Ed DiOrio
Ed DiOrio reports for WTAE as a Westmoreland County reporter whose work links breaking news, education stories and everyday community life, with a focus on how major events land in local classrooms, streets and businesses. He combines on-the-ground coverage of public safety and infrastructure with human-scale reporting on students, families and local traditions such as regional festivals. His background in covering education and general assignment news as a television reporter in another market shapes a beat that keeps schools and young people close to the center of his coverage.
Breaking news and public safety across Westmoreland County
At WTAE, DiOrio is regularly assigned to fast-moving public safety stories, reporting from scenes involving police responses, major crashes and active investigations.
He has covered police activity at a Walgreens in North Huntingdon, providing immediate details from the scene as officers responded to an incident there. His work on fatal crashes, including a Route 22 collision that left two people dead and shut down the road, documents both the circumstances of the crash and the resulting traffic disruption.
DiOrio also tracks larger criminal cases, such as a statewide drug trafficking ring in which a dozen people were charged, connecting individual arrests to broader enforcement efforts. Leadership changes within emergency services fall into his remit as well, reflected in coverage of a new fire chief taking over in Pittsburgh and what that means for local fire operations.
Infrastructure, transportation and local economy stories
DiOrio devotes consistent coverage to infrastructure projects and transportation changes that affect residents’ daily routines and local commerce.
He has followed the future of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, reporting both on discussions about attracting a second airline and on the airport’s work to secure new service after Spirit Airlines shut down flights. His reporting on the planned demolition of Century III Mall and the related road work in Allegheny County shows an interest in how long-delayed redevelopment projects and associated construction impact drivers and nearby communities.
On the consumer side, he has covered a lawsuit by a Westmoreland County man against JPMorgan Chase over $12,000 allegedly withheld from the customer’s account, framing a national financial institution through the experience of one local account holder.
Education and young people in crisis
Education and the lives of students are a recurring theme in DiOrio’s body of work. Before taking on his current role with WTAE, he reported on education and general assignment issues in another television market, building familiarity with school systems and youth-focused coverage. At WTAE he has reported on the aftermath of tragedies involving students, including the first day back to class at Yough High School after four students died in a weekend crash, documenting how the school community returned to the classroom in the shadow of loss.
That experience underpins an approach that treats classroom life and student safety as important angles when broader news events affect families and local institutions.
Community events and local culture
Alongside hard news, DiOrio regularly profiles community events and local culture, paying attention to how residents gather and celebrate around shared traditions. His coverage of the Pittsburgh BBQ and Bands festival returning and expecting large crowds over a holiday weekend highlights crowd logistics and the appeal of food-and-music events to regional audiences.
He has reported on the passage of Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 steam locomotive through Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, showing how towns prepared for public viewing and turning a transportation spectacle into a community story. These assignments sit alongside fair coverage and other local celebrations, rounding out a portfolio that balances serious public safety and infrastructure reporting with lighter, community-minded pieces.
4 more education journalists.
Abdul Latif Jameel
Abdul Latif Jameel publishes long-form, research-led pieces on how emerging technologies and scientific advances reshape education, industry, and society. He writes for the Abdul Latif Jameel masthead at the intersection of learning, innovation, and applied science, with a focus on technology, skills, and the future of learning. He explains complex fields such as quantum sensing in clear, accessible terms, breaking down frontier science and tying it to real-world applications. His coverage links breakthroughs in sensing, data, and automation to training, curriculum, and lifelong learning. He treats education as an applied system connected to industry, policy, infrastructure, and human development. He reports in an analytical, explanatory style, using research, pilots, and large-scale initiatives to examine how technologies are implemented, evaluated, and scaled in learning and training environments.
Abril Preciado
Abril Preciado is an Emmy award-winning bilingual television journalist at FOX6 News Milwaukee who focuses on education, school crises and policy decisions affecting students, families and staff. She follows school communities over months, from emergency response through investigations, relocation plans and the first day back in class. Her reporting on the Lincoln Avenue School fire covers displacement, safety changes, rebuilding and the move to temporary space. She also uses public records to examine local officials, test official claims and connect government conduct to public trust. Before joining FOX6, she reported for Univision in Sacramento, covering the Farm Workers March, wildfires, politics and the Latino community, and contributed border reporting for a national radio network. She centers families, explains complex decisions clearly and focuses on the human effects of policy.
Adria Iraheta
Adria Iraheta is a community-focused reporter at Denver7, distinct for centering students, families and residents in every story about schools, neighborhoods and public services. She covers how decisions by school districts, local agencies and public institutions land in daily life, with a particular focus on Aurora and Arapahoe County. Her beat sits at the intersection of education, community issues, public services, safety, infrastructure, health and climate, from job cuts in a school district to a new transit safety app, DMV outages, street changes and record heat waves. With a decade of local television reporting experience, she reports on the ground in specific local scenes, using plain language, direct questions to officials and clear explanations to show how policies, programs and changes affect the people who live, study and work in Colorado communities.
Alan J. Borsuk
Alan J. Borsuk stands out for connecting what happens in schools to the policy and political decisions behind them. He writes in-depth K-12 education analysis for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and serves as a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. His work focuses on Milwaukee Public Schools, school choice, literacy, teacher pipelines, and school accountability. He uses long-range perspective, detailed reporting, and structured analysis to explain how reforms unfold, why they stall, and what they mean for students and leaders. He has also written on vouchers, Teach for America, discipline, and teacher evaluation, drawing on decades as a reporter and editor on education and public policy.