PA Off Green Power List, CMU Moves Up from the Energy Inc, blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which stopped buying green power credits earlier this year, predictably lost its status as the nation’s fourth largest green power purchaser, according to new rankings released by the Environmental Protection Agency."

State Legislators Attempt to Force Peace Between Highmark, UPMC Saga Advances on 2 Fronts from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Mr. Costa is also proposing legislation that, in the event a deal isn't reached, would require UPMC to reapply to maintain its charitable status with the state. To take over West Penn, Highmark would already be required to apply for charitable status."

EDITORIAL!!

School Vouchers Q&A: Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1 is Awaiting House Action (Jan Murphy) from the Patriot-News [of Harrisburg]
"Could school vouchers be coming to Pennsylvania? That remains to be seen, but they are as close to becoming reality as they have been in well over a decade."

East Liberty Housing Receives Grant from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Planned housing in Pittsburgh, Waynesburg and Greensburg are among $2.9 million in grants announced Friday by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh. The planned four-story, 60-unit East Liberty Place South will receive $140,780 in grants. "

Sen. Casey Pushes Bill to Promote Computer Science Studies from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
"Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Google Inc. Vice President of Engineering Andrew Moore joined Casey for the rollout of the Computer Science Education Act at the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy, a public magnet school in Oakland."

Few Better Off Financially than a Year Ago, Survey Finds from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
"Only 17 percent of Americans are better off financially than they were this time last year, according to a survey Bankrate.com released today. ... Also, only 19 percent of Americans report a higher net worth than one year ago, while 30 percent report having lower net worth."

EDITORIAL!!

Roads Kill: Corbett Fails to Take the Wheel on Transportation from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"... lawmakers also are motivated by the deteriorating state of Pennsylvania's 5,000 structurally deficient bridges, 8,000 crumbling miles of highway and a severely diminished ability to provide efficient mass transit. That sure sounds like a crisis, yet the governor's most recent statements suggest that he doesn't understand why anybody would expect him to do something about it."

Center for Innovative Science to Open in Bloomfield in Late 2014 from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Health care giant UPMC will build a long-delayed $294 million research facility in Bloomfield that's expected to employ 375 scientists and support staff when it opens in late 2014."
Pittsburgh Business Times covers the story here.

Herman Reid Cautions Students Against College from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"As the former director of NEED, one would think Herman Reid would make the perfect spokesperson for college recruiting. However, considering today’s economic climate and statistics showing unprecedented numbers of unemployed college graduates, Reid is asking students to think long and hard before enrolling in a four-year college."

Green Power Awards Honor Renewable Energy Efforts from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future held its Green Power Awards lunch Thursday at the Fairmont Hotel, Downtown, honoring 30 individuals, private corporations, schools and public interest organizations for their work on renewable energy."

Breathe Project Launches Clean Air Initiative: Environmental Organizations Hopeful from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"For more than 60 years, Pittsburghers, from industry kingpins to mayors to mothers pushing baby buggies, have moved the region toward cleaner, healthier air. The Heinz Endowments is betting its considerable influence and $7 million they can do it again with the launch of the Breathe Project, a broad-based, multi-year campaign aimed at improving the quality of life in the Pittsburgh region by reducing its largely invisible but ultimately unhealthy air pollution."

More Diesel Fuel in Frac Fluid Than Previously Thought from the Energy Inc. blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Reporting mistakes from leading oil and gas frac companies underestimated by more than 50 times the number of gallons of frac fluid used in Pennsylvania that contained diesel fuel."

No Habla Español?: State Proposals Would Make English the Official Language (Lauren Daley) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"House bills 361 and 888 would make English the official language for all Commonwealth business. In the case of 888, proposed by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Cumberland), it would extend that mandate to the state's political subdivisions, like municipalities. And both bills would mean no longer printing materials -- like the kind found at the DMV -- in languages other than English."

Cost for Pa. 4-Year Public Universities 3rd in Nation from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The cost of attending college in Pennsylvania grew slightly less than the national average this year, but the cost of going to a four-year public university in the state is now the third-highest in the nation, according to the report released today by the College Board."

September Pennsylvania Jobs Report: Employment and Unemployment Moving In The Wrong Direction from the Keystone Research Center
"Overall employment growth turned negative in the last five months as job losses in the public sector were accompanied by a troubling reemergence of job losses in the private service providing sector."

Transit Spending Boost Urged from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"State Auditor General Jack Wagner called Tuesday for an immediate increase in spending on roads and bridges, saying decaying infrastructure threatens Pennsylvania's economy and the safety of citizens."

Legislation Would Extend Tax Breaks on Construction from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Saying he wants to give a nudge to projects that may be on the bubble in a troubled economy, Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto introduced legislation Tuesday to enhance tax incentives for commercial and residential development."

Mattress Factory to Hold Groundbreaking for New Facility from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The building at 516 Sampsonia Way was built in 1890 and was abandoned for 20 years before being purchased by The Mattress Factory, the museum said in a news release Tuesday. It will become a third space for exhibitions, and a vacant lot next door will be used for outdoor exhibits and gardens."

Pittsburgh is Great Place for Former Residents' Happy Returns from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
"Every year, hundreds of Southwest Pennsylvania residents leave the area -- either for college, a job or just retire to a warmer climate. Although there are no statistics available on how many of them return, many say they find the area they moved to fails to compare with what they left -- in quality and cost of living."

'Best of the World' Right Here, National Geographic Says from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
""Extreme Metropolitan Makeover." That's how National Geographic Traveler magazine describes the Steel City's "revolutionary" transformation over the past quarter century in its recommendation to visit Pittsburgh in its "Best of the World 2012.""
Pittsburgh Business Times notes the same story HERE.

Citizens Commission Makes Shale Drilling Recommendations from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A group of environmental, labor and liberal-leaning public policy groups say the governor's Marcellus Shale advisory panel didn't go far enough in its recommendations, and released their own report this morning calling for broader protections from gas drilling."
The Energy Inc. blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times covers the story as well.

Unpaid Pa. Firms Resort to Loans, Layoffs from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Dozens of Pennsylvania firms hired to care for foster children, juvenile delinquents and other needy children are resorting to layoffs and short-term loans because some counties have not paid them in months."

Ohio Drillers Awash in Concern Over Fracking Waste from Pa. from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"As the drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, grows in horizontal wells in shale deposits under Ohio to unlock oil and gas deposits valued at billions of dollars, so will the production of drilling fluids that must be re-deposited deep underground through Ohio's injection wells. ... From 2007 through 2010, Portage County injection wells handled nearly 4 million 42-gallon barrels of waste, according to records from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mineral Resources Management."

EDITORIAL!!

Dear Gov. Corbett: We're About to Lose Our Affordable UPMC access ... from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"We used to take pride in having quality care that was close at hand, so much so that we've given willingly every year to Children's Hospital, we've been happy to see taxpayer-provided grants go to UPMC facilities and we've watched our well-endowed neighbors offer tremendous philanthropy to build new UPMC centers. But now we're caught between two feuding giants -- UPMC, which controls most of the region's health care, and Highmark, which issues most of the region's health insurance -- and it's the average folks of Western Pennsylvania who are about to be trampled."

Marcellus Shale Youth Jobs Forum Recruit High School Students for Industry Jobs from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"More than 1,200 new Marcellus Shale natural gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania this year. Because each well requires numerous workers to construct and operate, there's no shortage of new jobs in the region -- at least a certain kind of job. The problem is that not enough high school graduates from Southwestern Pennsylvania want the jobs, allowing workers from the nation's oil-rich South to capitalize on the Keystone state's bustling new industry."

Peters, Cecil Trails Projects Receive $800,000 from the Observer-Reporter [of Washington and Greene Counties]
"Three rails-to-trails projects in Cecil and Peters townships are the recipients of more than $800,000 in local-share gambling proceeds from The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, and one organization plans a celebration for Sunday."

EPA Proposes New Natural Gas Wastewater Standards from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"There are no national standards for disposal of wastewater from natural gas extraction, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced it would be developing them. The announcement puts into motion a process where the EPA, industry and public health groups will work to create standards that would regulate the growing natural gas industry."
The Post-Gazette has its coverage of this HERE.

Activists Share Affordable Housing Success from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"At “Building Change: a convergence for social justice” held at the Senator John Heinz Regional History Center Oct. 13-15, activists from across Southwestern Pennsylvania gathered to share solutions to some of the regions most pressing social issues. While some came equipped with abstract plans to reshape the region, others brought concrete models of action they had already taken to improve their neighborhoods."

EDITORIAL!!

An Eye on Water: Getting the Right Expertise Will Help the City from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Flash flooding that killed four people on Washington Boulevard in August was the most tragic manifestation of Pittsburgh's stormwater management problem, but it is not the only one. ... It is very welcome news that, as the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority and PennDOT are making physical changes on Washington Boulevard, city officials are launching two studies aimed at improving stormwater management citywide and upgrading operations at the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority."

City Council Supports PA Works Now from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"Costa’s legislation, announced September 26, would set up a new Pennsylvania Investment Bank that, he said, would create 80,000 new jobs and provide an immediate economic stimulus. It calls for spending nearly $1 billion on water and sewer infrastructure projects throughout the state, and another $200 million on transportation, green building and communication technology projects, as well as job training programs."

Bridges in Pittsburgh Labeled the Worst in the Country from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A report to be issued today says the Pittsburgh metropolitan area has the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the U.S. Some 30.4 percent of the bridges in the Pittsburgh area are deficient, according to the report by Washington, D.C.-based Transportation for America, tops for metro areas with populations of 2 million or more."

EPA Considering New Air-Quality Rules for Fracking Sites from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"New rules would employ existing technology and best practices to limit emissions."

State Legislature to Get Involved in Highmark-UPMC Dispute from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Department of Health officials were on the hot seat this morning during a hearing on legislation aimed at forcing UPMC to negotiate a new contract with Highmark."

Walnut Capital Group Hopes To Expand Bakery Square from Essential Public Radio [of Pittsburgh]
"Walnut Capital Group, the development firm that repurposed the old NABISCO plant on Penn Avenue as Bakery Square, wants to buy the shuttered Reizenstein School building across the street.  ... The plan is to raze the structure and replace it with office and retail space, as well as several new stand-alone homes and rental townhomes."

Pgh Promise Gets $100,000 from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"The company, North America’s largest supplier of electricity, natural gas and energy related services, recently began operations in the area. And, with its support of the Pittsburgh Promise, it quickly lived up to its reputation for commitment to community involvement."

Gas Boom Aids Pennsylvania, but Some Worry Over the Risk from the New York Times
"Other residents also began taking advantage of the “gas rush.” Some supplied the companies with machine parts; others laid pipe. One entrepreneurial couple opened a food wagon where they also sell alpaca socks to drillers from Louisiana and Texas who were unprepared for the cold. The gas boom is transforming small towns like this one (population 4,400 and growing) and revitalizing the economy of this once-forgotten stretch of rural northeastern Pennsylvania."

Carl Cooper Heads $3M Hill Revitalization Fund from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"Former Urban Redevelopment Authority attorney Carl Cooper has been lured out of retirement and named chairman of the Greater Hill District Growth Development Fund Advisory Committee and will manage the distribution of $3 million earmarked to revitalize the Hill District."

Allow Gas Drilling Near Prisons and Colleges, Report Says from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Issued by a joint legislative committee, the report concludes that agencies beyond the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Game Commission and Fish and Boat Commission should be allowed to enter into lease agreements for gas drilling. Those agencies also should be allowed to retain a portion of any drilling-related revenues, according to the report."

Voters Asked to Increase Property Taxes for Library Funding from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"Tax increase would mean $25 more annually for $100,000 home."

EDITORIAL!!

Our City, Our Libraries: Vote Yes to Sustain the Carnegie System from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"On Nov. 8, city residents will have an opportunity to vote in a referendum that will ensure the solvency of one of the most robust and culturally indispensable institutions in the region: the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. A vote to underwrite the 20-branch system even in cash-strapped times should be a no-brainer, but it will require Pittsburghers to do something they are usually reluctant to do -- vote Yes on a property tax hike."

EDITORIAL!!

Paying for a Crisis: The UPMC-Highmark Split Now Affects Doctors from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"During the smoke and haze of Pittsburgh's industrial heyday, employers had a term for it. In the foundries and metal shops, they called it piece work. It was a way to compensate workers based on the number of units they produced or the number of actions they performed. Whether they were finishing sheets of tin or turning wooden spindles, laborers at the time of Carnegie and Frick were often paid by the piece. Who would have thought, generations later, that their descendants' physicians would be compensated largely in the same way?"

Occupy Pittsburgh Protests at Toomey Office from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Members of Occupy Pittsburgh joined the People`s Lobby and One Pittsburgh outside Sen. Pat Toomey`s office in Station Square just before noon today to protest his recent vote against the American Jobs Act. About three dozen attendees chanted, "Stop working for Wall Street, start working for us.""

Occupy Pittsburgh Protesters Set Up Camp at Mellon Green from the Pitt News
"These are some of the faces of Occupy Pittsburgh. On Saturday, a few thousand protesters marched Downtown to stand against corporate greed, social injustices and the disparities between the rich and poor. The eclectic group of protesters has no leaders, and they have not set a date to stop expressing their grievances."

Teacher Salaries Across Districts Suburbs vs. City (Rebecca Nuttall) from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"The average salary for a teacher in Allegheny County is $56,000. While this can range anywhere from $35,000 to $90,000, based on career length and degree attainment, teachers in the Pittsburgh Public School District start at a lower base salary then those in surrounding districts like Mt. Lebanon, where the lowest paid teacher makes $44,000 with two years of experience."

Gas Drilling Boom Brings New Life To Steel Industry from Essential Public Radio [of Pittsburgh]
"A natural gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania is helping the economies of Rust Belt cities long accustomed to bad news. Drilling requires steel — lots of it — and that has manufacturers expanding and hiring new workers."

Startup Firms Get Big Boost at Oakland Conference from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"TCOMM, which kicked off Thursday, brought dozens of successful tech business owners, government contracting consultants and nonprofits to the Holiday Inn University Center in Oakland in an effort to aid fledgling startups. Mary McKinney, manager of Duquesne's Small Business Development Center, said the idea for the conference came about after the university received funding from the federal Small Business Administration. The money was targeted to help tech businesses market their concepts and to train them on applying for the federal Small Business Innovation Research program, which supports companies developing technologies that could benefit various government agencies."

EDITORIAL!!

Corbett's Choice: His Funding Shift Will Squeeze Public Schools from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Gov. Tom Corbett says his education agenda comes down to this: "It needs to be: child, parent, teacher ... and just in that order." His initiatives, which he outlined during a visit to York on Tuesday, may work for some children but it's hard to see how they will bolster the constitutional principle of a free and public education. Schools cannot operate on good intentions alone."

Duquesne Gets William Dietrich Donation from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"A month after giving mega-donations to both Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, a $12 million donation announced Friday from the late philanthropist William S. Dietrich II will go to Duquesne University too."

DEP Spells Out Rules for Oil, Gas Emissions from the Energy Inc blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released guidance today on how it’s going to treat new air emission sources from oil and gas operations."

OPINION & ANALYSIS!

Pre-Occupied Pittsburgh: A Fledgling Movement Gets Off to an Uncertain Start (Potter & Young) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"The point is to practice democracy. And this is democracy right here -- as messy as it is."

Poll Shows Support of Natural Gas Drilling: Shale 'Fracking' in State Forests, Parks Opposed from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Most Pennsylvanians support using "fracking" to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, according to a new survey. ... Those contacted, however, also said they disapprove of gas drilling in state forests and parks and expressed significant concerns about the safety of water resources."

Falling Through the Cracks: Six Months After the End of adultBasic from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
"Six months after the end of the state’s adultBasic program, few former enrollees have been able to access the options offered them when the program ended. Fewer than 40% of the 37,588 individuals who lost their insurance at the end of February have enrolled in Medical Assistance or Special Care, a low-cost, limited benefit product offered by Pennsylvania’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans."

Erie College Poll Shows Impact of Hard Times on Pa. Residents from the Philadelphia Enquirer 
"The poll found that one in four Pennsylvania residents has had someone living in his or her household lose a job or be laid off in the last 12 months - and two out of three had close friends or family members who were put out of work in that time."
The poll has many other interesting findings.

Robinson Developers Look to Add Gas-fired Unit to Plan from the Observer-Reporter [of Washington & Greene counties]
"Getting a waste coal power plant built and operating in Robinson Township likely will face stiff opposition from environmental groups. That's the reason developers of the Beech Hollow Power Plant are looking to add a gas-fired unit. They believe lower expected emissions from the gas-fired unit will result in quicker air-quality permitting while taking advantage of available natural gas from Marcellus Shale drilling."

Occupy Pittsburgh Discusses Protest Strategies from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"...after a sometimes contentious and often tedious meeting in Schenley Plaza on Sunday, the General Assembly of Occupy Pittsburgh, a group that is planning protests modeled after the ones held recently on Wall Street, had yet to come to a consensus on where to hold the protest or even what kind gathering they would hold. Only one proposal, to hold a permitted event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, was approved by the group, which operates by an elaborate system, termed a consensus model, which requires support of at least three-quarters of those present to approve a measure."

EDITORIAL!!

UPMC Board Members Go Dark (Sally Kallson) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Is it a coincidence that the board was so dramatically downsized just as UPMC went to the mattresses? It's not unusual to reduce a board, but then again, if you're going to war, you only want your most trusted lieutenants in the tent."

City Council Bill to Encourage Banks to Invest in Needy Areas from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The legislation would require city depositories to develop community reinvestment plans that would set goals for small consumer loans, services to minority-owned businesses, contributions to community groups and participation in neighborhood development projects."

France Cancels Shale-Gas Permits Over Fracking Impasse from the Wall Street Journal
An international story with local implications.
"In a joint statement, France's energy minister, Éric Besson, and environmental minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, said that the three permits, which represent all of the country's potential shale-gas fields, had been cancelled after the companies submitted a mandatory report about their drilling techniques in which they maintained their plans to use hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking.'"

EDITORIAL!!

Banking on Education: PNC's Grow Up Great is Now a Bigger Boost from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Grow Up Great, the $100 million initiative launched by PNC Financial "Services Group in 2004, is growing greater. The Pittsburgh-based bank announced a huge expansion of its corporate philanthropy, a $250 million extension of a venture that spent in eight years the sum it had committed to provide in 10, all to help millions of children prepare for success in school and beyond."

Question Remains on Marcellus Shale Gas Rights Near Pittsburgh Airport from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Many county officials, including outgoing county Executive Dan Onorato, have supported the idea of making deals with drilling companies but they say they want assurance that at least a portion of any future revenues from gas sales would benefit local taxpayers directly."

Hill to Get Part of $4M for Small Business, Job Training from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"What Generett’s organization, the Hill House Association and the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence received was $1.9 million in job and economic growth funding aimed at underserved communities. “Our proposal addresses longstanding racial economic disparities in our region,” he said. “It creates opportunities for residents of communities that haven’t yet benefited from the region’s economic transformation.” The PCKIZ will direct part of the funding, about $850,000 toward generating new business growth in the targeted communities of the Hill District, East Liberty, Garfield, Larimer, Lincoln and Homewood."

Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling from the New York Times
"In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found."
Here's the quick look.  Not good:

Occupy Pittsburgh Event Set for Oct. 15 from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Occupy Pittsburgh, the grassroots effort inspired by but separate from the massive Wall Street demonstrations, are planning their first big event Downtown on Saturday, Oct. 15."

PowerUp Pittsburgh Tries to Spread Innovation Outward from Oakland from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Mr. Ravenstahl said he envisions a "hub-and-spoke" system with research and entrepreneurship in Oakland -- the city's university and hospital corridor -- spilling into other neighborhoods. The initiative complements his efforts to extend a spate of residential and commercial development and other improvements, the so-called Third Renaissance, from Downtown into the neighborhoods."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review covers the story HERE.

Ex-Offenders Jobs Bill Gains Support from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"For the past several months, the Formerly Convicted Citizens Project has been working to gain support for legislation that would remove questions of criminal convictions on job applications. The group’s most recent stop of their “Move the Box” campaign trail was to a Public Safety Council meeting at the zone 3 police station."

Poverty Rises Sharply in PA and the Nation from the Keystone Research Center 
"As the recession took its toll last year, more Pennsylvanians and Americans fell into poverty, saw their incomes decline and joined the ranks of the uninsured, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau."

CCAC Trustees Decide to Get Out of Town: Downtown Facility's Lease Not Renewed from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The move was characterized as a means to slash costs in a difficult economy and avoid a duplication of services with the college's Allegheny campus on the North Side. Courses, staff and students are all expected to be absorbed into the main campus, and no job losses are anticipated."

Counties Hail Corbett Drilling Fee Proposal from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"County commissioners statewide are applauding the governor's proposal to keep most of the funds from a potential drilling fee among local governments -- but those officials also say they hope they won't have to be the ones to vote on the levies. ... commissioners have "strong reservations" about requiring each county to decide whether to charge a fee of up to $160,000 per well."
The Patriot-News of Harrisburg has more on this story HERE.

EDITORIAL!!

Wall Street Protest Moves Rapidly From Fringe to Middle (Robert Vickers) from the Patriot-News [of Harrisburg]
"In a little more than two weeks, a fringe movement called Occupy Wall Street, which could have easily been discounted as group of punk kids, has morphed into a mainstream political clarion call. ... The protesters didn’t take their beef to the dysfunction that is Washington. Instead, they planted their flag of dissatisfaction in the heart of America’s financial district. It has spread to Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles, and is coming to Harrisburg on Wednesday."

EDITORIAL!!

Seed Fund: Ten Years of Giving Cultivates Pittsburgh Projects from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"With proper tending, a tiny sprout can develop into a fruitful plant. That's the philosophy behind Pittsburgh's Sprout Fund, and it is true of the organization itself. The fund is celebrating its 10th anniversary of providing small but significant grants to foster artistic and environmental initiatives, serving its mission of making the region a better place to live, work, play and raise families. The Sprout Fund's first grant was $900 for a temporary art gallery Downtown and, since then, it has seeded 450 projects at a total value of $4 million."

Weigh Energy Choices Carefully, Expert Says from the Associated Press
"Sound decisions about how to proceed with gas drilling in the Marcellus shale can't be made without looking at how they might fit with other energy choices in a time of growing demand, Pennsylvania's former environmental protection secretary said."

Decline in Crime Leaves Few Clues from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Crime fell across the state and region last year, defying conventional wisdom and leaving police departments at a loss to explain why."

Drill Tax Called 'Right for the State': Some in GOP Argue It Would Raise More than Corbett Plan from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A day after Gov. Tom Corbett came out with his plan for Marcellus Shale oversight, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were praising him for publicly calling for an assessment on gas drillers. But his call for a fee instead of a broader tax didn't reduce the enthusiasm of two House Republicans, who rallied Tuesday morning for support on their severance tax proposal."

Counties Dig into Corbett's Drillling Plan from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Wariness best describes how county commissioners in the Alle-Kiski Valley are approaching Gov. Tom Corbett's Marcellus shale proposal. Commissioners in Butler, Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, where most of the Marcellus shale gas drilling will take place, continue to examine the regulatory proposal that includes a fee on each well that would be assessed by individual counties."

EDITORIAL!!

Uniformity Pause: Corbett Punts the Drilling Fees to County Officials from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A guiding principle of Gov. Tom Corbett's administration has been that regulation of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry must be uniform across Pennsylvania, so businesses will know what to expect and what their obligations are on a statewide basis. Until now."

Energy by the Numbers, from the Allegheny Conference from the Energy Inc blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Innovation Works are launching another campaign to make sure everyone knows Pittsburgh is the place for energy. They’re calling it Energy to the Power of Pittsburgh, or E2P.  Here are the latest numbers: ..."

Municipalities Struggling to Solve Problem of Sewage Overflows: (One in an occasional series) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"In 2009, after three years of work, a high-level task force recommended the creation of an 11-county Three Rivers Water Planning District to help municipalities and counties address escalating stormwater and sewage overflow problems. That entity is no closer to creation today than it was two years ago, underscoring the hurdles to regional cooperation on water issues even as property owners bemoan widespread flooding and local governments face coming deadlines for controlling overflows into the region's rivers. An Aug. 19 flash flood that killed four people on Washington Boulevard has focused new attention on Pittsburgh's stormwater problems."

Occupy Wall Street coming to Pittsburgh from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The organizers of Occupy Wall Street, the protest movement that led to mass protests and mass arrests in and around the New York City financial district, plan a Pittsburgh demonstration. There will be a planning meeting Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh on Morewood Avenue in Shadyside, according to the Occupy Pittsburgh Facebook page."

OPINION!

Governor's Drilling Fee Plan Sells Pennsylvanians Short (Sharon Ward) from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
""Governor Corbett has proposed a small, limited fee that fails to capture for Pennsylvanians the true worth of this vast natural resource, and fails to fully offset the short and long-term damage that will be done by the industry. The proposal sells Pennsylvanians short."

Corbett Outlines Environmental Impact of Marcellus Plan from the Energy Inc. blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"In a speech in Pittsburgh Monday to outline his plan on the Marcellus Shale impact fee, Gov. Tom Corbett said he took the majority of his Marcellus legislative package from the advisory commission he set up that issued recommendations in July. Here are the proposals meant to strengthen safety and environmental protections during drilling:"
The Post Gazette's coverage of this story is HERE.

Part-timers Less Likely to Succeed in College, Study Finds from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Chances of finishing a bachelor's degree on time at the same public college -- or even finishing it in eight years -- are better for those who start by age 19 and go full time than for those who are older or go part time. That's one of the conclusions of a new report by Complete College America -- a nonprofit backed by foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education -- which collected figures on public college completion from 33 states."

High Unemployment Leads to More Student Loan Defaults in PA from the Third and State blog
"Among the states, Pennsylvania has the third highest number of higher learning institutions (behind California and New York) and a student default rate of only 6.6%, which is considerably better than the national rate. However, Pennsylvania is no exception when you compare the relationship between the unemployment rate and the borrower default rate."

County Parks Get $750,000 from State for Improvements from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A $750,000 state grant will help Allegheny County build new links between its parks and other recreational amenities. County Executive Dan Onorato and John Surma, chairman of the county's Parks Foundation, formally accepted the money today from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources."

Operation Safety Net a Model for National, Global Programs that Provide Medical Care for the Homeless from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Jim Withers, who founded Operation Safety Net in 1992, says his early years of practicing street medicine in Pittsburgh were a product of his imagination. "I made it up, and I had a philosophy that drove it. It's 'The streets have to teach health care how to meet them on their terms.' " And have they? "They've taught us a great deal, and they're continuing," he said. "I feel like we're in the, maybe, sixth grade at best, but we're learning." And Dr. Withers, along with Operation Safety Net program director Linda Sheets, has shared those lessons with the rest of the world."

PA Prevailing Wage Law Lifts Skills, Productivity, Safety, Keystone Research Finds from the Keystone Research Center
"With the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee scheduled to vote today on seven proposals to weaken Pennsylvania’s construction sector prevailing wage law, the Keystone Research Center today released a policy brief summarizing research on the impact of these laws. The research shows that prevailing wage laws do not raise construction costs on public projects but do increase investment in skills, improve health and safety, and lower dependence of construction workers on safety net programs."