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💥 Pittsburgh Manifold is a collective of award-winning independent journalists working together to produce meaningful stories and rigorous reporting in the public interest. We aspire to be Pittsburgh’s news and culture vanguard.
💪 We are members of both Tiny News Collective and New Sun Rising. We are based out of the former Work Hard Pittsburgh location on East Warrington Avenue in Allentown, alongside the South Hilltop Men’s Group.
✈️ Our first major project? A deep dive into the legend of the Mon Bomber — a B-25 bomber plane that crash-landed in the Monongahela River in 1956 and has never been located (unless we found a piece of it last year 🤔). We are filing new open records requests, talking to eyewitnesses, and most significantly, we’ve partnered Pittsburgh AUV company Aquatonomy to put one of their submersible drones into the Mon where the plane was last seen.
👀 We don’t know what we’re going to find at the bottom of the Mon, but like all good journalism, we’re gonna follow the facts however deep the story goes. We’ll be premiering a short documentary on the 70th anniversary of the crash — Jan 31, 2026 — with our findings.
🙏 Please share our fundraising campaign or consider a tax-deductible donation to enable us tell this and other meaningful stories in Pittsburgh. In the meantime, we’ll be producing new weekly content as well as a regular podcast series.
Follow us on tiktok/ig/x @ pghmanifold or on the web at pittsburghmanifold.com.
Pittsburgh Manifold is fiscally sponsored by The Tiny News Collective, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. You may donate at https://mp.giving/6bhpwm
Call for pitches from freelancers coming soon.
📸 photos 2, 4, 6, 8 by @maranierae
🎬 video stills via @qsi.media
Please share! 📣 On January 31, 1956, a B-25 Mitchell bomber plane crashed in the Monongahela River. Two of the six men on board died. Despite hundreds of eyewitnesses and decades of salvage attempts, no trace of the plane has ever been found.
📢 Pittsburgh Manifold seeks eyewitnesses who may have seen or been involved in a covert recovery effort long rumored to have taken place that evening, or anyone who knows somebody who may have participated.
👀 We’re looking for unpublished photos, journals, letters, and other primary documents or firsthand accounts. Pittsburgh Manifold has also filed new FOIA requests and is participating in a high-res sonar scan of the river bottom where the plane sank (conducted by Pittsburgh autonomous underwater vehicle company, Aquatonomy).
✍️ Visit MonBomber.com to share your story and learn more about our reporting. We will release our findings in a short documentary premiering on the 70th anniversary of the crash: January 31, 2026. (Location TBA. Check pghmanifold.com for updates.)
📰 Pittsburgh Manifold is a news collective based in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood made up of some of the city’s top independent journalists who work together to produce meaningful reporting in the public interest.
🙏Please share our campaign, and consider a 501(c)(3) charitable donation via our nonprofit fiscal sponsor Tiny News Collective to support this and other independent journalism here at home.
Poster design by @sickdaydesign
A dozen of the best #pittsburgh albums to emerge in 2025, selected by music editor Ben Gibbons (@boredinpgh)
Including:
prepare thyself
@tonyfrombowling
@vireomusic
@zackkeim
@40wink
@houseofbmsr
@thegotobeds
@andre_costello
@dizz.ier
@farade.mp3
Read the article (and stream the albums) at pghmanifold.com.
Reel by @qsi.media.
Q&A and video premiere live at the @pghindependent site.
The Lemon band returns to the nest Nov. 15th Sat. for a show at The Sanctuary at Mr. Smalls w/ @hemlocksounds
📸 (slide 1): @sandyloaf
📸 (slide 2): @erstevies
Merce Lemon at @clubcafelive filmed by: Eric Stevens & Sandy Loaf
Edited / VFX: Eric Stevens / Michi Tapes
Projection Sequence / Band Promo Video filmed / edited by: Sandy Loaf
BREAKING: Pittsburgh City Paper to end free weekly print edition.
Executive editor Ali Trachta confirmed in a phone call that the October 15 print edition will be the alt-weekly’s last for a while, as they are moving to four “super-issues” a year—the first in December—while continuing to publish original content on their website online.
Trachta also confirmed that five employees were laid off from City Paper Tuesday.
The first issue of Pittsburgh City Paper was printed Nov. 6, 1991.
Full story at pghmanifold.com
Words by Brian Conway.
Photo: Empty City Paper rack at the South Side Giant Eagle.
Waiting for @vinegarsyndromepittsburgh to open like…
The oddball indie film restorers are opening a storefront on East Carson Street, their fourth location after Toronto, Denver and their home in Bridgeport.
They’ve worked with the likes of MOMA and the Academy Film Archive, and they’ve digitally restored and preserved more than 500 films. The South Side brick-and-mortar, located in the old Jester’s Court Tattoo location, will sell blu-rays, skate decks, records, merch and more.
They wouldn’t talk to us for our story, so we don’t know exactly when it’ll open. (Soon, we’re told, with a ribbon cutting and everything.)
We can wait a little longer.
Said the East Carson Street business district manager: “oh my god, we are the coolest part of Pittsburgh now.”
story by @staceyjfederoff
storefront photo by @elbrayanmiguel
read it at
Something is brewing at South Side’s iconic Duquesne Brewery clock.
Drab gray for a decade, the nearly century-old Duquesne Brewery clock unexpectedly turned flush last month.
Eagle-eyed, nebby neighbors noticed a crane carrying workers five stories skyward to paint the single-sided clock face—the largest in the United States—red.
Pittsburgh Independent received a tip about new branding for the brewery clock on Thursday, July 10. That Friday, someone with knowledge of the situation confirmed the tip, which was essentially threefold:
* The clockface will read “Iron City Beer.”
* It will have LED lighting.
* It is “going to look cool.”
Also that Friday, two large white letter E’s and an R that appear to match the “Iron City Beer” font could be plainly seen through two open garage doors at a loading bay in the clock tower building, directly adjacent to a busy parking lot serving Ascend climbing gym.
On Monday, August 11, the letter “I” was installed, and by August 12, “IRON” adorned the clockface for all the city to see.
Pittsburgh Brewing Co. did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Pittsburgh City Councilperson Bob Charland, who represents the South Side, indicated through a spokesperson that he has “no comment on the signs at this time.”
As of August 11, no permits for signage had been issued for the property located at 2121-2135 Mary St., according to the city of Pittsburgh’s OneStopPGH zoning page, which is updated daily. (Applications are not made public; only issued permits appear on the site.)
Full story at https://www.pghindependent.com/post/something-is-brewing-at-south-sides-iconic-clock-tower
Photos by William Jester
Story by Brian Conway
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story first appeared at the Pittsburgh Union Progress, published by striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Amid federal immigration raids and the opening of ‘Alligator Alley,’ city politicians and advocates urged people to stand for immigrants—and stand up to ICE—during a July 5 “Stand for Immigrants” rally in front of the City-County Building in downtown Pittsburgh.
“The next time you see one of these Christian wannabes, ask them, do they love their neighbor? And if they say yes, say, come stand with us,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
“If I have to tell you why abducting people is wrong, then we’ve lost the plot,” said Farooq Al-Said, director of operations at 1Hood.
The event, organized by 50501 Pittsburgh and Casa San Jose, began with speakers from those two groups. Jaime Martinez, Casa San Jose’s community defense organizer, told the crowd how he was with some of those detained after a late June federal immigration raid at a Mexican restaurant near Cranberry, Pa.
“I asked my friend in this detention facility, what’s the best way that you think that we can help you right now? ¿Cómo te podemos ayudar?” And he burst into tears, and he told me, ‘Please don’t forget about me. No se olvídenme’.”
Full story at pghindependent.com
Story and photos by Brian Conway.
Ames Harding says goodbye to Pittsburgh.
“Here was a group that incorporated instrumentation that ventured outside the traditional indie rock palette, switching on a dime from sultry bayou jazz to moody guitar fantasy to cryptic tango, “ reminisces Ben Gibbons (@boredinpittsburgh), ahead of an interview with Ames prior to his move to Los Angeles and this Friday’s farewell show for Ames Harding & the Mirage at the Thunderbird.
“There’s not a lot of gatekeeping in Pittsburgh,” said Harding. “Even when we were really unknown, people took a chance, let us play a show in their vintage shop or put a song of ours on the radio[…] and it felt like, in other cities I’ve lived, there’s a little bit more exclusion, having to prove yourself before being offered opportunities.”
With special shoutouts to Zenith, WYEP, merce lemon, and “every single person that works at Trader Joe’s [and] is in a band.” @zenithpgh@morningjoey@mercelemon
Read the whole story at pghindependent.com, and come say farewell to Ames & the Mirage this Friday
.Live photo at Brillobox by Chad Monticue Band photo at Zenith by Victoria Miller
https://www.pghindependent.com/post/ames-harding-says-goodbye-to-pittsburgh
