criticized Toomey for his past effort to pass background check legislation in 2013 (the bill came up short and failed to clear the Senate). While Toomey has been avoiding any semblance of an allegiance toward Trump, the NAGR is actually more worried about the possibilities a Toomey-Clinton alliance would have towards gun rights.

“The prospects of a new Clinton-Toomey gun control deal next year are too big for gun rights supporters to ignore,” said NAGR President Dudley Brown in a press release. “That’s why we’re encouraging our members to urge Toomey to abandon his anti-gun positions right now. It simply cannot wait.”

All of this and six polls released this week show Toomey trailing his Democratic opponent Katie McGinty, including a Franklin and Marshall College poll that has McGinty up by 12 points. At a Nov. 3 press conference in the Allegheny County Courthouse, Braddock mayor and McGinty surrogate John Fetterman said Toomey is withering away this week.

“The polls show there is a wave of good judgement among Pennsylvanians right now,” said Fetterman at the press conference. “Pennsylvania voters are coming home and deciding whose side the they are on.”

Representatives from Sen. Toomey's campaign did not respond to request for comment by press time.

Stay tuned, Toomey said on Fox 29 Philadelphia that he will “probably” decide on whether he will vote for Trump before election day. Until then, check out Toomey’s interview on Fox 29 Philadelphia below.

On Oct. 12, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) was repeatedly asked by reporters at a campaign press conference about whether he will denounce Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for Trump's recorded comments about women as heard on the 2005 Access Hollywood videotape released last Friday. On the tape, Trump brags about touching women without their consent. 

Toomey has condemned the comments, but has not definitively stated if he supports or denounces Trump, a position he has held since Trump secured the Republican nomination. (Toomey supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the primaries.)

"I don't know, but I am not defending Donald Trump," said Toomey at the press conference. "I have said, I find his candidacy very problematic. I had hoped by now I would have been convinced to been an enthusiastic supporter, but I remain unpersuaded."

Toomey is the only U.S. senator running for re-election who has not decided whether or not he supports Trump. This months-long waffling has even caught the attention of  late-night comedians, including Jimmy Kimmel who satirized it on Oct. 13 (see above).

A narrator in the video, pretending to be Toomey, even gets in an argument with himself. "I am proud to support him for office. No, I'm not. Yes, I am. Am not. Am so!"

Democrat Katie McGinty, who is running against Toomey, has consistently called for Toomey to take a position on Trump. She told City Paper on Oct. 13 that Toomey needs to denounce Trump soon, because the issue is important to Pennsylvania voters, and dodging the Trump issue is a political move. 

"It seems to me that Sen. Toomey is putting his political interest ahead of his constituents," said McGinty. 

The first debate between the senate candidates takes place on Oct. 17, in Pittsburgh, on KDKA at 7 p.m. 

Earlier this year, an online news site reported on a possible primary-election endorsement of Donald Trump by the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In that report, Philadelphia-based Billy Penn talked to sources in the P-G newsroom who were unhappy about any possible endorsement. The website wrote: “Some Post-Gazette reporters are worried about their paper’s credibility should it support the billionaire candidate who’s campaigned on a platform that includes deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, building a wall between the United States and Mexico and banning Muslims from entering the country.”

If staffers were worried then, they couldn’t have been happy to learn that John Robinson Block, the paper’s publisher and editor-in-chief, spent a little time in Toledo Wednesday hanging out on Donald Trump’s private plane and getting his picture taken with the Republican presidential nominee. The visit was even documented in the Toledo Blade, the P-G’s sister publication in Ohio.

According to the paper: “After the campaign rally, Mr. Trump met with Blade Publisher and Editor-in-Chief John Robinson Block and Blade Editorial Page Editor Keith Burris on his plane at Toledo Express Airport.”

Sources tell City Paper that the photo was posted on Block’s Facebook page under the caption: “In 39 years of full time journalism I’ve met many interesting people. This one was more than memorable.” Both men are smiling and Trump is giving a thumbs up.

Asked via email for comment about the photo, and whether it could suggest that the P-G might be slanted toward Mr. Trump, an email from the Post-Gazette’s Deb Sacco read: "Mr. Deitch, Over the course of his career, Mr. Block has been photographed with many people. Attached, is another ..."
However, despite also shaking hands with Hillary Clinton, there are obvious differences between the two photos, not the least of which is that only one was taken on a private plane. Judging from the appearances of its two subjects, the Clinton photo also appears to have been taken some years ago, rather than during a hotly contested presidential campaign.

CP also contacted Michael A. Fuoco, president of The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents the paper’s union employees, to get his take about the photo.

“I don’t feel the guild can make a comment on the actions of the publisher and editor in chief,” Fuoco said. “But, regardless of what happens in the fall, if we do endorse for president, we will have no opinion about that. We are completely separate from that and we stay away from it.”

Most people who know City Paper are aware of the fact that we were sold by Steel City Media earlier this year to Eagle Publishing, out of Butler, Pa. And despite moving from one side of our current office space to another, things here, particularly the editorial focus has not changed.

I share that piece of history to share this: Our old company, Steel City Media, held a  meeting this morning in which staff members were told that the Q-92 on-air talent were no longer on the air this morning. Sources confirm this, as do our eyes, which witnessed the meeting this morning. We have been told by several sources that the station will run without on-air talent for a few weeks. We are uncertain if the on-air talent will be retained. I asked my former boss — Michael Frischling of Steel City Media — about the changes, and a bit ago he sent me this statement addressing only the fact that the "Q Morning Show" starring Jim Krenn, Mike Wysocki and Chris K. had been taken off the air:

“A mutual agreement has been reached by Jim Krenn and Q929FM, about the future of Jim Krenn & The Q Morning Show. With Krenn’s active schedule of charity work, comedy events, and various other commitments, both parties agree that this would be the best time for Krenn to pursue other obligations that will take him away from the day to day duties anchoring a morning show.

‘I will be working on some film projects, a new web series, along with various comedy events’ says Krenn, ‘and things have really taken off for me since my return to radio.'  Krenn continues, ‘Steel City Media is a family-owned radio station that cares about this community, and those are the kind of people I hope to be around for a long time.’

Jim Krenn will remain as an ambassador for the station and be an active part of Q929FM. Program Director Zak Szabo says 'We hate to see Jim go off the air right now, but we support his decision. He has been an amazing addition to Q929, and we look forward to working with him.'”

I share that piece of news to share the real reason I’m writing anything today. I’m not sure of all the details about what happened at Q-92 or if the talent has been permanently removed or not, but I have my suspicions. But here’s what I know for sure: Regardless of what happens there, comedian, sports columnist and all-around great Pittsburgher Mike Wysocki will continue writing his column for us here at City Paper. I texted with Mike today, and not only will he continue to write for us and do his weekly City Paper Snapchat feature, we’re hoping to find a way to work with him even more in the future.

It’s funny that the only reason that Mike writes for us now is that we once both worked for Steel City Media. I was asked to try Mike out as a columnist, even though the cynical journalist in me saw it as little more than an attempt at cross-promotion and doubted it would work out. But boy was I wrong. Mike has a unique perspective on sports and is able to relay that to the audience in a funny, engaging way. He has really grown as a writer, and his columns are one of the most popular features we offer.

Mike is taking this week off from his column, and I will do my best to fill in as a guest host from the “Cheap Seats” (although please give me some latitude when I’m not as funny as him). So while I don’t know a lot about the situation at Q-92 today, what I do know is that those of us here at CP support Mike, respect his talent and plan on keeping him writing for our pages as long as he wants to.