Speaking to PPS public hearing about single gender schools

Election Results from 2005 to 2001

In 2005:
href="http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/elect/200511gen/results.asp">Election Results Bob O'Connor (Dem) 40,226 67.1%
Joseph Weinroth (Rep) 16,321 27.2%
Titus North (Gre) 2,392 4.0%
David Tessitor (Abo) 625 1.0%
Jay M Ressler (Soc) 397 0.7%
Totals 59,961
In 2001:
Tom Murphy (Dem) 39,257 -- 74.3%
James Carmine (Rep) 12,175 -- 23.0%
Chaston Roston (I) 964 -- 1.8%
Francis Forrestal (S) 443 -- 0.8%

To Bob's credit, he got more votes than Murphy got in 2001. I knew it would be close. Murphy did have a higher percentage.

When I ran for PA Senate, I got more than 7-percent of the vote. That vote percentage is greater than the total percentage of all non Ds and non Rs. But the swelling ranks from 2001 to 2005 of non-Ds and non-Rs was from 2.6 percent to 5.7 percent.

As another point to ponder, G.W. Bush, (R) in his second term, had 37,000 votes in the city.

Riverside Cubs -- a story on Silent Touchdowns

California School for the Deaf, with Coach Keith Adams, from 0 and 10, in his first season to playoff team last year and Ten-and-oh, 52-to-nill, in the final game, this season.

The football team is deaf. The cheerleaders are deaf too! But they know how to communicate, beat the drum and tackle!

An interview with a dad, "Are you proud of him?"

"Every day," says the father.

Great story that ran at 1 am on ABC's Nightline.

Just as a reminder, our book, "Time Out! I Didn't Hear You" -- is available as a free download in PDF. http://Rauterkus.com/PDF/SPORTS/TIMEOUT.PDF

Mayor Murphy: 'Best Job In America' -- hardly. I've got a job that is much, much better.

I've got two jobs that are better than his. And, I ran for his job, no less. I ran for mayor. I wanted to end Mayor Mruphy's tenure at two terms. We needed a new mayor more than I needed to be the mayor. But, it is safe to say I pondered the job and the duties of the job and the office.

I'm a swim coach. That job is way better than being mayor. And, the clincher job -- being a stay at home dad. That job is a million times better than being mayor. The best job in America is true if you over look the two jobs I have.

But, I do think being mayor is better than being a volunteer blogger.

KDKA: "Mayor Murphy: 'Best Job In America'

(KDKA) PITTSBURGH Tom Murphy welcomed us into an office that�s seen a lot of history. Now years of memories are being sorted and boxed for the archives.

"It's a remarkable story of how it evolved from just trying to save the Pirates to building a ballpark to building everything that we did," Murphy said.

Ballot Access News & Pitt Law Libertarians -- content swells in our favor

Ballot Access News Libertarians Won 19 Partisan Elections on Nov. 8
November 23rd, 2005

The Libertarian Party won 19 partisan elections in Pennsylvania on November 8, 2005, not one, as reported earlier. They include 7 township auditors, one constable, on township supervisor, one planning commissioner, and 9 precinct elections officials.

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Pitt Law LibertariansPITT LAW LIBERTARIANS have a blog with plenty of entries.

Who knows Father James McCaskill?

Spero News | Priest Idol - week 2 round up Father James McCaskill, a fresh-faced 32 year old cleric from the leafy suburbs of Pittsburgh, USA, is the subject of Priest Idol. ...

Does he vote on the South Side? Where did he go to seminary?

Speaking of TV, why do they show Rudolph The Red Nose Raindeer on network TV at 8 pm. The kids who would want to watch the show should be tucked away dreaming of sugar plums.

Bob O'Connor -- exclusive 1-on-1 intervew on Fox TV, 10 pm -- opposite MNF

Are you ready for some football????

Meanwhile at 10 pm tonight, the local Fox TV news holds an exclusive interview with the next mayor, Bob O'Connor.

That's a tough time slot, opposite the Steelers. Some people have all the luck.

Founder of popular Craiglist Web site assisting with news venture

Founder of popular Craiglist Web site assisting with news venture: "engineer who created the popular Craigslist Web site, Craig Newmark, said the new media venture he has been working on could launch within three months.

Mr. Newmark, whose site gets more than a million classified ads and 1 million postings each month, told The Associated Press in May that he wants to develop a pool of 'talented amateurs' who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. The journalists' articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs."

Put a fork in em! A History of... What? Success? How so?

Great recap from fellow blogger.

AntiRust: The Allegheny Conference and Pittsburgh's Birthday: A History of... What? Success? How so?... Society would be better served, first, with a $14 million movie about the failed promise of absurd urban redevelopment schemes. Add up the money squandered in Pittsburgh alone. God, it's depressing.

Next, I think it's time for someone to stand up and say, 'Look, let's forget about the city's damn image. The area built an image as an industrial place by making steel, not producing movies about making steel. And it will build an image as a vital place by becoming a vital place, not by making movies about Indians and French guys in the 1760s.' Seems obvious, maybe, but it looks like it still needs said.

I say it is great that the Allegheny Conference is going to fiddle while Rome burns. It is great that the Allegheny Conference is going to try to turn the clock back for a birthday party. Great. That is what we really need -- and I'm serious.

I want The Allegheny Conference to run a birthday party. That's what they should do, celebrations, parties -- and NOTHING ELSE. Get them out of the way.

ABA Hoops returned to winning ways in Pittsburgh

When I was in 6th grade, I think, I went to a Condors game. This was a bit like that.

The home team, the Black & Gold colored, Pittsburgh Explosion, took a huge first quarter lead. And, the roof at Pitt's Peterson Event Center wasn't leaking, as best I could tell. The team plays four games at Pitt's venue and the rest at the Civic Arena, also known as the Mellon Arena. The Kernals are from Kentucky and have a former Kansas player. Two ex-NBA players are with the Explosion.


The dance team is called the 'bomb squad.'

Huddle with the coach.

The digital camera wasn't so good at "action photos."

Defense.

Campaign committee still has a few openings.

Care to partner and saddle up? Just call me, 412 298 3432. Or telegram is okey-doe-kay too -- Mark--at-Rauterkus--dot--com.

We were part of history tonight! We went to the first-ever home victory for the ABA's Pittsburgh Explosion!

My boys and I attended our first ABA game, at Pitt's Peterson Event Center. Great time.

The music is too loud for Erik. He's the hyper protective one. My other guy, Grant, could not get this one question out of his head. And, I'm at a loss for an answer too.

The Pgh Explosion played the Kentucky Colonels. Why in the heck do you say COLONELS when there isn't an "R" in there???? Can someone help us out on that one?

Nevermind: The modern usage of the word colonel began in the late sixteenth century, when companies were first formed into larger regiments or columns (colonne in Italian) under the leadership of a colonnello. (In modern English, the word is pronounced similarly to kernel as a result of having entered the language from Middle French in two competing forms, coronel and colonel. The more etymological colonel was favored in literary works and eventually became the standard spelling despite losing the pronunciation war to the dissimilated coronel.)

We won in overtime. Good game. Fine play and players too. Spelling -- that is a different matter.

Photos to come later.

SA 50 and Stem Cell Ethics: SciAm Observations

As Paul Harvey say, "And now for the rest of the story....

SA 50 and Stem Cell Ethics: SciAm Observations Needless to say, this news disturbed us at Scientific American, and not just because of the somewhat awkward p.r. headache. We take the ethics of scientific conduct seriously, not only as a moral issue but because unacceptable practices can torpedo an entire research enterprise. That is particularly true for embryonic stem cell research, which at least in the U.S. is among the hottest of political hot potatoes.

Another one bites the dust.

The whistle blower -- from Pittsburgh -- was right.

Tinker! When a picture says a 1,000 words.

(Click images for larger view.)
Tinker Bell at on a weather vein.

Town is filled with talk about "tinkering" concerning the plans put forth by Mark Roosevelt, Pgh Public School's superintendent.

Tinker with this. Tinker with that. See which way the wind blows.

Frankly, I've had it to here with this tinkering mentality, so might say outgoing school board member, Alex Mathews. He does not want the board to "tinker with" the plan. Give it a stright up or down vote.

Humm. The wind generally does not blow straight UP or DOWN. It blows all around.

I sorta like the idea that of a straight up or down vote by the school board. I like the idea as there should NOT be any small-minded tinkering at the board table. However, the tinkering needs to occur elsewhere.

Like this tinkerbell topping -- the tinkering needs to be clearly visible for all to see. There is why she sits at the top of the building.

The tinkering should occur in online too. The school district can set up a help-desk with a job-ticketing system. This is nothing but a bug tracking program and/or versioning software.

Otherwise, we are left with a lot of hot air and no way to gather -- but only scatter.

Tinker Bell has a magic wand. Roosevelt might need such a stick if he proceeds as he's been going. The data isn't visible. The tinkering and changes are not evolving in public. The communications is still top down -- and only top down. I'd suggest a radical change -- a magic flashlight instead of a wand. Put the dealings and documentation out in the open. Put the content online. Open the source code. Make a visible change log.

Warning: If the change log documentation does not become visible, -- Superintendent Roosevelt might need more than a magic wand. He'll need Star Wars Light Sabers and a team of Jedi Masters to reinforce the PR firm. The PR spin won't cut it in the long haul.
Pay attention!

This image is the one that should have gone out on campaign materials -- from Weinroth.

Training wheels....

This is what Joe Weinroth needed to explain in his campaign for mayor.

The mayor of Pittsburgh is like the big wheel in the middle. The training wheels, to both the left and right, represent the overloards. We've got the Act 47 Coordinators on one side and the ICA (Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority) on the other side. Our mayor, at this time, can't tip the city and fall, thanks for these training wheels. But, you don't want training wheels when you have drivers (leaders) who are decent. The training wheels can save you from yourself if you have not mastered the act of balance.

I tried to explain this to concept to Joe Weinroth too. I even challenged him to a set of debates that should have been slated for July and August. He didn't reply. He didn't engage.

Pittsburgh has "training wheels" now. Pittsburgh does not need "kick stands."

We have to keep moving.

Bob O'Connor is going to be like that back wheel, between oversight boards for the duration of his first term, like it or not. Bob can be the 'driver' with that back wheel giving motion to the city. Of course, training wheels are poorly suited as sources of new momentum. There is only an energy drag with training wheels, never more acceleration from them, as we've seen.

Now, the next mighty question for the next weeks to come -- who gets to represent the front wheel? Sure there will be city managers, a new police chief and some professionalized czar or something, hired into the new Grant Street Administration. And, sure there might be queens and dukes appointed to new authority board roles. But, who and what is going to shape the real direciton of the city?

The front wheel of the bike is where the directions are established. We need smart, clever, creative drivers with excellent perspectives to navigate the city for the next term.

This is where I enter the 'story.'

City council needs to steer itself into relevance. That body has been marginalized by its own actions in the past.

We need to mount up and help to steer the city to that 'right track' and into a realm where prosperity can be an option again.

I want to be elected to city council so as to play a significant role in guiding the city and steering the agenda.
Mount up.
Bob can pedal. Oversight boards (overlords) can balance. I'll help in gripping the issues. We've got a basket of issues to resolve.

Fun reunion on the pool deck.

This is one of my favorite times. I love it -- LOVE IT -- when I'm on the deck of a swim pool and am graced by the presence of a swimmer I had the opportunity to coach. Meet Karin Painter -- or at least that was her name. Karin coaches with the Greensburg Y and is mom to twins. She was a HS All American on Relays the two years I got to coach her at Plum High School. I think she split a 53 in a relay at WPIALs (and the 400 free relay got first place, twice). Karin then went to Bowling Green, with some scholarship aid, and captained that team. She was a teacher until recently.

Meeting swimmers later in life is such a gas.

Here is another reunion I had with a former swimmer back in July, 2004. I went to a session of the Illinois Swimming Long Course Age Group Championships. I had coached in that meet and our team got 2nd! This guy was on those teams.


Derrik Ammerman, a guy I coached when he was 10, 11 and 12. Now he is a coach at Dunlap, Illinois.

Getting Cut Hurts

The FCASD Varsity Team, a squad I coached two years ago, cut eight girl swimmers this season. They were not allowed to be on the varsity swim team. That's sad.

The swimmers were good swimmers, so I hear. They would be great for nearly every other high school in the WPIAL. I'm going to guess that those eight swimmers who are cut from the Foxes might, if they had some good coaching throughout the season, be able to win the city-league title. If not first, they'd be able to finish in the top three.

When I was there, we worked very, very hard to not cut anyone.

I'd love to see more "JV Swimming Teams" in the area. That might need to get a few special rules by the PIAA and WPIAL so that the JV meets do NOT count as Varsity meets.

When I coached in Illinois at New Trier, the team had 100 girls on the HS Varsity Squad. One hundred. We took everyone onto the team. We had multiple practices. We didn't cut anyone. And, the team won its seventh straight state title too.

The streak was broken a couple of years after I departed. But it is safe to say New Trier is still a high school swimming powerhouse. I saw two high-school aged swimmers from New Trier at USA Swimming's National Championships in Clovis, Calif. this summer.

Speaking of New Trier... Al Ledgin, swim coach of the stars, coached in Champaign / Urbana when I was in Peoria. Later he coached at New Trier Swim Club. Last I knew, Al had moved to Michigan.

Russ Diamond - founder of PA Clean Sweep -- on the South Side

Russ Diamond, presenter at a South Side meeting, talked about PA Clean Sweep and more.

I have most of his presentation on tape. If you'd like to get a copy of the MP3, email me.

Music for the season!

Nanna, Grandma, Pop Pop, Grant and Erik -- following a violin concert. The boys are my sons. My mom and dad are on the left and right and my mother-in-law is in the middle.

We were all together at Thanksgiving, except for one sister, Geri Ann. Her family called in to the feast as they were at the swim pool all day in Florida, just north of Orlando. It was 77-degrees there. Meanwhile, we passed about a half-dozen accidents on 279 headed north in mid-day ice.

Drivers need to give the wind and cold more respect. Slow down a bit. The bridges and overpasses freeze first and worst.

Barbara, my mother-in-law, lives just across the street from us. She made five great pies!

All is well with us. Hope you have the same good fortunes too.

Talking about the legislature. Brutal.

PennLive.com: Search The recent record of the Legislature suggests it is far too timid to tackle a challenge as large as bringing sanity and affordability to health care in the commonwealth. This is most unfortunate, inasmuch as Washington shows the same lack of interest.