"It's a very difficult time to be raising hundreds of millions of dollars," said Joseph Weinert, senior vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, an industry consultant. "I don't think any industry looks forward to going to the market right now." (P-G, Mark Belko)Word on the street has turned in terms of the seriousness of these concerns about Mr. Barden's capacity.
Asked to name a single economist who supported [the gas tax holiday], Mrs. Clinton instead got in a subtle dig at her opponent, who she has repeatedly tarred as an elitist after Mr. Obama made remarks describing small-town Pennsylvanians as clinging to guns and religion out of bitterness with government's failure to help them.
"I think we've been for the last seven years seeing a tremendous amount of government power and elite opinion basically behind policies that haven't worked well for the middle class and hard-working Americans," she said.
"You know, it's really odd to me," she added, "that arguing to give relief to the vast majority of Americans creates this incredible push-back. When the federal government, through the Fed and the Treasury, gave $30 billion in a bailout to Bear Stearns, I didn't hear anybody jump up and say, 'That's not going according to the market. That's rewarding irresponsible behavior.'
"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," she said. (P-G, Mackenzie Carpenter)
Word on the street is turning about a lot of things.
The paper cites two other common miscues: "motivated blindness," in which people are unable to make an objective ethical decision if they have an interest in the outcome (think Enron's auditors) and "the slippery slope," in which people fail to blow the whistle on unethical behavior if it happens gradually. (P-G, Mark Roth)
Just saying.
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Some commercial real estate agents estimate the 28 acres at the Mellon Arena site -- near the confluence of Downtown, Uptown and the Hill District -- could be worth as much as $70 to $100 a square foot, or between $85.3 million and nearly $122 million. (Trib, Boren and Vellucci)
And every penny worth it! Splendid negotiating! The Comet will wear this grin though CBA negotiations until it gives us lockjaw!
Although One Hill Chairman Carl Redwood said there are a few companies "lined up" to contribute to the program, he would not say who they were.
When asked if the Penguins were one of them, he said, "Not necessarily."
Penguins' officials were more frank. "[The contributor] won't be the Penguins," said Ron Porter, the team's senior consultant. "The Penguins will support [the program]."
According to Frazier, "The Penguins have agreed that they would help identify the right corporate sponsors." (C-P, Chris Young)
UPMC decided to contribute matching funds, up to a certain point, to its Pittsburgh Promise. How can anyone be motivated to contribute to this Neighborhood Partnership Program if the Penguins themselves are not willing to demonstrate that it is a worthwhile venture?
As to Barden needing the building to get slots going to get property tax relief -- hummmmm.
ReplyDeleteLet's sell Don Barden the Convention Center, ASAP.
He can run conventions and slots! Things could roll next month.
If he wants to build on the North Side in a few years -- fine.
Hillary Clinton cannot name one economist who supports the idea of a gas tax holiday, even though if you ask ten economists a question you are supposed to get ten diffeent answers. Instead Clinton is branding her opponent as someone who holds elite opinions. If we want that kind of attitude, we should just leave Bush in power. I guess those Yale Law grads are more down to earth than Harvard Law grads. At least the Yalies who came from upper middle class CHicago suburbs.
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