1 hour and 20 minutes on the Kraus bill for sidewalk cafes

Bill Peduto is going to use his gavel. Finally. He is a bit hacked off today at city council for the spending of 1 hour and 20 minutes on a bill that had no amendments.

Too much talk. Too little action.

From NZ-whales

Mr. Kraus wants to thank everyone for all their help. That's called doing their jobs. Grandstanding stinks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kraus is always late to meetings. When I'm talking today -- he gets up from the table. When other members of the public are talking, Mr. Kraus is in the audience schmoozing.

Fixing it isn't everyone's duty. But to flag it is a great help.

My suggestion at another blog about fixing wiki pages when errors are noticed.

Life must be hard to know it all yet not have the technical / language skills to fix any of our bogus shared understandings.



Tip to Chris: At wikipedia.org, (and even FixPA.wikia.com) when you see something that is at odds with the truth, click the blue button at the top of the page called, "discussion." It is at the tab just to the right of the link labeled 'article.'

Then click again on the button, also at the top, called "new section." Sometimes a "+" sign is there. Then insert with the wiki language of plain old text in English to what you feel should be changes / adjusted / altered / inserted. Just go freehand.

Often two fields are presented, a title, like in a blog post. And a body field for longer chunks of text.

No need for any HTML nor WIKI mark-up. Just type like a blog comment.

Then after you are done, sign your nugget of insight by hitting the ~ (tide character) four times. That is way to the top left of the keyboard, often a CAP. It looks like this, ~~~~ .

That trick, ~~~~ puts your name and time stamp onto the posting.

Then leave the edits to others. Go about your merry way to other pages or whatever.

When busy, drop of comment onto the discussion page and move on. Hopefully others will get to the matter in due time.

I did this the other day at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Caliguiri

Perhaps some day the Caliguri page will get fixed to everyone's satisfaction.

(full thread)

The Pittsburgh Comet & Campaign Finance Reform

The Pittsburgh Comet: "If the ship leaks, we can look to where it's leaking.

My second comment at another blog goes like this:

If pay to play is the problem, then fix pay to play. You don't fix pay to play with campaign finance reform.

As you said, "If the ship leaks, we can look to where it's leaking." EXACTLY.

If you have a leak on the roof of your house, don't put in cement floors. Fix the roof.

The pay part should be okay, within reason. Don't make it criminal to give a donation to a candidate. We want people to be invested in self-government and the American process -- generally. However, we don't want special favors to be delivered to anyone. We don't want certain players to get the ball and our money all the time at the exclusion of others. Government isn't about making the rich richer despite effective operations.

The play part of pay to play is where the taxpayers get screwed. The play part is fixed with the elimination of all no bid contracts.

If you want to do business with government, we need to have a competitive bid process to insure that we buy the most and best for the money -- open to all.

Gaming the system is solved when the contracts and purchasing elements are with sealed bids and competition.

Campaign finance reform is another matter. It needs attention too. But, trying to make Campaign Finance Reform a wonder drug, magic bullet, and fix-it-all-solution, is sure to bog everything down and fail.

BTW, this was one of the failures of Peduto 2004 thinking. We're past that now, I dare say.

You don't fix one problem with an approach that isn't about the problem: Campaign Finance Reform

This is what victory looks like!

When Bill Peduto championed campaign finance reform in 2004, I was there saying, "Think again."

Peduto knew of the gang of 75 who were the pay to play mavericks. They ruled this town and took from its treasury, as needed, via their no-bid contracts. They come in all flavors from law firms to bond underwriters to URA designer weenies.

Peduto's aim, in part, was to fix this 'pay to play mentality.' So, he wanted to limit the size of campaign donations. The pay to play problems shrink as the size of the pay-offs are able to decrease -- generally. But, the root of the problem is the awarding of city contracts to friends.

In the case of Twanda Carlisle, she gave city money and city contracts for doing nothing, to family and friends. Those folks didn't give big campaign donations. They were paid, but they didn't even need to play the game with advance payments.

My point in recent years has been to the problem of letting city contracts to those who are hand picked. End all no bid contracts and the pay to play realm gets shattered.

This is what's on the table now. This is a major reform move. This is what I've been talking about and it is coming to pass.

Can anyone tell me any reason why we need any no-bid contracts in city government?

Next, gifts. Sure. We can start a gift abatement policy. But, that has to come from the individuals and it would be nice to have an Ethics Hearing Board too. Rev. Ricky Burgess is ranting about gifts and that's just fine.

The problem comes from enforcement.

What if I give you a ride home after a meeting? What if I let you use a cell phone to call home because of some special circumstances? These are much like NCAA Recruiting and Eligibility Rules. Have you ever seen or read the NCAA Manuals? Thick like phone books. Fairness. A college athlete can't get a new suit to go to a banquet to get an award. That's a deal breaker that will change the team's record from the last year.

A college athlete can't use the coach's phone to call home -- even if mom is home sick. Bang. Eligibility violations.

The mirco management of elimination of all gifts can get really unhealthy.

The thing to do is offer and reward the culture of gift elimination. But, don't legislate morals, as that's next to impossible to do.

We need to hire and elect wise and honest individuals.

The kicker gets to enforcement, in the final chapters of these discussions. Time to talk, again, about the 'scarlet letter provisions.'

If a person wants to buy property from the city, and that person owes taxes to the city on any property, the deal is off. The city won't sell property to tax cheats. The people who owe back taxes are blacklisted and can't purchase additional properties from the city. That's fine with me and a great law and policy.

I'd like to see the same thinking apply to these matters of campaign finance reform enforcement.

So, if a company has an employee that donates more money than allowed to a candidate, as established by these pending bills -- then what. I say that that company has to get a better grip on its employees, or owners, or board members. And, that company as a cheat on the campaign finance reform measures would be ineligible for any business dealings with the city. That company would be blacklisted and not be eligible for any contract with the city -- other than paying taxes, of course.

For example, consider the case of building a bridge or digging a tunnel under a river for the expansion of light rail. Some city contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Buying a council member or five, or a mayor or field of mayors, is worth tens of millions of dollars. And, if the penalty is a $10,000 fine -- yet the contracts are worth half-a-billion, then guess what.

Those who wanted the Mon Valley Toll Road gave Bob O'Connor and Tom Murphy both -- lots of money. They wanted to send the road through Hazelwood and into the Mon Valley -- out to Thomas Jefferson and such. This toll road would be valuable to those land speculators. And, it was worth hundreds of thousands. Those deals flowed in 2000 and 2001. Both O'Connor and Murphy spend $1-M in the 2001 primary election. Much of that money came from Mon Valley Advocates.

Same too happened with gambling.

Wayne Fontana and Michael Diven both had money from the D and R parties in Harrisburg that amounted to $1M each for a state senate seat. Years of gambling money, from horse track, slots, casinos, resorts and such flowed to Harrisburg and they were flush for their candidates.

Some deals, like casinos, stadiums, convention centers, sports teams, mass transit, airports, mining rights, dams, etc., are big ticket deals. Fortunes are made on the backs of public money.

We need to say that those who are guilty of breaking our rules are not eligible for any government dealings. That goes for the givers who give too much. And, that goes for the takers who take too much. Both are guilty. Those who are guilty can do so in their private lives on their private time with their private funds -- and should be excluded from any transactions from the public treasury. This would include pay checks.

And, the scarlet letter would last as long as those who are in office stay in office. The expiration of the black-listing should exceed the duration of the term of public employment in any capacity.

Now, let's swing the conversation of campaign finance reform to the enforcement aspects.

Getting serious, again, with the school name game

Time to think about school names and mascots.

Pittsburgh Public School is starting a new high school. It opens, sorta, again, in the fall of 2009 and is going to be dedicated to the I.B. concepts. This I.B. style is short for International Baccalaureate.

We've been calling the school, "I.B. High."

Let's name at school: Pittsburgh International, Junior and Senior High School. The short name, PI High.

The mascot: The Olympians.

Now taking the court, Pi High Olympians of Pittsburgh.



This school comes from, in part, Schenley and its Spartan tradition. The Spartans were Greek. Same too the Olympians. I think the Olympian name does some justice to the Spartan tradition. They can be brothers.

Of course, the logo should not be the five interlocking rings as shown in the trademarked design of the International Olympic Committee. But, that is for another discussion on another day.

Twitter make me tweet rich

My twitter account is @Rauterkus.

Look to the left of the page to see my recent tweets.



Woops:

Rocketboom did a twitter video. I put in with embed on my blog. http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com. But, it seems to have been lost with a bug. Gone. Poof.
Background: I tried to put in a 'comment' but it was made into a 'tag' instead. So, I was hitting delete on each of the tag words. After 4 or 5, the entire video vanished.

After about 10 minutes, the video came back. And, I've since nuked the various bogus tags.

Dowd and Schenley High School

I watched the first moments of the Dowd talk about Schenley High School closing (and his big important role in that) and nearly choked to death.

After a cooling off period, (15 seconds) the resumed the watch brings the following.

Schenley's capacity was strong. There are district problems that were ignored for too long -- thanks in good part to Patrick's in-action. But, the capacity at Schenley wasn't one of them. And, by closing Schenley, the rest of the problems got ignored still. And, a new set of problems came into the scene.

With too much capacity, why endorse a plan to open NEW high schools? New U-Prep. New I.B. New Sci-Tech. The U-PREP is in a building with ability to hold 1,000 plus students and the first year had less than 150. So, thanks to Patrick -- we've got bigger problems.

Still no change in sight for Westinghouse nor Peabody nor Oliver nor Langley. Zippo -- still.

Schenley wasn't a problem! But, Dowd closed it and made it worse.

Dowd said, "For years, and years, and years (3x), people ignored the problems at Schenley." Well, Schenley's new windows were like 5 years old. The entire facade of the building, and roof, was brand new. BLIND SPOT.

Same crap was said by Mark Roosevelt. He said on the radio that the physical structure of Schenley had not changed for 90 years. Except the new swim pool, new gym and addition -- all modern in recent decades. Lies.

Money was spent on Schenley. Not enough on the walls. But, elsewhere.

The 'Rightsized plan' (old news on Dowd's tenure) was to close 20+ ELEM Schools. Except 1 = Schenley H.S. Some how that school, Schenley HS, was put into the mix with Elem Schools. Go figure. That was on Dowd's watch. We fixed that with outrage at the board.

The merry-go-round didn't stop on Patrick's watch. It tripled in speed, IMNSHO.


Bonus clip -- flashback:

Nolte movie seeks 1,500 student extras

Going to the movies and The Pete.

The Pitt News - Nolte movie seeks 1,500 student extras The Petersen Events Center is also a major character in the film “Warrior.” Brennan said that the Pete will be a gym and will possibly be transformed in to a Las Vegas set. The Pete will also be the setting during the film’s climatic scene, where the star battles opponents in a series of choreographed mixed martial arts tournaments. On that day of filming, more than 1,500 extras are needed to fill the Petersen gymnasium.

Speaking of which, is The Pete going to be open for students and fans to watch the basketball games this Thursday and Saturday?

City officials urged to link youth summer jobs program to academic performance - Pittsburgh Business Times:

What do you get in life with a lottery choice?

City officials urged to link youth summer jobs program to academic performance - Pittsburgh Business Times:: "Richard Flanagan, youth development director at Bloomfield Garfield Corp., urged Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and other elected officials to tie academic performance to youth job placement to maximize use of economic stimulus funding. Summer job candidates are currently chosen by lottery.

In Pittsburgh, you get to pick a school by lottery. That's bad.

In Pittsburgh you get to pick who to hire by lottery. That's bad too.

I agree with Mr. Flannigan. Hire based on merit. Imagine that.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors

Getting closer.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors 'On the first day of taking office, I would issue an executive order that would ban no-bid contracts for political contributors to elected officials,' said Mr. Dowd, whose 2007 council run was backed in part by a handful of lawyers and financiers that do business with the city. 'I'm sure at some point we will also say that we will have no no-bid contracts.'

One does not need to ban political contributions for people who have no-bid contracts if you eliminate all no-bid contracts. So, I'd say, as I have said in the past, the city should eliminate all no-bid contracts. There is no place for no-bid contracts in government.

Simple.

Otherwise, I don't like the removal of free speech for some on day one.

Furthermore, all donors to political campaigns can have their names and details visible as soon as the money gets deposited. And, as soon as the campaign spends any money, that gets reported as well. All incomes and all expenses of political action commitees -- starting with me -- can be made visible on the internet in real time.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors: "Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb has said he is putting together searchable, online lists of contributions and contracts."

Too little and too late, Mr. Lamb. Get moving already.

St. Louis - Daily RFT - Libertarians Claim State Violated Homeland Security Policies

St. Louis - Daily RFT - Libertarians Claim State Violated Homeland Security Policies Libertarians are still rankled about a memo uncovered last week in which Gov. Jay Nixon and other state officials classify followers of Ron Paul and third-party candidates as possible militia members.

Yesterday, the Missouri Libertarian Party issued a statement saying that the memo in question (circulated by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, or MIAC) failed to follow U.S. Department of Homeland Security policies that prohibit political profiling and other civil rights violations.

Carmen Latrice Robinson's says "fighter"

UPDAED. See comments.

Humm...

Facebook | Carmen Latrice Robinson's NotesA Good Fight!

Safe neighborhoods, good schools and a strong local economy are the building blocks of a livable city; those goals will not become a reality without a fighter at the helm.

I AM NOT AFRAID of A GOOD Fight!

If you’re looking for an advocate and not a politician, vote for a fighter Carmen Robinson, as you’re Mayor May 19th.

G.W. Bush and Dick Chaney were always looking to start a fight.

Tom Murphy was always in 'fight mode' too.

I'm thinking, 'fire in the belly' is great -- if not necessary. However, I'm not excited in the least bit about one who picks to make fights.

The Kingdom of Heaven goes to the peacemakers. Making peace is rough.

Give us un-unflappable leadership. Give us a fixture for certain principles. Give us tenacity. Give us an underdog that isn't intimidated. Give us drive and determination. Give us the uncomfortable.

More than telling you are hungry for a fight -- deliver the actions. Engage in that mental toughness of a fight with bone-headed authority figures day-in-and-day-out. Who are your in a rumble with? How is it going? What ground are you going to protect. What areas do we need to recapture? Draw lines and see who falls on which side?

If you want to be a fearless fighter like the TV cartoon, Tazmanian Devil, jumping around in a huff without purpose, you'll get less than 400 votes and not do much but blow smoke and dust into the air.

Finally, some are less into the fight and more into the outcomes. Getting jazzed about the fight is almost a primal urge -- if not middle-school aged hubris. Rather, let's jump on the bandwagon of a victor. Let's celebrate the win together. That is with real mass appeal.

Goffyness of Governance

Bill would exempt some from yearly tax relief form: "under Councilman Patrick Dowd's legislation, residents 50 and older would only have to fill out the city's Act 77 tax relief form once. Then they would have their assessments frozen until they moved or reported an increase in income."

Making a tax freeze is a guarantee way to advance corruption, unfairness, and plant all sorts of other bad karma nasty ramifications.

This is politics 101 for dummies and Dowd seems to be the one who wants to go there now.

Pandering. Unsustainable. Unethical in the end.

The entire Allegheny County re-assessment boondoggle came about because of a 'freeze mentality.' Their bogus fix is a turn-back the clock solution. Live in the past. Stay there.

Meanwhile, the city and region shrink some more.

Dowd, or someone else, should take the high road on these important matters of self governance.

Schools dig into stimulus arithmetic

Don't let that cat out of the bag.

Schools dig into stimulus arithmetic For those who are hoping the closed Schenley High School building will be renovated, Mr. Roosevelt said, 'There's not monies sufficient to bring a project of that magnitude to the table, nor is it consistent with the very clear Obama administration edict that the money be used primarily on student gains.'

Do students gain when they have extra time on a bus?

Do students gain when those in 6th grade are put with those in 9th, 10, 11th and 12th?

Do students gain when $5-Million of additional money is to be spent in the summer of 2009 to fix up a school that will be given to a bulldozer in less than four years?

Do students gain when massive buildings sit empty?

I say that students gain when prudent investments of the past are continually realized into the future.

I say students gain when they can study and learn in a learning community, such is Oakland. Today, some will be walking to a play for a Spanish class field trip to the Oakland-based Cathedral. The topic of the play is an idealistic gent who took on some major opponents -- quixotic even.

I say high school reform is needed and must be in the back seat as we speed into a future with community participation with our schools.

The magnitude of fixing some plaster at Schenley High School has never been put onto the table in a fair, open and honest way. We don't need to fix the pipe organ. We don't need a lavish food court in the school. And the alternative costs are not put into the formula either. The magnitude is the uncertainty and doubt -- not a building with interior walls and ceilings that match what is found in some other schools.

Mr. Roosevelt expects the school system's innovations will prove effective. Prove that the past innovations have proven as much.

What about the Gifted Center innovations that have not come to pass?

What about K-8 schools?

What model of 6-12 grade schools has proven to work -- ever -- anywhere?

What about the ALAs? Why the flop? Why the uncertainty?

What about starting of school in mid August -- when we don't even know how many showed up for school on those days nor how hot the buildings were?

How are the kids doing in Duquesne's district? PPS has had a hand in that leadership innovation. Summary reports are where?

How are the Vo Tech kids doing in schools now -- since the closing of South Vo Tech? Where is the proven effect document with peer review, naturally.

The closing of some 20 school buildings in the past has made an impact. The Rightsizing innovation has saved money yet put dark holes into many communities. Where and how and when do we get to look at the effect of those empty buildings to places such as Knoxville and Hazelwood (with the still closed Gladstone Middle School)?

Here is a final question in our search for proof: What maget programs are effective? Why? How?

Save a radio show, The Edge of Sports

Updated: See comments.

Edge of Sports Nation: The People at Sirius/XM have decided that they will be no longer broadcasting Edge of Sports Radio. Their reason has nothing to do with the quality of the show.We have interviewed political/sports legends from Kareem Abdul Jabbar to Jim Brown; sportswriters from Sally Jenkins to Selena Roberts; sports sociologists from Dr. Graham Farred to Dr. Mary Jo Kane; and the most cutting edge bloggers from Michael Tillery to DK Wilson. We have also used the show to spur debates throughout the sports world from our interview with the late Pat Tillman's mother Mary to our conversations about the Firestone boycott before the Super Bowl.

This is the only show where sports and politics come together and that's exactly why it is getting the shaft. The high ups at Sirius XM LIKE the show but think it is too sporty for the political channel and too political for the sports channel. We need you to tell them otherwise. If you have never listened to the show, go to this link address.

http://www.edgeofsports.com/audio.html

If you do dig the show, or just support the concept of a radio show that brings these issues together, please send RESPECTFUL complaints WITHOUT profanity to the following email addresses.

MKarmazin@SiriusXM.com; SGreenstein@SiriusXM.com; JColeman@SiriusXM.com; GParsons@SiriusXM.com

If you are a Sirius/XM subscriber, go to http://xmradio.com/help/emailus.xmc?ch=167

---

Update:

E of S Nation. Well I'll be g-damned. We won. This is the quickest victory since Tyson took out Spinks. Or King Kong Bundy avalanched George Welles. It seems that hundreds of people emailed the top brass at Sirius/Xm this morning and told them to keep Edge of Sports Radio and in record time, it worked. We are going to be on Sirius/XM Sports Nation on weekends and we will still post the show to iTunes and on edgeofsports.com. Give us two weeks to get the paperwork signed and then we should be back.

Thanks so much to everyone who sent emails, faxes, or just vibrations to the Sirius/XM honchos. In fact, part of the deal is for me to ask folks to please please stop emailing them.

I haven't been this happy since game 6 in 1986. This almost makes up for picking West Virginia in the final four.

In struggle and sports,
Dave Zirin

Blog of the Allies, New Pittsburgh Blog

The Pitt News has a guy that is blogging on his own. He did the bit about the couches and I sent him a note that came back with this pointer. Nice, again.

Blog of the Allies: "Have you ever taken a wrong turn off Bates and ended up in East Berlin, 1984?"

"So preposterous!" Lehe: Couch law cramps 'Burgh living

From china - foods

In China, two women sit on a porch couch like this.

The Pitt News - Lehe: Couch law cramps 'Burgh living Behold City Council’s recent commandment: It is now illegal to put a couch on your front porch in Pittsburgh.

The law sounds ominously like the climax of an unlikely slippery slope argument. Imagine: You’re talking to some right-wing militia nutjob about building codes. “Some basic safety ordinances are called for,” you say. And nutjob says, in a fit of paranoia, “Building codes are fine. But before long, they’ll make it illegal to put a damn couch on your own front porch!” You throw up your hands in disgust because the idea is so preposterous.

Understand that Mr. Kraus, on city council, could be called "Mr. Preposterous."

That's a college word, preposterous.

Latin praeposterus, literally, in the wrong order, from prae- + posterus hinder, following — more at posterior

The posterior part is best left for another day or another blog.

And, source 2:

Contrary to nature, reason, or common sense; absurd. See Synonyms at foolish.

More from The Pitt News:

The newspaper coverage and the City Council members themselves make it clear that the ban is to prevent couch burning... I came to a surprising conclusion: You can burn a couch that isn’t on your porch. Clearly, a porch couch can be stolen and burned by someone besides the owner, but I would submit that the City Council instead take the radical step of making theft illegal.

For every infringement on people’s liberty, the extent of imposition has to be weighed against the severity and commonness of the problem the infringement tries to pre-empt... The couch-burning problem is not serious. It rarely happens. Only a dozen or so of the many thousands of couches that sit on Pittsburgh’s porches year round are set afire. Obviously couch burning should be illegal, but the act is not especially damaging either. The porch couch ban is equivalent to putting stop signs at every single intersection in Pittsburgh, because statistically over one year the stop signs might save a life.

OMG. Only a knucklehead would take the city councilman's logic to its next step by suggesting the city put stop signs at every intersection in the city to prevent car crashes. Bruce Kraus has his marching orders now. The volumes of research will be waved in council chambers in the weeks to come -- and we'll have someone to blame beyond the over-reaching legislative folly wizard.

The Kraus viewpoint is disconnected from reality.

Oakland is not burning. All of the damage happened in one night, not all week long. The damage done by couch burning is also negligible compared with the overturned cars, bus stop collapses and bonfires that people set with trash cans and wooden debris, not couches. It is downright amazing what people can burn when they put their minds to it. That’s Yankee ingenuity in action.

Kraus also makes a non sequitur: “One idiot decides to place an accelerant on the wood of that porch, and that whole row of houses could go up.” This is to say that, if someone covers a porch in gasoline and lights up a couch that’s on the porch, then the porch will catch on fire.

Supporters talk about other reasons, such as rodents and insects that infest couches. This is a classic case of a solution in search of a problem. It’s like people who argue for lower speed limits because driving your car fast hurts its gas mileage, which causes global warming and terrorism and supports governments hostile to women’s rights.

No one believes Pittsburgh suffers from serious rodent problems, or that any such problems are due to porch couches. No one was biting their nails over rat problems before the Super Bowl. Besides, the consequences of vermin infestation fall mainly on those who possess the couches.

Show me the upstanding Pittsburghers who shake their fists at fate and cry: “I did everything right! I keep a clean household! But my neighbor has a couch on his porch that rats use as a springboard for swarm attacks on my home.”

Those who say porch couches are a fire hazard forget that this is only true to the extent that couches in general are fire hazards. The danger doesn’t go away inside the house. A couch actually seems more dangerous inside, where it is dry, can burn a long time with no one noticing, and sits among carpets and other fire-prone upholstered furniture. Is a ban on all couches next? This is a silly, slippery slope. Yet, if you had told the average person five months ago about a porch-couch ban to stop rioting, she would have thought you silly then as well.

The important thing about these complaints — couch theft, couch burning, rodent infestations, fires — is that they are already illegal. More people calling the police, and better police response, would solve these problems surgically.

Well written Lewis.

From texture - misc.

Some things just bug me more than others.

South Side's revelry challenges police

Here is the perfect example of when it is great to scream, "Think Again!"

South Side's revelry challenges police: "'I'm sorry, officer,' the man said. 'I apologize. I didn't even think about it.'"

Didn't even think about it. Well, a $100 ticket -- or whatever the amount -- is good cause to think again. The ticket, the enforcement, would be a 'wake up call' that would linger longer in that guy's memory. And, in the collective conscious of the community.

So, did this guy get a ticket? Was a fine ordered and collected by the police? The order came from the neighbors. What was delivered by the officers of the peace?

Yep, think again to Mr. Kraus too. He is the one who wants more state help on the South Side, saying they don't help enough but it was a State Police Officer that used his gun while on patrols the week prior.

Kraus wants to get a 'handle on this.' The city doesn't need city council members putting handles on what they can't handle.

I'd say that the neighborhood's personality changed on St. Patrick's Day much before 6 pm. It changed on the day of the St. Pat's Day Parade, the Saturday before St. Pat's Day -- by about 10 am. So, the re-change on Tuesday, the real St. Pat's Day, came at 6 pm -- as reported.




A tall girl in black tights and a short skirt was walking away from a long, wide puddle that was streaking over the pavement toward the cruiser.

She saw the officers, flipped jet black hair over her shoulder and stalked away.

"That's class there, sweetheart, real class," Officer Stover called after her.

She was lucky they hadn't actually seen her urinating, he said. They would have issued a citation.

That's enforcement. That's evidence. That's when it is time, again, to "Think Again." Issue the citation.

School Districts Paying Double At Pump - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

Target 11: School Districts Paying Double At Pump - News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh Target 11: School Districts Paying Double At Pump
PITTSBURGH -- Are local school districts being taken for a ride when it comes to filling up their school buses?
Target 11 investigator Karen Welles crunched some numbers to find out.
It cost $4.31 a gallon to fill up almost every school bus in Allegheny County when the price at the pump is about $2.00 a gallon.
Why so much more?

Meet Dok and Kevin, together

This image was taken at the Kingsley Center, home to the Kingsley Stingrays swim team, under coach Hosea Holder.



Time for a pep talk, and a blast from the past.



Choose your friends wisely. Give it a go. It is time to turn good into greatness.