Dad and boys.

Last Summer, Erik and I did the 140 mile round trip, two day event called, "That Dam Ride." This summer, I've got to get back in shape. The ride is in September. Running mates, care to join us?

Last summer's memory.

Frankel and Frankel

STAND UP and STAND OUT! (Or, how to make your elected representatives actually LISTEN to you)

Monday, May 8, 2006, at 7 pm at Squirrel Hill Library

Representative Dan Frankel, PA House of Representatives - Allegheny County, and Larry Frankel, Legislative Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania.

* Find out how to make your letter/email/phone call Stand Out and Really Matter to your elected officials

* Learn more about current legislative issues: the PA Marriage Protection Amendment, the PA CARE Act Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies), NSA Spying, Immigration, and what your representatives Need To Hear

* Find out what you can do to Make a Difference, even if you live in an area where your elected official already supports your position

* Discover effective tips for writing Letters To The Editor that will increase the chances of getting them published

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please visit www.aclupa.org.

Property Tax Relief -- another joker in the cards

Property tax relief bill stalls - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review However, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, termed the legislation 'an illusion of property tax reform.' And Rep. Michael Diven, R-Brookline, called the bill 'three-card monte.'

Diven is using those academic terms again. What the heck is 'Three Card Monte?'

List: of 1,000 Top U.S. Schools - Newsweek America's Best High Schools - MSNBC.com

The Complete List: 1,000 Top U.S. Schools - Newsweek America's Best High Schools - MSNBC.com 968 Fox Chapel Pittsburgh Pa. 1.175 10.0 23.1

So, Pennyslvania gets 1 in the top 396. Two in the top 400.

The Foxes, USC, and Mt. Lebo all squeek into the top 1,000 on the last page.

What do you make of this?

USOC makes domestic travel plans for bid coordination for 2016

SI.com - Olympics - USOC makes travel plans to potential Olympic cities - Wednesday May 3, 2006 2:19PM U.S. Olympic Committee representatives will visit Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco over the next two weeks to begin scouting out cities for a possible bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

Chicago skyline -- from a Navy Pier perspective. (Click image for larger view. My photos are all put into the public domain.)

Windy City -- one of my former hometowns.

My wife is on TV tonight - PCNC's Night Talk

Ann Devlin and Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., to talk about hearing health -- TONIGHT!
From a past show.

Get to high ground!

Tsunami warnings issued for Fiji and New Zealand after earthquake measuring a magnitude of about 8.0 shakes southern Pacific Ocean.

Good HEALTH to another blogger.

Don't eat too much fiber.

Chloe Rules! - Zap! Thud! � Nuclear Stress Test Results: Good News, More or Less Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have to go grocery shopping at Office Max for some cardboard for dinner….

Dr. R got a new gig in the school system

Dr. R, the Phillips Principal, talks to a parent and student (Catherine and Erik) outside of school one day in a past year.

It is being reported in the P-G that our favorite school principal, the one who is the principal where my sons attend public school, Dr. Barbara Rudiak, is getting a new job within the PPS system. Seems she is 'moving up' with her new position.

Barbara Rudiak -- from principal, Phillips Elementary, to executive director of school management, elementary schools.

This is a good-news and bad-news thing for us as we've been so spoiled with her devotion to the students and operational skills at Phillips.

By the way, Phillips Elementary School is on the South Side. We walk to school each day. Half of the school is a "Spanish magnet" and the other half is a "Neighborhood" school. There are two classes of each grade, K to 5.

I call this year our last as a "gravy year" in that both boys are attending the same school. Next year our oldest goes to 6th grade and will be in a different building (Frick Middle School).

By the way, welcome Rodney Necciai -- from principal, Knoxville Elementary, to principal, Phillips Elementary.

---

My kids are on track to attend Schenley High School. That school is getting a new pricipal too. Plus, Tonight OnQ: it's the end of an era at Schenley High School in Oakland. Roger Babusci - the school's popular english teacher and director of school musicals -- is retiring. We'll look back on his impressive tenure ... and talk with the students he inspired.

Lincoln Blog by Lowman Henry, CEO of Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion

Lincoln Blog by Lowman Henry, CEO of Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion If you were walking down the street and someone came up behind you, stuck a gun in your back and demanded all you money - but then turned around and gave you a couple of your own dollars back while keeping the rest for himself - you would still consider yourself to have been mugged. The fact the criminal gave you some of your own money back doesn't change the fact that you were robbed.

And so it is with the 'tax reform' bill currently on the fast track through the Pennsylvania legislature on its way to a political commercial near you. Pennsylvania's system of real property taxation has been viewed as draconian and inequitable for decades. Now, with voters hopping mad over last year's legislative pay jacking, 'tax reform' is suddenly about to happen.

I'm not too fond of the robbing saga, but whatever works.

Magic tricks.

I'm more in tune to level headed reason. These folks in Harrisburg are do-nothing types. They don't have the determination nor the moxie nor creativity to do much. But, they do want to make themselves look good as voters are headed to the polls. They save what they can muster so as to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the final push of an election cycle.

Drowning continues to be a significant health concern within this country.

Please share this information, especially parents of young children. It came from the Lifesaving Resources' E=Blast. Pool fun

NATIONAL SAFE KIDS WEEK KICKS OFF MAY 2, 2006

When it comes to safety, most parents do not know that drowning is one of the top two causes of accidental death among children. National Safe Kids Week activities and communications will educate parents and children about the steps they can take to help prevent pool and spa injuries and deaths and highlight new proposed legislation in this area.

There will be a special focus about preventing entrapment, which is a little known risk that has killed at least 33 children and injured almost 100 children between 1985 and 2004.

National Safe Kids Week, May 6-13, will highlight the importance of pool and spa safety through the theme “Safe Pools for Safe Kids.” A national press conference involving Safe Kids Worldwide, Founding Sponsor Johnson & Johnson, James A. Baker, III, Secretary of State under former President George Bush, daughter-in-law Nancy Baker and U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) will kick off the week on May 2 in Washington.

In addition, local Safe Kids coalitions around the country will host interactive events to teach parents and children about safe behavior around pools and spas such as actively supervising children around water and installing safety devices in and around pools and spas.

Safe Kids has also created checklists (in PDF) about how to practice safe behaviors around the water and teach your kids to do the same.

Get legal - Get OpenOffice.Org

As part of my past (and future) campaigns, I have given out hundreds of CDs with music, message and OPEN SOURCE software. Of course these political CDs include an installer for OpenOffice.org 2.0.

One week after "World Intellectual Property Day", the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project announces a new campaign: "Get legal - Get OpenOffice.org". A new website - http://why.openoffice.org - explains how to escape from Microsoft Office licence costs and compliance worries - for good. Webmasters and bloggers worldwide are encouraged to display the campaign banner to help promote the campaign.

2006 has seen proprietary software companies and their agencies increase their efforts to stamp out illegal copies of their software. Last week, the Business Software Alliance used "World Intellectual Property Day" to announce a record reward for anyone informing against illegal software in UK organisations. Microsoft acquired a company specialising in detecting software installed on PCs. Microsoft also announced its intention to extend its use of the internet to put piracy detection software into copies of MS-Office on people's PCs.

For many users, this is a worrying development. Microsoft licences are often complex, and it is easy to become non-compliant, especially as the number of PCs in an organisation increases. Illegal copying has proliferated in many developing countries, where foreign currency is scarce and proprietary licence fees are simply unaffordable.

OpenOffice.org 2 offers a simple way out of the licence trap. OpenOffice.org 2 is a free alternative to Microsoft Office products such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Powerpoint. OpenOffice.org 2 is released under an open-source licence: anyone may use the software for any purpose (including commercial). Users are encouraged to pass on copies to friends, family, students, employees, citizens - anyone.

OpenOffice.org 2 uses files created by Microsoft Office equivalents. Users need little or no retraining. Studies have shown that the costs of migrating to OpenOffice.org 2 are minimal - a tenth of the cost of migrating to the new Microsoft Office 2007.

No wonder a poll has shown 86% of users would prefer to try OpenOffice.org 2 rather than buy Microsoft Office 2007.

Get freedom from licence worries - Get Legal - Get OpenOffice.org.

About the OpenOffice.org Community

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org 2. OpenOffice.org 2 is released under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL).

The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems (founding sponsor and primary contributor), Novell, Red Hat, Intel, and Google.

Links

The campaign website http://why.openoffice.org contains links to the studies referenced in this press release. The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at http://www.openoffice.org. OpenOffice.org 2 may be downloaded free of charge from http://download.openoffice.org. Further information about the suite may be found at
http://www.openoffice.org/product

Press Contacts

John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
jpmcc@openoffice.org
+44 (0)7 810 278 540

Cristian Driga (UTC +0200)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
cdriga@openoffice.org
+40 7887 000 60

Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
louis@openoffice.org
+1 (416) 625 3843

Worldwide Marketing Contacts:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

Attribution

Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Famed swim coach George Haines dies at 82 - Tuesday May 2, 2006 2:48PM

SI.com - Olympics - Famed swim coach George Haines dies at 82 - Tuesday May 2, 2006 2:48PMGeorge Haines, who coached three U.S. Olympic swim teams and guided such 1960s and '70s stars as Mark Spitz, Don Schollander and Donna de Varona, died at 82.

George was quite a coach. He was very productive, to say the least. (Free read, FYI.)

In Western PA, we don't have anything like Santa Clara.

Pittsburgh used to have a team that dominated like Santa Clara did.

Swimmers ready to take to the water at one of the oldest indoor swim pools in North America. There were swimmers in the same spot back in time. This pool was the home to Olympians who competed in the Olympic Games of 1928 and 1932.

The swimmers from Homestead won a number of national relay titles, back in the day. That was a wave or two before Haines.

Council OK's free Downtown Wi-Fi - and I have a problem with 'cutting edge' hype

Council OK's free Downtown Wi-Fi Council President Luke Ravenstahl said the deal makes Pittsburgh 'a cutting-edge city.'

Luke, don't say such foolishness. Cutting-edge in terms of being hoodwinked.

I'm glad to see some changes. But, we're not cutting-edge. We're not even close. The deal from the PDP is going to insure Pittsburgh remains behind the times. The deal expands the digital divide and offers little of value.

Cutting edge is wi-fi on mass transit -- as they do in Japan on high-speed trains that travel 13-floors below sea level.

Cutting edge is wi-fi for free that covers the other 22 hours of a day. Not just for 120 minutes.

Cutting edge is a wi-fi digital media campus that goes to under served areas, not for the elite.

Cutting edge is wi-fi, computers and hives of information for every resident in the city who is in school. The students are cutting-edge, not office workers who won't want to log on anyway.

Wi-fi but not so high.

Cutting edge isn't a network that isn't 'secure.' I'd never log onto that network to check my email as the security is absent.

Cutting edge was 2003 when the airport had wi-fi in the food court, or 2004 when the wings of the airport went wi-fi. We've got 200 plus wi-fi hot spots for surfers to hit downtown already.

Cutting edge for Pittsburgh is what Spokane had a year or two ago. Where's the edge or the cut?

Cutting edge would be wi-fi rivers, wi-fi T-line to Overbrook and South Hills Village, and wi-fi East Busway, West Busway and swim pools.

Cutting edge would be wi-fi at higher speeds, such as what Earthlink offered. This speed is not that fast, because is 500 people push a key at the same time, we'll see a slight delay.

Cutting edge would come to the city without the foundations needing to kick in $.5 million.

Cutting edge would go higher than 2 stories. We've got downtown buildings that are higher than that. But in neighborhoods, all the buildings would be covered with the wi-fi network -- as homes are generally 2 stories high.

Cutting edge would not see prices go from $40 per month per pole to $20 per month per pole -- it would be $0 per pole per month. I don't think that the city owns most of the poles anyway. And the PDP (Pgh Downtown Partnership) could do cutting-edge by working with building owners and putting the antennae on the buildings directly.

Cutting edge is a wi-fi deal that covers the entire region if not the county. We can't even cover the entire city. This wi-fi deal is more like a pimple of coverage for wi-fi areas that exist already.

Cutting edge is what we had in the city's cable franchise agreement, years and years ago. But, we let that deal slide without oversight. We let the fruit die on the vine. Where are the broadband computers and uses at the rec centers now? FUMBLE.

Cutting edge needs to come from people who know how to spell email. I'm not sure Mayor O'Connor can send and receive email. The drivers of cutting-edge technology need to be more than "at the table" someone at the table needs to pick up the bill. Waitstaff, fetch another round of bottled waters, be happy to be at the table for scraps, and then, pay the tab as well.

In China, everyone in the city gets free internet. Just as we all can dial 411 or 911 -- that's the level of dial up that is nearly NATION WIDE in China. That's not cutting edge. Here, you still have to pay up to $20 a month to get dial up.

Cutting edge is Internet 2.

Cutting edge would be video on demand to see the proceedings from today's city council meeting, even if you didn't catch it on your cable.

Nor is cutting edge a slots parlor, nor an all-star game for a game with steroid abusers, nor a skateboard park, nor a tunnel that is closed for 2 hours a day just to change directions of its traffic for the 600 cars that drive through it.

Let's think, we'll get wi-fi for downtown for 2 hours each day -- and that amount of time equals the time that the Wabash Tunnel is closed each day.

Council OKs Downtown Wi-Fi plan - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "'This is the starting point,' said Councilwoman Tonya Payne, who praised the plan.

Really, this isn't a starting point. Rather, it is the ONLY POINT. There isn't any 'phase 2' nor 'phase 3.' This is it. They came. They picked our cherries. They couldn't put Humpty together again.

In a few months, I'll be able to ask, "Where is free wi-fi in Knoxville?" And I'll be able to say, "I told you so."

Now I'm able to ask, "What about the computer labs in the Rec Centers?" We have computer rooms in Orbsby and Warrington. But there are no computer labs there. And, we offered to build them three years ago at no charge to the city. Now I'm able to say, "I told you."

I'm sick of always being right and having my city perform so poorly.

May Day -- from 2004

Tourist on a May Day visit.

In the Forbidden City.

Details

Power, but under the foot of the lion is a cub at play.

PA House, Senate of Gov might pull another quickie on property tax reform

The House, Senate and Gov. Rendell are about to pull another fast one on us on Monday.

Background: It's reported that there is an agreement about the proposed law to reduce property taxes. The conference committee that has been working on the legislation will issue its report Monday morning at 10:30. Under current rules, this means Gov. Rendell could sign it into law Monday night.

Speculation – no one knows for sure – is that the House will pass the conference committee report Monday afternoon; the Senate Monday evening; and the governor sign it Monday night.

This is the same process used to pass the gambling law in 2004 and the pay raise in 2005 – no public hearings on the final bill and no opportunity for citizens to read it, understand it, hear different opinions about it, and express their own opinions to their lawmakers.

But until Monday morning, we won't know what the final conference committee report says. The original bill was 89 pages long. We don't know how long the conference committee report will be. It may have nothing new in it. Or it may have special provisions that we haven't seen before. We don't know, and we can't know until Monday morning when we can see it for ourselves.

This is a major piece of legislation that will have a profound impact on Pennsylvania. It is not something that should be rushed through the process, and there is no reason why citizens, the news media, and public interest groups from across the political spectrum should be prevented from commenting on it before
the vote.

So what's the rush? Lawmakers want to spend the next two weeks before the primary election telling voters that they cut property taxes. This is politics, not policy.

What To Do? Now's when we see whether lawmakers have learned anything from the citizens' anger over the pay raise. Whether you like the property tax bill or not, you deserve the chance to participate in its passage or defeat.

Democracy Rising PA believes in a process that looks like this:

1. The conference committee should issue the report.

2. The House and Senate should send it to the appropriate standing committees for at least one public hearing.

3. Then, after at least 14 calendar days, the bill should come up for a vote.

(edited slightly)

May 1 -- a day of celebration, or a week if you are in China

Worldwide, May 1, is a day to celebrate.

In China, the people now celebrate a seven day holiday. The factory workers get seven days off. Schools are closed. The break comes with encouragements to travel within China. Those in the city go to the country. Those in the country go to the city. Flags and banners are hung. Tourist places buzz.
A week of family time often means park time, water time and togetherness.

In the US, we don't celebrate May 1st, not so much. Protests are planned this year.

The Great American Boycott, “A Day Without Immigrants,” or “A Day Without Latinos,” is being pushed by some. It is a day where immigrant workers, and their allies, will remove their labor, purchasing power, and presence from the economic workings of the United States.

"Without Latinos baseball would be about as interesting as being trapped in an elevator with George Will."

Source: Dave Zirin, http://www.edgeofsports.com. He writes a great article and the bulk of facts and comments flowed from him. I subscribe to his email blasts, and you're encouraged to do so as well.

Six of the top ten hitters in the National League are from Latin America including MVP Albert Pujols. The AL has 5 out of 10 including batting leader and 2003 MVP Miguel Tejada. Latinos dominate baseball. Eight of the last 10 AL MVPs have been won by immigrants, seven by Latinos.

In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, Team USA got crushed. Currently 36% of Major League players were born in Latin America. Almost one third of all minor leaguers are from the Dominican Republic alone.

Pittsburgh Pirates : News : Pittsburgh Pirates News PITTSBURGH -- With the July 11 Midsummer Classic just 77 days away, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Major League Baseball and local officials are gearing up for what will be an exciting week of baseball in the Steel City.

Major League owners searching for talent on the cheap, setting up baseball academies south of the border where players can be signed in their early teens for pennies, and then discarded if they don’t make the cut. As one player said to me, “The options in the DR are jail, the army, the factory, or baseball.”

Many prospects make it to the United States for minor league ball and then stay, illegally, to chase the dream of never working to death in a factory. The outer boroughs of New York City are filled with semi-pro teams of men on the other side of
thirty still thirsting for that contract, hoping it comes before the INS comes knocking on their door.

Pittsburgh is gearing up for the All-Star Game in July. Humm.... We've also got some "No Sweatshop Bucco Protests" set to unfold too. No Major League player has come out publicly (yet) and said they are joining the national boycott on May 1.

Today I hope to go to a high school baseball game. Heck, we can't even have Rookie Ball any longer in our local park -- yet alone a Major League Academy to train young hopefulls. The Pirates and others of MLB would rather invest in talent south of the border and ignore those at home. So much for pulling for the home team. And, that's also where they'll get their baseballs and uniforms produced as well. Often in sweatshops.

And to tailgate for football games is soon going to be a thing of the past in Pittsburgh as they try to curtail the extra parking spaces to only those who have 'season passes.'

There isn't any baseball in the Olympics after 2008, when the Olympic Flame is put out in China. There is more talk about the "NEW China" in our newspapers.

We've got a lot of work to do. Better to NOT have a week long vacation. With the spike in gas prices, it makes one wonder.

Concert: Dave Nachmanoff and musical tidbits

AL STEWART & Dave Nachmanoff play Club Cafe on Sunday, May 6, 2006

$20 Advance / $22 Day of Show
Doors 6PM Show 7PM

"Past, Present and Future", his first USA release, was the first record Stewart made incorporating historical data, elements of film, literature and current affairs into his lyrics. It became a cult album which has now sold close to a million copies worldwide. His next album, "Modern times", cracked the US top 40 album chart which led to Al and his band touring the United States.

"Year Of The Cat", released in 1976, became Al's first platinum (one million units) album in the United States. It featured two top 20 singles, "Year Of The Cat" and "On The Border". Bouyed by this success, he moved to Los Angeles and released "Time Passages" in 1978 which also sold platinum and featured the singles "Time Passages" and "Song On The Radio". This period was followed by worldwide tours with his band "Shot In The Dark".

Our friend, Dave Nachmanoff, joins Al Stewart on tour in many venues. He played here with Al at Hartword at a wine festival a few years ago.

Dave played two shows for us in the past too. One was at Club Cafe on 9-11. Jim Roddey and Dan Onorato were both invited and came to speak that night as well. And, our new minister, Lynn, from Sunnyhill.org, made her first Pittsburgh event then too.

Dave also gave a concert and helped to open the new Musicians Hearing Center at UPMC, something that my wife started at Eye and Ear Institutue.

The musican's hearing center is doing well these days as well. The service provides no charge hearing protection for the musicans and teachers in Pgh Public Schools. Catherine, my wife, went to Langley High School to have a photo taken with musicians there for a UPMC publication. On Friday, Catherine worked with the kids at an Elementary School, Dillworth. They have an 'arts focus' and do morning assembly that includes drumming, loud drumming. Now the kids there have hearing protection -- just like they have at the PSO, Pgh Symphony Orchestra.

If you can, come to the show on Sunday at Club Cafe. You'll have a wonderful time.