DON'T PANIC: Sally Struthers, eat your heart out...: " Senate Democratic leader Robert Mellow isn't shy about pushing for a $10,000 raise for state legislators -- to take their pay up to $80,000 a year.
Hmm... it kind of sounds... greedy. This might take a real PR push, but I have the perfect idea for the commercial:
SI.com - More Sports - NYC hopes Senator Clinton�can boost its chances - Saturday July 2, 2005 4:15PM SINGAPORE (AP) -- Other cities are bringing presidents, prime ministers and royalty in hopes of landing the 2012 Olympics. New York is bringing Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Kennedy won't be involved in EMS talks in new job Departing City of Pittsburgh Operations Director Bob Kennedy probably won't have an opportunity to finish the biggest job he's left undone: the transfer of the city's paramedic service to local hospitals.
Pittsburgh losing operations director to UPMC Pittsburgh Operations Director Bob Kennedy will leave the city post this week to become a vice president for government relations at UPMC Health System.
Letters to the editor: 7/01/05
Moving for school
As someone with a young family who is actually moving back to Pittsburgh, I have to speak up about the Board of Public Education's new hesitation to approve the design and construction of the addition to Colfax Elementary School, as reported in the June 23 Post-Gazette. An addition is necessary to accommodate the growing population at Colfax.
This is occurring long after the board approved the change to a K-8 school and new grades have already been added. How the board thinks making and breaking decisions from one year to the next will lead to any improvement and stability in the schools is beyond me.
Our decision whether to live in the city instead of the suburbs rests on a good public school system. I visited Colfax. The active, engaged learning I observed, the diverse population and the fact that it is a K-8 school are the reasons that we want to move back into the city. Why else when I can get a nicer house for less money and pay far less taxes in the suburbs?
Believe me, I understand that there are financial problems. Our children are coming from the Baltimore school system, which has had even greater financial difficulties. I witnessed the Baltimore board change plans after decisions were made. And I saw the devastating effects these constant changes had on schools that had been steadily improving and had been generating renewed support for the public schools. Uncertainty and instability doesn't help students, schools or communities. I hope the Pittsburgh board will do better.
SARAH BERMAN, Baltimore, Md.
Quality, not size
With all respect to Principal David May-Stein and the parents who so badly want $15 million to support Colfax Elementary School's expansion to K-8: Even if K-8 is better for the middle-school years (we can find studies that prove both good and bad), your kids aren't the ones who need it the most.
Your children have the options to go to some very high-performing middle schools: Frick International Studies Academy, Sterrett Classical Academy or Rogers School for the Creative and Performing Arts. None of these schools is far from Squirrel Hill and none of them are in dangerous neighborhoods. They all have high test scores and their graduates have gone on to do great things.
The kids who may benefit the most from a small middle school environment such as would be provided in a K-8 setting are the ones whose parents probably can't write letters to the editor, attend school board meetings en masse or even supervise their kids' walks to school or homework.
If the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education chooses to add K-8 programs, it should allocate the district's dwindling finances to the kids and neighborhoods that need improved programming the most. And Squirrel Hill is not in that category.
I'm a parent, too. I've sent four kids through East Hills Elementary School. Three have gone through Frick (one is just about to go) and two are in CAPA High School now. I could complain about lots of small issues, but I prefer to praise these schools for their overall programs. The fact that we have any of these choices is remarkable.
Nearby high-performing school districts such as Mt. Lebanon and North Allegheny all have large middle schools. I think the issue is not so much K-8 vs. middle school only but how these schools are funded and operated. Small classes, good facilities, well-trained teachers...
ROBERTA MINTZ, Shadyside
Crain's Cleveland Business In the fourth segment of a six-part series about the globalization of the steel industry, Associated Press reporter Joe Mandak takes a look at the rebuilding of America’s steel towns.
The story focuses on Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Worcester, Mass., detailing how each is bridging the divide between the industries that grew the cities and the industries that will carry them forward.
Per the ICANN Whois Data Reminder policy regarding your domain name service with 4Domains.com this notice is being sent as record of your current domain whois details effective today Jun-30-2005.
Domain..............: rauterkus.com
Creation Date.......: Jul-09-2000
Registration Date...: Jul-12-2002
Last Updated Date...: Dec-31-1969
As a You’re the Cure advocate, you will be excited to learn about the support in Washington, D.C. for funding for heart disease and stroke. Throughout the spring, many of you have been instrumental in efforts to gather signatures on a congressional letter in support of this critical funding increase.
Now for the exciting news…102 Representatives and a record number 46 Senators have signed onto the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition’s letter. To see if your lawmaker signed on in support of increased research and prevention funding, please select from the pages below:
FY O6 House Signatories
FY 2006 Senate Signatories
However, there is still a long way to go as Congress continues to work on the appropriations process. What can you do to help? If your lawmaker signed on to the letter, you can send a thank you note for their support. Click here to send your message now if your lawmaker was supportive. Send Your Thanks to Congress
Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure
No Open and Shut Case for Open Government by CHARLIE DEITCH
"We’ve been putting this in front of [city] council for two-and-a-half years now," says long-time activist David Tessitor, about his efforts to place an "Open Government Initiative" on the November ballot. "But they never paid attention to it and we’ve never heard back."
Tessitor, working under the name PANDA (Pittsburgh Area New Direction Alternative), hopes he'll be able to gather the requisite signatures to put the proposal to a vote. The Open Government Initiative would change the city’s home-rule charter to set up a citizens' advisory panel. The panel would place a representative at every city council meeting to participate in discussions in a non-voting capacity. The move would also require that public information and recordings of public meetings be placed on the city’s Web site.
These two changes alone, Tessitor says, would allow citizens to have a clearer picture of what exactly their public officials are doing.
"We have one instance after another where our government officials have tried to sneak things past the public," says Tessitor, who points to the city's plan in 2002 to sell the publicly owned library buildings to the Carnegie Library board for $100 each, an option that was buried in building leases. "They have created an illusion of openness by putting some information forward to the public, but it’s not nearly enough."
Both Tessitor and Celeste Taylor, whose group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is also supporting the initiative, say they are aware of cries that it will slow down the process of government. That should only happen in cases where it needs to slow down, says Tessitor. Good legislation will fly through the system faster, he says, while bad legislation will be held up to allow for proper scrutiny and, if it's truly a bad deal, to be killed.
Neither council President Gene Ricciardi nor President Pro Tem Jim Motznik were available for comment by press time.
"When I'm asked why we need this, I can give a lot of reasons, but the most obvious is because this city is broke and that surely didn’t happen overnight," Tessitor explains. "And worse than being broke, this city is broken."
More volunteers than the current 30 have to step up to get the required signatures, Taylor says, which number in the hundreds after less than a week of neighborhood canvassing. The group has until Aug. 9 to get about 9,000 signatures of registered voters.
"We’re trying to make this fun and empowering and not just a bunch of people bitching and complaining," says Taylor. "This is a good city, but council is too closed off from the citizens."
Contact Celeste Taylor, 412-628-7867 or celeste@openpgh.org; or see www.openpittsburgh.org.
Supreme abuse II, Letter to editor
"Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government."
With those reckless words, five Supreme Court justices implemented a far-reaching expansion of government power serving well-connected special interests at the expense of property owners. "Public use" might as well be called "public used," as property rights are traded for corporate welfare and tax revenue.
To be clear about this, substitute the word "medical" for "economic" in the above quote. Consider what "public use" now means. Your body could be a tissue farm ripe for harvesting by pharmaceutical interests and research labs.
What now prohibits tax-hungry bureaucrats from considering a forced organ transplant from a low-wage worker to an injured high-wage ballplayer, actor or industrialist just for higher wage, entertainment or sales tax revenues?
Government is closer to taking an arm and a leg than ever before.
Mark Crowley, Plum
Jason Almire, The First Interview: "An Interview with Jason Altmire
Bloggers lobby to fight government regulation - Are bloggers going mainstream?
Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3863 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
1-800-774-4487
www.lppa.org
For Immediate Release
For more information contact:
Doug Leard at 215-646-1502 or David Jahn (Chair) at 610-461-7755
Act 72 emerged from Pennsylvania's General Assembly as a very complicated and confusing piece of legislation. The complexity of Act 72 ensured that just about everyone could find something they did not like.
Many school boards quickly realized that Act 72 threatened their power to tax-and-spend since it gave voters the opportunity to vote against school budgets that raised taxes above the rate of inflation. So, the overwhelming majority of school boards across the state opted out because it would have made them more accountable to taxpayers and voters.
What happens next? The Libertarian party agrees something must be done in the short-term to help property owners who are threatened with the loss of their homes simply because they cannot afford the rising cost of school property taxes. But, we also see rising property taxes for what they really are, a "symptom" of an inefficient and expensive government-run education system.
It is obvious we can no longer afford to keep doing what we have always done before -- raise taxes and throw more money at our public schools. But beyond the money issue, what really needs to be fixed is the "education" side of our public schools. Many parents are dissatisfied with the public schools their children are forced to attend, and a growing number of teachers are frustrated with the constant meddling in education by government bureaucrats and politicians.
Instead of focusing on ways to shift taxes to fund our public schools, Governor Rendell and the General Assembly must begin the process of getting government out of the education business. Pennsylvania needs to encourage a free-market educational system that provides students and parents more choices, where educators have the freedom to use new and innovative teaching methods and where parents would be primarily responsible for the cost of their own child's education.
Education is far too important to be trusted in the uncaring and self-serving hands of government bureaucrats, special interest groups and politicians. We need to put education back where it belongs -- in the hands of parents and teachers!
The Libertarian Party, the third largest and fastest growing political party in Pennsylvania and the nation, continues to provide a beacon of hope for voters disillusioned by the fog of Big Government.
Growing Greener implementation legislation is in the balance in Harrisburg at this moment. As you are likely aware, the budget process is supposed to be finished by June 30 (tomorrow), so this is the crazed rush time of year where everything gets thrown into the mix. The good news is that Growing Greener is in that mix. But, we need to make sure that what comes out the other end is what we all voted for in May.
PLEASE contact your legislators NOW and urge them to implement Growing Greener, but to do it RIGHT. See talking points below from a press release issued yesterday by the Pennsylvania Alliance for Conservation and Restoration (PARC). Sierra Club is a founding member of PARC, and urges our members to support PARC's positions in their communications with their Representatives and Senators.
Legislative Delay Violates Voters’ Trust, Risks Farmland and Environmental Cleanup
Harrisburg –With time running out for action this summer, the Pennsylvania Alliance for Restoration and Conservation (PARC), a coalition of sporting, environmental and civic organizations working together to protect Pennsylvania’s environment, who were the main organizers behind the resounding vote for environmental cleanup on the May ballot, called on Governor Rendell and the General Assembly to implement the voters' mandate for new spending on the environment. Instead of the House-passed version of Growing Greener, HB 3, which takes away $85 million a year in existing environmental funds to provide $115 million, the Coalition's 30 organizational members asked the legislature to adopt a general obligation bond, to be paid out of future revenues and not out of existing environmental programs, and to take that action prior to adjourning for its three-month summer recess.
"The voters overwhelmingly embraced the existing Growing Greener program with their 61 percent approval of the $625 million bond question in May," said Jan Jarrett, PARC co-chair and vice president of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture). "They didn't vote to take money from one set of environmental priorities to fund another, nor did they turn out to hand over state dollars to local government. They voted to preserve open space, clean-up abandoned mine lands, and restore our rivers and streams. Instead of playing shell-games with the taxpayers' money, the legislators and the governor need to stand up and do what the voters asked them to do."
"The proposals put forth so far by the governor and legislators violate the voters' intentions because they divert funding from other environmental programs or fail to make the significant investments needed in conservation and restoration programs," said Andrew McElwaine, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) and PARC co-chair. "This new money must be used for environmental programs to protect farmland and open spaces and to clean up our water and maintain places for hunting and fishing. Anything less is a betrayal of the voters' wishes."
The PARC coalition sent Governor Rendell and the leaders of the General Assembly a set of guidelines for spending the voter-approved $625 million bond, which includes:The new program must address critical needs to conserve dwindling open space and farmland, to restore land and water damaged by coal mining, to protect and restore watersheds, and to repair infrastructure maintained by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Game Commission; Funding for these purposes must not come at the expense of existing environmental programs such as recycling; The existing trash dumping fee should remain dedicated to its current purposes; and Funding to address Pennsylvania's environmental problems and to conserve our natural resources must be in place for the long term to ensure a high quality of life in our communities.
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