Transit Users, Some in Tears, Warn of Fallout from Proposed Transit Cuts from the Slag Heap blog at the Pittsburgh City Paper
"Tina Janoss's voice broke as she explained the implications of cutting bus service in her Homestead neighborhood. Her son has special needs; her husband also suffers from multiple health issues."
The Post-Gazette has more on the story HERE.

PERSPECTIVE!!

Uphill Climb: Perry Hilltop Struggles to Keep Pace with Changes on the North Side (Jacob Flannick) from Pittsburgh City Paper
"You can't just give money to a community and expect to change it."

OPINION!!

How to Extract Gas Responsibly (Joe Nocera) from the New York Times 
"Fracking isn’t going away. ... One thing I’ve always liked about the Environmental Defense Fund is its hardheaded approach. Founded by scientists, it believes in data, not hysteria. It promotes market incentives to change behavior and isn’t afraid to work with industry. Utterly nonpartisan, it is oriented toward practical policy solutions. And that has been its approach to fracking."

CMU's Aquion Energy to Expand Manufacturing in Pittsburgh Region, Add 400+ Jobs from Imagine Pittsburgh Online
"Innovative grid-level battery maker Aquion Energy is going from university spinoff to major manufacturer. Aquion has leased  a portion of RIDC Westmoreland, the former Sony Technology Center in East Huntingdon Township near New Stanton, which closed in March 2010.  It will move its 70 employees from its headquarters and low-volume manufacturing space in Lawrenceville to the new facility in 2013, and expects to create more than 400 high-tech manufacturing jobs by the end of 2015."

Cutting Deep: Corbett Budget Would Put Social Services Further Out of Reach (Lauren Daley) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"If you're one of the nearly 16,000 Pennsylvanians waiting to receive services for Down syndrome, autism or another intellectual disability, you may be waiting a long time. "The only way a person can get any services or support is if someone passes away or someone leaves the state," says Sheila Stasko, statewide coordinator of the PA Waiting List Campaign."

ANALYSIS!!

On Marcellus Shale, Show Me the Money (Seamus McGraw) from the Pittsburgh Quarterly
"How much economic benefit is the Marcellus Shale bringing to the region and where are those dollars going?"

Pittsburgh to be Home to Massive Movie Production Effort from the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The best film and video production facility for movies outside Southern California will reside in Pittsburgh.
The Tribune-Review has more on the story HERE.

The College Cost Question (Reid Frazier) from the Pittsburgh Quarterly [Fall, 2011]
"Tuition costs are rising. How are so many still putting their children through school?"

Committee to Present Economic-Growth Plan to Washington Council from the Observer-Reporter [of Washington & Greene counties]
"Several years ago, the city of Washington coordinated a loan pool program to assist people who wanted to either purchase property or open a business. That program, however, was never fully implemented, said Councilman Matt Staniszewski, who a few months ago was asked by a group of property owners and business people to participate in a think tank they called the Washington Business Development Association's Economic Restructuring Committee. Now, after several meetings, Staniszewski said the committee is prepared to present council with a new plan to spur economic growth in the city. The plan will be presented at council's agenda meeting at 6 p.m. Monday."

Nonprofits Do More with Less Thanks to Forbes Funds from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"For most nonprofits, shoestring budgets used to be long enough to feed the hungry, serve the disabled and pursue the environmental cause. But they're not long enough today, and need is piling up. While more Americans are struggling to cling to self-sufficiency, nonprofits are finding strength in huddles -- "our new reality," said Diana Bucco, president of The Forbes Funds. "Even in better economic times, this is a healthy progression.""

Earthjustice Study Targets Pollution by Small Power Plants from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Some small industrial power plants, which provide heat and electricity to refineries, chemical plants, steel mills and other major manufacturing facilities, play a big, unhealthy role in polluting the air in
Pennsylvania and across the U.S., according to a new study by Earthjustice."

Pittsburgh Metro Region Ranks Among the Best from the Pittsburgh Business Times 
"Pittsburgh ranks with Austin, Seattle and Minneapolis among the strongest non-prime real estate markets in the country, a status expected to continue to improve but remain below traditional major markets New York, Boston, Dallas and San Francisco."

Universities Warn of More Subsidy Cuts from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"Cutting more state funding from Pennsylvania's largest universities is forcing them to essentially become private institutions, said University of Pittsburgh's chancellor as he and other top administrators called on lawmakers to again restore their millions in subsidies."

Pittsburgh Public Schools Gets $1 Million Heinz Grant: Achievement Gap, Transition Targeted from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The Heinz Endowments is putting $1 million behind the efforts of Pittsburgh Public Schools to increase equity, reduce the racial achievement gap and help provide a smooth transition as Pittsburgh Oliver High School closes and students are reassigned to Pittsburgh Perry this fall."

State Grants to Fund Rail, Airport Projects in Region from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
"Gov. Tom Corbett this afternoon announced $33 million in state grants for rail and airport projects across the state, including $9.2 million for seven projects in the Pittsburgh region."

New York Court Affirms Towns' Powers To Ban Fracking (Lena Groeger) from the National Memo
"In a decision that could set a national precedent for how local governments can regulate gas drilling, a New York state court yesterday ruled for the first time that towns have the right to ban drilling despite a state regulation asserting they cannot."

Washington County Leaders Discuss Energy Surge from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Washington County business and government leaders on Thursday talked up the "energy surge" that has led to $200 million in investments and job growth, recently counted among the nation's biggest."

OPINION!!

Now and the Future: A Benchmark Report Captures the Region's Progress from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The region's more diversified economy is creating jobs in education, financial services, energy and medicine. On top of this, other strengths -- a moderate cost of living, a lively arts community, the chance to see three major professional sports teams, and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation -- have enabled the 32-county region to attract more people than are leaving. As Mr. Heuck remarked, "It's a total change for our area."

Taxing Times: Confusion Around County Reassessment Tough on Home Buyers, Sellers (Charlie Deitch) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"A week later, Judge Stanton Wettick told county employees to ignore Fitzgerald. If county workers didn't send out the new bills, he warned, they'd risk being held in contempt of court. Two days after that. Wettick himself decided to postpone using the new values until next year.
Confused? Just imagine how a real-estate agent — or someone looking to buy or sell a home — must feel."

Allegheny County Grants Available for Tourism, Infrastructure from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Feb. 29 is the last day for local governments and nonprofit organizations in Allegheny County to apply for the latest round of infrastructure and tourism grants. The $6.6 million in annual funding for the program comes from taxes on gambling casinos and is administered by the county's redevelopment authority."

Vanishing ACCESS: Massive Cuts Planned for County's Paratransit Service (Lauren Daley) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"In addition to the proposed elimination of 46 bus routes, severe reduction to the remaining lines, layoffs of up to 500 employees and the closure of at least one operating division, the transit agency has also proposed a massive service reduction and fare increase for ACCESS. ... It's going to be like being on house arrest." "

More Than Half Of Older High School Dropouts Not Employed Today from the Huffington Post
"More than half of the high school dropouts in America above age 25 are currently out of work, according to The Wall Street Journal. Americans who didn't finish high school seem to be bearing the brunt of the country's unemployment crisis..."

ANALYSIS!!

Beware the Free Lunch: A Critique of the Proposal to Privatize Pennsylvania’s Wine and Liquor Sales from the Keystone Research Center 
"Privatization, therefore, would have resulted in an estimated $113 million less revenue for the Commonwealth in FY 2010-11 than the current system."

OPINION!!

Happy Landings: A Revived Airline Eyes a Pittsburgh Comeback from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"There's no question the airport needs more flights and the people who take them -- and that makes the news that PeoplExpress is reviving an old brand and is eying a presence in Pittsburgh especially encouraging. As Post-Gazette staff writer Mark Belko wrote last week, the airline's plan is to concentrate on routes that have been largely abandoned by other airlines -- such as West Palm Beach and Providence, R.I."

'Pittsburgh Today' Study: Region Rates Well in Job Creation, Economy from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A new report card for Pittsburgh shows that more people are moving to this area than leaving and that the region's increasingly diversified economy is generating jobs in education, financial services, energy and medicine."

Pittsburgh Stacks Up Strongly in Annual Benchmarking Report from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Pittsburgh metro area was a national leader in job growth from December 2010 through December 2011, up 2.35 percent as it added 26,700 positions, posted one of the lowest unemployment rates at 6.6 percent, and has become a region where more people arrive than depart."

Oakland Locals Clash with Pitt Students from the Pitt News [of the University of Pittsburgh]
"... for Giampolo and other lifelong Oakland residents, the rapid expansion of Pitt over the last few decades has presented a clash of two different cultures, causing residents of the community to question the practices of the University that serves as the centerpiece of the community."

Ronell Guy a New Voice in the Fight for Housing from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"There are a host of female leaders in Pittsburgh who continue to fight for equality among the Black community in Pittsburgh, such as Alma Speed Fox, M. Gayle Moss, Esther Bush and others. There are also a number of familiar faces, but least recognized, out there in the trenches and doing their part to continue to fight is Ronell Guy. Guy, executive director of the Northside Coalition for Fair Housing, uses her love and dedication for people to continue to be an advocate for equality for all."

State Urged to Help Homeless Veterans as Their Ranks Grow from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Pennsylvania has at least 1,400 military veterans who are homeless due to drug abuse, lack of job skills."

Production Rises from Marcellus Gas Wells from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"Production from the commonwealth's Marcellus Shale gas wells increased again during the final six months of 2011, boosting their output by more than 40 percent over the previous reporting period. The new data, released by the Department of Environmental Protection today, shows more than 2,200 producing wells, an increase of more than 500 since the first half of 2011."

Clayton Academy's Troubled Students Get Second Chance from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"In sixth- through 12th-grade classrooms throughout the city, these students were so disruptive they made it difficult for teachers ... At Clayton Academy, they walk quietly through the halls -- single file, with their hands behind their backs -- and sit in classrooms doing their work. The transformation doesn't happen overnight..."

OPINION!!

Missing the Bus: Corbett Saying, Doing Little to Handle State's Mass-Transit Crisis (Lauren Daley) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"Lawmakers and transportation advocates were patiently waiting for Gov. Tom Corbett's Feb. 7 budget address to see if the governor would propose a funding solution for Pennsylvania's grossly under-funded roads, bridges and mass-transit systems.  They're still waiting."

Educators, Parents Express Worries and Hopes for Westinghouse School from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"In her first meeting with parents and the community since the new Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 opened, school superintendent Linda Lane described the troubled opening simply: "Things did not go the way we wanted them to go. They absolutely did not ... I do apologize for how things went," Ms. Lane said Thursday night, to some applause."

Education Experts Say District Not Listening from the New Pittsburgh Courier
The Community Empowerment Association town hall meeting “Whose Educating Our Black Children: The Culture of Silence,” convened education experts from around the Pittsburgh area. ... “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” The panelists at the discussion at Obama Academy on Feb. 11 said educators and researchers have data to show which programs and models are helping to reduce the achievement gap between Black and White students, and which ones aren’t. However they said administrators and board members in the Pittsburgh Public School District are not listening."

Plans Progress for Airport Development in Greene County from the Observer-Reporter [of Washington and Greene counties]
"If all goes according to plan, a three of four-story hotel, some restaurants and retail stores could become part of the Greene County Airport landscape along Route 21. The commissioners Thursday entered into a master development agreement with Scalo-Summa for phase one development of a six-acre parcel at the airport."

Marcellus Training Targets Blacks from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"The North Side, like many Pittsburgh neighborhoods, suffers from an abundance of young unemployed Black men. But several organizations, led by Mentors Consulting and Training, have teamed up to change that by offering some of them training to work on shale gas rigs."

PERSPECTIVE!!

Tough Love? Corbett Cuts Higher Ed, Chastises Schools for Tuition Hikes (Chris Potter) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"For students at the University of Pittsburgh and other state-supported schools, Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget is bad enough: It cuts millions from higher education from an already lean state appropriation. But to add insult to injury, Corbett used his Feb. 7 budget address to argue he was doing students a favor."

Pittsburgh is PeoplExpress Airlines' 'Major Focus' from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PeoplExpress, the no-frills carrier that failed in the 1980s, is preparing a comeback and is counting on Pittsburgh International Airport to help in the revival. The start-up airline, which hopes to start flying in July, sees Pittsburgh as a "major focus city" in its network, with the goal of serving markets lost to travelers because of cutbacks by US Airways and other carriers."
I loved PeoplExpress back in the eighties!

South Side Residents Vocal on Proposed 'Improvement District' from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Tempers flared Tuesday night as a group of South Side residents and business owners discussed the possibility of creating a Neighborhood Improvement District."

$1 Million to Urban League to Expand GED Programs from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
"The affiliates will use the money this summer to take on 100 additional GED clients and offer preparation courses, career coaching, financial literacy training and life skills training."

Federal Energy Budget: All About Clean Tech, Shale from the Energy Inc. blog at the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The gist of President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal is more money for clean energy, less for fossil fuels, and what fossil fuel money there is should be spent with a heavy emphasis on shale research and development."

Law School Hosts Sustainable Development Forum from the Pitt News [from the University of Pittsburgh]
"On Monday, the Pitt School of Law’s Innovation Practice Institute and the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law hosted a forum entitled “Building Sustainable Neighborhoods: Powering Sustainable Development in Allegheny County” at the Phipps Conservatory. The
conference brought together legislators, attorneys, businesspeople and academic scholars to discuss the region’s capability to pave the way for alternative energy sources across the country."

How LBGTQTA friendly is Pitt? from the Pitt News [of the University of Pittsburgh]
From a Richard Florida point-of-view, this might be considered an economic development issue.
"Will Benham found himself facing public harassment late one night while walking home from a friend’s house in South Oakland. Jeers from a man in a passing car came as a result of the Pitt junior’s decision to hold his boyfriend’s hand."

Burden on Property Owners for Appeals from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"Hearing officers will operate under the assumption that all values are correct; owners must prove otherwise."

Top International Science Fair Coming to Pittsburgh: Volunteers, Judges, Interpreters Needed from Imagine Pittsburgh
"On May 13-18, Pittsburgh will host more than 1,500 of the best and brightest high school students from 65 countries for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Intel ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, in which young scientists compete for more than $4 million in prizes and scholarships."

$17 Million Committed to Federal North Project from the New Pittsburgh Courier 
"A stretch of West North Avenue once noted mostly for winos sleeping in doorways and porno theater patrons will soon be known for several new restaurants and loft apartments with the commitment of $17 million in development scheduled to begin this summer. The “Garden Block Renovation Project” announced at a Jan. 30 press conference, will renovate 10 buildings including the Masonic Hall and Garden Theater, creating new apartment, office retail and dining space as part of the ongoing
Federal/North redevelopment project."

Sto-Rox Anti-Dropout Program Targets Black Girls from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"In 2005, only seven African-American females graduated from Sto-Rox High School, even though African-Americans make up approximately 40 percent of the student population. To combat this tragedy, Marlene Banks, community and parent liaison for the Sto-Rox School District, launched the Reaching My Potential program to help Black female students at risk of dropping out."

EPA Probing Washington County Shale Operations: Federal Agency Looking for Violations in Air, Water, Soil from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether specific Marcellus Shale drilling and compressor station operations in Washington County have caused environmental damage that violates federal regulations."

Gas Firms Drill Less as Prices Nose Dive from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
"As natural gas prices continue to drop, the recent nationwide boom in drilling is slowing. Drillers don't make money if prices go too low, and drilling wells is not cheap."

EDITORIAL!!

Gas Bill: Shale Drillers Got the Better Part of the Deal from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"Pennsylvania already has a love-hate relationship with Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Enthusiasm for the prospect of good jobs and generous payments to property owners who lease their land has been tempered by worries about the prospects for harm to the state's air, water, roads and quality of life. To handle that duality, the state needed the right combination of taxation and limitation. Regulations passed last week by the Legislature -- dealing with well fees, zoning restrictions and environmental impact -- fail on both counts."

Community Empowerment Association (CEA) Lays Out 4-point Community Plan from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"In 2011, a number of community organizations hosted meetings, conferences and workshops dedicated to improving conditions in the Black community and addressing issues such as Black-on-Black violence, education and various social inequities. One such event was Community Empowerment Association’s October conference “Mitigating the Impact of Social & Psychological Trauma to the Social Fabric of the African American Community.” Beyond CEA’s meetings, conferences and workshops focused on community activism, the organization also runs several youth programs. But what happens at the end of these conferences, after the closing remarks and next steps?"

Needy Patients Facing Double Setback as Medicaid Cuts Pinch Area's Nursing Homes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Set against proposed 30 percent cuts in state higher education funding, Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 4 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursements looks reasonable enough. But for Pennsylvania nursing homes -- where the majority of residents are on medical assistance -- this cut would follow an 11.1 percent decrease in Medicare reimbursement imposed in October by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As a result, individuals on Medicaid could find it more difficult to find a nursing home that will accept them."

Buncher Plans Progress in Strip District from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Buncher Co. moved another step forward today in its plan to take down one-third of the Pennsylvania Railroad Fruit Action Terminal Building in order to pursue the redevelopment of the rest of the structure as part of a larger plan for a new mixed-use development on the company’s surrounding land in the Strip District..."

EDITORIAL!!

Lost Opportunity: Corbett's Choices Will Hurt Pennsylvanians from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"His second plan, $27.1 billion for 2012-13, reads much like the first, with deep funding cuts and a cold shoulder toward new revenues. He called his budget "lean and demanding," but it looks more like a lost
opportunity. For the second year in a row, Mr. Corbett refuses to consider a severance tax on deep natural gas drilling, a booming energy sector that routinely pays the tax to support other states in which it operates. But the governor, true to his no-tax-hike pledge, refuses to let Pennsylvania go that route."

Pitt Awarded $22 Million Energy Grant from the Pitt News [from the University of Pittsburgh]
"Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering received a $22 million grant — one of the largest private foundation grants in Pitt’s history — to help the school become a national center for energy and research development."

Nobody Home: The Rise of Vacancy from Pittsburgh Today
"Vacant and blighted properties are increasing across southwestern Pennsylvania, the state and the nation, robbing local governments of desperately needed tax revenue, consuming millions of tax dollars, eroding housing values, posing health and safety risks and complicating the already challenging job of reviving distressed neighborhoods. In Allegheny County, a program for turning tax-delinquent vacant properties into community assets doesn’t come close to keeping pace with the rate at which properties become vacant. And the story is the same throughout southwestern Pennsylvania."

Corbett Proposes 30 percent Cut to State-related Funding for Universities from the Pitt News [of the University of Pittsburgh]
"Another proposed budget, another blow to higher education. Gov. Tom Corbett announced on Tuesday his $27.4 billion state budget proposal, which slashed spending and suggested cutting Pitt’s state funding by 30 percent — from $136 million to $95.2 million — for the coming fiscal year."

Appeals Aid Approved for City Homeowners from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
Pittsburgh homeowners may begin calling 311, the city's service line, to get the city's help fighting new property assessments. City council gave final approval Tuesday to a package of assistance that will be available to Pittsburgh homeowners 65 and older and to other city homeowners whose 2011 assessments totaled $150,000 or less."

State Senate Passes Marcellus Shale Legislation from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The Republican-negotiated measure melds the fee amounts in previous bill into a tiered system pegged against the price of natural gas, which would raise between $190,000 and $355,000 per well over 15 years. That fee is projected to raise more than $190 million retroactively for 2011, rising to $333 million by 2015."

Understanding New Impact Fee Deal Through Range's Wells in Mt. Pleasant from the Energy Inc. blog from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"To get some perspective on what this kind of impact fee would mean locally, I thought we could use Range Resources, southwestern Pennsylvania’s most active driller, as a conduit for understanding where the money would go."

Duquesne Still May Keep its Last School from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"It appears there is still hope that a K-8 school will exist in Duquesne next year despite announcements by state Education Department officials that the district's school would dissolve after the 2011-12 school year."

Allegheny County Reassessment Favors Properties with Higher Prices, Review Finds; Low-end Properties Assessed at Twice Value from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The reassessment of Pittsburgh treated expensive land and buildings gently, while overestimating the values of low-priced properties. The Allegheny County-run reassessment fell far short of the goal of
distributing the tax burden fairly among owners of high-dollar properties and residents of modest homes. Those are the findings of a Post-Gazette review of new assessments on 130,977 taxable properties in the city and Mount Oliver."

Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 School Regroups After Single-gender Plan is Scrapped; Insufficient Planning, Discipline Problems Negate Changes Sought from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The image of the first day of school at the new Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 in Homewood still sticks in one teacher's mind. "I think the first day in August was so beautiful. They came in their uniforms. You could see the expectations that things were going to be different. We're really going to focus on our learning," she said. But on Aug. 22 -- opening day of the new offerings of single-gender classes -- the school wasn't ready"

Consol Plans to Expand Operation from the Observer-Reporter [of Washington & Greene counties]
"The largest underground coal mining complex in the nation could soon be growing larger. Consol Energy Inc. is proceeding with plans to expand its Bailey Mine in Greene County, a project that will add a fifth longwall mining machine to its sprawling Bailey-Enlow Fork complex straddling the Greene and Washington county line."

Could Cheap Gas Slow Growth Of Renewable Energy? (Richard Harris) from NPR's All Things Considered
"... in the long run, cheap natural gas could slow the growth of even cleaner sources of energy, such as wind and solar power. Natural gas has a bad rap in some parts of the country, because the process of fracking is not popular. But many people looking at cheap natural gas from the global perspective see it as a good thing."

Deal at Hand on Shale Fees and Controls from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
"A deal between Republican lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett on a Marcellus Shale regulatory and impact fee measure is nearly complete, with summaries of the expected compromise plan circulating among lawmakers over the weekend. Top legislative and administration aides said action on that final plan could begin as soon as today."

Pittsburgh's Public Housing Gets Major Makeover to Stem Crime from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
"... Pittsburgh decided to start over, demolishing World War II-era projects and replacing them with spiffy apartments, townhouses and garden-style developments for people both eligible and ineligible for government assistance. It is an expensive undertaking: In the past five years alone, Pittsburgh spent about $165 million from the government and investors to build about 800 units of mixed-income housing."

EDITORIAL!!

Cabot Admits its Dimock Water Arsenic Claim was a Mistake (Donald Gilliland) from the Patriot-News [of Harrisburg]
A very damning editorial concerning the company and all the testing authorities in the Dimock gas-drilling controversy.
"The arsenic Cabot Oil & Gas recently said was not in the water in Dimock wasn’t even arsenic. It’s the Abbott and Costello “Who’s On First?” routine, Marcellus style."

EDITORIAL!!

Humane Re-test: DPW Proposes a Better Food-Stamp Standard from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"After a blizzard of criticism on its proposal to reinstate an asset test for food stamp eligibility, the administration of Gov. Tom Corbett decided Wednesday to replace its harsh initial standard with something humane. It was the right thing to do."

Freedom Rider Diane Nash: Challenges Students to Get Involved (M. Abdul-Qawiyy) from the New Pittsburgh Courier
"Known for her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee, Diane Nash spoke of her experiences as a young woman and challenged the students to get involved in change as the keynote speaker for the Pitt Black Action Society, Jan. 17 at the William Pitt Assembly room."

911th Airlift Wing to Close in Pittsburgh from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"The Air Force Reserve base and the 911th Airlift Wing in Pittsburgh is threatened with closure in the latest round of defense cuts. As many as 1,300 reservists are stationed there and 300 civilian employees work at the base that shares runways with Pittsburgh International Airport    , as well as several hundred contractors and others."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has more on the story HERE.

Bayer Opens Electric-Car Charging Station from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"Bayer Corp. opened an electric vehicle charging station at its U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, one of only eight such stations within 100 miles of Pittsburgh."

Jobless Benefits to Expire Unless Pa. House Acts from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Thousands of Pennsylvanians will see their federally funded unemployment benefits expire after this week, with legislation to extend those checks lingering in the state House of Representatives. A pending measure, which passed the state Senate last week, would offer 13 additional weeks of benefits to the state's jobless residents. The federal funding was approved by Congress in December but requires the state to tweak its unemployment compensation rules in order to receive those dollars."

PERSPECTIVE!!

For-Profit Educator EDMC Gives Employees a Tough Lesson in Modern Business (Charlie Deitch) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"Education Management Corporation is one of Pittsburgh's most prominent employers. But not everyone was hurting when the for-profit educator, which owns the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and other schools around the country, laid off hundreds of workers last Thursday. "

American Airlines to Cut 13,000 Jobs from the Pittsburgh Business Times 
"The parent company of American Airlines    , the seventh-biggest airline serving Pittsburgh International Airport, could lay off as many as 13,000 employees in a restructuring effort to save as much as $2 billion a year." 

PERSPECTIVE!!

Bumpy Ride: Port Authority Getting Set for Massive Service Cuts, Rate Hikes (Lauren Daley) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"It's a big step to the death of public transit in Allegheny County, as well as the death of a livable city."

Mayor, Pittsburgh Council Agree on Plan to Help City Residents Appeal New Assessments from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 
"Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office today agreed on plans to subsidize home appraisals for city residents planning to appeal their new property assessments. Under the program, the city would negotiate an appraisal cost with state-certified property appraisers and pay half that cost."