By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Adam Sweetland has cooked for many different types of diners since graduating from IUP Academy of Culinary Arts, the nationally recognized culinary program offered by Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Punxsutawney, in 1998.

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It didn’t take him long to realize he wasn’t cut out to follow the traditional path of a culinary student, and work his way up the ladder from line cook to sous chef to executive chef of a fancy restaurant.

Just two years after graduating, while working at Brackenridge Heights Country Club following a couple early jobs in Pittsburgh restaurants, he got engaged to wife, Nikki. Of his career trajectory, he thought: This is not where I want to be.

“I needed insurance,” Sweetland, 51, admits.

So he left his chef job and took a less prestigious position as a cook for the Presbyterian Senior Care Network at its campus in Oakmont.

Turns out, you can’t keep a good chef down.

Within nine months, the New Kensington native was promoted to a supervisory position overseeing the facility’s evening staff of eight dietary aides, a cook and a cook’s helper. Three years after that, he moved on to an even bigger job at Elmcroft of Allison Park, a senior assisted living community in Hampton.

As its director of dining for the next 15 years, Sweetland was responsible for both daily and long-term operations — everything from menu planning to purchasing and making sure his employees adhered to food safety and dietary regulations. He also was tasked with assuring the meals served in its restaurant-style dining room made residents happy.

Chef Adam Sweetland pulls a tray of Chicken Romano from the oven at Juniper Village at Forest Hills on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Sebastian Foltz/Post-Gazette/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Other chefs may find such institutionalized cooking boring, but Sweetland — who was a food service specialist in the Army National Guard at Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia, after high school — loves the challenge of figuring out how to make the specialized diets often found in assisting living facilities taste good.

“You do what you have to to be successful,” he says.

For instance, to keep food from tasting too bland when salt is restricted, he adds herbs like tarragon to give dishes a minty, peppery taste. For those who have to restrict their intake of potassium, he swaps low-potassium items like cauliflower and rice for potatoes and tomatoes.

“It’s just about adapting to the culture and the environment, which I learned in the Army.”

Generations of Sweetlands have served in the military — his father, Arthur, was in the Navy — so it’s not surprising that he chose to enlist after graduating from Valley High School in 1994. He served for nine years, earning the distinction of becoming the youngest mess sergeant in Pennsylvania Army National Guard history.

Chef Adam Sweetland plates a Chicken Romano dish at Juniper Village at Forest Hills on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Sebastian Foltz/Post-Gazette/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

In his new position as director of dining at Juniper Village at Forest Hills, a personal care and memory care community, Sweetland cooks for around 70 residents instead of overseeing 1,000 or more meals a day like he did in the Army. But he’s still pushing the boundaries.

In addition to reintroducing crowd-pleasing favorites like fantail shrimp, fish Florentine, Swiss steak and pork-stuffed portobello mushrooms, he is planning cooking demonstrations in the upstairs bistro, family-style Thanksgiving dinners and a festive holiday party to strengthen relationships between residents, families and associates.

Contrary to what some may believe, Sweetland says you can make enjoyable, tasty meals in a health care environment — even when you’re working around specialized diets, food allergies and the loss of taste and appetite that come naturally with aging.

What makes his job easier, he says, is a “pretty good budget” and 35 years of experience. Residents can select from a daily menu and be served at a table. Or they can choose something different, he says.

“If someone comes down and says, ‘I want a burger and fries [instead of what’s on the menu]’ we can do that for them,” he says.

The key is making what’s on the plate as appealing as possible, he says, and responding to customer complaints if there are any.

“It takes a heart to do what we do, because this is their home,” he says. That’s especially true when a resident has dementia. “It’s not just about cooking. It’s about taking care of someone’s life.’”

When he sees a resident light up or someone tells him the food is great, “you see you’ve touched their lives and their voice was heard.”

Chef Adam Sweetland holds up a finished dish of Chicken Romano at Juniper Village at Forest Hills on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Sebastian Foltz/Post-Gazette/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

One of Sweetland’s first cooking memories is of helping his dad make sauce when he was 12 for a spaghetti dinner at his church. He also often helped out his sister, Christie, at pancake dinners for Girl Scouts. So when asked to share a favorite recipe, he chose the chicken Romano that was a favorite of his mother, Sandra.

He first made it for her early in his career for Mother’s Day, when he was “trying to do something a little different” while working at Romans Ups and Downs in Harmarville.

“She couldn’t believe how great it was,” he recalls.

Because his mother’s cancer caused swelling in her mouth, he cut the chicken and other ingredients into smaller pieces than he might have for a restaurant guest. It’s a trick that now serves him well when cooking for an elderly population.

His is a traditional recipe that calls for dipping the chicken in seasoned flour before bathing it in a cheesy egg batter and then giving it a quick fry in oil, followed by a short bake in the oven.

“Then I use the residual in the pan to glaze it,” he says.

The rich lemon-butter sauce compliments both the texture of the chicken and the cheesiness of the fried coating, Sweetland notes.

While the dish is not yet served at Juniper Village, he’d love to put it on the menu to see if residents love it just as much as his family, which includes son, Austin, and daughter, Haley.

“They do like piccata,” he says of his clients with a laugh, adding, “but there are only so many things you can do.”

Chicken Romano with Lemon Butter

PG tested

This crispy Italian-American chicken dish can be prepared in about a half-hour and is often served over pasta with a light lemon-butter sauce. Adam Sweetland, the new director of dining at Juniper Village at Forest Hills, learned to make it for his mother, Sandra. “It was one of her favorites,” he says.

For chicken

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut in half and flattened

1/4 cup vegetable oil

For egg batter

4 eggs

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

1/2 cup Romano cheese, plus more for serving

Pinch of salt and pepper

For seasoned flour

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon each salt, granulated garlic and onion powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

For sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

6 ounces butter, cubed

Chopped parsley, for garnish

Cooked carrots and roasted red-skin potatoes, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare egg batter by mixing all the ingredients in a medium-size bowl.

Stir together flour seasoning by mixing all the ingredients in a second medium-size bowl. Set aside an oven-proof baking pan.

In a sauté pan over medium heat add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil; bring up to temperature.

Coat chicken in flour mixture and shake off excess. Use tongs to dip chicken in batter and place in pan with hot oil.

Cook each side for 3 minutes, or until brown and crispy. (Once batter starts to set, you will be able to loosen from pan and turn over to other side.) Place chicken in baking dish and place in pre-heated oven. Continue cooking until chicken reaches 165 degrees.

While chicken is cooking, deglaze the pan with lemon juice. Turn off heat and add butter cubes. Swirl around till it is melted and keep warm until chicken is done.

Plate chicken and pour the sauce over top of chicken.

Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and more Romano cheese. Can serve with dill buttered baby carrots and roasted red skinned potatoes.

Serves 2.

— Adam Sweetland, Juniper Communities

©2025 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy.

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The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to September’s 7.66 million.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed that the layoffs rose and number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell in October.

Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation.

Overall, it’s a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries.

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are meeting this week to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate, and the gathering is expected to be unusually contentious. Inflation remains stuck above the Fed’s 2% target, partly because importers have tried to pass along the cost of Trump’s tariffs by raising prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policymakers from cutting rates. But the job market has looked shaky in recent months, and the Fed is expected to reduce its benchmark rate for the third time this year, though some policymakers might dissent.

Meanwhile, the 43-day federal shutdown has made a mess of the government’s economic statistics.

The October report on job openings came out a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on furlough. Instead, September’s JOLTS numbers were folded into Tuesday’s report along with October’s.

The Labor Department will issue numbers for hiring and unemployment in November next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department is not releasing an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown. It will release some of the October jobs data — including the number of positions that employers created that month — along with the full November jobs report.

Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% from September’s 4.4%, how by historical standards but the highest in nearly four years.

By Samantha Liss and Sam Whitehead, KFF Health News

Eliza Brader worries she soon will need to prove she’s working to continue receiving Medicaid health coverage. She doesn’t think she should have to.

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The 27-year-old resident of Bloomington, Indiana, has a pacemaker and a painful joint disease. She also has fused vertebrae in her neck from a spinal injury, preventing her from turning her head.

Indiana’s Medicaid agency currently considers Brader “medically frail,” giving her access to an expanded set of benefits, such as physical therapy.

New federal rules will require more than 18 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide to show they’re working, volunteering, or going to school for 80 hours a month starting in 2027 to keep their coverage. Brader is exempt as long as she’s deemed medically frail.

But lacking sufficient federal guidance, states are wrestling with how to define medical frailty — a consequential decision that could cut Medicaid coverage for many people, said state officials, consumer advocates, and health policy researchers.

“It’s terrifying,” Brader said. “I already have fought so hard to get my health care.”

‘Incredibly High’ Stakes

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashes nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, with much of the savings projected to come from no longer covering those who don’t qualify under the new work rules. Those spending cuts help offset the costs of GOP priorities, such as extra border security and tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy.

Conservative lawmakers have argued that Medicaid, the government health insurance program for people with low incomes or with disabilities, has grown too large and expensive, especially in the wake of its expansion to more low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. They also say that requiring participants to work is common sense.

The work rules in Trump’s tax-and-spending law offer exemptions for several groups who might struggle to meet them, including people deemed “medically frail.” The law spells out certain “medically frail” conditions such as blindness, disability, and substance use disorder. But it does not list many others.

Instead, the law exempts those with a “serious or complex medical condition,” a term whose interpretation could vary by state.

State officials say they need more clarity to ensure that people who cannot work for health reasons retain rightful access to Medicaid. They also worry that, even with a clear definition, people will face the onerous task of having to regularly vouch for being medically frail, which is a challenge without reliable access to medical care.

“The stakes are incredibly high,” said Kinda Serafi, a partner at consulting firm Manatt Health.

The new work requirements will affect Medicaid recipients in 42 states and Washington, D.C. Eight states — Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming — did not expand their Medicaid programs to cover additional low-income adults, so they won’t have to implement the work rules.

The Medicaid work rules are expected to be the largest driver of health insurance coverage losses over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Forty-four percent of all adults covered by states’ expanded Medicaid programs have at least one chronic health condition, according to KFF.

A Challenge for States

State Medicaid agencies are scrambling to implement the rules with little direction from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has yet to issue specific guidance. Federal officials will clarify the “medically frail” definition next year, said Andrew Nixon, an agency spokesperson.

Ultimately, states will have to decide who is unhealthy enough to be exempt from work rules. And it won’t be easy for state workers and their computer systems to track.

Every year, state eligibility systems screen millions of applicants to check if they qualify for Medicaid and other government programs. Now, these same systems must screen applicants and existing enrollees to determine whether they meet the new work rules.

Jessica Kahn, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Co., has urged states to start planning how to adapt eligibility systems to verify work status. States can do a “tremendous amount” of work without direction from the federal government, said Kahn, a former federal Medicaid systems official, who spoke during a recent Medicaid advisory panel hearing. “Time is a-wasting already.”

State Medicaid directors are pondering the challenge.

“Medical frailty gets so complex,” Emma Sandoe, Oregon’s Medicaid director, said during a recent panel discussion. Conditions that can keep people from working, such as mental health disorders, can be hard to prove, she said.

A state might try to use data pulled from a person’s health records, for instance, to determine medical frailty. But information from a patient’s chart may not paint a clear picture of someone’s health, especially if they lack regular access to medical care.

It’s a tall order for eligibility systems that historically have not had to scrape medical records to screen applicants, said Serafi of Manatt Health.

“That is an incredibly new thing that eligibility enrollment systems are just not fluent in at all,” Serafi said.

Lobbying groups for the private health insurance companies that help run Medicaid in many states also have urged federal regulators to clearly define medical frailty so it can be applied uniformly.

In a Nov. 3 letter to federal officials, the Medicaid Health Plans of America and the Association for Community Affiliated Plans advocated for allowing enrollees to qualify for the exemption by saying on their applications that they have conditions that make them medically frail. Successfully implementing exemptions for the medically frail will be “crucial” given the “severe health risks of coverage loss for these populations,” the groups said.

Some state officials worry about unintended consequences of the work rules for people with chronic conditions.

Jennifer Strohecker, who recently resigned as Utah’s Medicaid director, reiterated the high stakes, especially for those with diabetes on Medicaid. They may be very healthy and functional with insulin, but if they fail to complete the work requirements, that may change, Strohecker said during a recent Medicaid advisory hearing.

Whether someone is deemed medically frail already depends heavily on where they live.

For example, in Arkansas, people indicate on their Medicaid applications that they’re disabled, blind, or need help with daily living activities.

Approximately 6% of the roughly 221,000 people enrolled in Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program are deemed medically frail, according to Gavin Lesnick, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

In West Virginia, the state accepts a medical frailty designation when an applicant self-reports it.

The burden of proof is higher in North Dakota. Applicants there must answer a questionnaire about their health and submit additional documentation, which may include medical chart notes and treatment plans. More than half of applicants were denied last year, according to Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Mindy Michaels.

Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, which runs its Medicaid program, declined an interview and said it could not comment on individual cases, like Brader’s.

Brader worries the additional red tape will cause her to lose Medicaid again. She said she was temporarily kicked off the program in 2019 for failing to meet the state’s work rules when Indiana said her work-study job didn’t count as employment.

“Anytime I have tried to receive help from the state of Indiana, it has been a bureaucratic nightmare,” she said.

As states await federal guidance, Kristi Putnam, a senior fellow at the conservative Cicero Institute and former secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which oversees the state Medicaid program, said even if a state creates an extensive list of qualifying “medically frail” conditions, the line must be drawn somewhere.

“You can’t possibly create a policy for exemptions that will catch everything,” she said.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A man who was fatally shot in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood last week has been identified as a 49-year-old.

Police said Tuesday they continue to investigate the homicide of Michael D. Tucker, of St. Paul, and no one has been arrested.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 900 block of Edgerton Street just before 9:15 p.m. Thursday and found Tucker with a gunshot injury to the upper torso. St. Paul Fire Department medics were taking him to the hospital when he was pronounced dead.

Investigators are looking into the circumstances of Tucker’s shooting. Police have asked anyone with information to call the homicide unit at 651-266-5650.

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