Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A bankrupt Mercer County hospital is slated to close in less than three weeks, throwing 699 employees out of work, after efforts to acquire the facility collapsed. #healthcare #rural #layoff

A longstanding Washington County factory expected to shut down by the end of February will remain open for two additional months, according to an updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the state confirmed Monday. Anchor Hocking, an Ohio-based glass manufacturer and operator of the Corelle Brands glass factory, now expects to close the 132-year-old plant by April 30.

Hundreds of homes owned by the City of Pittsburgh have been hit with code violations for hazards including exposed electrical wiring, collapsed walls and shattered windows. But the city has failed to respond to repair orders even as private property owners are hauled into court and punished for ignoring the same breakdowns, a Post-Gazette investigation has found.

Most faculty at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania feel they cannot always express their opinions on campus because of how others would respond, a new report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has found. #highered #university #freespeech #pennstate #upenn

After two and a half years of keeping an activist hedge fund at bay, Matthews International Corp. was put on the defensive on Tuesday when the campaign to unseat its long-time CEO Joe Bartolacci burst into the public sphere. New York-based Barington Capital Group sent a letter to Matthews’ board of directors outlining the steps it believes the company should take to improve its strategic and financial outcomes, including replacing the CEO, selling off certain business segments, some of which were acquired under Mr. Bartolacci’s tenure, and increasing cost-cutting targets with a recommended focus on its U.S. operations.

On the same day Nippon Steel said it would pay every U.S. Steel employee $5,000 once its proposed purchase of the Pittsburgh steelmaker is finalized, reports emerged that President Joe Biden intends to block the controversial $15 billion deal. Mr. Biden is poised to block the sale by the end of his term, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing confidential sources. The decision would signal that lobbying since September has not shifted the president’s stance that the iconic Pittsburgh steelmaker should remain American owned. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Duolingo will partner with Netflix for the second season of “Squid Games,” marking one of the first major tech partnerships for the viral company that grew out of early research at Carnegie Mellon University. The popular language learning app saw a 40% increase in Korean learners immediately after the first season of “Squid Games” and is looking to capitalize from joint marketing this time around. The campaign, called “Learn Korean or Else,” is a nod to both Duolingo’s aggressive push notifications — which threaten users not to lose their streaks — and the Korean television series’ tendency to kill off its contestants. #tech #duolingo #squidgames #netflix

Labor and employment at the University of Pittsburgh looks completely different than it did a year ago. This semester, strong majorities of the university’s graduate students and staff both voted to unionize. And in May, Pitt’s faculty ratified their first union contract that set a wage floor and raised pay for more than 3,000 full- and part-time workers at the university’s five campuses. Faculty members had voted to unionize in 2021. But big labor changes aren’t isolated to Pitt. At universities across the country, more faculty, staff and graduate students are organizing. #union #highered #pitt #education

The semiconductor chips coming out of a nondescript fabricator in Youngwood used to be so sensitive that soldiers would rather destroy the computer system than let it fall into enemy hands. Today, Powerex is building systems for trains, planes and oil rigs as well as MRI machines and wind farms. A joint venture of Mitsubishi Electric and General Electric, Powerex was one of the final recipients of federal CHIPS and Science Act funding. Military contracts and aviation still account for half of its business, and company leaders say their commitment to quality hasn’t wavered as most other fabrication was shipped overseas.

Under its new leader, Oxford Development Company is turning to residential for its next big project in the Strip District. On tap is a six-story, 240-unit apartment complex on Railroad Street between 27th and 28th streets in the neighborhood. Oxford will brief the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on the proposal Tuesday. The project will be the first out of the box under the leadership of Shawn Fox, the new Oxford president and CEO who took over for Steve Guy this fall.