News

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will abstain from signing a bill that calls for a voter referendum on banning Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

But that's not stopping City Council from attempting to go through with the ballot question anyway.

The bill, passed by Council on August 1, will become law without the Mayor's signature after ten days. But August 9 is the last day a referendum can be added to the November ballot, so it seems that the measure has effectively failed to make it to this year's polls.

"We are going to be here one day longer than they are. It's personal," said CWA local 13500 member John Vignovic as he picketed outside of the Verizon office downtown Monday. He was joined by a few hundred other union members protesting the lack of a new contract with the company.

The latest contract expired at midnight Saturday. "Verizon hasn't budged an inch. They are not receptive. They are not listening to any of our requests. They are not answering any of our questions," said Vignovic.

There are dueling employment reports on Pennsylvania's manufacturing sector—one's outlook is positive, but the other's is a bit more sour.

Manufacturer's News, Inc. of Illinois reported this week that "industrial employment in Pennsylvania remained virtually unchanged" from June 2010 to June 2011. The news release said Pennsylvania bucked the national trend and lost fewer than 2,600 industrial jobs over that time, leaving a grand total of more than 800,000 jobs.

Natural gas suppliers who drill in the Marcellus Shale will be able to use a new processing facility by the start of 2013.

Dominion Resources has announced it will build a major natural gas processing facility in Natrium, in the panhandle of West Virginia. The $500 million project is slated for completion by the end of next year.

Dominion spokesman Dan Donovan said the plant will be the second of its kind for the energy company, more versatile than the sub-processing facilities currently used. It will be able to process 200 million cubic feet of natural gas every day.

Seven city schools would close starting in the 2012-2013 school year, under a cost-cutting plan announced today by Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Superintendent Linda Lane said Both Oliver and Langley High Schools would close under the proposal, which is meant to save the cash-strapped district at least $7 million each year.

The plan would also close five elementary and middle schools, including Fort Pitt, Murray, Northview, Schaeffer, and Stevens.

It's Saturday morning and Father Dan Walsh and his neighbor Jim McCue have joined the throngs of Pittsburghers who shop in the Strip District, a veritable Mecca of fresh foods. The men split up long grocery lists. "I'll get the fish and see you over there", says Walsh to McCue.

The Republican candidate for Allegheny County Executive laid out his plan to grow jobs and keep jobs in the region Thursday. D. Raja, a businessman and former Mt. Lebanon Commissioner, ran through a Power Point presentation of his ideas at the Etcetera Edutainment headquarters in the Strip District.

Pittsburgh's East End has seen its share of redevelopment in recent years, and now the Department of City Planning hopes to map out a transportation plan to get people to and from those new sites.

City Planning officials are slated to talk with residents and organizations Thursday about what new transportation infrastructure the area needs, to decide if they should adopt a "Transit Revitalization Improvement District" for East Liberty.

The number of infections caused by tainted milk from a Beaver County dairy continues to rise, as state officials undertake an investigation into the farm. Five people were sickened by the bad milk last week, and that number climbed to eight today.
The Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Agriculture have teamed up to begin testing for bacteria at the Brunton Dairy in Aliquippa.

A Pittsburgh-based computerized neurocognitive assessment tool company is looking to put its product into the hands of coaches and trainers at 3,300 schools nation-wide with the help of Dick's Sporting Goods. ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) has produced a highly touted testing system that helps to evaluate how well an athlete has recovered from a concussion. The computer-based test will be administered to as many as one million high school and junior high athletes in an effort to get a base line of their cognitive skills.

After prolonged debate Monday morning, the Pittsburgh City council took a 6-3 vote to place a question on the November ballot asking city residents if they want to essentially ban Marcellus Shale drilling and other activities within city limits.