Monday: ISO a Balanced Approach

With the clock ticking closer towards financial Armageddon and no political compromise in sight, the federal government is starting to look and sound a lot like Pittsburgh. That's not good. (Wall Street Journal)

Infinonymous alerts us to the fact that a debt refinancing proposed by Mayor Ravenstahl which it is said will save 3 million precious dollars is not without controversy (Infinonymous). There was indeed a long discussion about it at the table last Wednesday, but I wasn't really tuned in and the video isn't up yet **-UPDATE II: The video is now up, and it appears Infi's speculations mirrored the amount of public due diligence applied to all such issues -- but as it turned out, there was nothing to worry about in the decision over whether to go after this financial opportunity (either generally or right now instead of "March"). It was preliminarily approved by the Council. *-UPDATE I & III: The City withdrew its pursuit of this high-to-low bond deal refinancing after all, due to investor uncertainty regarding interest rates pertaining to the aforementioned debt ceiling issue, Greece, Ireland, pension uncertainty and other things. "The numbers didn't work."

Target opened in East Liberty and it's a pretty big deal, judging by the amount of SQUEE! in my Facebook feed. (P-G, Mark Belko; Boring Pittsburgh; Null Space)

Councilman Shields asserts that his own party's County Executive nominee Rich Fitzgerald, as well as members of the ICA board, are lobbying Council to kill his Marcellus drilling ban referendum. (City Paper Slag Heap)

It seems like it's getting harder to recruit black police officers, or to retain and develop black applicants through the long hiring process. (P-G, Sadie Gurman)

One Pittsburgh -- the "recruiting campaign of Pittsburgh United" -- helped organize 600 people to attend a town hall to tell Congressional staffers that they want "good jobs". (P-G, Ann Belser)

Sue Kerr reminds / urges us to sign a petition asking the Pirates to create a video and join the It Gets Better campaign (the Pirates would know about getting better) (Change.org)