Axios Pittsburgh

April 14, 2026
🌅 Good morning, Tuesday. Things are warming up.
⛈️ Today's weather: Chance of thunderstorms, high near 82.
🎧 Sounds like: "Cover Me Up," by Jason Isbell with Hayley Williams of Paramore.
🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Pittsburgh member Anna Boyle!
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Today's newsletter is 971 words, a 3.5-minute read.
1 big thing: 👊 Battle of Pennsylvania set
The keys to the Keystone State are on the line when the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Why it matters: Pennsylvania's pro hockey teams are reigniting a bitter rivalry that stretches across nearly six decades.
Driving the news: The Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a shootout overtime victory Monday night to secure the last Eastern Conference playoff spot.
By the numbers: The Flyers lead all matchups against the Penguins 190-126-30-14.
- They also lead the postseason games 21-20, winning four playoff series to the Pens' three.
- Yes, but: The Penguins have won five Stanley Cups to the Flyers' two, and have hoisted the cup more recently than 50 years ago.
Zoom in: The Penguins have home-ice advantage, meaning four of the seven games could be played in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena.
What to watch: Each team's respective captain plays well in the Battle of Pennsylvania.
- Sidney Crosby dominates the Flyers. He has 175 points in just 116 regular and postseason games against them, well over his career point-per-game average.
- Sean Couturier scored nine points the last time the Flyers played the Pens in the playoffs in 2018. He also has three game-winning goals against them.
What's next: The Stanley Cup playoffs start this weekend.
- Specific dates for the Pens-Flyers games have not yet been announced.
- You can buy Penguins tickets here and Flyers tickets go on sale soon.
2. 🕳️ Waymo tech could target our potholes
A new Waymo pilot program could soon help Pittsburgh spot and fix potholes faster, tackling one of the region's most stubborn problems.
Why it matters: Cities like Pittsburgh largely rely on residents' reports and inspections to spot the perennial tire-killers.
- A Waymo-Waze pilot aims to supplement this process with real-time data and an additional view of street conditions.
How it works: Waymo's autonomous vehicles use onboard sensors to detect potholes and pinpoint their exact locations.
- The company will make that data available to cities and state Departments of Transportation through its free Waze for Cities platform.
- The data will also appear on the Waze app alongside user-reported pothole information so travelers can confirm reports and help improve accuracy.
Zoom out: Waymo is first launching the program in five metro regions — Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area — where it has already identified roughly 500 potholes, per the company.
Context: Waymo continues to manually test its vehicles on Pittsburgh streets after announcing its expansion late last year.
- It was cleared by PennDOT to begin autonomous testing with a trained operator behind the wheel last month.
- Waymo's fleet has a regular presence across Pittsburgh, from Downtown to the South Hills. The company runs its local operations out of Google's Bakery Square offices.
What's next: Waymo plans to launch the program in Pittsburgh in the future as part of its autonomous taxi rollout, applying lessons learned from warmer conditions to more challenging winter environments that exacerbate potholes, the company said.
- The company has not specified how soon it plans to launch its driverless taxis locally.
- No companies operate fully driverless vehicles on public roads in Pennsylvania, per PennDOT, and Waymo will need additional state approval to do so.
3. The Bridge: Hotel rooms still available for draft
🏨 About 60% of Allegheny County's hotel rooms are booked for the NFL Draft, according to Visit Pittsburgh board chair Perry Ivery. He says there is typically a surge in reservations closer to draft dates, and 20% of people book just a week before the draft. (KDKA)
🚧 Fans are stealing traffic cones to do their own "hoist the cone" celebration that the Pirates started last week. (RumBunter)
🛍️ South Hills Village is adding new retailers Abercrombie & Fitch, Madewell, Rowan, Johnston & Murphy, and Swarovski, as well as making more upgrades this year. (Press release)
- Macy's in Pittsburgh Mills is closing April 26. (WTAE)
🚌 The city and Pittsburgh Regional Transit are pushing for new development around the planned East Busway Brushton station in Homewood. (🔐 Post-Gazette)
4. 🏗️ Quote du jour: "Put American steel workers first"
"I think it's a slap in the face to American steelworkers that the president of the United States would knock down the East Wing and rebuild it with foreign steel. ... For a guy who talks a good game about American steel, he should put American steelworkers first."
— Gov. Josh Shapiro last week in Hershey
Context: The White House is using tens of millions of dollars in donated foreign steel for President Trump's new $400 million ballroom project, according to the New York Times.
5. 🍩 1 snack to go: Maple longjohn at Mac's
It's nice to know that doughnuts are still cheap and delicious in parts of Pittsburgh.
🕰️ The intrigue: Mac's Donuts in Aliquippa looks locked in time and their prices appear the same, with all doughnuts under $2 each.
🍁 Dig in: The maple long john ($1.61) is light, airy and filled with not overly sweet cream.
- The cinnamon-sugar cake ($1.46) had an excellent, crunchy crust.
☕️ The vibe: Pull up a chair at their counter and enjoy your doughnuts with a cup of coffee (free refills) or a glass of Marburger chocolate milk.
👍 The bottom line: It's nice to know that old-school doughnut shops like this still exist.
📍 If you go: 2698 Brodhead Road in Aliquippa.
- 5am-3pm Tuesday to Thursday, 5am-2pm Friday, 5am-1pm Saturday, 5am-noon Sunday.
🍂 Chrissy bagged 50 pounds of old leaves and sticks last weekend and learned a valuable lesson about fall leaf raking.
💨 Ryan refuses to turn his air conditioning on until May, but the weather is pressing him.
⛔ Alexis is OOO.
Thanks to Chloe Gonzales for editing this newsletter.
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