PMC Property Group Acquiring Fifth Downtown Pittsburgh Site

A Philadelphia developer is poised to grab yet another property Downtown, its fifth in the last two years.

PMC Property Group has signed a sales agreement with Alco Parking president Merrill Stabile to buy the Jackman Building at 526 Penn Ave. next to the Penn and Sixth Street parking garage in the Cultural District.

The 10-story building has been largely vacant since the Art Institute of Pittsburgh moved out a decade ago.  The first floor houses a Subway sandwich shop and Quest Diagnostics.  Floors 2 through 10 are empty.

Mr. Stabile said PMC plans to convert the upper floors into apartments, just as it has done or plans to do with several of the other buildings it has acquired.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/pmc-property-group-acquiring-fifth-downtown-pittsburgh-site-650827/#ixzz24sRq3tyQ

SAPA Plan Included In Scranton’s Updated Recovery Plan

More than two years after Scranton City Council slammed the door on a regional planning initiative, the Pennsylvania Economy League has pushed it wide open.

Tucked inside Scranton’s 60-page updated 2012 Recovery Plan, which council accepted Thursday, is one paragraph suggesting council will reconsider joining the Scranton-Abingtons Planning Association Comprehensive Plan.

“The PEL sneaked it in the recovery plan at the 11th hour, right before our final vote,” Councilman Jack Loscombe said. “I still feel the same way, though. I don’t see how the plan benefits the city economically.”

The plan, which has been adopted by nine municipalities, provides a policy guide for future land use, economic revitalization, open space conservation and historic resource preservation among the SAPA members. Scranton is the last SAPA member, of 11, to consider adopting the comprehensive plan, according to the updated recovery plan.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/sapa-plan-included-in-the-city-s-updated-recovery-plan-1.1364607

Reading Gets Unexpected $1.3 Million

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reading’s coffers got a welcome infusion of $1.3 million due to an excess of payments to the police and fire department pension funds.

City Council voted to transfer the money to the general fund at Monday’s meeting.

The excess, detected in a recent audit, was due to a miscalculation in allocations to the pension funds.

Council budgeted pension contributions of all police and firefighters, including those in the Deferred Pension Retirement Program, or DROP.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=411767

Strasburg Chef Out On ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

Logo of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barbie has left the kitchen.

Strasburg resident Barbie Marshall made it all the way to the final four on FOX‘s “Hell’s Kitchen,” but the chef was eliminated at the conclusion of Monday night’s broadcast.

In its 10th season, “Hell’s Kitchen” is hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.  Marshall was one of 18 contestants competing for the head chef’s position at the Gordon Ramsay Steak restaurant in Las Vegas’ Paris Hotel.

At the end of Monday’s episode, Ramsay told Marshall, 34, that he considered her improvement to be significant.  He called her a smart woman who should take her experience on the show “and run with it.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/722446_Strasburg-chef-out-on–Hell-s-Kitchen-.html#ixzz24sHpOd2Y

Macungie Councilman’s Public Urination Case Going To Lehigh County Court

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lehigh County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Macungie man told a judge Monday that he and his 3-year-old son saw Borough Councilman Linn Walker’s penis as Walker urinated outside his house in July.

Walker’s defense attorney argued that the alleged act doesn’t amount to open lewdness, the crime Walker is accused of committing that day.  But District Judge Donna Butler said she heard enough evidence during a Monday afternoon preliminary hearing to send Walker’s case to Lehigh County Court.

“I don’t think we would have a whole lot of [media] here today if peeing in public was a normal thing to do,” Butler said in issuing her ruling, adding, “I don’t pee in public.”  She said a jury can decide whether Walker committed a lewd act as alleged.

Walker did not speak to reporters before or after the hearing at District Court in Emmaus.  Although he said after he was charged on Aug. 3 that he planned to step down from council, he has not submitted his resignation to the borough.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-macungie-councilman-walker-lewd-urination-20120827,0,182651.story

Harrisburg Newspaper To Publish 3 Days A Week

Editor’s note:  According to Wikipedia, in 2011 The Patriot-News averaged over 492,000 readers per week between their print edition and Pennlive.com.  The newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily/Sunday circulation (United States) in 2005.

HARRISBURG, PA — The daily newspaper in Pennsylvania’s capital city is switching to a three-days-a-week publication schedule in January, in what it calls an adaptation to the changing world.

John Kirkpatrick, publisher of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, announced the changes Tuesday in an email to friends of the newspaper.

The email didn’t say which days the paper will be published. It says the change will be accompanied by an expansion of the paper’s around-the-clock news coverage online.

“We are not making this move lightly,” said Kirkpatrick. “We understand how important the daily paper is to a large number of people in our region. However, this is a major step to make sure we are leading, not trailing, in the world of innovation and solutions.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-patriot-news-20120828,0,7285933.story

Lehigh Valley Unemployment Rate Spikes

he Lehigh Valley‘s unemployment rate spiked again in July as the number of people looking for work continues to grow faster than businesses add jobs.

The unemployment rate hit 8.8 percent in July, up from 8.5 percent in June, according to data released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor and Industry.  It is the second straight month the unemployment rate increased even though the number of Valley residents working grew.

A total of 395,300 Valley area residents had jobs in July, the highest that number has been since November 2008, just as the Great Recession was taking hold.  But the workforce is growing at a faster pace.

From May to July, 6,700 new workers entered the labor pool, but fewer than half of them — 3,200 — found jobs.  When the workforce grows faster than businesses add jobs, the unemployment rate goes up.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-lehigh-valley-jobs-july-20120828,0,386387.story

Isaac Becomes Category 1 Hurricane Near Gulf Coast

(Updated at 1:13 p.m.) MIAMI — Isaac became a hurricane Tuesday that could flood the coasts of four states with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans, where residents hunkered down behind levees fortified after Katrina struck seven years ago this week.

Shelters were open for those who chose to stay or missed the chance to get away before the outer bands of the large storm blow ashore ahead of a forecast landfall in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday night or early Wednesday.  However, with the exception of some low-lying areas, officials had not ordered mass evacuations.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday with winds of 75 mph.  It could get stronger by the time it’s expected to reach the swampy coast of southeast Louisiana.

In Houma, a city southwest of New Orleans, people filled a municipal auditorium-turned-shelter.  However, in the bayou country of Terrebonne Parish off Highway 24, storms pose a perennial dilemma for those living a hardscrabble life.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20120828/NEWS04/120829390/updated-isaac-becomes-cat-1-hurricane-near-gulf-coast&pager=full_story

Argument Over Parenting Leads To Pottstown Arson Fire

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Updated at 3 p.m.) POTTSTOWN, PA — A borough woman was arrested for setting fire to her own home Sunday night after an argument with her domestic partner over parenting techniques with their children caused the police to be called.

Cora Lee Sharp, 48, is charged with arson after starting a fire in the kitchen of the home the couple and their two adopted children share on the 900 block of Spruce Street, according to the Pottstown Police.

The Pottstown Fire Department was dispatched to the residence around 9:06 p.m. Sunday and found multiple fires burning on the property, said Fire Chief Richard Lengel.

After 22 minutes, the fires, which were isolated to Sharp’s property, were extinguished.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20120828/NEWS01/120829459/argument-over-parenting-leads-to-pottstown-arson-fire-(video)&pager=full_story