🚗 Let's keep it movin' this Friday.

• Today in 1957, drilling started on the Fort Pitt Tunnel, which opened Sept. 1, 1960. Yet we still haven't mastered the zipper merge.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, high near 82.

🎧 Sounds like: "Dream On," by Aerosmith.

🎂 Happy early birthday to our members Tom Alden and Trae McCarthy!

Today's newsletter is 998 words, a 4-minute read.

Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are squaring off over vaccines.

Why it matters: The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two measles-associated deaths — including one infant — in Lancaster County earlier this week.

• Both were unvaccinated.

The latest: Kennedy said Wednesday that Shapiro's office had not provided the CDC with details about the deaths. He accused Shapiro earlier of fabricating that measles were the cause.

• Debra Bogen, Shapiro's health secretary, responded on X that the two "measles-associated deaths" had been reported to the CDC's measles response team early Tuesday morning.

Catch up quick: Shapiro spoke to Kennedy on the phone Tuesday following the deaths. The governor told reporters the conversation was "blunt," and he accused Kennedy of spreading misinformation, and asked him to encourage people to get vaccinated.

• Kennedy on Wednesday posted on X that he told Shapiro that some Americans had religious objections to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine because it contained fetal tissue. (The American Academy of Pediatrics has refuted that claim.)
• Kennedy said he and HHS were not spreading misinformation and added that the Biden administration spread misinformation about vaccines over the years.

Shapiro responded on X on Wednesday and noted the rise in measles cases since RFK became HHS secretary. "The correlation is clear: Secretary Kennedy has stoked confusion amongst parents and others — and the result has been less protection from measles and more cases."

By the numbers: The U.S. measles vaccination rate is 92.4%, down from 95% in 2019.

Friction point: Lancaster County coroner Stephen Diamantoni said his office has not confirmed the deaths were due to measles. Diamantoni, a Republican, ruled the cause of the infant's death was a lacerated spleen.

• The state health department says it uses "measles-associated death" when epidemiologic evidence of measles is present, but the disease may not be assessed by coroners as the immediate cause of death.

What's next: The Lancaster County Coroner's Office is still investigating the death of the infant, Diamantoni told TribLive yesterday.

• He said he was not aware of the other death.
• The health department said in a statement to TribLive that "not all deaths are referred to a coroner under Pennsylvania law."
• The CDC posted on X yesterday that it will also investigate the cause of the deaths.

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The popular "Star Wars" vending machine in Mt. Washington has been replaced. Or has it?

The intrigue: An apparent new vending machine with an artistic rendition of the original cover art — which features a young Anakin Skywalker and his pod-racing nemesis Sebulba — now sits outside Pittsburgh Firehouse 27.

Context: The "Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace" vending machine has been next to the firehouse since 1999 (when the film was released) and has worked for decades, according to Visit Pittsburgh.

• It eventually became a tourist attraction after it went viral years ago.
• Virtually every firehouse in Pittsburgh has an old vending machine doling out cheap cans of pop, but the Phantom Menace one apparently had enough nostalgic charm to capture the internet.

Friction point: Some people online are convinced the photos spreading around are an AI hoax, but Axios Pittsburgh visited the vending machine on Wednesday evening, and it's very real.

Zoom in: It appears to be a different vending machine than the original, with a different change machine and 10 buttons instead of nine.

• It didn't accept our dollar bill.

Fire department officials, when reached yesterday, said they were not aware of the machine being replaced.

💭 Ryan's thought bubble: This stinks of an influencer stunt. We likely just have to wait until some thirsty poster reveals the truth.

If you go: 96 Virginia Ave., Mt. Washington

Go deeper

❌ Allegheny County Council is weighing a proposal to ban hyperscale data center development on about 30,000 acres of county-owned land. (WESA)

🗳️ Gov. Shapiro, 23 states and Washington, D.C., are suing the Trump administration to block the postal service from carrying out Trump's mail-in voting order after the Supreme Court lifted one of two injunctions related to Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting. (X)

🧑‍🎨 Strawberry Way in Downtown is getting a new artistic paint job to replace the fading pavement installation on the pedestrian-only alley.

• Members of the public can watch artists work — and help paint some portions — on Sept. 26 and 27. (TribLive)

🎳 Shorty's at The Waterfront is briefly closing starting Sept. 1 as the gaming restaurant and bar undergoes a concept change. A reopening date was not provided. (Press release)

The average new Pittsburgh apartment shrunk by 15% in the past decade, per a new survey from RentCafe.

Why it matters: Despite shrinking square footage, Pittsburgh renters are paying more — even accounting for a 39% rise in inflation.

Zoom in: Pittsburgh's new apartments slimmed down 142 square feet to 804, while Zillow finds the average apartment rents for $1,499 per month.

• That's $498 more, up 8% adjusted for inflation, than 10 years ago.

The big picture: Pittsburgh is bucking the national trend. The typical new apartment in the 100 cities RentCafe looked at grew 13 square feet, or a little over 1%, between 2016 and 2025.

• Floor plans grew the most in the South, where Tallahassee, Florida, has the nation's highest average: 1,156 square feet.
• Seattle is the smallest, with an average of 645 square feet.

🍂 Chrissy is ready for cozy fall weather.

🏊‍♂️ Ryan swam 1 mile of laps in one session at the Bloomfield pool, his goal before summer pool season ends on Labor Day.

Thanks to Chloe Gonzales for editing this newsletter.