Security is on everyone's minds

Tonight at a community meeting on public safety, we heard from a women who had her car stolen once, suffered two home break ins, had been robbed twice as well. She's upset. It's understandable. I'll try to meet with her to build a quick response network to warn each other of troubles and issues.

More news on that soon. Another type of warning signal came in via email from good sources.

CAR JACKERS NEW SCHEME:
Be aware of new car-jacking scheme where you walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. Then you lock all your doors, start the engine and shift into REVERSE, and you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space and you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you shift into PARK, unlock your doors and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view... When you reach the back of your car that is when the car-jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off!! Your engine was running, ladies would have their purse in the car) and they practically mow you down as they speed off in your car. BE AWARE.

Drive away and remove the paper that is stuck to your window later. A purse contains identification, and you certainly do NOT want someone getting your home address. They already HAVE your keys! This scheme has been reported to have occurred in the states of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan.

He's running

Howard Dean, M.D., is running for the DNC Chairmanship. See comments for his email.

Cullen show and blogging

On the web, and in the blog landscape, there are a lot of folks to the far right and the far left. But, this blog is a centralist, populist blog. This is where most are.

Sure, there is some bad info. But free expression is welcomed.

Eastern PA sets Special Election for PA Senate to April 5, 2005 -- OMG

I'm a participant in a special election for the PA Senate in the spring of 2005. The date has been set for eastern PA, April 5, 2005.

Our opening is due to occur on January 18. So, the date should be known after that date.

Parking Authority opens its own court and privitizes the judges too

The Parking Authority is going to privatize the entire operation of court, judges, ticket collection and more.

The parking tickets given by the police are going to be put before a judge in court. But parking tickets given by Parking Authority officials are going to the parking authority court.

I'm in favor of an elimination of the Parking Authority. Take it out, over time. This is a function of public life.

Those in the Parking Authority have seen the storm clouds brewing. They are now in a land grab mode and are expanding. That is wrongheaded. They are going in the wrong direction.

I am not in favor of an additional Parking Authority court system.

Public Hearing set for Ballfield Ads in Parks

At 9:30 am, Wednesday, February 9, 2005 in City Council Chambers. Be there.

Should and how should the city sell ads for the fences of the ballfields?

The art-advertising elements in the city need to be explored and applied. There is gold in them thar hills -- if the prospectors to the job with the heavy lifting and with the heavy thinking.

Controller sues both Mayor and council because of the cuts to the department

This story is finally getting some ink. It has been brewing for a while.

One of the planks in Platform.For-Pgh.org addresses the level of litigation within city government. Too often the decisions are taken to the judges to decide. The best solutions in life are worked out among parties and don't include people in robes. But that's hard work and heavy lifting that takes a grand view -- and Pittsburgh is short in those characteristics with the officials we've had.

PG coverage 'Mayor Murphy and the Pittsburgh City Council have refused and neglected to comply with the reasonably necessary funding requirements of the controller's office and are thereby impairing and/or destroying the city of Pittsburgh's home rule government,' the lawsuit says.

Flaherty's lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, is the latest court challenge to the city's Act 47 recovery plan: Both the police and firefighter unions have cases before Commonwealth Court attempting to block its contract controls. Flaherty pledged last year to sue if the city followed through on the cuts to his office.

Pittsburgh's controller is an in-house auditor, who performs yearly financial reports, studies government services -- through so-called performance audits -- oversees bidding and contracts, and cuts checks to employees and city contractors.

Underscoring all the possible functions of his office, Flaherty's lawsuit contains 18 pages of appendices listing jobs his employees perform.

Wonder how many pages, or if anyone will ever count and report upon the length, of this blog? What about the number of pages in their platforms? Les has two pages, one sheet, front and back. How long is Lamb's platform. What about Bob's? Do they exist?

Flaherty, who has been controller since 1984, has used the performance audits as a platform to criticize government policies, often going after tax increment financing plans and other business incentives and Allegheny County's property assessment procedures.

That often gets him in hot water with other government officials, which Flaherty claims leads to politically motivated attempts to cut his office down. When then-Mayor Sophie Masloff tried to cut his spending in 1992, Flaherty also sued, and Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick ruled the controller's office should have 74 full-time workers.

Flaherty has used that 12-year-old decision to ward off other cuts, though he said his office has dwindled to 65 full-time workers currently.

Flaherty was a vocal opponent of the Act 47 recovery plan last year, and the latest cuts required by the city, the Act 47 team and the oversight board are another attempt to silence him, he said.

The controller's office is 'treated the worst in the entire city and I'm just tired of it. There was no analysis done on our office. This was punitive, arbitrary, capricious, you name it,' he said yesterday.

Asked if there was some irony in the city's fiscal watchdog trying to block spending cuts, he said, 'I'm not trying to get more money, I'm trying to keep what I have. ... I'm trying to keep the fiscal watchdog office there, or it'll be lost in no time.'

Mayoral spokesman Craig Kwiecinski had no comment on the lawsuit.

Tierd. Hard work. You name it.

We don't need a sleeping watchdog. We don't need a big watchdog office. We don't need need a watchdog without teeth that barks at the wrong things. We do need a new sense of fairness.

I'm in. Peduto invited me to join his Campaign Finance Reform task force

Today I got a call from an aid to city council member, Bill Peduto. I've been invited -- and accepted of course -- to participate on the panel that is going to study and put forth solutions to the city's campaign finance reform measures -- in 12 weeks or so.

I'm happy.

Now there is some serious responsibility and interesting challenges to navigate.

I know a few of the others who have been picked. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.

Ideas on campaign finance reform are welcomed, of course.

Groupware

Way before its time.

Lamb

The sacrificial lamb jabs are now off the radar. When I was called such, I held a gyro party for my supporters. Yep, I know. That's really goat, not lamb.

I do have a great story about the three billy-goats gruff brothers, if you care to see it performed -- just ask.

When Lamb gets edged out, I hope that he and his supporters will come to my campaigns. And, even before the primary, we'll keep him in the loop as to the run for PA Senate. He can vote for me on May 17, 2005. Because I'm a DEM, I won't vote for him. And, I'm not too sure why I would.

Tip to Mr. Lamb --- come up with a statement about the Mon Valley Toll Road. How could you not know?

Lamb officially enters race for mayor - PittsburghLIVE.com Michael Lamb, Allegheny County's prothonotary, became the first person to officially enter the race for mayor of Pittsburgh, which is trying to turn around its bleak finances with reduced spending and altered taxes.

This news is very bad news for Mr. Ludwig. This is bad news for Mr. Jones too. And, its bad news for the citizens fo Pittsburgh as well.

1 + 1 + 1 = third.

We're being told 1 + 1 + 1 = first.

These other two are not people?

These other two don't have the "rights" to run?

As Pittsburgh is in a crisis because of numbers. Those on Grant Street can't ad when it comes to budgets. And, there is a problem with balance.

Other candidates have announced for mayor but are not expected to run legit campaigns that pay for TV, radio and print ads.

Lamb could have stood up and said, in part, he's happy to enter the campaign and debate the issues with all the other participats. If I'm Lamb, I'm asking the others who are running for the same post to drop out and support me.

Finally, it was very interesting to hear the radio news blurb. Lamb spoke saying he'd "Do More with Les." Exact quote. It is right from the Les bumper stickers.

Once I run the city, we'll be sure to do events like this each month. OpenOffice.Org plug

OpenOffice.Org is a splendid open-source software package that can take the place of Microsoft's Office for $0. It works on WIN and other platforms. Go get it yourself. I use it.

As part of the Technology Summit we should be holding, we'd hold other build-up events such as this. Details posted from The OpenOffice.org Conference Team.

After Hamburg in 2003 and Berlin in 2004, we are searching for the perfect location for the OpenOffice.org Conference in 2005.

We are collecting applications from teams who are willing to organize OOoCon 2005 in locations outside Germany.

Interested teams should send their applications to the mailing list conference@marketing.openoffice.org in the following format:

Key Question: In 200 words or less, answer this question: Why is your location and the date you propose the best for the OOoCon 2005?

Your application MUST INCLUDE:
* Location (country, city, conference center/university)
* Proposed Date(s)
* Team Lead (main contact person)
* Team Members (all members should be willing and able to commit at least 3 hours per day to planning the conference during the last two weeks before OOoCon 2005)
* Local events that are taking place in parallel (or right before/after)
* Special visa or entry requirements, e.g. vaccinations

Your application COULD INCLUDE:
* Large local OpenOffice.org deployments (for user keynotes and success stories)
* Names of local OpenOffice.org developers (for developer sessions)
* Names of local OpenOffice.org vendors/partners (potential sponsors)
* Travel costs (e.g. flight costs from the following cities: London, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, New York, Hamburg, Dublin, San Francisco, South Africa, Tokyo)
* Accomodation costs (youth hostel, hotel)

According to the OOoCon 2004 attendee survey, proposed locations should meet the following requirements as much as possible (order by priority):

* attract the largest number of community contributers
* be near enough to allow a large number of Sun's OpenOffice.org
developers, who are in Hamburg, to attend
* low accomodation costs
* cheap flight and train tickets
* the conference venue is for free
* alignment with large IT event (e.g. CeBIT, Systems, Comdex)
* strong local OpenOffice.org community
* strong sponsor support

The deadline for submissions is January 23, 2005. Shortly after that date we will publish the applications at http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/
and call for votes.

Information about the last two OpenOffice.org Conferences can be found at:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/

http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/OOoCon2003.html

Pittsburgh House Concerts Promotion

Click to join PbgHouseConcerts

City to feel pain before the gain

Trib article

"To get the city back on track financially, everyone will have to feel some pain -- both inside and outside of government," said Bill Lieberman, chairman of the city's state-appointed financial oversight board. ...

Hitting the mark, however, will be easier for some officials than others.

Hitting the mark with Mark! How's that for a slogan / button / bumper sticker?

Pain is here. Pain is going to linger. I don't see a guarantee of gain -- yet -- from them.

The gain plan is to be found in our campaign and with its successful outcome.

Deadly high drama on the rivers with workers and tons of coal

The stories, lives, heavy lifting, struggles of the rivers, industries, and event the history should be made known and shared to a much higher degree. This is our legacy and a larger share of our present day landscape. But, to most, it is unknown.

Three die in barge wreck - PittsburghLIVE.com: "The tug was pushing the barges -- each loaded with about 1,000 tons of coal -- out of the lock chamber when the intense current pushed the barges sideways into the river, dragging the tug with it.

'He was shoving out of Montgomery Lock and Dam and something happened -- we have no idea -- and the boat went over the dam,' said Don Grimm, president of Campbell Transportation, one of the region's largest river-transport firms. "

Scattered Abroad: Thousands of Pittsburghers who left yearn to return

People vote with their feet. People leave. We all know this. But, in time, people might vote with their feet again and return -- if there is a significant change.

Scattered Abroad: Many of the thousands of Pittsburghers who left yearn to return Scattered Abroad: Many of the thousands of Pittsburghers who left yearn to return

How do you spell relief?

You're going to put that where? - PittsburghLIVE.com: "Given our intense civic pride, we would never suggest that some of the more rundown parts of Downtown Pittsburgh resemble a disaster area.

But we had to chuckle when the head of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership recently resigned her post to run -- get this -- a disaster relief organization.

Mariann Geyer left her job with the partnership last month to journey out west to Utah, where she will head the Greater Salt Lake chapter of the American Red Cross.

During her more than two years on the job, Geyer watched as Mayor Murphy and other city officials failed to jump-start redevelopment in the dilapidated Fifth-Forbes corridor. She also watched as two highly touted projects expected to spur further Downtown revitalization -- new Lazarus and Lord & Taylor department stores -- went out of business.

Given the decrepit state of a good chunk of Downtown real estate, we have to wonder if Geyer's resume touted her time with the partnership as disaster leadership experience.

Another bites the dust.

Flow of emails to my wife after national ink in magazine feature

The magazine, REAL SIMPLE, subtitle: life/home/body/soul, interviewed my wife some months ago. This is a newstand magazine, glossy, NY offices, on 'simplicity' that is a shooting star as Martha's operation has floundered. See the February 2005 issue. The cover has The (no-diet) diet: healthy, easy, delicious.

The article ran and it generated 30 emails in one day from girl friends, former students and others who saw the quotes and dropped her a note. Interesting to learn who's reading what.

This is about wellness, an area within the Platform.For-Pgh.Org.

Top feature, Save it, pal!, page 35. The good things in life don't lanst forever. Strategies for consering gas, an open bottle of wine, your hearing, and more. Quarter page sections on face, wine, your soles, your brain, your ears, gas, room for dessert, a seat at a movie theater, email, the ozone layer.

Your Ears
Listen up. "the sooner you start paying attention to your ears, the longer you'll be without a hearing aid," says Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., director of the Audiology and Hearing Aid Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The key is avoiding loud noises. The burst of a nearby firecrack or prolonged exposure at a rock concert can cause permanent damage that adds up. "If you can't be heard easily by someone inthe room, or if you have decent earphones and people around you hear your music, it's too loud," says Palmer. So lower the volume (if a song's just too good to sush, turn the bass up and the treble down), and invest in good earplugs. The best ones, the custom-fitmusicians' type (sold at music stores and Etymotic Research, www.etymoticresearch.com), block out up to 25 decibels, bringing a 110-decible concert down to a safe -- for three hours, anyway -- 85. For unexpected blasts, you have two options: namely, your index fingers, which can shut out 15 20 20 decibels.

Our good friend, Mead Killion., founder and driving force to Chicago-based Etymotic, (link above), is a mentor and professor of Catherine. Mead has been to Pittsburgh a few times and takes credit for introducing the two of us while we both lived in Evanston. (Another story) Mead came to Pittsburgh to speak at the grand opening of the MUSICIANS' Hearing Clinic a few years ago.

Funny side-bar about ink like this. Catherine often can't win as this time the UPMC connection was made and that doesn't please her bosses on the academic side at Pitt's School of Health and Rehab Sciences. And, at other times it goes to the other department. She's got two jobs. More than enough for both of us.

This time the academic chair, Dr. McNeil, might give Catherine a free pass. He was just in China on some tour and went to Chengdu for a day. Catherine has a godess like stature and reputation in that part of the world -- and he now knows all about it. It is great to be praised so far from home and have others find out first-hand. We still need to meet to talk and de-brief about his trip -- and I hope that is soon. Had I known he was going to be Chengdu, I would have had him bring me back some more badminton equipment.

By the way, if anyone here is headed to Chengdo, let me know. I have an assignment for you. Simple really.

Get yours on news stands today!

The last time a good friend had ink in a national newstand magazine, I didn't get a copy. Marilyn Davis, Ph.D., prime organizer of eVote, http://evote.blogspot.com, was part of a cover story on voting technology and discussion groups, including blogs, in Linux Journal.

As I post on a Sunday afternoon, Catherine is back from her DC trip yesterday and is at DePaul giving a talk to parents of babies that have been identified with some issues with their hearing. While in DC, (some exciting news yet to be shared on that), a few of Catherine's fellow board members and staffers at the national organziation had remarked that they had seen my news on the national LP.Org web site. A couple of weeks ago I was on the front page of the Libertarian site, which goes into their magazine too.

So, from time to time, the news flows back and forth as we both are sources.

I'm sorta waiting for an article to run in the AP about Pittsburgh by Allison S. I gave a longer interview just last week on our city and its decline. Perhaps my mentions will be included in that story. If AP editors feels a similar story ran recently, perhaps she'll post it to her blog. (hint, hint)

An educational reporter from the Trib couldn't connect with me this past week. She was writting about a possible switch of time to the school day for Pgh Public Schools. I called her a handful of times but we still have not connected.

Mayoral candidates turn on, tune in

E. Heyl on PittsburghLIVE.com: "Some could accuse me of trivializing the nascent mayor's race by asking such a seemingly irrelevant and ridiculous question.

I would respond that given the restrictions now placed on the position, thanks to a dozen years of Murphy's bungling, his successor will require more than significant vision.

The new mayor also will need a significant fondness for television.

Makes no sense to waste the breath or even the recycled electrons to accuse Eric Heyl of trivializing, except to point out that I wasn't called to get MY opinions. How ironic.

Eric, feel free to call anytime, 412-298-3432.

Since the question has been asked, my reply is "Lassie." Talked about the dog in a recent post. Show was good family excitement, kid centric, inspiring, injected powers of the natural / organic nature, not some ghosts from some twilight zone.

I do like to eat big bowls of cereal and swimming pools, but that isn't enough to endear me to the Beverly Hillbillies.

As for the parades, it won't be long until the overlords nuke them from our civic landscape too. They might need to do so as the roads are just too dangerous to walk as a parade route. Potholes kill! You know, Pittsburgh only has enough money to repave four miles of roads for 2005. Our infrastructure needs more than a band-aid.

Other tv favorites, old re-runs of City Council on tape. Those were the days. Would be nice to reflect upon the old old days. I like the episode from 2003 when council approved the $250,000 for hanging plants. The tension mounted as the next week the citizens were urged to beg to Harrisburg as there wasn't any money.

Another older tv favorite of mine: The Art of News. I helped with that show. It ran on PCTV. In one episode I play an actor about dog-fighting in Fox Chapel. Funny stuff.

Computer Programming Contest at Blackhawk HS

Computer Programming Contest

Do you know of other events like this? It fits into the mission of the Youth Technology Summit, http://Summit.CLOH.Org

While at Blackhawk HS for a swim club meet, (we won), I noted a number of badminton standards and nets. Competition!

The Varsity coach at Blackhawk is a former OSU Swimmer. Great conversation about the olden days of the sport in this region and nationally. His freshmen team knocked off Spitz' I.U. squad. And, he went to Doc's house in Bloomington on a recruiting trip.

Best urban red-state writting I've seen in a long time -- once you exclude my rants

Visited a blog site and saw a document called a manifesto the other day. Weird names. 3 rivers infidel

So good, it looks too good.

I posted a few comments there as to the author(s). It is faceless blog. Hope the meet the author -- or see the author de-cloaked. This isn't some "draft bill silly puddy."

But then, poof! The interesting remarks are nuked. Gone. Dust on the information super highway.

Inspector would say, "very interesting."

Within my comments, I asked the author to give me a call. Sadly, some dozens of hours later, my phone, 412-298-3432, has not rung.

A number of hunches were hinted at in my posting on the comments. Some of my guesses, if we're playing to 20, wrote back to confirm they are NOT reponsible. If the game is 20 questions, not 20 guesses, then my first is to wonder if the content was the handiwork of a firm rather than an individual.

Anyone have any idea what I'm wondering about? Anyone have any insights?

Bloggers' White Out
White out came in a little jar with a paint brush and you'd dab a bit on the paper while in the roll of the typewritter to touch up typos en at. Today, we've got delete buttons.

A friend of mine wrote to me saying:

I read it but the Republican biases were too strong for me to agree with their analysis. It reads like most of the right-winged rhetoric that
Karl Rowe uses to justify faulty or false data. Without a doubt the
Democratic leadership can be faulted for not fixing the problems, but
they can not be blamed for creating the problems. Our problem have more
to do with the fall of large employers who had large payrolls before the
electronic aged took over; and the reality that industries need fewer
workers as well as the decline of what those industries were producing.
I do not belief the Republicans would have done much worst. From their
positions they would have assured that those who had got more, while
those with less got less.

DFA blog also mentioned the posting as Ben saw it too.

So, that's two against, and both are solid in blue-state camp.