Around Town: No quiet in these libraries

Lesson of Politics 101:

Around Town: No quiet in these libraries 'A lot of elected officials want to save one branch,' she said.

Divide and Conquer.

Lesson two, same chapter: Myopic Pittsburgh in terms of its political leadership and how they are rewarded.

Arena goodbye idea - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Arena goodbye idea - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I propose that before Mellon Arena is torn down, we have a massive concert that headlines local musicians. Joe Grushecky, Donnie Iris, The Clarks, Bill Toms, Bill Deasy, Tom Breiding, Good Brother Earl and so many more could play. We could even open the roof.
Hate to lose you, Mellon Arena.
Wilson Kondrich
Swisshelm Park

The Civic Arena does NOT need to be torn down.

Good idea about a local concert. I'd call it more of a music festival, not just a concert. And, there was some talk about the opening of the roof again on the RAD Day. So, that is NOT out of the question.

The Civic Arena is a great place for open air hockey too. And, turn back the clock nights as well. It can stay for video screens of home games for overflow crowds.

The Civic Arena played an important role in the G-20 events too. It is a handy building to work in harmony with the Convention Center and the new Consol Arena.

Five swimmers suspended after party | dailytarheel.com

Interesting. The police called the athletic department, then they made the bust together.

Five swimmers suspended after party | dailytarheel.com Officer Mitch McKinney of the Chapel Hill Police Department was present and said Chapel Hill Police called Student-Athlete Services that night when they determined the party involved team members.

“If it’s a UNC student-athlete, we have agreed to make the athletic department aware of it also,” McKinney said. “Normally we’ve only done that after the fact. But we received a lot of resistance from everyone involved in that call.”

Once the athletics department was notified, senior associate athletic directors Larry Gallo and John Blanchard went to the house and helped break up the party, athletic director Dick Baddour said.

“They went to try to bring some calmness to the residents of the house, and that’s what they did,” Baddour said. “And they actually got cooperation from some of the swimmers who were there.

“To my knowledge, we’ve never been called out before."

JV Water Polo Teams

Great games at Chartiers Valley. Our first tournament, and the first ever of its type in Pittsburgh.

Parade in Bloomfield

Carnegie Library Closings Becoming A Political Issue - kdka.com

Carnegie Library Closings Becoming A Political Issue - kdka.com: "Ravenstahl Calls For Audit Of Library System

Luke took a page out of the Michael Lamb playbook. Did he borrow the book? Did he check it out? What is the Dewey Decimal Number for the Michael Lamb Playbook?

Tour Pittsburgh Phillips K-5 on South Side

Pittsburgh Phillips K-5 invites parents and community members for a tour of the elementary school, located at 1901 Sarah Street, on Wednesday, October 14th at 6:00 p.m. This event is a great opportunity to learn more about the school¹s students, programs, and achievements.

"Whether their child is starting Kindergarten next year or in future years, we hope that parents and families will stop by to learn more about our school," said Mr. Rodney Necciai, Principal, Pittsburgh Phillips K-5. He added, "We are also eager to share information about the Pittsburgh Promise and what we are doing as a school to provide the necessary "Pathways to the Promise" steps that we are taking so that all of our kids have the right foundation from which to someday take advantage of this unique opportunity." (The Pittsburgh Promise is now in place to help our students to "Dream Big and Work Hard" by providing scholarship monies for post-secondary education that is available to all of our students, regardless of income.)

During the event, guests will tour the school and learn about the curriculum, including the Spanish language emphasis of the school. Guests will have an opportunity to ask questions of Mr. Necciai and several parents of students who currently attend the school. Cate Reed, Project Manager, Office of Strategic Initiative, Pittsburgh Public Schools, will attend to answer questions about the Pittsburgh Public School district magnet program and the Pittsburgh Promise. A+ Schools will also provide information.

"We are a very lucky to have Phillips Elementary in the South Side, and impressed with our daughter¹s education at the school," said Michele Margittai, parent of a Phillips student. "This tour offers parents and others a chance to learn about this wonderful resource in our community."

Pittsburgh Phillips K-5 is a neighborhood school located in Pittsburgh's South Side community. Pittsburgh Phillips also includes a Spanish magnet program, open to all students by application. Parents must apply during Preferred or General Registration periods.

Pittsburgh Phillips K-5 is a neighborhood school located in Pittsburgh's South Side community. Magnet Program registration for the 20010-11 school year ends on December 12, 2009.

No RSVP is necessary. For more information about the tour, please call the school at 412-488-5190.

Michael Moore knows what capitalism is after all! | Young Americans for Liberty

Michael Moore knows what capitalism is after all! | Young Americans for Liberty: "Chad Swarthout of GWU Liberty Society gets Michael Moore to admit that we do not live in a capitalist society today. Wish he would have included that in the movie! Now Americans who have no understanding of a true free- market economy are lead to think that today's economic system is capitalism. When in fact it is not.
Even Michael Moore knows this. Why would he not include this into the movie? Is it perhaps that he is so obsessed with a utopian society where everyone is taken care of?"

Young People Don't Need Unions If They Want To Succeed In Work & Life

Recently, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a joint Letter to the Editor from two union leaders who repeatedly touched on socialist items under the guise of the American work force. The letter was entitled, “Young People Need Unions. They've Not Been Told What Collective Action Can Accomplish.”

The piece, compiled by Michael Fedor and Jennifer Jannon, touted on shockingly anti-American principles. Let's get started with the diagnosis:

“Young workers are among those hardest hit by the economic recession and the group least likely to have health insurance. We are shockingly likely to be living with our parents because we can't afford to pay rent -- let alone a mortgage. A recent study done by the AFL-CIO and Working America found 34 percent of workers under the age of 35 still living with parents, a number that jumped to 52 percent for those making less than $30,000 per year.”

First off, how is this different than just about any other generation? Nearly 20 years ago, when I was starting out after graduating college, I lived with my fiance. We had a plan to live together, pooled our money together, and survive day-by-day. We rented a small apartment. Then a larger one. Then an even larger one. Then half a house. Then we worked enough to buy a house. I was 30 when we closed the deal. From what I understand, that was my parents' plan slightly more than 20 years before that. And so on.
Secondly, if a young worker makes $30,000 a year, count yourself lucky. As someone in your early 20's, college graduate or not, you most likely don't have the work resume to make that kind of scratch. The same was correct 20 years ago. In fact, my goal was to make more money every year. Through hard work, that basically happened. To toss a blind “$30,000” at someone in their late teens or early 20's is fiscal bankruptcy. Who pays these wild prices? The consumer. Any consumer.

Back to the manic assertions of Fedor and Jannon: “Young workers know that the answers to their struggles won't necessarily come from employers. Just 41 percent said they strongly trusted their employer to treat them fairly. Young adults, in other words, need the benefits of union membership more than anyone.
That's why, as young adults in the labor movement, we were pleased by the focus on young workers at the recent AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh.”

They say that “just 41 percent...” I wonder if my grandfather, working in coal mines 60 years ago, had a higher “satisfaction” rate for his managers. Yes, he was a proud member of the United Mine Workers Association back in the day. Did “Pap” have top-of-the-line accommodations all the while working in an industry that defined the need for early unions? Seeing that the biggest thing he did in my lifetime was add a second trailer onto the decades-old one I remember from my earliest days. Family, not contractors, built the wonderful hallway between the two residences.
It's clear that Fedor and Jannon are aiming for the lowest-common-denominator: soft-mushy-minds of the disenfranchised who aren't ambitious, hard-working, principled employees. Instead, they are cobbling archaic ideals into empty ideas that—as a vantage point—somehow got the least-qualified Presidential candidate in the history of the union the top spot in the land.

More from Fedor and Jannon: “The need to involve younger workers wasn't just given lip service. This convention saw the election of the first woman and the youngest AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer ever, Liz Shuler, 39. A powerful new voice in the labor movement, she told the convention, 'It's not that today's young people don't like unions; it's just that they really don't know about us.'
How true. In school, most of us weren't taught that America's working people, united in unions, fought to win weekends off, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and safe workplaces. Nor were we taught that union members now earn 30 percent more and are 52 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance than nonunion workers. Or that for women and people of color, the best guarantee of equal pay for equal work is a union contract.”

Only a moron wouldn't use a relatively-minor office to showcase a a “young” leader. That being said, Shuler, 39, isn't young enough to be touted as youthful. Richard Trumka, 60, the new union president, seemed like an old man 30 years ago when he was yielding a relatively-heavy thuggish persona in the coal mining industry. Add to that the fact that he was an attorney and his creepiness was off the charts.
And by the way, when Trumka was “standing up to management” in 1979 in Western Pennsylvania, the coal mining industry was crippled throughout the region as a result. Mines closed, jobs were lost. Families were ruined. Forever.

It's beyond easy to call rallies for unionization asinine. Here's perhaps the coup de' gras: “These omissions have done our generation a disservice by obscuring the power of collective action. Instead, we've been taught that progress comes from above and that our success should be measured by what we alone accomplish.”

Again: “that our success should be measured by what we alone accomplish.” Economies are created, lives are enriched by “what we alone accomplish.” There were reports that the lunatics at the AFL-CIO convention booed a picture of Ronald Reagan. Reagan, who as president, railed against large governments, all the while extolling the virtues of the individual. Unionizing, just to save the least-productive worker for the highest hourly-rate possible, is extreme madness and way-of-life destroying. We won't even talk about the freedoms of working without “union representation.” The next union member I meet who is proudly ambitious at work will be the first.

The twosome continue: “Even for those of our generation who want to join unions, it's difficult to do so. Decades of union-busting have left many too afraid to risk their jobs with an attempt to unionize; workers are fired in one-third of unionization attempts. Passage of real labor law reform would go a long way toward ensuring that all workers have the freedom to join a union.”

In many areas of labor, unionizing is simply unfeasible. Only a few years ago, I enjoyed a part-time job in which fellow workers were eager to hear from a union organizer. I attended the meetings and heard altruistic, but unreasonable pay demands from co-workers. Those discussions continued after my time there was over. Within the blink of an eye, many of those jobs were eliminated. Guess what? They were not necessary jobs and management reacted accordingly.

Let's conclude Fedor and Jannon's argument: “Beyond that, young workers face unique challenges. As employers hire more temporary, part-time and contract employees, we feel stuck -- and ever more isolated.
That's why the renewed commitment from the AFL-CIO to help younger workers find their voices is so exciting. Every day Working America, the community-organizing affiliate of the AFL-CIO, talks to people who don't have unions in their workplaces but want to be heard on issues like health care and job security. We know that the passion for change is out there, waiting to be tapped.
To do that, the AFL-CIO is joining partner unions and organizations to engage our generation, awaken the best in us and involve us in the movement that built this nation -- and that will rebuild it better than ever.”

Not once is an argument for success or excellence forwarded in this naive, insulated diatribe. Success and excellence can only be forged with the freedom, hard-work and determination that is gleefully placed on the back-burner of this argument.
Unionizing for the sake of unionizing destroys jobs. That much is fact. Simple economics proves that unions cannot operate fast-food restaurants. The average burger flipper or mop person is a kid just starting out, a part-timer looking for supplemental income or a retiree looking for something to do. The aggressive worker at the corner fast-food joint is in the management program. There isn't a custodian in America who should earn $25 an hour to push a broom, yet unions prod for that type of wage.
Entrepreneurship has and will always run this country. They are the risk takers who will employ workers at a fair market value.

Unions did at one time assure menial laborers weren't being killed on the job. Antique unions made sure workers got paid over time and had time off. Today, unions push for Sundays off, all the while members routinely stay away from the church services “unions” seemingly wanted to protect.
America was built on ingenuity and personal accomplishments. Not the selfishness of a few. There's a genuine reason why union membership is on the wane in big numbers. Collective action slows growth to an excessive crawl.

Live Blog Bruce Kraus on KDKA Radio with Marty Griffin

Six agencies and the other enforcement agencies (two more?) are necessary to take away the rights of property owners. All of those agencies are good for a big government advocate.

Bruce is still glowing about his mind-expanding trip to San Francisco.

Wonder if any of those lines by the sidewalk cafes were painted by Bruce himself.

Jason got in a zinger at the start of the interview by passing on an instant message: "Tell Adolph Kraus he's fired."

Bruce says many people can't get to the post office because they can't navigate around the outside tables at Falino's. Humm. Tom's Diner was the place that had the giant election signs for the Kraus opponent, twice. If one lives in a cronies world, then to the victor go the spoils. Bang. Pay back. Blow back.

Kraus said, "You don't rule the world, Marty." Who does?

The zoning code in the Strip District is different than what applies in the South Side.

Penny calls: Bruce worked on the removal of the sidewalk cafe on his first day. Not after getting a ton of complaints. Penny has to come out to defend herself. Sidewalk is 18 foot wide.

Puts a rope around the neck of the small business owner.

Bruce wrote the sidewalk cafe ordinance. Bruce says it is not a personal issue. Bruce has HOW many businesses in HIS district? Bruce has 33,000 constituents.

Caller from Monroeville: "That guy does not have a clue!"

John calls and says "Bruce is from another planet." Where are you at on the cars parking on the sidewalks. Marty, he is an absolute liar."

My instant message: Ask Bruce if we'll be able to open South Side's Oliver Bath House for the summer of 2010 in the months of June, July and August for swim lessons? It is closed all summer.

Ask Bruce about the still closed indoor ice rink in the close South Side Park. Any progress there? This is a place that they said was being used for G20 protesters.

Penny got in a closing word. Back in the day....

Library system trims five Carnegie branches across city

Library system trims five Carnegie branches across city: "'There were a lot of pained expressions in the room over the vote,' city Councilman Bruce Kraus, who's also a trustee, said yesterday, 'but it was clear the library really did its homework on these decisions.'

Jeepers. The Library did not do its homework. It has made a long series of mistakes.
I was there and making strong objections to moving the Hazelwood branch of the library years ago. That was a bogus move. It was wrongheaded. We told ya.
The state charter for the library says that a librarian should be at the helm. But, political appointments put a person there who IS NOT with library credentials. Wrong again. Wrong homework. Wrong outcome. Hack. Now this.
There are plenty of other things in the 'homework realm' that can be done and should be done.

Peaceful Rally to Denounce Dan Onorato's candidacy for Governor of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 4TH, 2009
CONTACT: ALBERT PETRARCA 412-350-8278 MOSQUEAVENGER@AOL.COM



What: Peaceful Rally to Denounce Dan Onorato's candidacy for Governor of Pennsylvania

When: Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Where: Outside IBEW Hall, 29th and Sydney (one block off Carson Street towards the river on Pittsburgh's South Side

Time: 5:00 PM


County Executive Dan Onorato and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl are the two leaders who presided over and sanctioned the imposition of a police state on the city of Pittsburgh during the G20.

By announcing his candidacy for Governor this coming Tuesday, Mr. Onorato wants to extend his brutal and destructive leadership to all of Pennsylvania. A coalition of student and community groups will peacefully assemble outside the IBEW Hall on Pittsburgh's South Side to declare that Dan Onorato is neither morally nor politically fit to be Governor.

In addition to trampling on our constitutional rights and violently repressing both protesters and non-protestors alike, Mr. Onorato has, in general, been disastrous for the people of Pittsburgh. He supported the costly and unnecessary North Shore tunnel to service the needs of sports franchise and casino owners while simultaneously raising fares and cutting service to city and county residents who depend on public transportation. While on city council, he was the most vocal opponent of the creation of the Citizen Police Review Board. In general, he has placed the interest of Corporate Pittsburgh above the needs of the people of Pittsburgh.

In a democratic society, one of the means available to the people seeking accountability and justice is the electoral process. We are coming together to use this avenue of civic participation to see to it that Dan Onorato does not become Governor of Pennsylvania. Not in our city - Not in our state - Not in our name!

D.C. trail project embarks on longest mile

D.C. trail project embarks on longest mile: "trail project embarks on longest mile"

Not really.

The trail on the South Side that goes behind the Allegheny County Public Works garage, where they park the trucks that fix the roads, is not a trail at all. It is not complete. It is dangerous. It is right under their nose. Fix that Dan.

Welcome Home Craig

Onorato puts Philly first - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "RETURN OF 'SPOKESBOY.' Our old buddy Craig Kwiecinski, for years the mouthpiece of dour former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, is coming back to town.

Kwiecinski was hired Wednesday by Pittsburgh Public Schools to serve as head flack for Superintendent Mark Roosevelt. He begins his new duties Nov. 1.

Since Murphy left office in 2006, Kwiecinski has worked for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority in Washington, D.C.

Kwiecinski, 36, spent nine years as a Murphy staffer. He was nicknamed 'Spokesboy' by several media types for his youthful-looking face, from which often emerged acerbic responses to reporters' questions.

I never called Mr. Kwiecinski names.

PPS RFPs for 2010 Summer - A for Athlete

PPS RFPs for 2010 Summer - A for Athlete PPS RFPs for 2010 Summer

I've been in a hole working on these four proposals. They were passed into Eddie at Pittsburgh Public Schools on Friday, the day that they were due.

All in all, I'm happy with them. They could be much better, of course. But, they interject a lot of new ideas and discussion points for our city and how we should conduct summer enrichment -- given the bounds of the RFP's call.

Give a glance if you are interested.

Post to my blog or the wiki if you want to ask questions and I'll follow up for all to see.

Your $.03 is welcomed, of course, as always.

Summer 2010 could be an exciting time for summer enrichment for kids going into middle-school grades.

Jack Wagner aims to boost Pennsylvania colleges with scholarship program

Two PA Education articles in today's paper:

Article 1:

Wagner aims to boost Pennsylvania colleges with scholarship program - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Gubernatorial hopeful Jack Wagner pledged Saturday to start a scholarship program to help students who decide to stay in Pennsylvania to attend college."

Article 2:

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment science scores vex educators - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Statewide, fewer than 40 percent of 11th-graders passed the exam, up only slightly from the year before. Fifty-five percent of Pennsylvania eighth-graders passed their version of the test, and 83 percent of fourth-graders passed theirs by logging scores in either a 'proficient' or 'advanced' category."

Will the PA scholarship program lessen the benefit to what the Pittsburgh Promise delivers? Or, does it not really matter because we don't have any belief in politicians nor their promises. Plus, he won't win with planks like that anyway.

Rather than talking at all about college kids in the future, it would be more prudent to talk about how the state does not have a budget and schools today are needing to take a 3rd and 4th dip into their endowment just to stay open. Present tense state folly is killing education in PA on many different levels.

H for Homecoming.

These 18 visit South Side before stepping out downtown!

Rio! Victory!

Folks: please comment at the link if you can.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/victory-chicago-loses-the_b_307995.html
Victory: Chicago Loses the Olympics
By Dave Zirin

I am absolutely reeling with shock that Chicago was knocked out in the first round and the 2016 Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro. Some quick thoughts about Victoria Brasilia and the Chicago/Daley/Obama humiliation.

1 - This is a victory for the people of Chicago. Pushing back against immense pressure from the Daley political machine, organizations like No Games Chicago went grass roots, corner to corner, and spoke out against the Olympic storm of gentrification, tax hikes, and police misconduct. Certainly one reason the U.S. got the high hat was the lingering bad taste of George W. Bush. The global community, after eight years of sneering contempt from Washington DC, isn’t ready to rinse with the Obama mouthwash.

But it’s the community activists of Chicago who should feel a tremendously gratified. They - along with the millions of Chicagoans who expressed their trepidation in polls - saved their city. They have every right to say with pride, "THAT'S the Chicago way!"

2 - Barack Obama may not be feeling it, but he is the luckiest man alive right now. Yes, President Obama traveled all the way to Copenhagen and didn't even get a lousy t-shirt, but he is damn fortunate it went down like it did. Obama is the first U.S. President to ever appear before the International Olympic Committee and plea for the games. If they had come to the Windy City, it would have been an eight-year distraction and political gold for his opponents. Every time an Olympic project came in late and over budget, every time a scandal hit the tabloids, every time a crime was captured on a cell phone camera it would have been "Obama's Olympic Folly.” Imagine Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck oozing over to Chicago with every blip in the process. It would have all been at best a distraction and at worst, and endless spigot of champagne for his enemies. The person who really has egg on his face is Mayor Richard Daley. He wanted to show everyone he was a bigger man - and mayor - than his Daddy with an Olympic sized stadia to boot. Now expect all the Daley arm-twisting and all the dirty skullduggery in the lead up to both come to light and come home to roost.

3 - This is no time for NIMBY. NIMBY of course means not in my back yard. The No Games Chicago movement has a responsibility right now to do a helluva lot more than just cheer their triumph. Now is the time to stand with the people of Rio. It's no secret why the IOC licked their lips at the thought of Brazil. Like China, Brazil is an emerging market yet to be fully "branded" by global multinationals. They also have a police force that shoots first and asks questions never. Their President Lula, who comes from a radical union background, has clearly shown the decrepit, corrupt, IOC Mafiosi that he is willing to play ball. If history is any kind of a guide, the pain for Brazil's working people is now on the immediate horizon. It's our duty to do whatever we can to express solidarity with the favelas, the landless peasants, and the workers about to stare down the barrel of "Olympism." Our work has just begun.

Now That The G-20 Is Over: Pro Sports In Pittsburgh!

Legendary Tag Team Demolition Shoot For KSWA Gold In Pittsburgh

by Trapper Tom, Ring Announcer/Wrestling Journalist

For the first time in years, former World Wrestling Federation 3-time Tag Team Champions “Demolition” will challenge for tag team gold, and they will lay that claim in Pittsburgh.

On Saturday, October 10, Ax and Smash will descend upon the Lawrenceville Moose and take on the current Keystone State Wrestling Alliance Tag Team Champions—the VIPs—”The Enforcer” Shawn Blanchard and “Dr. Devastation” Lou Martin.

Demolition's appearance was cemented earlier this year when KSWA Owner Bobby O announced that Ax was going to bring his long-time tag team partner with him to face the VIPs. It just so happens that recently Blanchard and Martin secured the championships as part of Millvale Days.

“This is really a coup for us,” said Bobby O, KSWA Owner. “And a great opportunity for Pittsburgh, just a few weeks after the G-20 summit was held here.”

Almost a year ago, Demolition Ax made his return appearance to Pittsburgh. The 30-year veteran is a native of Brownsville, PA who started his professional career in the Steel City. After the initial return, Ax came back on March 28, 2009 to face Blanchard in a match to determine the Number One Contender for the KSWA Heavyweight Championship. Blanchard was victorious by underhanded means. Nevertheless, Ax was inducted into the KSWA Hall of Fame for his career achievements.

After the controversial loss, Ax was banned from the KSWA for hitting fellow KSWA Hall of Famer and VIP Advisor Frank Durso with a folding chair. KSWA Owner Bobby O later re-instated Ax and announced that the reunited Demolition would come to Pittsburgh October 10.

Demolition first appeared in the WWF in 1987 and for a short time was managed by Pittsburgher Johnny Valiant. Later the team was more famously managed by the diabolical Mr. Fuji.

At Wrestlemania IV, on March 27, 1988 Demolition defeated the team of “Strike Force”—Tito Santana and Rick Martel—for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Demolition held the titles until July 29, 1989 when they were defeated by “The Brain Busters”—Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard (no relation). Demolition's first tag team title reign (478 days) remains the longest in WWF history.

On October 2, 1989, Demolition regained the titles from the Brain Busters before losing them to “The Colossal Connection”—of Haku and Andre the Giant on December 13, 1989. As part of Wrestlemania VI on April 1, 1990, Demolition won the titles for the third and final time, beating the Colossal Connection.

After the team dissolved, Ax and Smash went their different ways. However, in the past two years, the duo has re-teamed and sound success around the country.
A shot at the KSWA Tag Team Championship in a major venue such as Pittsburgh could motivate the veterans to once-again claim championship gold.

The VIPs say they are not afraid of Demolition or its legendary success. Shawn Blanchard is also the current and 5-time KSWA Heavyweight Champion, while Lou Martin is a former KSWA Champ and the duo was the KSWA's first tag team champions in 2000.

Demolition vs. the VIPs for the KSWA Tag Team Championship will be the Main Event for Autumn Annihilation, at the Lawrenceville Moose at 120 51st St in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 10, 2009. Also on the card, Golden Triangle Champion Kris Kash, Double-A Anthony Alexander, The Latin Assassin, “King” Del Douglas and many more. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for kids. Card subject to change. For more information or for ticket information, call 412-726-1762 or go to www.kswa.net.

Police use acoustic warfare to disperse crowds - quote from Catherine

Catherine Palmer, director of audiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said 140 decibels can cause immediate hearing loss. But there's no way to know if anyone was exposed to sounds that loud without knowing how far away they were, she said.

Catherine is my wife.

Research and testing on these sound machines should be done by someone at Pitt. I don't think we've heard the last of this.

Full article:

Police use acoustic warfare to disperse crowds By JOE MANDAK, AP

PITTSBURGH — Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit last week with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a "spotlight of sound," but that legal groups called potentially dangerous.

The device, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, concentrates voice commands and a car alarm-like sound in a 30- or 60-degree cone that can be heard nearly two miles away. It is about two feet square and mounted on a swivel such that one person can point it where it's needed. The volume measures 140-150 decibels three feet away — louder than a jet engine — but dissipates with distance.

Robert Putnam, spokesman for the manufacturer, San Diego-based American Technology Corp., said it's "like a big spotlight of sound that you can shine on people."

"It's not a sonic cannon. It's not the death ray or anything like that," Putnam said. "It's about long-range communications being heard intelligibly."

During the Pittsburgh protests, police used the device to order demonstrators to disperse and to play a high-pitched "deterrent tone" designed to drive people away. It was the first time the device was used in a riot-control situation on U.S. soil, according to American Technology and police.

Those who heard it said authorities' voice commands were clear and sounded as if they were coming from everywhere all at once. They described the "deterrent tone" as unbearable.

Joel Kupferman, who was at Thursday's march as a legal observer for the National Lawyer's Guild, said he was overwhelmed by the tone and called it "overkill."

"When people were moving and they still continued to use it, it was an excessive use of weaponry," Kupferman said.

Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania, said the device is a military weapon capable of producing permanent hearing loss, something he called "an invitation to an excessive-force lawsuit."

The operator of the device is usually behind it and not in the path of the focused beam of sound.

Catherine Palmer, director of audiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said 140 decibels can cause immediate hearing loss. But there's no way to know if anyone was exposed to sounds that loud without knowing how far away they were, she said.

Putnam and public safety officials said the complaints prove the device worked as designed.

"You have to put your hands over your ears and cover them, and it's difficult to throw stuff," said Ray DeMichiei, deputy director of the city's emergency management agency.

Police said they used the device last Thursday to issue prerecorded warnings to disperse when hundreds of demonstrators, including self-described anarchists, without a protest permit held a march that threatened to turn violent.

Aware of concerns about the volume, police were careful to use it about 12 feet off the ground mounted on a tactical vehicle, so no individual would be directly in its path or too close to it, Assistant Chief William Bochter said.

"The only way anybody gets hurt is if the deterrent is on full blast and they stand directly in front of it," Putnam said.

A regional counterterror task force bought four of the devices from American Technology using $101,000 in federal Homeland Security funds, DeMichiei said. Because the amplified message was prerecorded, police could be sure the protesters heard exactly the instructions police desired and have confidence those in the back of the crowd could hear, Bochter said.

Such devices also have military and commercial applications. Putnam said the primary purpose is to transmit specific orders loudly and clearly.

They have been used against protesters overseas, and police in New York threatened to use one during demonstrations near the Republican National Convention in 2004.

He said the city of San Diego uses them to instruct people to leave large sections of beach after festivals. It has also been used in SWAT operations.

In military applications, it allows ships to hail approaching vessels and determine their intent, the company says. Cargo ships use them to tell pirates that they had been spotted. When the pirates know they have lost the element of surprise, they will not attack, Putnam said.

Putnam said those complaining about the device have probably exposed themselves to sounds nearly as loud at rock concerts, and for longer periods of time. Walczak, the ACLU attorney, isn't buying the analogy.

"People don't flee the front row of a rock concert. Why would they be fleeing here?" Walczak asked. "Because it's loud, it's painfully loud."