PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/author/bill-heltzel/)
Reporter | PublicSource
Bill Heltzel was a reporter for PublicSource between 2012 and 2014.
It took four months for PublicSource to get into a room in Pittsburgh’s federal courthouse to look at sensitive reports about ammonia.
We were given 45 minutes to view scores of reports, which we could not copy.
Ammonia, a toxic gas the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as extremely hazardous, is the most widely used dangerous chemical in Pennsylvania.
One in every eight Pennsylvanians — 1.5 million people -- lives close enough to facilities that store large amounts of ammonia to be at risk in a catastrophic chemical accident, according to a PublicSource analysis of federal records.
On April 17, when 30 tons of fertilizer detonated in West, Texas, a shock wave travelling faster than the speed of sound crushed homes. Windows shattered seven miles away. The United States Geological Survey recorded a 2.1 magnitude tremor from the blast.
A state lawmaker has scheduled a public hearing to examine the legality of a secretive Pittsburgh nonprofit group that has been running television ads critical of Gov. Tom Corbett.
“Clearly, they are trying to influence the outcome of elections,” said state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, about Pennsylvanians for Accountability. “The law requires if they make these kinds of expenditures they have to report that.”
Pennsylvanians for Accountability runs television ads that accuse Gov. Tom Corbett of playing a shell game with the state.
But what game is the Pittsburgh advocacy group itself playing? It refuses to name its officers and directors. It conceals its funders. It uses a mail drop for an address.
Dan Blevins, 29, of Carnegie is one of more than 10,000 veterans in Pennsylvania who has been waiting more than a year for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to rule on disability claims.
Fourteen years after a Vincentian Academy coach and teacher was forced to resign over allegations of sexual misconduct with basketball players, the Pennsylvania Department of Education is questioning former athletes who played for him.
Through all the chaos and sorrow that swept through Joplin, Mo., after a devastating tornado in 2011, one man stood out.
David Scott Zimmerman of O’Hara near Pittsburgh consoled teens on Facebook, shipped free T-shirts to boys who needed clothing, and prodded a family to form a youth group in honor of their son, who died in the storm.
On Dec. 6, residents of affluent Fox Chapel and other nearby communities served hearty homemade soup to 80 residents of Sharpsburg, some of whom had not had a hot meal in weeks.
After 10 months of deliberations, a task force formed in response to the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal will recommend that all children in Pennsylvania have better access to centers that specialize in investigating child abuse.
