Friday: PUSH THROUGH OMNIBUS REFORM NOW *

Talk about a wake up call:

Some of the Brewers apparently discussed how they could keep the game from getting further out of hand, and steps were taken. Manager Ken Macha replaced his entire heart of the order late in the game, and third base coach Brad Fischer had the stop sign up at every turn. (P-G, Dejan Kovacevic)

Now, some folks blame the Nuttings or Kevin McClatchy or whoever's in charge of the Pirates at any given moment -- but we really need to do something about Major League Baseball. The NFL and the NHL have things in place like broadcast revenue sharing and salary caps for teams. That encourages more competitive games and more engaging seasons and storylines -- thrilling families and consumers while strengthening everybody's bottom line. Thought you knew.

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Pharmacy, woo!

Hill District residents rejoiced Thursday when they learned that Duquesne University in the fall will open the first pharmacy their neighborhood has seen in a decade. (P-G, Bill Zlatos)

No city officials have been quoted for these stories that I can see. Can it be that the private sector -slash- higher education -slash- the faith community just cold stepped up to the plate? The Hill House also had to have something to do with this, if not formally then by simply being right there.

Got to love the Dukes for this -- this is a BFD -- but got to expect them to bring it up next time Pittsburgh talks about levying taxes on or motivating payments in lieu of taxes from our eds, meds and insurers. Different conversation. Apples and orchards. Oranges and groves.

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Now guess who gets to tangle with the Legacy of Legal Excellence? The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, that's who.

A spokesman for Mr. Zappala's office declined to comment. (P-G, Paula Reed Ward)

The OOR is an agency of Penna. state government, its determinations are binding (see .pdf) and the 30 day window for filing an appeal has passed.

It appears as though D.A. Zappala is forcing the defendant to litigate his own performance of the execution of her duly established rights -- thereby dragging the affair out and compelling her to keep contracting her most expensive and sophisticated attorneys. This would make sense if the D.A. represented any other kind of plaintiff in the world ("She deserves it, let her suffer!"), but D.A. stands for District Attorney. So it has to be something else -- at least officially.

*-UPDATE: D.A. Zappala asserts "This is all nonsense." (Trib, Jeremy Boren)

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I wouldn't be playing straight with you if I didn't share with you this piece. Who knows, it may complicate things. Something about the reemergence of the former Governor of Illinois seems epic in its inevitability.