Green Party candidate expects to be removed from ballot

Mark Rauterkus and Douglas Jamison, Libertarians. Doug is runnig for US Senate in Pennsylvania in the fall 2010 general election.

Green Party candidate expects to be removed from ballot: "Mr. Sestak similarly was able to remove Robinson machinist Joe Vodvarka from the Democratic primary ballot this spring."

Two good reasons to never vote for Joe Sestak.

Judge orders identities of commenters be revealed

Different strokes for different folks. I just saying that I'm free to post as I choose -- and put my name to my comments.

Judge orders identities of commenters be revealed: "Anonymous bloggers beware. You may not be as anonymous as you think.
Forward Township Supervisor Thomas DeRosa has won a court victory in the action that he filed in November to uncover the identities of people who posted comments on an online bulletin board that he said defamed him."

I understand that some are not so fortunate to post freely. And, I also wish that we'd have more civility as well as hopes of privacy.

This was last year.... and we want to do it again!

Here we were in 2009 at Citiparks Swim Pool at Ammon Rec Center, Hill District.



We should do it again in 2010. We've been playing at Peabody High School. But, that ends in 2 more days. So, it would be great to move outdoors to either Ammon Rec or else Highland Park Pool.

I just sent this to Shelley, the boss of City of Pgh aquatics. I CCed to the Mayor and the Operations Director, Mr. Ashley. Mr. Ashley helped us get this started last summer.

---

Hi,

The City Swim Meet was fun. Thanks! Good job.

I've struck out in recent months trying to get water polo at Citiparks
in the summer of 2010. Still, I'd love to hold another clinic / set
of practices this summer too. We have been playing at Peabody as I've
been helping with PPS Summer Dreamers Camps for middle school kids in
the afternoons. So, I might be able to get some of those kids into the
fold with a new effort.

Here is what I'd love to propose.

We could hold practices at Ammon Rec Center from August 16 to August
27, M-F, for 90 minutes. I think we did this from 11:00 to 12:30 pm in
the past.

I do not know when you are going to close Ammon. But, if you close it
the second week, I'd love to move the practices to Highland Park Pool. (FYI, Ammon closes as do most of the other swim pools as school begins and lifeguards go back to colleges.)

Is that possible? Do you have the hours for the guards?

Last year we had 50 kids playing water polo in The Hill District at
Ammon -- one day. It was great. POSITIVE stuff. Now they want to build
a new Y. Fine. Let's do this as a city thing so folks get into the
hill.

Furthermore, we've got some kids coming to play with us from Shaler.
And, a Pitt player too.

I know this request is late -- but -- I think it is worth it if we can
get a guard to open and get those water polo goals back in the water.
I have the balls, hats, and a number of kids in tow.

Do let me know. If it is out of the question -- let's be sure to make
a plan earlier this year for next year. We ran into the snow emergency
stuff when I wanted to meet with those at City Hall this year.

Ethics in Politics

Good job to Wayne Allen Root, Libertarian.

New Turf at South Side Cupples Stadium looks to be finished -- sans track

The new grass (artificial turf) at South Side's Cupples Stadium, a PPS facility, seems to be done. However, they are not going to do the track that circles the football field until later. There were some problems and the time to do the track is not present now as football season nears.

The best thing about the field is that it is flat and without a big crown. The soccer players will love it as the past field had a slant so that the balls would roll too fast to the sidelines.

Crying me a river: Ballot Access News » Blog Archive » All Statewide Minor Party Petitions in Pennsylvania Challenged

Ballot Access News » Blog Archive » All Statewide Minor Party Petitions in Pennsylvania Challenged: "An earlier blog post today said that a challenge had been filed to the statewide petition of the Pennsylvania Green Party. Since then, the Libertarian and Tea Party statewide petitions have also been challenged. See this story.
Tolerance for minor party and independent candidate election activity in Pennsylvania has drastically declined during the last 70 years. After 1938, and until 2004, no minor party or independent candidate statewide petition was ever challenged in Pennsylvania. But starting in 2004, such challenges have been filed every even-numbered election year in that state. A challenge to Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr was defeated in 2008, but challenges succeeded against Ralph Nader in 2004, and the Green Party statewide slate in 2006."

Here is my solution to this mess -- and I've been here and done that dance in the past.

If a challenge knocks the ONLY opponent off of the ballot, then the replace for that candidate is "NONE OF THE ABOVE."

If we had NONE OF THE ABOVE put onto the ballot, either by the force of a knock off or else as an automatic slot in all elections in PA -- then we'd be sure to have some choice and more competition for these elections.

West Mifflin school director cites death threats

West Mifflin school director cites death threats: "In the report, the workers said they made repairs to Dr. Graham's swimming pool and installed a new dishwasher. Later, the workers provided photos of the work alleged to have been done at Dr. Graham's pool."

Swimming pools are in the news again. But, not in a good way -- and with mentions of deaths -- and that's never in a good way. But here, it swirls in with ethics. Good golly. The Mon Valley is so special, isn't it.

All Choice Model -- can't happen -- back of the room whispers

At the meeting last night, there were a few board members attending and I had a short, whispered conversation with one from the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Sherry Hazuda. She asked some questions at recent meetings that goes along with my thinking that we should make the move to eliminate all feeder patters in the city for high school students. I want to advocate for an all-choice model.

Seems she heard that an all choice model is 'illegal.' What if the student does not make a choice? That student needs to be assigned to go to some school. That's the reasoning, so it seems.

Say what?

Okay, then. Let's assign all the kids in the city to attend Brashear High School. Then if they do NOT make a choice, they go there. Otherwise, they can make choices and go to CAPA, IB (Obama), Sci Tech, Allderdice, Carrick, Gateway Vo Tech (whatever Oliver is to be called), Single-Gender Westinghouse, U-Prep, Langley, -- etc.

Next objection, anyone????

City schools official makes pitch for single-gender academies

My question at last night's community meeting was hit upon in the discussion and then found its way into the Post-Gazette article today. I posted the question in the past at my blog and elsewhere (see comments).

City schools official makes pitch for single-gender academies: "Their inquiries about the plan were wide-ranging, addressing everything from the safety of the neighborhoods of the school campuses to how the Westinghouse campus would accommodate all of the boys' and girls' basketball teams with only one gym.
'This is not rocket science,' Mr. Lopez said, addressing the latter concern. 'This is about adults talking about a schedule.'"

Okay, let's take a deep breath and look at what was said in this answer.

First of all, my real question that I sent into the PPS site and also at A+ Schools was not asked. Only part of it was asked. And, my follow up question was a question -- based upon what Mr. Lopez said.

Mr. Lopez did do his homework. He knew what was coming, of course. His answer was blended to cover some of the un-asked parts of the question even.

A strange element of the answer he gave was to imply that things would work at Westinghouse with its six basketball teams because the adults involved at Westinghouse would communicate with each other and that those positive results have not unfolded at the other 6-12 school known as Schenley and Obama (both at Reizenstein) because that doesn't happen there.

My jaw dropped.

He also said that when he was in Michigan at a high school with one gym and six basetball teams, he could make the space work. There, at Berkley High School, they had varsity, JV and 9th grade teams for both boys and girls. Well, in Pittsburgh Westinghouse, as well as in Pittsburgh Obama/Schenley (also 6-12), we'll have varsity, JV and MIDDLE-SCHOOL teams. If a middle school program was put into Berkley, that should couldn't work. And, PPS does not do much with 9th grade teams -- and it should. Plus, you don't want to put middle school kids onto the court nor into the locker rooms with the high school kids. A 9th grade team and a JV team are very similar. Not so with a JV team and a MIDDLE-SCHOOL team.

Let's do the math. Even if the boys and girls teams can practice at the same time, with a big gym, then we'd have Varsity at 3 pm to 5 pm, JV at 5 pm to 7 pm and Middle School at 7 pm to 9 pm. Furthermore, I think Westinghouse might be an extended day school. The school day might end at 4:15 or 4:30 pm for others as the students are going to have work placements and job training and internships. So, the practice time of 7 to 9 pm might be welcomed as that might be when they are off of work, have eaten and back to the gym.

Even with 90 minutes per practice on the court, the schedule would be 3 to 4:30 pm, 4:30 to 6 pm and 6 to 7:30 pm. Then there are out of season conditioning times and open gym and such after 7:30 pm.

Then there are games, wrestling matches in the gym, baseball's pitches and catchers, volleyball's pre-season, cheerleader tryouts, etc.

And, this is to be a 'single-gender landscape.' So putting both the boys and girls into the same, but big, divided gym is happening too. Oh well.

Stay tuned for video, later this week, I hope.

Water polo play on August 10, 2010 at Peabody High School

Great day. We had three swimmers join us from Shaler as well as their coach. She had played water polo at Penn State University and has been coaching the kids in long-course swimming.

Max was there too -- as he is trying to stay in shape so he can swim and play polo in college in CT.

Jan had to get out early -- with a leg cramp.

A new swimmer came to practice straight from the Highland Park Pool and the Kingsley Stingrays practice. He is a swimmer, I think, with Allderdice.

We need to get the girls of Schenley to get into the groove.

Our goalies are playing very well. We can't get many balls past them. Keep it up S and C.

We'll play the rest of the week from 10:30 to noon. I have a few other bits of info to gather before we announce when play is going to happen next week. We might be able to play at North Park some time soon as well.

Tomorrow I expect to see Marshall and Grant as well as some others from Shaler.

Some of the footage above is from the ball-handling and shooting drills we did first, before splitting into two teams and playing a game. So that's why the caps are not on all the players in the early photos.

The Information War by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com

The Information War by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com: "The Information War
We're winning – and the War Party is losing…"

'Dogs coach Hill agrees to pay cut, new contract - Fresno State Football - fresnobee.com

'Dogs coach Hill agrees to pay cut, new contract - Fresno State Football - fresnobee.com: "'Dogs coach Hill agrees to pay cut, new contract
Says he's trying to help the athletic department, community."

Go Fresno State!

Fw: games of Mt. Lebo

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

---

From: leifevans@comcast.net

Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:13:25 +0000 (UTC)

To: <mark.rauterkus@gmail.com>

Subject: games

Pittsburgh Friends and Neighbors:

We have around 200 folks for the games so far but we need to fill 300 t-shirts so sign up now or condemn a very nifty t-shirt to the unspeakable limbo of having no-one to get sweaty on...

Larry Evans     c 412-445-2951

 Mt. Lebanon Village Intergenerational Games

Saturday, August 14, 2010

9am-2pm at Mt. Lebanon Park and Tennis Center

Mt. Lebanon Village (MLV) is a community oriented, non-profit organization established in 2009 to give residents of Mt. Lebanon, age 50 and older, the practical means, confidence and peace of mind to enjoy life while residing in their own place of residence in the environment they value as they grow older, and to serve as a model and mentor to other such villages.

The Mt. Lebanon Village Games present a way to get to know our neighbors, to enjoy a day of playing together and to celebrate our common bonds. The Village Games are designed to bring together old friends and new acquaintances, pairing people of different ages and generations.  The idea is to partner adults over 50 with someone under 50.  The pairings could be with a son, daughter, grandchild, friend or neighbor – or maybe even some husband and wife teams!  You can also come on your own and enjoy the festivities.  Partners will spend the day participating together in the activities of their choice.  It will be a fun-packed day of gently competitive team sports, individual pursuits and group games, followed by a picnic and prizes.  Participants will be given a chance to win prizes for every event in which they partake.

START THE DAY WITH A FUN RUN OR WALK! At 9 a.m. the Village Games will open with a "Chase Your Elders" one mile fun run/walk in Mt. Lebanon Park where older folks start first, followed by a staggered progression by their younger partners so that all may finish at about the same time.  A pre-race warm-up, led by fitness instructor Gurney Bolster, will begin at 8:45 a.m. at the Mt. Lebanon School District Entrance on Horsman Drive.

THEN PLAY BALL AND OTHER FUN STUFF! From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. in Mt. Lebanon Park, choose from a wide variety of friendly coed, intergenerational team sports including volleyball, softball, soccer, basketball, tennis and bocce.  Then measure your athletic skills in a 50 yard dash, punt, pass and kick, free throw, target toss, and radar gun stations.  There will be old fashioned games like a treasure hunt, relay races, water balloon toss, horseshoes, shuffleboard, hula hoops, scrabble, checkers, and chess.  You can also engage in creative activities such as an inter-active story-telling session led by the Wing & a Prayer Pittsburgh Players.

Throughout the day, be prepared to share your favorite Mt. Lebanon memories with a roving MLV volunteer camera crew.

DON'T MISS THE PICNIC! Beginning at noon, enjoy a delicious picnic provided by Pittsburgh Barbecue Company.  Come to the Mt. Lebanon Tennis Center Founder's Room and Deck to share great food and listen to live banjo music provided by "The Entertainers".  Ted Sohier of WQED will be our MC and prizes will be drawn.  (Participants must be present at the picnic to receive prizes.)

BOWLING BONUS! Wear your Games T-shirt and enjoy two free games of bowling (shoes included) at Mount Lebanon Lanes (AMF) on Washington Road between 2-4pm Sunday, August 15^th!

REGISTER TO PLAY on line or by mail by August 12^th  to receive a nifty Mt. Lebanon Village Games T-shirt!

REGISTRATION FEES: Individual (over 50)  $15.     With Partner (under 50)  $25.     Family (up to 6 members)  $40.

 

Or Volunteer  – students can earn community service hours! – plus get a t-shirt & free lunch!

info@mtlebanonvillage.org or (412) 343-4054 | 710 Washington Rd, Pgh., PA 15228.  www.mtlebanonvillage.org

 

The Mt. Lebanon Village Games Registration Form

 

Individual (over 50) __________________________________________________________________

Age (as of August 14)_________________Gender_______________ T‐shirt size_________

Address___________________________________________________________Zip_________________

E‐Mail_________________________________________Phone__________________________________

 

Partner (under 50)____________________________________________________________________

Age (as of August 14)_________________Gender_______________ T‐shirt size_________

Address___________________________________________________________Zip_________________

E‐Mail_________________________________________Phone__________________________________

 

Additional Immediate or Extended Family Members (indicate pairing, any age mixture is ok)

3.________________________________________________Age______Gender______T‐shirt size_____

4.________________________________________________Age______Gender______T‐shirt size_____

 

5.________________________________________________Age______Gender______T‐shirt size_____

6.________________________________________________Age______Gender______T‐shirt size_____

 

 

Please check below the events in which you & your partner/family wish to participate

 

OPENING EVENT 9AM

___ Chase Your Elders One Mile Fun Run/Walk  (8:45 a.m. group aerobic warm‐up at start line)

Onsite registration and Village Games packet pick‐up begins at 8AM at the Tennis Center Founder's Room off of Cedar Blvd

 

TEAM SPORTS     10AM – 1PM  (select no more than 3 since games are scheduled on hourly intervals)

___ Soccer___ Softball___ Doubles Tennis___ Basketball___ Volleyball___ Doubles Bocce

 

___ ATHLETIC SKILLS     10AM – 1PM  (come when you want)

Includes Free Throws (Basketball), Radar Gun (Softball & Soccer & Football), Target (Softball & Soccer & Football), Punt, Pass and Kick (Football & Soccer) and a 50 Yard Dash

 

___ OLD FASHIONED GAMES     10AM ‐ 1PM  (come when you want)

Includes Relay Races, Treasure Hunt, Horseshoes, Shuffleboard, Water Balloon Toss, Chess, Checkers, Scrabble, Hula Hoops

 

___ INTERACTIVE STORY TELLING    11AM to Noon  (with the Wing and a Prayer Pittsburgh Players)

 

Upon arrival at the Tennis Center's registration headquarters participants will receive a program mapping out the event locations and an individualized schedule of activities. (The schedule is a guideline (not etched in stone) so you can freely move among the games.)

 

REGISTRATION FEES: Individual (over 50)  $15.     With Partner (under 50)  $25.     Family (up to 6 members)  $40.

 

Send the Registration Form with a check payable to:

Mt. Lebanon Village, 710 Washington Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15228   info: 412‐343‐4054

 

www.mtlebanonvillage.org

Larry Evans
417 Kurt Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15243
c412-445-2951
h412-341-1486
f412-571-1647
leifevans@comcast.net

NCAA Market - Job Search - Duquesne University

NCAA Market - Job Search

D.U. has a job opening for an Assistant Athletic Director. Go figure. Last year the Dukes cut men's swimming, men's baseball, men's golf and men's wrestling. Here is a tip. Hire someone who will promise to bring back all the men's teams recently cut.

Fw: New version 5.04 of CmapServer / Nueva versión 5.04 del CmapServer

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

---

From: "Cmap Support" <cmapsupport@ihmc.us>

Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:32:58 -0500

To: <cmapsupport@ihmc.us>

Subject: New version 5.04 of CmapServer / Nueva versión 5.04 del CmapServer

(Español al final)

Hi,

You are receiving this message because at some point you downloaded or showed interest in the CmapServer program.

We are pleased to inform you that a new version (5.04) of the CmapServer has been released and is available for download.
This new version includes substantial improvements over previous versions.

If you are running an old version of the CmapServer (e.g. v4.18) you are not taking advantages of many of the recent additions to the
program, including thumbnails for Cmaps and resources in the Views window, incremental index submission to the
IndexServer and automatic classification of Cmaps based on the topological taxonomy for better retrieval by the Cmap search at the
Cmappers.net site, and a significant number of bug fixes and performance improvements.

CmapServer v5.04 is available for download at http://cmap.ihmc.us or through the "Check for Updates" program installed with the
CmapServer you are running. V5.04 of the CmapTools client has also been released.

If you have any questions or doubts please go to the CmapForum at http://cmapforum.ihmc.us.

 

Sincerely,

 

CmapSupport

Institute for Human & Machine Cognition

www.ihmc.us

-------

Hola,

Está recibiendo este mensaje porque en algún momento descargó o mostró interés en el programa CmapServer.

Nos complace en informarle que una nueva versión (5.04) del CmapServer has sido liberada y está disponible para ser
descargada. La nueva versión incluye mejoras substanciales sobre las versiones anteriores.

Si está corriendo una versión vieja del CmapServer (e.g. v5.04) no está tomando ventaja de muchas de las mejoras recientes al
programa, incluyendo "thumbnails" para Cmaps y recursos en la ventana de Vistas, envío incremental del índice al IndexServer y
clasificación automática de Cmaps basada en la taxonomía topológica para mejor recuperación en el buscador de Cmaps en el
sitio Cmappers.net, y un número significativo de correcciones y mejoras en el programa.

El CmapServer v5.04 está disponible para descargarse en http://cmap.ihmc.us o a través del programa "Check for Updates" que se
instaló con el CmapServer que está corriendo. La v5.04 del cliente CmapTools también está disponible.

Si tiene preguntas o dudas vaya al foro CmapForum en http://cmapforum.ihmc.us.

Cordialmente,

 

 

CmapSupport

Institute for Human & Machine Cognition

www.ihmc.us

Third-party candidates may be key in Pa. governor's race

This is NOT a news article, it is an editorial.

Third-party candidates may be key in Pa. governor's race: "In addition to his Democratic opponent, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, the ballot will include Marakay Rogers, the Libertarian Party candidate, and John Krupa, running under the banner of the tea party.
Libertarians tend to diverge from the current Republican Party on social issues. Tea Party supporters criticize both major parties. Still, it's at least broadly accurate to say that both of those constituencies, with their common opposition toward bigger government, are more likely to overlap with Republicans than Democrats."

What is the news?

The Libertarians are unlike the Rs in many ways beyond social issues. How about the war? How about privacy? How about corporate welfare? How about stimulus funding? How about size of government?

Look at the lead of this article too. In recent decades, no independent candidate has mounted a credible challenge for a statewide office in Pennsylvania. THAT is what James O wants to say first! He'll give a history lesson and think it is newsworth.

Complete crap from the P-G, as usual. There is no credible journalism.

Mr. Krupa could not be reached for comment. But some tea party activists are wary of his candidacy. Pick up the phone P-G reporter. He could not be reached yet this article is about his running. Give us a break.

Ms. Rogers, the Libertarian contender, said there are plenty of reasons for independents to run that have nothing to do with political mischief.

"The mere fact that you might not win or probably won't win is not an excuse for not running," said the York County lawyer. "The fewer candidates that run, the fewer ideas that will be discussed -- the vote for women, Social Security -- and those were originally third-party ideas. If third parties didn't raise the issue first, the other parties would never adopt them."

Ms. Rogers is a veteran tilter at the major party windmills. She ran for governor as a Green Party candidate in 2006. After migrating to the Libertarians, she ran for attorney general in 2008 and for Superior Court in 2009.

A tilter at windmills.

Crew chief overturns McCutchen's homer | pirates.com: News

Crew chief overturns McCutchen's homer | pirates.com: News: "Saturday's review marked the fifth in PNC Park history, four of which have now been overturned."

PNC Park is defective. Right?

Literacy nonprofit for poor children closes

Literacy nonprofit for poor children closes: "Literacy nonprofit for poor children closes"

This is the first I heard of the meltdown. So, the news of a shut-down. Did I miss the news of their struggle or did they only tell other literacy providers?

Sounds like the Center for Creative Play and Beginning with Books should hook up and have a joint misery ride.

If I'm in charge, Pittsburgh would be branded as the best place to parent. And, the loss of both of those organizations in recent years isn't good.

Woman trapped in hole in Sheraden

The crew had their hands full with this urban rescue.

Woman trapped in hole in Sheraden: "Woman trapped in hole in Sheraden"

They are very lucky that both didn't fall into that hole.

Tackling a tough issue head on - Brain injuries and football

So, play football. Hurt brain. The one can't think the rest of your life, if it gets bad enough.

Tackling a tough issue head on: "'You don't think about it. You can't think about it,' Clark said."

Or, don't think about it before playing and while playing.

Humm... Think again.