Workers, Officials Mark Placement Of Last Steel Beam Atop Tower At PNC Plaza

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Downtown’s newest skyscraper has reached a milestone.

Scores of construction workers, with their hard hats on and cell phones recording the moment, watched from the ground today as the last steel beam for PNC Financial Services Group’s 33-story Tower at PNC Plaza was put into place.

The beam featured the signatures of many of the iron workers, carpenters and other tradesmen who have been working on the $400 million building, billed as the world’s greenest skyrise. Others signing the beam included officials with PNC, which intends to make the glass high-rise its new global headquarters.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/06/24/Workers-officials-mark-placement-of-last-steel-beam-atop-Tower-at-PNC-Plaza/stories/201406240197#ixzz35b8WsYv1

Former Principal Sentenced For Lewd Behavior At McCandless Gym

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A former Pittsburgh Public Schools principal convicted of lewd behavior at a McCandless gym was sentenced this afternoon to time served plus six months electronic monitoring.

Alfonzo DeIuliis, 37, was also ordered by Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel to serve five years probation and register as a sex offender for 25 years.

DeIuliis was the principal at Pittsburgh Brookline K-8 when he was arrested for obscene behavior that occurred between February and August 2013 at the LA Fitness in McCandless.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/north/2014/06/24/Former-principal-sentenced-for-lewd-behavior-at-McCandless-gym/stories/201406240199#ixzz35b6o1mA1

Tax Increase Set For State College Area School District Residents

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STATE COLLEGE, PA — Taxpayers in the State College Area School District will see a 1.95 percent tax increase after the district school board adopted its final general fund budget Monday.

Board members unanimously approved, with no discussion, a real estate tax increase from 38.75 mills to 39.5056 mills, with each mill representing $3.95 per $100 of assessed value.

Under the budget of $126,791,664 for the fiscal year starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2015, the median district homeowner will pay an additional $54, according to the district.

The district projects that the tax increase will add $1.56 million in revenue, while assessed value growth will provide another $1.2 million.

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/06/23/4237495/tax-increase-set-for-state-college.html?sp=/99/264/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Coming This Week: A Special Report On Columbia’s Public Schools

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Editor’s note:  I hope folks from the Pottstown School District follow this story.  It’s a smaller version of Pottstown with many of the same issues!

Columbia’s public schools will reopen in late August, reverberating again with the clamor of children.

But overshadowing the back-to-school routine will be difficult questions.

Columbia is a tiny, high-poverty school district struggling to prepare kids for our fast-changing, technology-driven world.

The single-municipality district has the weakest tax base in Lancaster County and the second-highest proportion of needy children. Its taxes are the county’s highest and salaries the lowest. It has too many dropouts. Test scores are abysmal.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/coming-this-week-a-special-report-on-columbia-s-public/article_a2e62f5a-faf3-11e3-83c4-001a4bcf6878.html

Stop The Violence March In Pottstown – June 27th

3 Youth Artists Will Win $500 In Art Supplies!

Snikiddy is proud to be supporting Youth Art!

Submitted art will be displayed in grocery stores around the country for two months. Three lucky entrants will also win $500 worth of art supplies.

Submit your child’s original signed artwork to:

Snikiddy, LLC
8603 Long Acre Ct
Bethesda, MD 20817

All artwork must be 9″ x 9″ and submitted with a signed release form. Download the form here and get more information about Snikiddy’s Youth Art Project!

Submissions are due July 31st; winners will be announced October 15th.

Snikiddy * 2505 Walnut St. Suite 100 * Boulder CO 80302 * http://www.snikiddy.com

Dietz & Watson To Build $50M Complex In Tacony

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Cold-cuts maker Dietz & Watson will build a $50 million, 200,000 square-foot trucking and distribution center on a large tract between the company’s Tacony Street headquarters and the old Frankford Arsenal on the Delaware River, Gov. Corbett and Mayor Nutter confirmed this morning.

The deal was first reported from industry and city sources June 18 in The Inquirer.

The center will employ 110 who will pack and ship Dietz & Watson and Black Bear-brand meats and cheeses. Another 50 or more jobs will be created as the facility expands, Corbett said in a statement.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140625_Dietz___Watson_to_build__50M_complex_in_Tacony.html#pcbr39xshytokp7S.99

Philly Orchard Project Raise Money For A Greener, Healthier City

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Growing up in Philadelphia, if my family wanted to visit a farm or an orchard to pick our own fruits and vegetables, we had to get in the car for a long ride. In more recent years, however, there has been a push to provide more green spaces and more community gardens and orchards that would help provide healthier food options to urban neighborhoods, especially those where food scarcity is a serious issue. Since 2007, the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) has been working with community-based groups and volunteers to plan and plant orchards in the city.

On Saturday, June 28 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Friends of Philadelphia Orchard Project and Sedgley Woods are holding a fundraiser to support the work POP has been doing. At this family-friendly event, you are invited to come learn how to putt, and drive discs from golfers of Sedgley Woods in East Fairmount Park. Tickets start at $15 and include a free POP pint glass. Children under the age of 12 are free.

The money raised will allow POP to continue its work planting orchards in vacant lots, community gardens, schoolyards as well as other urban locations. So far they have supported 46 orchards and have planted 36 orchards and 697 trees. Their bounty has included apples, asian pears, cherries, figs, peaches, pears, plums, berries, grapes and kiwi.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/things_to_do/Friends-of-Philadelphia-Orchard-Project-raise-money-for-a-greener-healthier-city.html#YSTwwDPt0Kf8c3XE.99

Three Birdsboro Residents Arrested In Drug Ring Investigation

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HARRISBURG, PA — A joint investigation between state and local officials uncovered a large-scale drug ring that spanned three counties.

The results of the year-long “Operation Tourniquet” lead to the arrests of “48 mid- and street-level drug dealers,” a press release from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said.

The dealers, the release said, “were part of two organizations, who were loosely tied and responsible for distributing drugs throughout at least three counties including Berks, Lancaster, and Schuylkill.”

Three Birdsboro residents where among the alleged “street-level” dealers who were arrested.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20140624/three-birdsboro-residents-arrested-in-drug-ring-investigation