After a summer of public input, Allegheny County Council introduced an ordinance to create a countywide citizens’ police review board Tuesday.

The legislation comes in the wake of calls for reform from community that followed the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr. in June, but County Councilman DeWitt Walton (D-Hill District) and review board backer said the move is a long time coming.

“As we’ve said on numerous occasions, this legislation is designed to protect the rights of residents of Allegheny County but it also protects the rights of law enforcement,” Walton said.

Pittsburgh City Council approved the city’s first capital budget post-Act 47 status Tuesday, but not without hearing considerable criticism beforehand.

At the culmination of a month long effort,  two dozen affordable housing advocates testified before council that only restoring a portion of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s financial support from the city wasn’t enough to combat displacement within the city.

Pittsburgh city councilmembers, joined by Gov. Tom Wolf and state legislators, announced a package of gun control legislation Friday. 

The move comes in the aftermath of the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in October which left 11 dead and seven injured, while the official announcement was held on the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. Councilman Corey O’Connor (District 4), whose district includes the synagogue, said the tragedy was a call to action to not accept gun violence as the norm. 

A week after organizers rallied for lower fares and better access, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released an audit levying a number of criticisms at the Allegheny County Port Authority Thursday.

While DePasquale praised the authority for addressing the fiscal and contractual concerns raised in previous years, the report released said the authority’s buses have a long way to go service wise.

With signs that alleged empty promises, affordable housing advocates advanced on Pittsburgh City Council chambers to plead with council to restore their funding for the 2019 capital budget.

When Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto proposed his budget for the new year, many advocates were disturbed to learn that their financial support from the city would decrease by $5 million, leaving the authority with $1.1 million from the capital budget.