☀️ Pittsburgh-made gifts to give before summer ends

What’s Pittsburgh Doing With Covid Relief Funds?

City council voted to reallocate covid relief funds to invest in public safety vehicles, landslide remediation, infrastructure projects, and support for projects like New Granada Theater in the Hill District and Mellon Square storefronts. American Rescue Plan Act funds must be distributed by the end of 2024, and all projects are on track to finish in the timeline. [TribLIVE]

• 🎧 Speaking of landslides: Learn about the uninsurable risk to Pittsburgh’s hillside homes. [City Cast Pittsburgh]

County Pays for Paramilitary Training It Didn’t Want

In September 2021, the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board voted to cancel the jail’s contract with CSAU and Joseph Garcia due to “use-of-force concerns and Garcia’s unsubstantiated work history.” In January, the county quietly settled a lawsuit for $215,000 over unpaid invoices, but it is unclear what work he actually did at the jail. [Pittsburgh Independent / PINJ]

• 🎧 Hear The Pittsburgh Independent’s Brian Conway explain this complicated story on the City Cast Pittsburgh podcast.
• Related: Allegheny County Councilor Bethany Hallam filed a lawsuit demanding that County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, as well as County Controller Corey O’Connor and Sheriff Kevin Kraus, attend meetings in person rather than send someone to represent them. Hallam says their lack of attendance violates the state law that created the board. [90.5 WESA]

A Comeback for Free Kids’ Books

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library shut down in April due to a lack of funding, but now the program is sending books to kids again thanks to a partnership with The Benter Foundation, which supported the first iteration of the Imagination Library in 2019, and Reading Ready Pittsburgh. If you have a kid five years old or younger, sign them up here. [NEXTpittsburgh]

📽️ Movie Night | Wednesday | 8 p.m.

Be surprised by a 40-year-old cult classic at Wick Monet’s studio. [free. Shadyside]

💬 Radical Trivia | Wednesday | 7-9 p.m.

Give it your best guess at “The Greatest Trivia Show in the Entire Universe” at St. Clair Social. [free, Friendship]

🌳 Meet a Tree | Thursday | 5 p.m.

Join Tree Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Library to learn how to explore and identify some of the common and unique trees that grow in our communities. [free, North Side]

📣 Lower Hill Community Conversation | Thursday | 5:30 p.m.

Learn more about the Lower Hill redevelopment and ask questions directly to members of the development team at the Energy Innovation Center. [free, Crawford Roberts]

What To Take Away from the Synagogue Shooting Trial
On October 27, 2018, a man walked into a Squirrel Hill synagogue and turned an ordinary Shabbat morning into the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. Nearly five years later, he has been sentenced to death for killing 11 Jewish worshipers from three congregations: Tree of Life, New Light, and Dor Hadash.

City Cast’s Mallory Falk grew up at Tree of Life, attended part of the trial, and spoke to some of those affected. She joins host Megan Harris to discuss the trial, the sentence, and where we go from here.