The Dream Lives On!!!

Watch very carefully at 1:48 and 1/2 ...



Also, Oscar clip: "What if you can't get aht?"

Opinio Triumphus: Open Thread

In terms of genre at least, I admire this style of clamorous, panoramic editorial:

The Post-Gazette was proud to be part of the vanguard that called for these new facilities, including the Consol Energy Center, and many of the arguments for building them and funding them were waged in this space. While the naysayers and the cynics wanted to keep public dollars out of the equation, thereby leaving this latest renaissance to chance, we were not willing to let decline take hold and turn out the lights on Pittsburgh. (P-G, Edit Board)

Ovations? Quibbles?

Crowdsourcing Powers Activate!

What the schneikies is going on here?

"Something's going on because there isn't any practical way to rationalize why people paid what they did for those properties," Mr. Sullivan said. "I don't think anyone is suggesting that they paid market value." (P-G, Mark Belko)

Go!

GasBurgh: Exploring "No". [UPDATED w/ Mayor]

Sure, we could just go after it like so many Neanderthals...

Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields today said that he's introducing legislation to ban Marcellus Shale drilling in the city. (P-G, Joe Smydo)

KDKA radio reporter/anchor/person Matt DelSignore presents us with some nuance up-front:


I've heard it argued that enacting an outright ban would draw a blisteringly immediate and successful legal injunction from the gas industry in Commonwealth court, leaving the city with no regulation whatsoever once again.

I've also heard it suggested that neglecting to "engage" in the discussion of how best to regulate natural gas drilling "leaves the City out of the conversation", perhaps obliterating some avenues by which we could affect county, state and national currents.

Still, there's something I like about this:



I just dearly hope somebody's doing the homework on "will cause damage to our community"!!!

More from DelSignore:


Ouch: and he follows up with, "DEP says there's a 99% chance this kind of ban would be unenforceable."

*-UPDATE: Mayor rides in.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl also opposes a ban, in part because drilling would create jobs, tax revenue for the state and spinoff revenue -- such as earned-income tax -- for the financially strapped city, his spokeswoman, Joanna Doven said. At the same time, she said, Mr. Ravenstahl understands concerns about potential hazards.

"What the mayor is focusing on is balancing the two," she said, noting the city is "going to prepare for any possible" pollution, well fires or other risks. (P-G, Joe Smydo)

Being welcoming to business --> not entirely unexpected or alien. "Preparing for any possible risks" --> seems like a big job depending on what it means, wonder what goes into that.