February 28, 2024 - Pittsburgh City Paper

BY DAVID ROTENSTEIN

RACHEL WILKINSON

BY JAMES PAUL

“SUSPICIOUS PERSONS”

In 1909, claims of assault led to mass arrests of Black Pittsburghers. With the incident only now coming back to light, how much has really changed?

BY DAVID ROTENSTEIN //

PHOTO: LOWER HILL REDEVELOPMENT AREA PROPERTIES, CITY OF PITTSBURGH Mack McGee was living in this building at 1417 Pasture Lane in the Hill District when he was arrested in February 1909.

The Pittsburgh Courier once dubbed Wylie Ave. in the Hill Distract as "the street that begins at a church and ends in jail." Indeed, as a new report confirms, for decades, Wylie Ave. was as much Black Pittsburgh's Main Street as it was an unjust pipeline to prison.

A recent article by the Equal Justice Initiative — an organization dedicated to ending mass icarceration — tells the story of an episode that unfolded in February 1909, when police rounded up more than 200 Black Pittsburghers and arrested them on spurious charges. Like much in Pittsburgh’s Black history, the 1909 events had been long forgotten. Many of the buildings on Wylie that bore witness to them have been torn down, replaced by vacant lots.

Even local historians were caught off guard by the EJI article. The story they tell took place 115 years ago, but it’s been echoed in recent years by familiar cycles of police violence and racial unrest.

Founded by lawyer Brian Stevenson, the EJI is best known for its legal advocacy and educational efforts, including the widely acclaimed National Memorial for Peace and Justice (also known as the lynching memorial) in Montgomery, Ala. Its 1909 roundup story was one in a series of articles the organization has published.

“EJI produces a calendar that highlights examples of racial injustice throughout history,” a spokesperson emailed in response to questions about the story. “We researched the Pittsburgh narrative, and we’ve had it in our annual calendar for years.”

MASS HYSTERIA FUELS MASS INCARCERATION

The EJI piece highlights the story of Rial and Irene Lucas. The couple were living above Harrison’s Pool Hall at 1810 Wylie Ave. when they found themselves caught up in a wave of mass racial violence triggered by a white woman claiming that she had been assaulted.

Ida O’Neil was a white 20-year-old office worker whose scream the eve

of Feb. 2, 1909, attracted the attention of a woman living nearby. She and another woman told police that they had seen a Black man running away from the Hill District scene.

Within hours of the alleged event, O’Neil tentatively identified Mack McGee as the man who assaulted her. “That looks like him,” The Pittsburgh Press quoted O’Neil the next day. But she wasn’t sure.

McGee was among more than 100 Black men questioned in the hours after the alleged assault.

“All kinds and classes of men were up before the magistrate this morning,” wrote the Press on February 3, 1909. “Some were manifestly harmless and were quickly discharged. In the collection of 125 prisoners, however, there were some negroes who looked to be distinctly undesirable citizens.”

The men in the latter group, two-thirds of those picked up, were charged as “suspicious persons” and sent to the Allegheny County Jail downtown or the Allegheny County Workhouse near Blawnox.

McGee was one of the unlucky ones kept in custody. He was picked out of a police lineup by a white man who “chased” a Black man after another alleged assault on a different woman. The strongest evidence that police had against McGee: they’d recovered an old coat and a hat when they searched his Pasture Lane apartment.

O’Neil told the police that the man who attacked her wore a cap with “ribs” in it, the Pittsburgh Post reported. The paper added, “McGee wears a corduroy cap of that description.”

Though McGee ultimately was cleared of the alleged O’Neil assault, he nonetheless was fined $10 and sent to the Workhouse. It was his third (or fourth) trip there since 1905 — the others were for disorderly conduct and for being a “suspicious person.”

Under a Pittsburgh ordinance passed in 1867, anyone charged as a “suspicious person” in the city appeared before a police magistrate,

PHOTO: PITTSBURGH PRESS VIA NEWSPAPERS.COM.

Mack McGee was the first Hill District resident accused of assaulting Ida O’Neil. The Pittsburgh Press published this photo of him shortly after his arrest

PHOTO: PITTSBURGH DAILY POST VIA NEWSPAPERS.COM.

Photo of Rial Lucas published in the Pittsburgh Post Feb. 9, 1909, shortly after his arrest for allegedly assaulting Ida O’Neil.

www.mealsdirectllc.net

who could unilaterally decide to summarily fine and imprison that person, no jury, no attorneys required.

After clearing McGee, the police then turned their attention to Lucas. By that point, newspapers around the nation had been publishing sensational articles beneath bold headlines reporting that police had rounded up between 200 and 1,000 Black Pittsburghers.

Rial Octavious Lucas was born in 1881 in Washington, D.C. Lucas attended public school there until he was 17. According to Pennsylvania penitentiary records, he was 5’4” and a moderate drinker. In Washington, he worked as a day laborer and was living with his mother and her second husband.

By 1906, Lucas and his sister Bertie were living on Wylie Ave. He was working as a janitor when he married domestic worker Irene Watson in 1907. Watson was born in 1886 in Delaware. In 1900, she was living with her widowed mother, two brothers and a sister in Philadelphia. Watson was 5’2”, and she attended public school until she was 12.

THE ROAD TO REMEMBERING

The Courier ’s clever Wylie Av e. motto was an apt metaphor for many Black residents and visitors who found themselves swept from the avenue’s nightclubs, pool halls, newsstands, and homes into a pipeline ending at the Allegheny County Jail. The two buildings at opposite ends of the street also are a stark visual reminder of how Pittsburgh remembers and commemorates white history while the city forgets and erases its Black history and landmarks. Between the 1890s and 1950, racial violence erupted in communities throughout the United States. In 1898, dozens of Black residents were killed and Black elected officials were removed from office in Wilmington, N.C. White mobs went on a killing spree in Atlanta, Ga., in 1906 after newspapers published stories alleging assaults on white women. In the summer of 1919, more than two dozen communities experienced racial violence resulting in hundreds of Black

“ANYONE CHARGED AS A ‘SUSPICIOUS PERSON’ IN THE CITY APPEARED BEFORE POLICE MAGISTRATE, WHO COULD UNILATERALLY DECIDE TO SUMMARILY FINE AND IMPRISON THAT PERSON.”

For reasons unknown — the original criminal case files are missing — police arrested the Lucases on Feb. 7, 1909. Less than two months after O’Neil’s alleged attack, a Pittsburgh jury, after deliberating for just 16 minutes, sentenced Rial Lucas to nine years in the Western Penitentiary on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Newspapers described the charge against him as “assault”; the charge listed in his prison intake record was “rape.”

deaths. Whites destroyed Tulsa, Okla.’s, Greenwood community — dubbed the Black Wall Street — in 1921. And, in 1923 a white mob rampaged through Rosewood, Fla., killing more than 30 people.

It took only two days for Irene Lucas to be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted as a “suspicious person.” She spent 30 days in the Allegheny County Workhouse — the maximum sentence for a first-time offender.

Those episodes don’t include more than 4,400 racial violence lynchings that the EJI has documented. A common thread running through many of these cases involves a white woman alleging that she had been assaulted or insulted by a Black man. Such breaches of segregation etiquette had one verdict, guilty, and a single sentence in Jim Crow’s vigilante court: death.

Despite making headlines around "SUSPICIOUS PERSONS", CONTINUES ON

the nation as the events unfolded here in 1909, Pittsburgh histories are silent about the episode. Even local historians and university faculty members who have written many books about the Black experience here were taken by surprise when they read the EJI article.

“I was not aware of that episode,” Carnegie Mellon University history professor Joe William Trotter Jr. tells Pittsburgh City Paper . “I think that we just haven’t done enough work, you know, to really uncover the many dimensions of the Black experience in the city over a long period of time.”

Laurence Glasco, who has taught history at the University of Pittsburgh since 1969, hadn’t known of the 1909 episode when the EJI contacted him as a source for their article.

“I was really stunned by it and fascinated to learn about it, because it goes against a lot of what we know about race and race relations in the Hill district historically,” Glasco explained.

Trotter connects the 2024 exposure of the 1909 episode to some of the reasons it has been forgotten or erased by historians.

“One of the things we have to keep in mind is that, very often, the research is driven about the politics of our times, right. I mean, it’s almost inevitable,” he says.

Neither Trotter nor Glasco could definitively explain what kept the violent rhetoric in 1909 — calls for lynching — from leaping off newspaper front pages into the streets and

PHOTO: COURTESY OF DAVID ROTENSTEIN

Black Lives Matter memorial signs once on Centre Ave. in East Liberty

“It didn’t break out into that — you don’t have deaths coming out of this,” Trotter says. “We still have to say there was something about Pittsburgh that prevented that kind of violence from gaining ground.”

The historian speculated that officials prevented escalations in episodes like these by promising swift justice. “Even if the state sort of curtailed the violence, or helped to curtail the violence, it didn’t totally exonerate the city from a pattern of racial hostility visited upon Black people.”

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

The actions by Pittsburgh police in 1909 resonate today. The pipeline to prison and police violence in Black communities are as close as daily headlines and social media timelines. Demonstrations against expanding the carceral state include the global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis and the #StopCopCity movement that spread from Atlanta as activists try to prevent the construction of a massive police training facility

that has had a major negative impact on Black people and in our neighborhood,” Angel Gober, president of the Marshall-Shadeland Civic Group, told WESA last year.

In his 1984 memoir Brothers and Keepers , John Edgar Wideman, the award-winning Pittsburgh-born author, made the prison the setting for his brother’s incarceration and a central character.

“Western Penitentiary sprouts like a giant wart from the bare, flat stretches of concrete surrounding it,” Wideman wrote. To Wideman, Western Penitentiary punished its inmates and their loved ones by dehumanizing them.

Wideman’s take on the prison captures the sentiments held by Black Pittsburghers: revulsion, not nostalgia. Compare that to the efforts by white historic preservationists who sought to protect the landmark which in 2022 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The conflicting views of the impending demolition underscore the need to better understand history

“WE JUST HAVEN’T DONE ENOUGH WORK … TO REALLY UNCOVER THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN THE CITY OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME.”

The legacy of 1909’s excesses may be found in the deaths of Jonny Gammage in 1995, Antwon Rose in 2018, and Jim Rodgers in 2021. Local protests in the summer of 2020 yielded many complaints of police extremes.

Like much in Pittsburgh’s Black history, had it not been for EJI, Rial Lucas’s nine years in Western Penitentiary might have been forgotten and erased altogether. The prison itself, slated for demolition, is a painful and palpable monument to inequities in law enforcement and criminal justice.

“We don’t want to keep something

holistically and equitably. They also speak to how Pittsburgh preserves its Black history landmarks: the jail at one end of Wylie Ave. is a tourist attraction with a brass plaque, and the church at the other end is condemned.

Thanks to efforts by EJI and new generations of local historians, sunlight is illuminating important stories from Pittsburgh’s past. These stories are important reminders that remembering the past is key to ensuring that we learn from past inequities and don’t repeat them in the future. It’s a lesson that is taking a long time to sink in. •

LONG LIVE THE SCREAM QUEEN

“THIS MAY SOUND OFFENSIVE, BUT [PITTSBURGH] HAS A CREEPY VIBE ... THERE’S A VERY COOL HORROR MOVIE AESTHETIC WITH A BIT OF A GLOOM TO THE SKIES THAT YOU’RE LIKE, ‘DAMN, I WANT TO GO HANG OUT AT A CREEPY CEMETERY HERE AND MAKE A MOVIE.’”

BY JAMES PAUL // INFO

Tiffany Shepis was 15 years old when she got her first role as a bodyguard in the 1996 horror-comedy Tromeo and Juliet. Ditching school to attend the audition (and lying about her nonexistent prowess in jiu-jitsu), Shepis says she had no idea this was the start of a 27-year career in which she'd appear in nearly 100 titles, including Sharknado 2, Victor Crowley, and The Violent Kind.

Shepis will appear as a celebrity guest at Horror Realm, a threeday horror convention that, from Fri., March 1 to Sun., March 3, will assemble horror actors, enthusiasts, and vendors at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh South in Bethel Park. Shepis was one of the convention’s first guests at the inaugural Horror Realm in 2009, and she’s been attending on and off every year since.

“[Shepis] fell into that category that they call the ‘scream queen.’ And when we started Horror Realm, she was the scream queen at the time,” Rich Dalzotto, co-founder of Horror Realm, tells Pittsburgh City Paper . “She went above and beyond just being a celebrity guest and has been a real friend of the show — and she’s a lover of Pittsburgh.”

Ahead of Horror Realm 2024, City Paper caught up with Shepis to discuss horror’s existential themes, the Pittsburgh aesthetic, George Romero, and more.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF TIFFANY SHEPIS Tiffany Shepis, part of Horror Realm 2024

Let’s take a quick look at your career between the '90s with movies like Tromeo and Juliet and more recent performances in Tar (2020) and Deathcember (2019). In your opinion, how have the themes explored in horror movies changed from the '90s to today? What practical effect has this had on you as an actor in terms of roles and technique?

I always felt there’s stuff in the world that’s so dark. At the end of the day, you still have to go and pay your bills and worry about how you’re going to put the kids through school or worry about healthcare. Whatever that is, there is a really fun, cool, cathartic release in horror movies because, you know, it comes to an end after an hour and a half. No matter how dark it is, it’s going to stop. I just think the themes change.

Many of the artists and actors I’ve met hate labeling themselves, though when you look up Tiffany Shepis, you can’t avoid the term "scream queen." What does that term mean to you, and does the '90s horror movie culture it came out of still exist today?

I love the term scream queen. I was really honored when, I believe, Jewel Shepard, a famous scream queen from the ‘80s, coined me that originally in a Timeout magazine article, and I was like, “Oh my god, like, she called me scream queen.”

A long time ago, you had to have the press coin you that. Now, a lot of people self-title themselves, and it’s sort of become easier and easier with the YouTube generation or Instagram fame. But I held it as a badge of honor that people were lumping me in with the likes of Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley.

Pittsburgh has George Romero’s corn syrup-and-red-dye blood running through its veins, with the city and surrounding area serving as the set for Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, and Creepshow. Can you tell me what draws you every year to Pittsburgh and why you think it inspired Romero’s gothic imagination?

The aesthetic. This may sound offensive, but [Pittsburgh] has a creepy vibe ... There’s a very cool horror movie aesthetic with a bit of a gloom to the skies that you’re like, “Damn, I want to go hang out at a creepy cemetery here and make a movie.”

It’s reminiscent of me being a teenager wanting to hang out at cool abandoned places and make scary movies and meet really awesome friends that are going to help me fight zombies all my way through it.

I understand that you’ve been a part of Horror Realm since it started in 2009. What space do these conventions serve for people in the horror movie industry and fan base? What about just lay people?

Who doesn’t love Halloween — I mean, you find somebody who hates Halloween, though they’re super weird. Everybody loves Halloween. So this is a chance to have Halloween all year long, bust out that costume early.

More often than not, you find somebody going, “Man, I never knew [Horror Realm] existed.” “What a great time.” “These people are so nice and so cool.” And, “Holy shit, I got to meet Ernie Hudson, or I got to meet the guy from Rob Zombie’s movies,” or “Oh, there’s Tiffany Shepis; she was in Sharknado How neat!”

What do you have scheduled this year for Horror Realm, and how can Delta Delta Die-hard fans get the chance to meet you?

I’ll be there all weekend. I believe they have me set up doing a panel where basi cally we’ll just rehash the same things we just talked about in this interview with fan questions. There’s that, there’s professional photo ops.

What I really like at shows like Horror Realm, which is kind of neat, you’ll find all of these actors and filmmakers mostly just hanging out at the restaurants and the bars after. I’m not necessarily saying to run up and interrupt their spaghetti dinner, but it’s kind of fun that it’s not just “Oh, come see us behind this table.” It’s like everyone’s there just doing the same thing. •

Horror Realm

Fri., March 1-Sun., March 3 Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh South

164 Fort Couch Rd., Bethel Park $15-40, free for kids 10 and under with paid adult admission.

horrorrealmcon.com

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HORROR REALM

PHOTO: COURTESY OF HORROR REALM Horror Realm 2023

GROWING UP YINZER

A recent book sees yinzers from Joe Namath to Billy Porter reminiscing about the city and how it shaped their lives.

BY RACHEL WILKINSON // RWILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

When former Steelers coach Bill Cowher announced his resignation in 2007, he used the word “yinz,” addressing Pittsburghers and fans in front of the national press.

“You can take the people out of Pittsburgh, but you will never take the Pittsburgh out of people,” Cowher told them. “I’m one of you. Yinz know what I mean.”

It always stuck with Dick Roberts, eventually inspiring his first book, Growing Up Yinzer:

Memories From Beloved Pittsburghers, published in October.

“When I had this idea for the book, I remembered [that] press conference,” Roberts tells Pittsburgh City Paper . “He was clearly trying to make a connection that he was still a Pittsburgher.”

“Yinzer,” Roberts and the book assert, is “a term of endearment,” worn locally as a badge of honor and symbolizing grit and determination.

The resulting book is a compendium of 51 Pittsburghers — including Cowher — sharing

memories and reflections about how growing up in the city shaped them. Roberts explains the book isn’t 51 profiles, but first-person, as-told-to interviews that he crafted into “stories.”

“These folks all ended up being really good storytellers,” Roberts says. “Bards of the Pittsburgh experience.”

The book’s famous figures encompass the worlds of business, politics, sports, entertainment, and education, with more than a few recognizable names. Just on the cover, illustrated versions

PHOTO: COURTESY OF KAREN NORDSTROM Dick Roberts

of entrepreneur Mark Cuban, WQED broadcaster Rick Sebak, quarterback Dan Marino, and WNBA star Swin Cash appear — all standing together atop Mount Washington.

Reporting over 18 months, Roberts spoke directly with everyone in the book, also pulling in previous interviews where Pittsburghers hyped their hometown.

with the importance of family, community, and neighborhood pride, says Roberts. He points out that all the Pittsburghers featured in the book have become successful, and in some cases wealthy, but few started out that way.

“Many of them grew up of humble means in blue collar families,” Roberts says.

“MY EYES WERE OPEN TO THE EVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATION THAT THE PEOPLE OF PITTSBURGH HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN.”

“Jeff Goldblum apparently loves talking about Pittsburgh,” Roberts says. Actor and comedian Billy Gardell, best known for starring opposite Melissa McCarthy on the sitcom Mike & Molly , is also a “big cheerleader” who “really attributes his style of humor to Pittsburgh.”

Roberts was most excited to talk with legendary quarterback Joe Namath (born and raised in Beaver Falls), exclaiming to his wife when Namath called him, “It’s Broadway Joe on the phone!”

Several themes recur in Growing Up Yinzer, one of which, Roberts tells CP, is that Pittsburghers love talking about Pittsburgh.

Interviewing University of Kentucky basketball coach and Hall of Famer John Calipari, who had in his office that day, Roberts says, “four recruits who were probably the best high school players in America,” Calipari spoke unhaltingly about his Pittsburgh roots for more than an hour. Growing up in Moon Township, Calipari recalled being inspired by his hardworking parents — a baggage handler at the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport and a cafeteria worker — and returning to Police Station Pizza in Ambridge each time he comes home.

“I’m the same guy I’ve always been,” Calipari says in the book. “My heart’s the same. My friends are the same. My approach to things is the same.”

Hard work and continuity are also themes of Growing Up Yinzer, along

Businessman and former president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins David Morehouse imagined he’d work as a boilermaker. (Naturally, accounts of the steel industry and its importance pervade the book.) Tom Murphy Jr., Pittsburgh’s second longest-serving mayor, recalls steel as “a culture, your whole life.” As a 16-year-old in 1960,

PHOTO: COURTESY OF LAYNE MURDOCH Swin Cash

GROWING UP YINZER, CONTINUES ON PG. 14

his father from the swing shift at the Carson Street mill, where he worked for 51 years.

Roberts was moved by Murphy’s recollections of a bygone time.

In the book, Murphy says, “When the whistle blew, you had a huge mill with the glow, the flames, and the smoke coming out of the mill and then four or five thousand men rushing out of that gate … So for me, the noise, the flames and the number of people when it was dark was a great picture, very vivid, and it’s incredible that would all disappear.”

Not every Pittsburgher's upbringing came with nostalgia.

Award-winning singer, actor, and Broadway star Billy Porter told Roberts, “Being Black, gay, and Christian in Pittsburgh during the 1980s made me a target for the kind of oppression that literally kills people and destroys humanity.”

Porter left Pittsburgh for New York City not to return for decades; the book also has its fair share of prodigal son stories.

But in 2015, after winning multiple Tonys playing Lola, a drag performer, in the hit musical Kinky Boots, Porter returned to Pittsburgh for the show’s run at the Benedum Center.

“This prodigal son hath come

home — as a lady !” Porter says in Growing Up Yinzer, not knowing what to expect of the hometown audience. His performance of “Hold Me in Your Heart” garnered a five-minute standing ovation on opening night.

Arnold Palmer family.

Though growing up in Westmoreland County, 50 miles outside the city, he never felt like a true yinzer; Roberts still remembers watching Pittsburgh’s

“THERE’S [A] UNIQUE WAY PITTSBURGHERS TALK … BUT [ONE] OF THE KEYS TO IT IS: THEY’RE PROUD OF IT AND THEY HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR ABOUT IT.”

Porter says, “I felt my own heart — which I had kept closed and guarded so many years — crack open … my eyes were open to the evolution and transformation that the people of Pittsburgh have been engaged in.”

Roberts himself is a Ligonier, Pa. native whose parents owned the historic Darlington Inn. The neighborhood tavern with a “big horseshoe bar [and] knotty fireplace” hosted Pirates players and three generations of the

like the tunnels and the Primanti’s sandwich, and featuring Pittsburgh characters and Pittsburghese.

“Being with you, my love I can’t hide / Like when I find parking on the Sathside!” a Valentine’s Day card reads.

The line of cards — billed as “captur[ing] Pittsburgh’s essence” — served as a kind of first run at the book, Roberts says. Also a longtime PR professional who helms his own firm, he believes he’s uncovered some Pittsburgh fundamentals across various yinzer projects.

KDKA and reading the Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette , eschewing Johnstown media closer by. “I always stayed,” he says. “Even though I had opportunities to go other places … I always kind of felt like I was a Pittsburgher.”

Alongside radio personalities Jim Krenn and Larry Richert, and cartoonist Rob Rogers in 2018, Roberts created Yinzer Cards, greeting cards with illustrations of local touchstones

“There’s [a] unique way Pittsburghers talk,” he says. “They have a unique group of words that they use … but [one] of the keys to it is: they’re proud of it and they have a sense of humor about it.”

Ultimately, the formula is simple:

“At the end of the day, Growing Up Yinzer is a book about Pittsburgh,” Roberts says. “The heroes of the book are all the storytellers, for their great ability to articulate their experiences and what Pittsburgh meant to them.”” •

SCHOOL IN SOLITARY

Juvenile girls in the Allegheny County Jail are largely kept in isolation. The jail says this is by necessity, but advocates see a potential violation of local law.

BY JAMES PAUL // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON The Allegheny County Jail seen on Feb.

A17-year-old girl at the Allegheny County Jail spends her days in neartotal isolation. At the jail’s school facility, she’s taught by a limited stable of instructors. During recreation time, she’s by herself.

The jail maintains this doesn’t count as solitary confinement.

Because of how few females the jail admits, they’re held in the facility’s medical housing unit — almost exclusively by themselves. Activists and lawyers say this de facto practice rubs up against common understandings of solitary confinement and a ballot referendum banning the practice in the county.

Allegheny County became the first jurisdiction in the United States to ban solitary confinement when the widely supported ballot referendum passed in May of 2021, with 70% voting in favor.

on the jail’s use of solitary confinement.

Since 2016, there have been only 195 days in which more than a single girl has been in custody, according to the jail’s population dashboard . But, barring contentious facility-wide lockdowns for medical reasons, the jail only reported one instance of a juvenile girl being held in segregated housing — alone in a cell for more than 20 hours a day.

Jesse Geleynse, the public information officer for the Allegheny County Jail, told Pittsburgh City Paper in an email that the jail is not in violation of the referendum. He said the 17-year-old girl, who was at the jail as of Feb. 14 and has been held there since Jan. 18, spends four hours and 10 minutes in the jail’s school facility five days a week in addition to daily recreation time from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“Female juveniles reside in the medical housing unit because it

“[JUVENILES ARE] VULNERABLE TO DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND EVEN PANIC ATTACKS THAT ADULTS IN SOLITARY EXPERIENCE, BUT ALSO, BECAUSE OF THEIR YOUTH, ARE MORE IMPULSIVE AND HAVE A LESS ACCURATE SENSE OF TIME.”

“That is the heart of the bill: that people do not need to be in solitary confinement, that people do not need to be tortured, that people deserve dignity and care while they’re incarcerated,” Miracle Jones, the director of policy and advocacy at 1Hood Media, says, “and that still stands.”

The referendum defines solitary confinement as being held in a cell alone for more than 20 hours a day, with exceptions for lockdowns, medical or safety emergencies, and protective separation requests.

The referendum also requires the jail’s warden to write monthly reports

provides a place where they can be held apart from juvenile males and out of sight and sound of adult female incarcerated individuals,” Geleynse said in an email. “Female juveniles have access to recreation and are not confined to a cell for more than 20 hours in a day, which complies with the … referendum.”

But Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz, the deputy director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, questions if the jail meets that 20-hours-a-day requirement on weekends and holidays when school isn’t in session.

Geleynse told CP the jail has no

rec yard by themselves for one hour a day — does that one hour actually count, or not?” Morgan-Kurtz asks. “Some courts will go one way, some courts will go the other, but it’s not something that I think is a hard argument to make.”

Craig Haney, a social psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and an expert on the effects of solitary confinement, told City Paper in an email that solitary confinement

able to depression, anxiety, and even panic attacks that adults in solitary experience, but also, because of their youth, are more impulsive and have a less accurate sense of time — both of which increase the suicide and selfharm risks even more,” Haney says.

Haney says Allegheny County’s practice of holding juvenile girls in near-total isolation “frankly sounds like a horrible situation” and noted that most mental health, human

healthcare, medication options, crisis management and other supports as incarcerated adults.

Pennsylvania is one of 19 states where kids aged 15 and older who are charged with certain crimes, such as murder, armed robbery or other violent offenses involving a weapon, automatically enter the adult court system, including adult lockup facilities.

Because the jail isolates juvenile

ing policy that sends kids to adult lockups.

“This is why we keep advocating for community placement and community-based alternatives for these kids,” Jones says. “Because at the end of the day, these are still kids, these are still young people, and they should not be in solitary confinement, nor should any adult be in solitary confinement.” .

CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON The Allegheny County Jail seen on Feb. 4, 2024.

THU., FEB. 29

ART • NORTH SIDE

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild highlights a Pittsburgh multimedia artist with a flair for fiber. See Ephemeral Edge, a solo show featuring soft sculptures by Stefanie Zito. In an Instagram post, Zito describes the works as being constructed on a loom using a doubleweave technique, which allows her to “push, shape, and manipulate edges and form” through one continuous cloth. For more insights into her process, head to MCG on March 7 for a closing reception talk by Zito. 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Continues through Fri., March 8. 1815 Metropolitan St., North Side. Free. mcgyouth.org

KIDS • UPTOWN

Disney On Ice: Find Your Hero. 7 p.m. Continues through Sun., March 3. PPG Paints Arena. 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown. Tickets start at $26. ppgpaintsarena.com

FRI., MARCH 1

CONVENTION • BETHEL PARK

South Hills Home Show. 3-8 p.m. Continues through Sun., March 3. Cool Springs Sports Complex. 1530 Hamilton Rd., Bethel Park. Free. southhillshomeshow.com

April 16. ZYNKA Gallery. 906 Main St., Sharpsburg. Free. facebook.com/ZYNKAgallery

COMEDY • ALLENTOWN

Rachel Kaly: Hospital Hour 8 p.m. Doors at 5 p.m. Bottlerocket Social Hall. 1226 Arlington Ave., Allentown. $15. bottlerocketpgh.com

DANCE • DOWNTOWN

See three diverse performances at the Byham Theater when choreographer Ronald K. Brown and EVIDENCE, a Brooklyn-based dance company, take the stage. The evening includes works about “concepts of balance, equity, and fairness,” and Afro-Cuban traditional dance and music. Also included is “Palo Y Machete,” described as being inspired by the life and work of Black Pittsburgh photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris. 8 p.m. 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $20-75. trustarts.org

SUN., MARCH 3

FILM • POINT BREEZE

Film Screening: My Rembrandt. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Doors at 10:30 a.m. The Frick Art Museum. 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. $5-15. thefrickpittsburgh.org

FILM • SEWICKLEY

Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center pays tribute to American silent film star Louise Brooks with a special screening event. The Pittsburgh Silent Film Society presents Pandora’s Box, a 1929 German film starring

FESTIVAL • FRIENDSHIP

March Hot Jam 6-9 p.m. Pittsburgh Glass Center. 5472 Penn Ave., Friendship. Free. All ages. pittsburghglasscenter.org

THEATER • NORTH SIDE

And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. through Sun., March 10. New Hazlett Center for Performing Arts. Six Allegheny Square East, North Side. $19-39. primestage.com

MUSIC • MILLVALE

Angela Autumn with Dallas Ugly Doors at 7 p.m. The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $15 in advance, $18 at the door. mrsmalls.com

PARTY • BLOOMFIELD

Sad Bear GVNG presents AFROHAUS with DJ Femi, Wade Anthony, and F3ralca 9:30 p.m. Brillobox. 4104 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $10. 21 and over. instagram.com/djfemi412

SAT., MARCH 2

CONVENTION • OAKLAND

A Celebration of Seeds: Twelfth Annual Seed and Plant Swap. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh-Main. 4400 Forbes Ave.,

Oakland. Free. Registration required.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF ARCADIA MOTION PICTURES Robot Dreams at Harris Theater

29

DRAG • MCKEES ROCKS

Jimbo’s Drag Circus World Tour. 7 p.m. Roxian Theatre. 425 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks. Tickets start at $35. 18 and over. roxiantheatre.com

MON., MARCH 4

MUSIC • MILLVALE

The Poetry Lounge gets loud with four Pittsburgh tri-state bands. Local “chaotic hardcore” band Kicked in the Head by a Horse will be joined by Ohio acts and Pickpocket. Rounding out the roster is I Love You, I Love You, an electronic screamo outfit from West Virginia. Get your ears ringing during this night of music by area talent.

6-10 p.m. 313 North Ave., Millvale. $5. poetrymillvale.com

TUE., MARCH 5

MUSIC • SOUTH SIDE

Left Lane Cruiser with Nate Bergman, Adam Fauccett, and Brian Genovesi

Doors at 6 p.m. The Smiling Moose. 1306 E. Carson St., South Side. $18. druskyentertainment.com

WED., MARCH 6

FILM • DOWNTOWN

Robot Dreams 5 p.m. Harris Theater. 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $9-11. trustarts.org

MUSIC • NEW KENSINGTON

Of Virtue. 6:30 p.m. Doors at 6 p.m. Preserving Underground. 1101 Fifth Ave., New Kensington. $16-20. preservingconcerts.com

MUSIC • NORTH SIDE

Sound Series: Katy Kirby with Allegra Krieger.

8 p.m. Doors at 7:30 p.m. The Andy Warhol Museum. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $20-25. warhol.org

SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2024

Noon-4:00PM

David L Lawrence Convention Center

pghbridalshowcase.com

PHOTO:

Disney On Ice: Find Your Hero at PPG Paints Arena

PHOTO: WORLD OF WONDER/PARAMOUNT+

Jimbo’s Drag Circus World Tour at Roxian Theatre

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-24-001818,

In re petition of Ariane Bruder do Nascimento and Thiago Bruder do Nascimento, parents and legal guardians of Inacio Nascimento and Olavo Nascimento, for change of names to Inacio Bruder and Olavo Bruder. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 27th day of March 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania:

No. GD-23-13192

In re petition of Mary Elizabeth Crawshaw for change of name to Marybeth Crawshaw Trayers. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 13th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-24-000628

In re petition of Sarina Love Williams for change of name to Sarina Love Damiano. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 20th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-24-001042

In re petition of Karen RuShi Wang for change of name to RuShi Karen Wang. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 20th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-23-14084

In re petition of Hyomyong Romain Ntati for change of name to Romain Hyomyong Ntati. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 27th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-23-012997

In re petition of Michael Lee Patterson Brown for change of name to Robert Frank Zellars IV.

To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 20th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania:

No. GD-23-14043

In re petition of Yun Andrew Lee for change of name to Andrew Yun Power.

To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 20th day of March, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

HELP WANTED

IT SOLUTION ARCHITECT

Mylan, Inc. seeks IT Solution Architect, Global Serialization (Canonsburg, PA). Respnsble for regulatory req. analysis, design, execution, & deploymnt of Global IT Solut. in Serialization. Telecommutng permittd anywhre w/in the U.S. Reqts: Bach deg. or foreign equiv in CS, Comp Info Systs., Eng’g, or a rltd tech field + 6 yrs exp in positn offered or rltd, incl 6 yrs exp w/: applyng GS1 standards & Global Serialization regulatory reqs. incl. US DSCSA, EU FMD, Russia CRPT; Enterprise Serialization Platforms incl. SAP ATTP, SAP ICH, & Tracelink; enterprise Serialization soluts. integration w/ Packagng soluts. from Optel, Systech, & SeaVision; interpretng complex regulatory reqs. (US DSCSA, EU FMD, Russia CRPT) & delivr soluts. w/ integration to ERP, SAP ATTP, SAP ICH, & Tracelink soluts.; performng analysis, optmzation, & system implmntation of complex processes in Serialized Warehouse ops, 3rd Party Logistics Providrs Integrations, Custmr Biz 2 Biz connectivity for Serialization data exchnge, Regulatory reportng, Serialization Data Archivng, & secure supply chain analytics; working w/ Network Firewall, Security & AD Integration & collaboratng w/ IT for connectivity; & applyng knowldge of complex Track & Trace projects & Global GS1 concepts as they relate to high-level biz objectives & present those concepts to IT & non-IT audiences. Send resume to Mylan, Inc. at www.viatris. com/en/careers & ref positn title in subject line

CHICKEN WRAPS

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY // BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

ACROSS

1.  Symbol on Texas’ flag

5.  Scheinert’s partner as the directing duo Daniels

9.  Ornamental tree

14.  “Let me think ... uh-unh”

15.  Leprechaun’s home

16.  Make amends

17.  Awards show spot

19.  Puccini opera heroine

20.  Big player in the movie biz in the ‘80s-’90s

21.  Put pencil to paper

22.  Legged it

23.  ___ Corning

25.  1983 Billy Idol hit with the refrain “More, more, more, more, more”

30.  Toy bark

32.  Aged

33.  Domain

34.  Philadelphia university

37.  TV actress Killmer

39.  Currencystabilizing org.

40.  Indy movie, for short

42.  Latte order

44.  Duck Duck Go result

45.  Uno card

47.  Ice cream treats

48.  BRB, BTW,

LOL, et al.

50.  2024 Best R&B Song winner

51.  __-Mex cuisine

52.  Only South American OPEC member

55.  Yoga pants material

59.  2020 Cardi B/ Megan Thee Stallion hit

60.  Mythical archer

62.  Calls between friends

63.  Outermost of the Pentagon’s five sections

66.  One that cannot be criticized

68.  Margaret Mead’s study site

69.  On the safe side

70.  Inner arm bone

71.  Striker’s repetition

72.  Dropouts’ documents

73.  “___ there, done that”

DOWN

1.  Tom ___ (Mystery Science Theatre 3000 robot)

2. Wild Cards channel

3.  Novelist Gide

4. Arabian Nights bird-like creature

5.  Curry’s coach

6.  Windshield accessory

7.  “Is there a fight going on between us?”

8.  Butterfly catcher

9.  Like some flaws and attractions

10.  2017 Margot Robbie biopic

11.  Businesses: Abbr.

12.  Chapel Hill inst.

13.  Whale watch milieu

18.  Source of print revenue

22.  Write up again

24.  Big Apple force

26.  Borrrring

27.  Heather plant

28.  Paul of Puppet Master

29.  Chortles, in showbiz

31.  Brightens

34. Impractical Jokers channel

35.  Country/rock singer Steve

36.  La Scala’s home

38.  What fails, triggering the last resort

41.  Judge, with “up”

43.  Cunning

46.  Brewery product

49.  Like buttons and patches

53.  Big name in restaurant guides

54.  Moved in a curved path

56.  Washer sequence

57.  Man’s name that sounds like an enigmatic glyph

58.  Nile dam site

61.  Valuable deposits

63.  F1 neighbor

64.  Shout of support

65.  “___ little drunk”

66.  Droop down

67.  Name

Need Help with Family Law?

Can’t Afford a $5000 Retainer?

Low Cost Legal Services- Pay As You Go- As low as $750-$1500Get Legal Help Now! Call 1-844-821-8249 Mon-Fri 7am to 4pm PCT (AAN CAN) https://www.familycourtdirect. com/?network=1

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF PRAILEY, SALLY, ANN, DECEASED OF MCKEESPORT, PA

Sally Ann Prailey, deceased, of McKeesport, PA. No. 022208275 of 2023.

Karen M. Abels, Ext., 5728 Meade Street, McKeesport, PA 15135.

ESTATE NOTICE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Letters of Administration in the Estate of Charles L. Clark, late of the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who died on January 2, 2020, have been granted to Pamela Lawton-Clark, Administratrix. All persons indebted to said Estate are requested to make payment and those having claims or demands are requested to present the same without delay to: David E. Schwager, Esquire 183 Market Street Suite 100 Kingston, PA 18704-5444

LEGAL NOTICE

DISTRICT COURT

CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA

CASE NO.: D-23-678339-D, DEPT: R Diana Kamami, Plaintiff, vs. Ronnie Garrett, Defendant. SUMMONS NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED. THE COURT MAY DECIDE AGAINST YOU WITHOUT YOUR BEING HEARD UNLESS YOU RESPOND IN WRITING WITHIN 21 DAYS. READ THE INFORMATION BELOW CAREFULLY.

To the Defendant named above: A civil complaint petition has been filed by the plaintiff against you for the relief as set forth in that document (see the complaint or petition). The object of this action is: Divorce. If you intend to defend this lawsuit, within 21 days after this summons is served on you (not counting the day of service), you must:

1. File with the Clerk of Court, whose address is shown below, a formal written answer to the complaint or petition.

2. Pay the required filing fee to the court, or file an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis and request a waiver of the filing fee.

3. Serve a copy of your answer upon the Plaintiff whose name and address is shown below. If you fail to respond the Plaintiff can request your default. The court can then enter a judgement against you for the relief demanded in the complaint or petition. STEVEN

that

of Administration in

Estate of David J. Monkelis, Sr., late of the Borough of West Mifflin, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who died on July 25, 2015, have been granted to Diana Lynn Monkelis, Administratrix. All persons indebted to said Estate are requested to make payment and those having claims or demands are requested to present the same without delay to: David E. Schwager, Esquire 183 Market Street Suite 100 Kingston, PA 18704-5444

Drive yourself to a new career.

Consider a career as a PRT bus driver. Join us for our upcoming hiring event.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly® Employer for its continued commitment to supporting veterans in their transition from the military to civilian life.

March 15, 2024

9:00 AM-3:00 PM

This marks the third consecutive year PRT has received this distinguished honor and we remain committed to hiring, retaining and promoting career advancement in the workplace for active military employees and veterans, as well as, assisting military families in other capacities.

Heinz Building

345 Sixth Avenue, 7th Floor

Pre-register by calling 412.566.5162

More than 200 active military employees and veterans are currently employed at PRT and we look forward to growing that number in the future. Learn more about a career with Pittsburgh Regional Transit.