RT @PostGazetteBiz: Is the Igloo melting? Mayor Ravenstahl proposes wrecking ball solution for Mellon Arena: http://bit.ly/b3Ea5b #

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MEET JAKE WHEATLEY – Sat. 4/3 4-6pm http://ow.ly/1ueVW #
Ten Things You Can Do to Help Progressive Journalism http://huff.to/du6xdR (from @huffingtonpost ) #
Police asked to look at petitions -Tonya Payne says that Daniel Lavelle forged signatures on petitions for Wheatly http://ow.ly/1v4f0 #
Do you think Pgh needs a curfew center? Meager use of juvenile site, $500K cost cited in move to save money – http://ow.ly/1v4sS #
Poll shows @DanOnorato leading Democrats in governor race – 47% are still undecided http://ow.ly/1vx9T #

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Pgh City Council looking into water authority contract – Luke Ravenstal sees "no conflict," with the Water Authority Dir http://ow.ly/1qHko #
on the calendar: Uptown Partners Quarterly Meeting: When: Wed Apr 14, 2010 6pm to Wed Apr 14, 2010 8pm 
EDTWhere: … http://bit.ly/cQJs9g #
on the calendar: Great Race: When: Sun Sep 26, 2010Event Status: confirmed http://bit.ly/bLe0ka #
on the calendar: Future Tenant Rockstar Party: When: Sat Feb 27, 2010 7pm to 11pm 
ESTWho: ProgressPittsburgh

Eve… http://bit.ly/9dhWMY #

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Gov Race News – Onorato challenges Hoeffel's petitions and hours later drops the challenge http://bit.ly/aQjHBf #
new executive director for EMILY's list – she has made some changes and changes to social media too http://bit.ly/dkXEc5 #
why is it taking so long to pass some tow truck reform – is there anyone who thinks this is a bad idea? http://ow.ly/1oAP2 #
http://bit.ly/aw8NgN #
watching the health care vote might be more exciting than election day last year http://bit.ly/dhLB1P #

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Image by justgrimes via Flickr

The Sunlight Foundation is an organization and a campaign to use technology to bring more transparency to government. Last week the Sunlight Foundation kicked off their Public Equals Online campaign with a panel discussion at the Google Headquarters in Washington DC.

Panelists included:

Jake Brewer, engagement director of the Sunlight Foundation
Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of the Washington Examiner
Jose Antonio Vargas, Technology & Innovations Editor at the Huffington Post
Ginny Hunt, Head of Google’s Public Sector Lab
Ryan Hopkins, Public Square Project
And a representative from the federal government

The Public Square Project is based in Pittsburgh.  From the website:
The Public Square Project seeks to empower citizens to make positive change in local government by building an online hub for information about government and public policy in the Pittsburgh region.
Be a Fan of the Public Square Project on Facebook here.
Related articles by Zemanta

Let the Sunshine in (googleblog.blogspot.com)
Jake Brewer: Bringing Local Government into the 21st Century (huffingtonpost.com)
Sunlight Foundation wants more government docs online (computerworld.com)

Yesterday – Congressman Jason Altmire stated that he would vote no on health care reform bill.

Today the Steelworkers responded to Representative Altmire’s decision at his office in Aliquippa.

Image by richardmasoner via Flickr

We noticed this little widget on the side bar of The Digging Pitt blog (a great blog about art and transit in Pittsburgh) for Streetsblog.net – some of the articles looked like they would be of interest to the Progress Pittsburgh community. About  Streetsblog.net …
Bringing together the best of the nation’s bloggers on sustainable transport, smart growth and livable streets, Streetsblog Network is a place where we can learn from each other and move the discussion on these issues forward.
Read more »

If you missed yesterday’s news in the governor’s race, you missed some really bizarre behavior from the Onorato campaign.

Just before the close of business on the final day that petitions could be challenged, the Onorato campaign filed objections trying to block Joe Hoeffel from being on the ballot.

The Hoeffel campaign fired back in a statement from co-manager Lauren Townsend:
“We filed petitions with 7,632 signatures from 33 counties…”

“Dan Onorato has good reason to be scared, and now he has turned desperate.  This is a cowardly act.”
Press was rough for team Onorato all across the state.  For example, NEPArtisan  said, “Dan Onorato has gone the low road.”

Throughout the campaign, Onorato has been attempting to paint the race as a fait accompli. If this is the case, why challenge someone who clearly had exceeded the signature requirements?

Maybe it has something to do with these polling results, touted by team Hoeffel a few days ago. They show that, in a general election matchup, in vote-rich Southeast PA (a region that a Democratic nominee MUST win big to have any hope of winning statewide), Hoeffel leads Corbett, while Onorato trails.

Things got even stranger later in the day when Onorato withdrew his challenge. Their explanation raises more questions than it answers. In a statement to Politics PA, team Onorato said–and try to stay with me here–that they filed the suit, because they thought that Hoeffel might challenge Williams’ petitions. In what universe is this how a serious candidate for governor makes decisions!?  For his part, Hoeffel called it a “lame-ass” excuse; a “cynical effort to play around with the Democratic process”, and it’s hard to disagree.

So what is really going on? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think these poll results (and what we can infer about Onorato’s internal polling) must have a lot to do with it. It’s not unusal that when campaigns of so-called front-runners start to spudder or slide, they begin to show signs of disorganization, bad political decision-making, and irrational behavior.