Author: Seenster

Image by mek22 via Flickr

but without the butter scuplture.

If you are thinking of running for President – then a stop at the Iowa state fair is a must.  Romney is planning to stop by on Thursday, Ron Paul will be visiting the fair on Friday and CSPAN will be providing live coverage of the fair all weekend long. And yes – there are butter sculptures at the state fair.

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Whose ready for 2012 election season? The campaigning has already begun.

State representative Eugene DePasquale will be in Pittsburgh for a Meet & Greet (looks like a fundraiser with a suggested donation of $25/person) on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Details and host committee are below – it is a pretty interesting host committee too – state reps, former state reps and campaign staffers. You can check out the Facebook event here – thus far 54 people are attending so there should be a great turnout. (more…)

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WATER’S WAYS: A Presentation & Discussion of Local Water Issues and Public Health

When: Monday, June 6, 7:00pm
Where: Jewish Community Center, 5748 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh 15217 (Squirrel Hill near Murray Ave)

Web Site: http://www.jccpgh.org/page/ajm

In conjunction with the exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water, participating artists Ann Rosenthal and Steffi Domike have organized a discussion of local water issues and public health with environmental and academic leaders:

• Dr. Patty DeMarco, Director of the Rachel Carson Institute, Chatham University will discuss water issues and choices for the 21st Century.
• Dr. Charles Christen, Director of Operations for the Center for Healthy Environments & Communities (CHEC) at University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health will address the public health implications of water and Marcellus Shale development. Dr. Christen worked closely with Dr. Conrad “Dan” Volz who recently resigned as Director of CHEC.

This event is free and open to the public. Those attending will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and artists, and will be able to view the exhibition.

The exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water, guest curated by artist and educator Carolyn Speranza explores the environment, especially those issues surrounding water and its impact on our planet, human health and public welfare.

Lucky Friday the 13th Pre-Election Day Party

An evening of food, drink and community for our 5th district friends

Hosted by Friends of Chris Zurawsky

Friday, May 13, 2011

6:00 – 8:00

Summerset at Frick Park Community Center, 1435 Parkview Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA

Event Website -http://www.socializr.com/event/49595967/1502733505

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The Pittsburgh chapter of Democracy for America will be holding their endorsement vote this week.  More details on their endorsement vote are available at the bottom of this post.

If you are interested – all of the candidates responses to the Pgh DFA questionnaire are available online here.

It is interesting to see which candidates replied and which ones didn’t.

City Council District 1

• Wilson
• Harris  (Incumbent) Darlene Harris 2011 DFP
• Pallus

City Council District 3

• Kraus (incumbent) Kraus_2011_DFP
• Robb Robb_2011_DFP (sent after others were online)
• Koch

City Council distict 5 (no incumbent/”Shields seat”)

• O’Connor
• Zurawsky (attended Meetup) Zurawsky_2011_DFA
• Caliguiri

City Council distict 7

• Ceoffe
• Calfo (update: did not file, please don’t vote to endorse him)
• Dowd (Incumbent) Dowd_2011_DFP

City Council distict 9

• Prater-Holliday (meetup attendee / member) PraterHolliday_2011_DFP
• Burgess (Incumbent)
• Copeland-Mitchell (made contact, responses not yet received)

County Executive

• Flaherty Flaherty_2011_DFP
• Fitzgerald Fitzgerald_2011_DFP (sent after others were online)

County Controller

• Wagner CWagner_2011_DFP
• Matta
• McDonald-Roberts McDonaldRoberts_2011_DFP

Commonwealth Court

• Boockvar  Boockvar 2011_DFP_FINAL revisions made after some other responses were posted
• Ernsberger Ernsberger_2011_DFP

Common Pleas

• Bicket (attended meetup) Bicket_2011_DFP
• Bush ebush_2011_DFP
• Satler
• Duncan
• Marmo Marmo_2011_DFP_1

District Judge 5-2-35

• Shields  Shields_2011_DFP
• McGough (response expected shortly)
• Pollock  Pollock_2011_DFP

Well this is an interesting topic for Green Drinks – Marcellus Shale.  Kind of surprised to see Green Drinks so open to the idea of marcellus shale.   What happened to the old green drinks – where people got together and talks about green things – when did this become a political event for Jim Ferlo and Friends.

Pittsburgh Green Drinks: Marcellus Shale

DATE: March 31, 2011

TIME: 5:00pm-9:00 pm

LOCATION: The Clemente Museum, 3339 Penn Avenue, Lawrenceville

HOST: Jim Ferlo

FEATURED GUEST:  Rich Fitzgerald

More on Pittsburgh Green Drinks:

WHAT: The world-famous Green Drinks
WHEN: usually 5:00 – 9:00 PM
STATUS: Informal, self-organizing network
GLOBAL: Now active in 614 cities worldwide! Every month globally since 1989, locally since 2005. Average attendance: 90
http://www.greendrinks.org/

RULE: Last Thursday of every month (Except November 2011)
WHERE:  Rotating Venues in Pittsburgh-Look for the 2011 Calendar

email us at pittsburghgreendrinks@gmail.com with questions, comments.

Thanks to Chris Potter at the City Paper I learned about a bunch of interesting things today – ShadysideDems.com is the website for the Democratic committee of the Seventh Ward on Pittsburgh.  And what is extra great is that the website has useful information – including who the committee people are for each ward (this seems to be something that most of the democratic committees keep hidden).  Do other wards have websites for their democratic committees.  And we learned about this candidates night on Saturday.

Here is the text for the flyer:

Not sure what the vodka drinks is all about – but that might be a good thing to have on hand for a candidates forum.

Who will be there?

Candidates expected to appear include those running for:

• City Council District 5
• City Council District 9
• County executive
• County controller
• County treasurer
• Judicial candidates

Submit your questions now. Chris Potter has invited anyone to submit a question for the candidates – leave a comment on his Slag Heap post HERE. We agree the City Paper’s comments are kind of complicated so you can also send your questions to Chris Potter via twitter @PghCityPaper or email cpotter – at -steelcitymedia.com.

Here is an interesting event that the World Affairs Council is putting together:

Political Salon
Saving Lives: Responding to the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crises

John Prendergast, Human Rights Activist and Co-Founder of the Enough Project
Anne C. Richard, Vice President for Government Relations and Advocacy, International Rescue Committee

March 2, 2011, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Bricolage Theater, 937 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh

Every year natural disasters affect close to 160 million people worldwide. In addition, political turbulence in many regions has increased the number of  people fleeing unrest. In 2009, there were 15.2 million refugees and 27.1 million internally displaced people in the world. Both natural and man-made disasters have a profound impact on human life, but it is often the most vulnerable who are hardest hit. How can the international community respond to the needs of disaster victims around the world?

John Prendergast is Co-Founder of the Enough Project, an initiative of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Previously, he served as Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Special Advisor to Susan Rice at the Department of State. Mr. Prendergast has authored 10 books. His most recent book, “The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes,” was co-authored with Don Cheadle. Mr. Prendergast has been a visiting professor at several universities. Currently, he is a Visiting Fellow with the Ford Institute for Human Security at the University of Pittsburgh.

Anne C. Richard is Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC conducts humanitarian aid programs in 42 countries, assisting people uprooted by war or persecution.  Ms. Richard has visited IRC programs in: Liberia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, and Syria. Previously, Ms. Richard spent 17 years in the U.S. government. From 1999-2001, Ms. Richard was the chief adviser for budget and planning for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Earlier, she served at Peace Corps Headquarters, the State Department, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

More details here http://www.worldaffairspittsburgh.org/programsCalendarList.jsp?restrictids=nu_repeatitemid&restrictvalues=2161392240601297415122351

Are you running for office? Know of a candidate who is? There is still time to fill out the Young Dems of Allegheny County (YDAC) endorsement questionnaire.

Here are the details:

Please answer the following questions in their entirety. We will send a completed schedule out of speaking time prior to the event, which will be held at Hough’s Restaurant in Greenfield, located at 563 Greenfield Ave., Pittsburgh, PA on February 17, 2011 from 6 – 8:30. There will be appetizers provided.

The candidate’s or a selected representative of the candidate will be given 5 minutes in front of the board and crowd to give a list of their credentials and platform and may also be asked questions from the board.

Candidates are asked to fill out the form below and to answer the questions to the fullest of their ability. If the candidate and/or representative for the candidate cannot attend, a member of YDAC will acknowledge their participation in the endorsement and will briefly summarize their qualifications according to the answers given below.

Note: Not all questions are required

The cost to participate is $25 for local candidates and $50 for county offices. Only candidates that pay in full will eligible to receive YDAC’s endorsement. Checks can be made out to YDAC or payment can be made in cash form at the Endorsement Event on February 17th.

Please contact YDAC President, Michael Phillips @ president@ydac.org if you have any questions.

Endorsement Process Details:

The members of YDAC will use the information garnered from the speeches at the endorsement and questionnaire answers to evaluate all candidates that choose to participate in YDAC’s endorsement process.

Click here to see the entire questionnaire

The YDAC endorsement event is this Thursday – link to Facebook Event

http://www.pghfilmmakers.org/artserv/membernews.html

Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts are hosting a workshop for artists by the Actors Fund focusing on health care and health insurance options for artists and entertainers

McDonals Roberts sent out a press release announcing her candidacy for Allegheny County Controller. Here is a run down of offices she has held before:

• 1989-1993 Pittsburgh School Board
• 1994 Elected to Pittsburgh City Council
• 2001 Elected Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds

Also noteworthy McDonald-Roberts was:

• First African American Woman elected to Pittsburgh city council
• First African American elected to Allegheny county row office
• First Woman appointed as chair of Pittsburgh City Council’s Committee on Finance and Budget
• In 2005-2006 she ran for Lieutenant Governor of PA

The snow doesn’t stop Santa and it doesn’t stop political campaigns.  The May primary is 6 months away and even though it is holiday time – campaign season is heating up.  The likely challengers for Doug Shields seat both had events last week.

Then the whose who of Pittsburgh and Philly were in NYC for the PA Society over the weekend.  If you are a candidate or thinking of running in the spring you might want to stop by the DFA (Democracy for America)/Move On Council Meeting on Thursday.   (more…)

The Race for PGH 2011 is getting an early start (is there such a thing as too early to start campaigning?)  As the Post-Gazette mentioned earlier this week – it doesn’t look like Doug Shields will be running for reelection to his city council seat.  The two lead candidates for his seat are Corey O’connor and Chris Zurawsky – both have holiday parties this week at Hough’s in Greenfield.

Chris Zurawsky’s Holiday Fundraiser

Thursday, December 9, 2010 @ 6:30pm
Online event page – http://www.socializr.com/event/990273528/1193829145
Suggested Donation $25

YDAC Annual Holiday Party with Special Guest Corey O’Connor
Friday, December 10, 2010 5:30-8:30pm
Sponsored by City Councilman Bruce Kraus, City Councilman Doug Shields, State Rep. Rob Matzie, State Rep. Bill Kortz, State Rep. Dom Costa, and District Magistrate Candidate Brian O’Malley. State Rep. Nick Kotik, State Rep. Chelsa Wagner, and Hon. Michael Marmo.
Facebook event page – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121850091210141

With election day fast approaching – the Sestak campaign is in full swing. For $500 you can support Joe Sestak and have drinks with John Kerry and Teresa Heinz right here in Fox Chapel.   As of today there has only been 1 $500 contribution on the ActBlue page for the event.

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Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz
Christopher and Sasha Heinz

Edwin Beachler ? Georgia Berner ? Doug & Shelley Campbell ? William Caroselli & Dusty Kirk
Pat Farley ? Frederick Frank ? Steve Frobouck ? Charles Gibbons
Dana & Franco Harris ? F. Dok Harris ? William Isler ? Greg Jordan
Charles Kolling ? Cliff & Rosanne Levine ? Michael Manzo
Leslie Merrill McCombs ? Ted McConnell ? Lazar Palnick & Susanne Gollin
Louis & Ilene Schwartz ? Jack Shea ? Cindy Shapira ? Peter Smerd
Ritchie & Rachel Tabachnick ? Milton & Nancy Washington
(host committee in formation) (more…)