Nickers in a knot about a meeting at Peabody without many participants

The Principal at Peabody and Rick F. of the Bloomfield Garfield Corp, as well as others around town, have their nickers in a knot concerning a public meeting slated for 1 pm on Friday, May 4. at Peabody High School. The pow-wow is to talk about the planning for a larger community meeting about schools. Not many are signed up to attend. I think there is a planning meeting on May 4 and a big meeting slated for May 12th. I could be wrong.

Here at the University of Canterbury, students wanted to know if they should get their nickers in a knot about a pending quiz today in the course my wife is teaching.

I've posted two email follow-ups below that hope to drive more community members and parents to the meeting.

My angle of attack for Peabody and Westinghouse, to benefit the entire city and region, would be to kick-start a discussion to make both schools single gender. Pittsburgh should have an all boys public high school -- and an all girls public high school. Take one campus, either Peabody or Westinghouse, and devote it to one gender and, of course, the other to the other gender.

When I've talked about this in the past, the strong feeling from some is that the time to turn to same gender education should not be at 9th grade -- but sooner. Many have told me that they would like to see the single gender campus open for those in middle school as well as high school.

If the "excellence for all" had some 'red meat' visible -- such as a push to single gender schools -- then there would be standing only attendance at the meetings, perhaps.

Here is what they posted: R. Flanigan:

WE CAN SUCCEED--ALL WE NEED TO DO IS WORK HARD AT IT...

We agreed to hold ourselves accountable for turnout for the Excellence For All: East End Community Building Event. We agreed at out last planning meeting that we would have 200 registered by the May 4th (Friday) final planning meeting that begins at 1 p.m. at Peabody High School. The 200 number was not to include Peabody students.

If you take out the Peabody students we have about 60 people registered.

Few registrations have come in from the "Planning Agencies" that comprise the leadership group conducting the event. Are you registered?

All of us need to spend some quality time--lots of it--or we are going to fail.

RECRUITMENT IDEAS: (Personal Invites Are Critical)

1) Attached is a letter that you can change to meet your needs. Send the letter and brochure out to a targeted group you would like to recruit. Call everyone you send the letter to. Register the people that commit.

2) Take these same materials and email them out to as many people as you can.

3) Meet at my office (Youth Development Center, 5129 Penn Avenue) at 9 a.m. on this coming Saturday in order conduct door to door pass out of the brochure.

4) Have all your staff register and Board of Directors register.

5) Call all your program participants. Get their approval to register them.

6) Call everyone you know that could benefit by this event. Register them.....

PLEASE RECRUITMENT-- NO EXCUSES--WE NEED 500 PEOPLE AT THIS EVENT...

See you Friday.

Rick Flanagan (cell phone cut by blogmaster)

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The next letter came from the Principal at Peabody:

Hello Valued Community Partners:

The 12th is almost upon us! We are progressing nicely. The only thing missing are participant registrations. I'm confident that with your help, we will meet our goal of 200 participants for tomorrow.

As you know, the final planning meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, May 4, at 1:00 P.M. here, at Peabody. We will devote much of our time to turn-out and last minute details and expectations of participating organizations. We will have all the procedures in place for drop-off and set-up of materials. Additionally, Breakout Rooms and procedures will be provided so everyone knows exactly what needs to be done.

We will be working feverishly at the school today and Saturday, calling the homes of all our students. Additionally, three of our office staff will be making an East End Business Blitz on Friday to garner last minute donations. Please call the school if you wish to join us.

Cle Sloan is scheduled to be on WAMO at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, May 11, 2007. Please tune in. We also have another addition to our program - the Frick Middle School Steel Band scheduled to perform during the 8-9:00 A.M. registration period. They will provide us with light background music in the gym prior to the 9:00 Kick Off.

Mr. Flanagan has also sent out emails detailing strategies that have been proven successful for recruitment. Please take advantage of this advice. Let's make this a truly memorable Event because of the excellent turn-out, not a disappointment because we had a wonderful program but limited participation. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

John Vater, Principal, Peabody High School

515 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15206
email: jvater1@pghboe.net
phone: (412) 665-2050
fax: (412) 665-2077

Let me know what's going on. And, most of all, let me know what they think about two single-gender schools in Pittsburgh's mix of schools.

Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic do well, it seems to me. How about if we had public-school options to match those Catholic schools.

City Police Officer Uses "Ignorant Of Law" Card In Residency Sting

What in God’s name is going on here? Philip Dacey, 54, the former acting commander of the East Liberty police station, believes he is entitled to a $35,000 annual pension, even after quitting a job he was patently unqualified for in the first place.
You see Dacey got caught with a phony “home” city address, all the while commuting to the posh northern suburbs. Ignorance, he said on television. “Everyone else is doing it.”
What a goof-ball, dishonest answer from a police officer who has heard that same argument from criminals on the street, presumably for his entire career. Arrogance is more spot-on.
Pittsburgh requires that municipal employees reside full-time within city limits, just like the Mayor, city council, and other elected officials. The same is true for fire fighters. Somehow a few years ago the city schoolteachers union used its vast, hulking leverage and had their residency requirement waived. As a result, they pulled up stakes faster than a senior citizen will yank on the “one armed bandit” at any casino in the country.
Statistics prove that all of these professionals receive extravagant pay, especially firefighters. How else can you explain all of the expensive homes? That being said, firefighters explain that they are “the good guys” who save people from burning homes and everyone wants to be their neighbor. Cops say that neighbors always have an eye on them. Who knows about teachers, as most of them need the highway to get to their desks each morning.
Rumor had it that Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who presumably lives somewhere on the North Side and not in an expansive Butler County farm as former Mayor Tom Murphy was often accused, had plans to fire 100 city workers with the unmitigated audacity to receive city tax monies in the form of paychecks, all the while digging their financial resources in far-off, sidewalk-less lands.
If Ravenstahl has any pluck whatsoever—and why should he since everyone with any influence whatsoever has paved his way to sit in the fifth-floor Grant Street West Wing for at least 10 years—he would immediately terminate anyone who sets foot across city lines five minutes after clocking out. He won’t.
Now Dacey finds himself playing the victim. Favoritism, he says, has disallowed him from a fancy new promotion. Perhaps one paying him enough to sell his squalor in one of Allegheny County’s nicest digs for a Joe Hardy-worthy castle in tax-light Washington County. That, and not being embarrassed by a residency sting operation, has forced him to turn in his badge.
Perhaps Dacey can move onto his life’s work as a small-town detective making $9 an hour. A 27-year veteran, it would be curious to see how long Dacey has been perpetrating fraud on the city payers within the city of Pittsburgh and, in essence, cashing illegal paychecks?
I’ve heard from numerous city police officers who don’t want to run into people they’ve locked up while grabbing ice cream with their family on the South Side, catching a movie off of Carson Street, or digging into a lobster on top of Mt. Washington. As if those same criminals don’t attend the latest Adam Sandler flick in groovy Pleasant Hills, grab a coffee along cosmopolitan McKnight Road, or swing by the Barnes and Noble bookseller near George Romero’s Monroeville Mall.
Dacey deserves to have his pension revoked. He’s lived deceitfully on the city dime for long enough. So have at least 99 others. We’ll see if anyone has the political might to do what’s right. In Pittsburgh, where city officials blatantly shell out thousands upon thousands of dollars to family friends for plagiarized white papers and barely register a blip on the newsmaker radar screen, I sincerely doubt it.

We swam with the wild dolphis today -- and it was great

Big day. Too much to post about. But, we had a wonderful day and got to swim with the hector dolphins. Wow. More photos and insights later.

Ron Paul to mix it up with others on the debate stage

The first debate among the candidates for the Republican nomination for president will take place on Thursday, May 3rd at 8:00 pm EDT.

Congressman Ron Paul will be on stage standing between Senator John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. The 90-minute debate will be broadcast live on MSNBC, and streamed live on politico.com. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library will host the event.

First swim practice at Wharenui

From NZ Wharenui pool

Can you pick out Erik in the water? We can blend in a bit more with the locals on this trip, until we open our mouths.

Some photos from our house in Christchurch

From NZ home

Kennywood's open = code words for check your fly

When you are told, "Kennywood's open" -- it means you should zip up your fly -- and not on your tent.

Well, Kennywood is really open now. I look forward to seeing what's up with their efforts to use local media and video. They put out an interesting call a few months ago. I didn't reply, but, it seemed very kwel.

Sandcastle is still growing. Next year it will be the location of the I.C. Light Tent, we hear. That is a music venue in Station Square.

Speaking of "code" -- I posted a bit about the DVD code over at one of my other blogs -- devoted to techie evote elements. http://eVote.Blogspot.com.

Dude! South Side video store gets sued over Ninja Turtles trademark

Dude! South Side video store gets sued over Ninja Turtles trademark Dude! South Side video store gets sued over Ninja Turtles trademark

Hector Dolphins, here we come

We might have a dolphin experience tomorrow.

It rained all day today. But, we still got to a welcome tea via bikes. Then we went to the local bike shop and got some reflector tape/bands for Erik. He wanted them for his legs to keep his pants out of the pedals.

Tonight both Erik and Grant had swim practice with their respective groups. Each are in with about 36 others of similar abilities. Erik's group was 6 to a lane (4 lanes). Grant's was slightly smaller. Both the boys swam well.

Both are doing very well on the bikes as well.

We booked a bus ride and dolphin adventure for tomorrow. The van / shuttle will pick us up at 7:45 am and take us to a 'French' village, Akaroa. The names are French, but not much else. We'll see.

Glad it is raining here and not in Pittsburgh, as our house is without a roof. So, we'll take the bitter weather pill here. Plus, Australia is in a massive dry spell.

Catherine discovered that when you go to the market, you can't order a pound of turkey breast.

Got a $.5 coin today that is worth $0. I'll do a video blog on that soon. Quiz time.

The class began on campus today as well. And, it seems we'll be in some swim meets as well.

Saturday and Sunday, I've signed up for training.

Our phone # is 03 364-2715. Please don't call. Send email.

Final quiz; The swim team -- how do you say it? Wharenui is how it is written.

Swimming Pool Christchurch - Wharenui Swimming Club & Sport Centre

Swimming Pool Christchurch - Wharenui Swimming Club & Sport Centre Welcome to the Wharenui Sports Centre, the home of the Wharenui Swim Club in the heart of Christchurch.

We swam here yesterday. Will return tonight.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The big boot of enforcement now has a new patron saint.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced that local law enforcement agencies will soon be able to apply for grants to enforce and prevent the unlawful operation of slot machines.

The grant program was developed and approved by the Legislature as part of the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act and funded with $5 million annually from money generated from slot machine facilities.

David Adams, candidate for city council in NOVEMBER, gets a TV interview

David Adams, a candidate for Pittsburgh City Council in district 9, (Twanda's old seat) is slated to be PCNC's TV show on 8 pm on Friday -- live.

Peace and Blessings from the invisible man, (nick named for the obscurity in this political process)

I thought I would share with you all my opportunity to "step-out" as a candidate will be live Friday on the cable news station PCNC, as I will be part of a panel discussion. P.J. Mahony from 1410 KQV will be the host at 8:00pm until 9:00pm with encore presentations 2:a and Monday 5/5 at 5-6p.

With the few days we have left I wish all my colleagues godspeed in their endeavors.

Dave Adams

David had been registered as a "republican" but switched to 'no party' affiliation recntly (before the deadline). He is going to be on the "Libertarian ticket" I've been helping to establish.

Appeals court allows smoking in bars, for now

Appeals court allows smoking in bars, for now Enforcement of the smoking ordinance in taverns and restaurants is on hold again.

Johannes Ernharth posted:

Re: PG Editorial: "Disarm America? Here's how"

Sorry for poaching your observation on the 1st being protected by the 2nd. but it can't be said enough...

Someone else should target their moronic insistence that the right to bear arms is extremist. What? As extremist as an Orwellian door-to-door confiscation?

Also, make sure to post LTEs to the lppgh.org website.

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Before accepting Dan Simpson's gun abolitionist suggesting outright, I ask readers consider these points before rallying to such short-sighted causes.

1. How ironic is it that Mr. Simpson's right to his own career is protected by the 2nd Amendment he wants to shred? All individual freedom to say "no-thanks" to government force (even in a democracy) is similar.

2. With over 200 million guns in the U.S. alone, its fantasy to believe a meaningful ratio of guns will be confiscated. Only the law abiding will comply (although this proposition would meet stiff resistance) and criminals with guns will have an easier time with crime.

3. Disarmed people are potential victims entirely dependent on others for their safety. Experience shows us the police mostly curtail V. Tech-like events long after they start. Often, they arrive only in time to count the dead and start an investigation, as it is with most any murder. Even an armed, uniformed guard could have been an easy, unsuspecting target for the well-planned Seung-Hui Cho.

4. Imagine the V. Tech outcome if, after Cho shot his first, he was greeted by 5 randomly drawn pistols operated by trained, decent individuals? What if Cho knew this was a possibility beforehand?

5. History shows that individuals can only kill a limited number before they are stopped. Governments have killed hundreds, thousands, even millions at a time.

The truth is we'll all be safer if more trustworthy people trained to safely operate and carry guns vs. some Orwellian confiscation.

Pirate's to host technology night at PNC Park - Sept 7

The Pirates are going to host a 'technology night' at PNC Park on Sept. 7, 2007. This should be fun. More news later.

Takes $25,000 to get onto the ballot in S.C. for President

The debate is on May 3. Should be interesting. The fee to file to be on the ballot in S.C. is $25,000 -- for candidates for president.

Ron Paul Files in South Carolina

Republican takes important step toward securing GOP nomination

May 1, 2007

ARLINGTON, VA – South Carolina Republican primary voters will be able to choose Congressman Ron Paul when they vote for the Republican nominee for president. Today, Dr. Paul filed the necessary paperwork with the South Carolina Republican Party and paid the required $25,000 fee.

“With Ron Paul on the ballot, South Carolinians will now have a true conservative they can support,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign chairman Kent Snyder. “We know that Dr. Paul’s message of freedom and limited government will resonate with the citizens of the Palmetto State.”

Officially joining the field in South Carolina comes in the midst of exciting times for the Ron Paul 2008 campaign. Dr. Paul recently returned from successful trips to New Hampshire, Arizona and Iowa. He will participate in the first Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library this Thursday, May 3.

War, future, and Ron Paul's remarks

Getting Iraq War Funding Wrong Again
April 30, 2007

This week, Congress finalized the controversial $124 billion Iraq emergency supplemental spending bill, with the House and Senate both voting in favor of final passage. The majority of my Republican colleagues and I voted against this measure, and the president has vowed to veto the legislation.

In this final version, the House leadership retained billions of dollars in pork meant to attract skeptical votes, retained a watered-down version of the problematic “benchmarks” that seek to micromanage the war effort, and continued to play politics with the funding of critical veterans medical and other assistance. In other words, this final version was even worse than the original in almost all respects.

As I wrote when this measure first came before the House, we have to make a clear distinction between the Constitutional authority of Congress to make foreign policy, and the Constitutional authority of the president, as commander in chief, to direct the management of any military operation. We do no favor to the troops by micromanaging the war from Capitol Hill while continuing to fund it beyond the president’s request.

If one is unhappy with our progress in Iraq after four years of war, voting to de-fund the war makes sense. If one is unhappy with the manner in which we went to war, without a constitutional declaration, voting against funding for that war makes equally good sense. What occurred, however, was the worst of both. Democrats, dissatisfied with the way the war is being fought, gave the president all the money he asked for and more to keep fighting it, while demanding that he fight it in the manner they see fit. That is definitely not a recipe for success in Iraq and foreign policy in general.

What is the best way forward in Iraq? Where do we go from here? First, Congress should admit its mistake in unconstitutionally transferring war power to the president and in citing United Nations resolutions as justification for war against Iraq. We should never go to war because another nation has violated a United Nations resolution. Then we should repeal the authority given to the president in 2002 and disavow presidential discretion in starting wars. Then we should start bringing our troops home in the safest manner possible.

Though many will criticize the president for mis-steps in Iraq and at home, it is with the willing participation of Congress, through measures like this war funding bill, that our policy continues to veer off course. Additionally, it is with the complicity of Congress that we have become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret military tribunals, torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, undue government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and uncontrolled spying on the American people. Fighting over there has nothing to do with preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the opposite is true.

Croc Coach Bios

Coach Mark Rauterkus
Coach Mark, dad of Erik, 12, and Grant, 9, has a long swim coaching history including six seasons at NCAA Division I Programs (Ohio U, Baylor U, Bradley U). He coached state-record breakers in PA, Ohio, Illinois and New England. Mark had been helping with Green Tree but joined the Crocs in 2006 to continue working throughout the year with Coach Mike and the Carlynton Swim Club. Before parenthood and politics, Mark published many sports books. In recent time, Mark and the family have enjoyed swim experiences in China, Canada and New Zealand. In 2007, Mark looks forward to organizing a biathlon (1K swim + 5K run) on the morning of July 4, 2007. Two water polo clinics are also planned. One in the evenings with Crafton Celebrates and the other in the mornings in August.

(Insight to other coaches in the comments.)

Just for the record, our cat and house sitter is a guy who ...

We've got people staying and even working in our house while we're away.

I'm going without a cell phone!

To reach me, send an email. Don't call. I'm not going to check my voice messages until June 11.

We could set up a telephone conversation via my private TalkCast area on http://www.TalkShoe.com. However that is going to need to be set up via email prior to the meeting.

Should we need to talk or have an interview, call: 724 444 7444 and my private group call room is with Talkcast ID: 901. I'll need to log into the system via voice over IP.