Benjamin Kail

Shapiro, Garrity divided over spending in spotlight amid renewed Pa. budget battle Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed $53 billion spending plan for 2026-27 shows that neither he nor Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity is shying away...

Shapiro, Garrity divided over spending in spotlight amid renewed Pa. budget battle www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social

Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh-native attorney who ran for governor in 2022 and has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for lieutenant...

Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social

It always amuses me how boilerplate Trump's endorsements are, as witness his backing last night of gubernatorial candidates Stacy Garrity of PA and Tom Tiffany of WI. Some biographical details and phrasing change, but oddly much of the idiosyncratic capitalization remains the same.

Jason Richey, Allegheny County GOP chair, running for lieutenant governor Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh-native attorney who ran for governor in 2022 and has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for lieutenant...

Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh attorney who ran for governor in 2022 & has chaired the Allegheny County GOP for about a year, is running for Lt. governor. Stacy Garrity, the Republican state treasurer running to oust Gov. Josh Shapiro, will endorse Richey today.

www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...

Gov. Shapiro found Harris team’s focus on Israel during 2024 vetting ‘offensive’ Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team asked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro whether he ever served as an Israeli agent as part of a running...

“Had I been a double agent for Israel?” Gov. Shapiro found Harris team’s focus on Israel during 2024 vetting ‘offensive’ www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social

‘That extra whip’: Kennywood’s Thunderbolt roller coaster celebrates a century of thrills | Benjamin Kail The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is shutting down after May 3. In between calls for unrelated stories, I thought I'd say thank you to our readers and subscribers. Thank you to my insightful sources and t...

Instead of a link to the announcement of our paper's demise, here's a feature I wrote in 2024 ... about my old man's favorite roller coaster, the century-old Thunderbolt, at Kennywood Park.

Like my 12 years in the news business, it's still a hell of a ride.

www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...

City Cast Pittsburgh The City Cast Pittsburgh daily podcast and the Hey Pittsburgh daily newsletter are made by Pittsburghers for Pittsburghers.

Lest we forget what the great Megan Harris is up to:
pittsburgh.citycast.fm

“.. What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality. .. I have to be allowed to imagine .. that one day, I’ll be at a dinner or a party and find myself seated next to Rob .. and feel lucky all over again to have him as a friend.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...

#TwinPeaks #CharlieBrown #Snoopy artwork by @schumisnoopy.bsky.social

As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?

Many reporters went to Albany, Georgia, when it became one of America's first COVID hotspots.

But @propublica.org's Ginger Thompson kept returning, kept reporting.

What she uncovered reveals some ugly truths about American healthcare.

Read her new 5-part series, Sick in a Hospital Town:

I'm not sure it's in the self interest of America's tech bro billionaires to suggest that we bring back public executions to punish the most destructive people in our society.

AI poised to play increased role in Pa. elections in 2026 and beyond The five jittery clowns marched down the middle of a dark city street, flanked by passersby and the blurred glow of storefront lamps.  As their wild...

“A democratic republic is only as good as the information the citizens have,” Lew Irwin, a political scientist at Duquesne University, told me. “We’ve immersed Americans in this new technology with all these adverse consequences, and no one has a user’s manual.” www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...

This composition had eluded me for nearly a decade, but yesterday I was finally able to capture it. A train rolled through just as the Duquesne Incline was crossing over the tracks in #Pittsburgh, creating a picture perfect winter scene. It was worth the hours and hours I've waited over the years.

DOJ Sues Six More States in Sweeping Push to Obtain Unredacted Voter Rolls Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: The Justice Department launched a new wave of lawsuits against six more Democratic-led states Tuesday — escalating a federal effort to seize unredacted information from millions of voters. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

this is just gutter racism

Territory they hold? You mean Ukraine?

Trump’s campaign of retribution: At least 470 targets and counting A Reuters investigation documents at least 470 acts of retribution under Trump’s leadership.

Trump and his administration have targeted at least 470 people, organizations and institutions for retribution since he took office, according to a @reuters.com tally – an average of more than one a day. www.reuters.com/investigates...

There is beauty everywhere but especially in autumn in Philadelphia! 😻

Shapiro says Trump administration not 'minding the shop' as DHS targets immigrant truckers The recent arrest of an alleged Uzbek terrorist who obtained a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license this summer has stirred calls for investigations...

Shapiro says Trump administration not 'minding the shop' as DHS targets immigrant truckers www.post-gazette.com/news/politic... by @benkail.bsky.social

JUST IN: A federal judge says one of the Venezuelan men — illegally deported to El Salvador in March before he was swapped back to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange — is now missing, possibly a victim of the violence he was seeking asylum from. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Let’s not get confused about science.

Many studies have looked for a link between vaccines and autism — none has found one.

“We haven’t ruled it out” is a logic loop; by that logic we also haven’t ruled out peanut butter, bedtime stories, or blue socks.

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i’m sure someone else has already put this together but fucking wild he called for members of congress to be hanged the same day the coast guard said a noose is no longer a hate symbol

Crow: "It just tells us everything that we need to know that reminding people to obey the law, reminding people to obey the Constitution, is somehow criminal in Trumpworld and should be responded to with death threats. It's very, very telling."

Shapiro says Trump administration not 'minding the shop' as DHS targets immigrant truckers The recent arrest of an alleged Uzbek terrorist who obtained a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license this summer has stirred calls for investigations...

The arrest of an alleged terrorist who obtained a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license this summer has stirred calls for investigations by Republican policymakers & pushback from the Shapiro administration aimed at potential flaws in a federal database.

www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...

Wyden Presses for Investigation Into JPMorgan Chase and Epstein

EPSTEIN BOMBSHELL: my staff is releasing a new report showing JPMorgan Chase executives – all the way to the top – enabled Epstein's sex trafficking operation. You're going to want to read this.

Breaking: The House voted unanimously, 426-0, to strip a provision in the funding bill that allowed senators to sue the government for $500K if their phone data was searched without their knowledge.

The provision was designed for GOP senators to sue over the Jack Smith investigation.

RFK Jr.’s warnings on thimerosal in vaccines threaten to instill doubt overseas, experts fear Health secretary RFK Jr. wants other countries to ban the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines, despite research showing it is a safe ingredient.

RFK Jr. says other nations should follow the US lead & bar thimerosal in #vaccines. The preservative safeguards multi-dose vials, a key tool for vaccination drives in many countries. Experts don't think it will happen, but worry that disinformation could take root. www.statnews.com/2025/11/19/r...

BREAKING: Prosecutors in the Comey case just told the judge that they’re under orders from the Deputy Attorney Generals’s office not to disclose whether career prosecutors wrote a memo recommending *against* indicting Comey prior to Halligan going to the grand jury.