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1 week ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
The future of public transit in Pittsburgh rests on the votes of state lawmakers in Harrisburg. On Tuesday, members of the state Senate Democratic Policy Committee — Nick Miller, Jay Costa, Wayne Fontana and Lindsey Williams — held a hearing in downtown Pittsburgh to map out a route that avoids sharp public transit cuts and a fare hike.
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1 week ago | 
thefastmode.com | Julia Fraser
As a leader in cloud communications, I’ve spent years observing how technology reshapes consumer behavior. Today, it’s clear that standalone retail apps are on the verge of extinction. By 2025, advances in Rich Communication Services (RCS) technology will revolutionize how businesses and customers interact, rendering many retail apps unnecessary.
Consumers may wonder—why am I supposed to open a retail app when a simple message can bring me exactly what I need?
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2 weeks ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
Chatham University is taking over ice time at the Hunt Armory in Shadyside. The Urban Redevelopment Authority on Thursday approved a 10-year lease with the option for the university to buy the property for $2 million. Under the new lease with the URA, Chatham is planning a multi-million dollar upgrade to the facility to transform it into a year-round operation.
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2 weeks ago | 
wbur.org | Julia Fraser
A look at nuclear energy's micro futureCompanies are developing nuclear reactor alternatives that can be transported on the back of a semi-truck. WESA's Julia Fraser takes us to a facility near Pittsburgh to see how it works. This segment airs on April 9, 2025. Audio will be available after the broadcast.
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2 weeks ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
Pittsburgh’s South Side needed new pipes. During a rainstorm in the neighborhood, water poured through downspouts on many houses and buildings, off their properties onto the sidewalks and into the street. It pooled and froze creating dangerous icy sidewalks. Underground, the neighborhood has a combined sewer: wastewater from nearby homes and stormwater on the ground mix into the same pipe.
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2 weeks ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Pittsburgh City-County building Downtown Saturday to oppose a sweeping range of Trump administration actions since assuming power 75 days ago — from funding freezes for researchers to mass layoffs of federal workers to threats to health care programs and social security. “Don’t touch free speech!” “Hands off, you jagoff!” the crowd belted, among other chants on a cloudy afternoon.
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3 weeks ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
The Pittsburgh region is in line for a milder dose of the wild weather spinning across the Midwest Wednesday. Showers, thunderstorms and reports of quarter-sized hail swept across Ohio into the Pittsburgh-area during the afternoon. Another round of showers and thunderstorms move in later tonight into Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
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3 weeks ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
Starting Monday, eager bus riders and frustrated drivers alike can tell Pittsburgh Regional Transit what they think about their proposed plan for massive cuts to service and a fare hike that’s on the table, should the agency fail to get more money from the state. PRT’s board approved a public comment period Friday that begins next Monday and lasts until June 18. During this time, the agency will host a series of public meetings and release an online survey.
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1 month ago | 
wesa.fm | Julia Fraser
Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced plans Thursday to raise fares and slash the region’s transit service by nearly 40% — cutting 41 bus routes entirely, while making major reductions to light-rail service, most bus routes and PRT’s paratransit service — unless it gets more money from the state. “This is really hitting almost every single route in our entire system from 2 Mount Royal to the 93 and the Silver Line,” said Adam Brandolph, deputy chief communications officer at PRT.
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1 month ago | 
alleghenyfront.org | Julia Fraser
A 12-foot-tall slice into the dark gray core of a model nuclear microreactor looms on the shop floor of the new Westinghouse Electric Company factory in Etna. It’s dotted with blank holes missing the control drums to control the rate of the reaction, shutdown rods to bring the nuclear chain reaction to a halt and an array of thin heat pipes to cool the heat produced from the fuel and transfer it to an open-air process that turns the fuel into power.
