Elected officials and their staff members paddled their way through Allegheny River Locks and Dams on Friday.

The event was organized by the Friends of the Riverfront, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and the Port of Pittsburgh.

Some of the elected officials that participated were:

Executive Director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Rich Fitzgerald, joins Larry Richert in the KDKA radio studio each Wednesday morning.

On this week’s show, Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning was on to talk about the Hookstown Fair and Big Knob Grange Fair. Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew dialed in to promote the Westmoreland County Fair.

The following is a first-person account from Armstrong County Commissioner Anthony Shea regarding his recent bike trip from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh:

Shortly after I took office as Armstrong County Commissioner on Jan 2, 2024, I received the news of Armstrong Trails Executive Director Chris Ziegler’s plans to inaugurate a new 10-mile section of the Armstrong Trails from Schenley to Rosston on April 1st.

Despite artificial intelligence rapidly changing the world, one sector has struggled to keep pace — healthcare. A symposium hosted at the University of Pittsburgh today by the Biotechnology Board discussed extensively how the sector can catch up.

Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Anantha Shekhar said that “the pace at which [AI] transforms consumer products versus healthcare is completely different” because of multiple reasons, including higher regulatory standards and data access.

For the past few years, Clark Haynes has been strapping sensors onto bicycles to keep riders safe.

Using some of the same technology that powers driverless cars, the AI-enabled sensors, called Copilot, can detect a potential collision with a vehicle and thwart it by flashing a light or blasting a sound.

The City of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, recently retained HNTB Corporation to assist with implementing the Midwest Connect Corridor Identification and Development grant.

A collaborative effort to connect Chicago, Fort Wayne, Columbus and Pittsburgh with passenger rail service is gaining momentum with the addition of HNTB Corporation’s expertise.

A collaborative effort to connect Chicago, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh with passenger rail service is gaining momentum with the addition of HNTB Corporation’s expertise. The City of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), recently retained HNTB Corporation to assist with implementing the Midwest Connect Corridor Identification and Development (CID) grant.

The city of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), has retained HNTB Corporation to assist with the implementation of the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant.

“This is a long process,” City Councilman and Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association (NIPRA) board member Geoff Paddock said. “It’s kind of a complicated process and many steps along the way.

An engineering firm with offices in Columbus has been tapped to join the team trying to restore Amtrak service in the city.

HNTB Corporation will be tasked with planning and development services for the Midwest Connect route, a potential route connecting Pittsburgh to Chicago via Columbus and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The route would include stops in Marysville, Columbus and Newark.

1 Can you elaborate on engineering consultant HNTB’s specific role in the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant? How close does this bring us to passenger rail service?

A: The role of HNTB is to help the City of Fort Wayne as the primary applicant and its partners, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, set up and prepare the scope of work for the Service Development Plan for the Midwest Connect project.