WESA-FM: Assorted stories from WESA-FM : NPR

On this week’s Explainer:

On today's program: The Pittsburgh Land Bank’s new executive director explains how, with consistent leadership, she hopes to more effectively serve communities and reduce blight in the city; the Pirates' season opens today, only filling PNC Park to 25% capacity; and a local residency program is trying to make the music industry more equitable for Black musicians.

It’s a kind of open secret: Very few artists make a living solely from their creative work. The vast majority of painters, poets, dancers, and actors hold down day jobs. The same goes for most musicians – and perhaps especially Black composers and musicians, who often lack the institutional support given to their white peers.

On today's program: Katharine Kelleman, CEO of the Port Authority, says eliminating the transfer fee for prepaid riders will give low-income customers more flexibility in transportation; and a professor and former investigator explains the significance of a donation of documents from the “Unabomber” case to the California University of Pennsylvania.

On today's program: Pittsburgh Public School District superintendent Anthony Hamlet says schools will use afterschool and summer programs to make up for lost learning; and exploring Pittsburgh’s public stairways is a COVID-safe excursion as the weather warms.

On today's program: Commonwealth residents in Phase 1B can begin booking appointments today, but there are still thousands of 1A eligible residents who haven’t gotten the shot; more than 100 COVID-19 cases have been connected to a Beaver County ethane cracker site; and award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo tells how one character’s youth in her book “Girl, Woman, Other” is a reflection of Evaristo as a young adult.

It happens, said Kyle Lucas, at least once a week. The server and bartender at Fireside Public House, in East Liberty, will ask an unmasked patron to mask up. And then the patron will yell at Lucas.

Musicians in Pittsburgh, like artists everywhere, had to learn to live without in-person concerts and play from behind a screen when the pandemic arrived. While many say they’re excited to return to the stage, they did discover some surprising upsides to performing online.

On this week's Explainer:

On today's program: The state’s utility regulator authorized shutoffs to low-income residents with overdue payment starting today, meaning 890,000 accounts are at risk of losing services; Duquesne University’s provost explains precautions as the school gears up for in-person classes in the fall; and a look at rising coronavirus cases, despite increasing vaccinations.

On today's program: The vice-chair of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission explains the poor state of the region’s infrastructure and how she hopes the Biden administration might help; the president of the city’s Bartender’s Guild says while some are excited about loosened restaurant restrictions, others are more hesitant about returning to work; and a look at what’s changed with policing under the Peduto administration amid calls to defund and add accountability to law enforcement.

Even before details of President Biden’s highly-anticipated infrastructure plan became available, manufacturing was expected to rank among its top priorities. Biden has made no secret about his ambitions to revive the sector, and his decision to travel to Pittsburgh Wednesday to unveil parts of the multi-trillion dollar package underscores that point.

On today's program: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse may have to wait two more years for a chance to sue their abusers; the organizer of a Pittsburgh “Stop Asian Hate” protests explains why it took a mass shooting for some to mobilize; and a local theater group is using the postal service to share art with others.

These days, people can get everything by mail, from exercise equipment to meal kits. Why not theater? Plays-by-mail are a growing phenomena sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. In March 2020, performance spaces around the country went dark. Groups’ stock-in-trade of live, shared, in-person performances became all but impossible for the immediate future. Many troupes stayed active with Zoom-based play readings, barebones performances for webcam, and even – after distancing restrictions eased – fully produced film adaptations of stage works. All the approaches had their merits. But Pittsburgh-based company RealTime Interventions had other ideas. “Can it go beyond Zoom?” asked RealTime’s Molly Rice. “Can we do better, or can we do things that are more interesting than that?” RealTime’s answer is Post Theatrical, a festival of theater-by-mail. A dozen troupes from around the country are contributing works enabled, at least in part, by the U.S. Postal Service. While the first performances

On today's program: Ohio is opening up vaccines to anyone who can safely receive it, but commonwealth residents thinking of getting vaccinated in Ohio should weigh the impact of cutting the line says a bioethicist; and advocates for transgender and gender-nonconforming people are giving community members self-defense kits pepper spray and stun guns, which they say are necessary for their survival.

On this week's Explainer:

On today's program: More people are facing food insecurity, but Dawn Plummer at the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council says some pandemic relief programs are helping and should continue; brine wastewater from fracking can flow elsewhere, even after being injected back into the ground, which is troubling to some; and the Pittsburgh Poison Center is celebrating Mr. Yuk’s 50th birthday in a year when poisonings from sanitizer and cleaning products are on the rise.

After a year of record high unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many laid off workers say it remains close to impossible to reach the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and problems with unemployment benefits remain unresolved.

On today's program: Infectious disease researcher Dr. Amesh Adalja talks about how although the state is nearing a million confirmed COVID-19 cases, he’s reassured by declining hospitalizations; the lead curator of a new exhibit at the Heinz History Center describes Pittsburgh’s significance to U.S. democracy; and two locals preview their book about the history of jazz in Pittsburgh.

On today's program: Legal analyst David Harris breaks down the process of jury selection for the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer facing charges for the murder of George Floyd; as the country debates a minimum wage increase, the economist who published a landmark study comparing fast food restaurant employment in Pennsylvania and New Jersey revisits his research; and we hear how working women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.