Judge: No More Weeks of Occupy

Any advice? Will be sure to pass it along.

What will the News in NeoPittsburgh Be Like?

The Municipality is borrowing $80 million for its capital needs over this year and the next, and it somehow seems drenched in signs and portents.

"You're going to see a different city now," Councilman Ricky Burgess, the finance chairman, predicted after council gave the borrowing final approval.

Officials said market interest in the borrowing, which comes about two weeks after two ratings agencies revised the city's financial outlook from "negative" to "stable," offered additional evidence of the city's financial progress.

"This is proof positive that our mayor has been leading the city on strong fiscal ground and is leading us toward economic recovery," Mr. Burgess said. (P-G, Joe Smydo)

This is where the Comet and I both typically get hung up over what sort of image I and we should pair with the blog post. Something cheerful and optimistic like this?



Or something with a wry and cynical edge, albeit a bit easy to miss?



Do we latch onto the concept of "transformation" to smash-cut to something civilly jarring?




Trib writers seem to have the most fun sometimes. (Trib, Rick Willis)

Then again, what's wrong with progress already?

Developers of a long-blighted North Side block at North Avenue and Federal Street said on Friday that they signed a lease with Nakama restaurant, which should help jump-start development there. (Trib, Thomas Olson)

As a Deutschtowner, it's fantastic to see some momentum around that intersection. I was holding my breath for a Trader Joe's or an East End Co-op North to spring up there and I guess I still am since as a member of the 1% sandwiched between the top 85% and the bottom 14% I could actually use one of those. Again, it's exciting but I'm having a hard time envisioning how Light of Life Ministries, the ARC House and the old YMCA are going to interact with this...




Wait, what the butt? Where is that image of Celebrity Chef Ravenstahl flipping a shrimp and trying to catch it in his mouth? We were going to crop it and everything!

Alright. Anyway, back to the bond issuance, or that is, the $80 million we're putting on our credit card because we've been good and finally qualified for a metallurgical-caliber card. What do the experts say?

So, the city took out this huge loan which seems like a sort of good idea. On the one hand, the refinancing should help out with their last loan but on the other hand, it seems a little like we're still paying off our undergraduate degree in psychology and have decided to get a Master's degree...at 30k/year. I guess I would be less worried if I knew exactly what all of this money was going to be spent on. (The Collected Notes of Secret Agent Ska)

Oh boy, now the wheels are really coming off. Any sense of decency and prudence is falling by the wayside.



And it's not like we have a gigantic cushion.

Anyway, ahem. "Experts":

Thing is that these bonds are callable on March 1, 2012, with a minimum of a 30 day notice to the registered holders of those bonds. 30 days left of March 1st is... tomorrow? You are talking seriously down to the wire in all of this. (Null Space)

Right, good to know some things are immutable. And...?

Like I said.. not quite the stuff for a general audience, but beyond any headlines on this, there must be a very serious inside game of poker going on between the city, ICA and everyone else involved in the timing of this. Given how much ink we spill over some incredibly minutia things, you think this all would get a little more coverage or public debate. (ibid)

Oh yeah, "coverage!" That old thing.




It's not as easy as the professionals make it look:

For more than a year, reporters and anchors seeking a contract through collective bargaining at WTAE-TV (Channel 4) have been stonewalled by owner Hearst TV. After 13 bargaining sessions, Hearst still refuses employee proposals for such basic contract standards as:

• Severance benefits when the station fires a worker without cause.
• A minimum salary scale.
• Overtime pay after eight hours work in a day.
• Retirement plan benefits on same terms as other employees at the station.
• Consideration for unscheduled call-outs, split shifts and work on the sixth consecutive day and thereafter.

Meanwhile, Hearst signed collective-bargaining agreements containing these basic standards in six other cities: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Boston, New Orleans and Omaha. (Fairness 4 WTAE)

Not going to have time to cover this story at every base, but those are some pretty reasonable proposals for any workers to put forward -- much less highly skilled and educated ones with good teeth and cheekbones. Therefore in our autonomous capacity we / I / the Comet endorses WTAE workers' demands (nyeah nyeah) not to be treated worse than your average Hollywood Video trainee just because there's a steady stream of starving single childless journalism graduates out there desperate to catch a break. You have the website already, now sign the petition, follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, and subscribe to their YouTubage.

We need real reporters. Could you imagine the state of things if there wasn't any good reporting?



I know, right? What?

Friday: Diving In!

Yes!

I love it when anything winds up in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. They deserve their very own leitmotif.

Lamar Advertising, based in Baton Rouge, filed suit on Wednesday, asking Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to void the legislation passed by an 8-1 vote of City Council on Dec. 19. Lamar claims the ordinance is critically flawed by procedural errors and violates its First Amendment rights. (Trib, Bob Bauder)

First, I will have to check to see if I know any good civil rights lawyers.

Second, I was just thinking about the Kamins, I forget why. I was thinking they're always reliable to go stately forth and deliver an old-fashioned, "This is a violation of the most shocking caliber! Not since colonial Boston have we seen such an affront to economic liberty!"

"This bill was a compromise," said Councilman Patrick Dowd, a co-sponsor. "Lamar was involved with this. None of us got what we wanted, including me." (ibid)

If Dowd was in the majority on this one and the City enacted it, I'm sure it's fine. Legally speaking. The City as a whole brings its A-game to carefully vet politically charged things -- it's most everything else that might potentially be problematic.

Expect this law suit to take a long time. A very very long zzzzzz.......

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Now on to things that are crucial:

Moody's and Standard & Poor's both said they are convinced the city has attained financial stability in recent years. City officials credited the upgrade by Moody's from an A1 negative to A1 stable rating and Standard and Poor's BBB negative to BBB stable rating to their trip to New York City last week where they met with agency representatives. (Trib, Bob Bauder)

It's like the Ravenstahl team is just toying with the competition. Here you go, up and took our Spiffy New Council to New York City, New York City did we mention, and together won the confidence of the world's most powerful investors. Saved us a small fortune.

It's early, but they're so good at this.

It's also a data point in favor of the proposition that the Great Midnight Pension Solution was for real, for real -- or that Wall Street doesn't actually know what we did. Or doesn't care to understand. Or knows better than the vast majority of us.

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Onward! By car, foot or bicycle.

[State Rep. Dan] Frankel said he had seen evidence of "the inklings of a bipartisan solution" to provide more funds for transportation projects. (P-G, Len Barcousky)

So expect service cuts somewhat more mild than the draconian ones now placed on the table. The same thing we get every year. The chances of a new subway "spine line" extension from Downtown to Oakland being announced in 2012 are ... steady, let's call it? (For a passing glance at the political calculus, see link.)

"The Port Authority's problems were created locally, and they should be solved locally," [Gov. Corbett spokes] Kevin Harley said. "For years, generous contracts and high management salaries, combined with unrealistic pension costs, have strained the system to the breaking point. Gov. Corbett wants to see the problem solved, but the Democrats, who have controlled Allegheny County for all but a handful of the past 80 years, will have to do their part." (ibid)

I'm sorry Mr. Republican conservative sir! We don't deserve decent public transportation! The only way to save mass transit is to destroy it, Outbreak-style! Bus drivers don't deserve to be able to afford to put their kids through some college and to retire, simply because they can be relied upon for years upon decades to pilot hulking and sometimes bending vehicles safely in this weather and through this terrain! Just don't hit us in the food stamps again, m'lord! #cringe

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If you've spaced out on Null Space because property assessments ain't your thing, 1) shame on you for six weeks and 2) you may not fully appreciate the tale of the purple-coloured river.

Maria of 2PJ's highlights some of the adversity facing Mitt Romney v. 10.4.11. It's like, he's a been a robot, right? Perfectly performing mechanics, this is common knowledge? Only now we actually, finally can see him shorting out. "Inquiry cannot be responded to with standard reference to free market ideology, can not be responded to with an appeal to military might or Divine right, cannot be resolved by an attack on incumbent, must account for own existence [whir, click] frank lack of empathy, er, horrible awkward joke, er, irrationally simple lies, clueless, clueless, Error Message 657" and frozen.


Here is Occupy Pittsburgh's legal page in regards to their matter with some bank -- I think it's Bank of America? -- including all court filings, hearing transcripts and a slightly dated but still usable FAQ.

What Will the Reassessments Fiasco Reveal?

This appears in today's Tribune-Review:

Laurel: To Chris Briem. Numbers crunched by the Pitt researcher suggest what Allegheny County's panderers of populist anti-reassessment pap don't want you to know: Sixty-five percent of residential properties in the City of Pittsburgh would see their real estate taxes drop. Fewer than 25 percent would see property tax bills rise by 10 percent or more. Here's to the truth trumping the political tricksters. (Trib, Edit Board)

Even more tellingly, this appears in today's Null Space:

So it's been an interesting couple of days. Sincere thanks for all the notes of support and sympatico along the way. (Null Space)

With:

Can we all at least agree on the issue being data transparency, openness and why we don't even know what is known. So the very first question is will the new assessment numbers reappear on the county web site anytime soon? Has anyone asked that question? Not there as I write this is all I know. Will they release a full data set or will we all have to become a county of hackers to scrape it over and over again? (ibid)

All of a sudden I recognize a sort of distinct, woodsy aroma, with hints of ozone. The bloggers are now entering the Heinz Red Zone. Stop by your local Giant Eagle for great deals on thick and rich Heinz Ketchup.

Guy Fawkeseses Day: Our Day In Court!

Symbolically that is, as one among 99 Jane Does and John Does.

"Is that called rickrolling?" asked Daniel I. Booker, an attorney for BNY Mellon, which is asking the court for a preliminary injunction to have the protesters removed.

"Yes," Mr. Lawson said, prompting court spectators to roar with laughter. (P-G, Moriah Balingit)

I still think that's hysterical. Mad solidarity with the Internet.

SEE ALSO: Trib, Bill Vidonic

Jess and the Marcellus Shale

Do You Get Occupy At All?