5 Cal U. football Players Arrested In Assault

Editor’s note:  As a graduate of this university, I find this behavior appalling and the perpetrators should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

California University of Pennsylvania canceled and forfeited its home football game Saturday with Gannon University after five team members were arrested for an assault outside an off-campus restaurant that left a 30-year-old man very seriously injured.

The assault followed an exchange of words between a man and his girlfriend outside Spuds restaurant in California and the football players, according to criminal complaints filed with Brownsville District Judge Joshua Kanalis.

The university, in a statement, said all five had been suspended from school.

California police Chief Rick Encapera said the five men were arrested during practice Thursday. They were arraigned later by Judge Kanalis.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/college-district/2014/10/30/Cal-U-cancels-football-game-in-wake-of-violent-incident/stories/201410300291

10 Best Cities In Pennsylvania

Map of Pennsylvania, showing major cities and roads (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Some very surprising results, especially the tie for number 10! Two are in Montgomery County, two are in Chester County and two in Delaware County.

The real-estate company Movoto is searching out the best cities in each state, and says six of the top 10 Pennsylvania cities are in the Philadelphia region.

Movoto says it looks at criteria that include amenities, cost of living, crime, education, median income and home value to determine its rankings. Here are what the company says are the 10 best cities in Pennsylvania:

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillylists/10-best-cities-in-Pennsylvania.html#FbOpcUwPJtHbrC05.99

Pittsburgh-Area Hotels Find Niche In Oil, Gas Workers

Locator map of the Greater Pittsburgh metro area in the western part of the of . Red denotes the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, and yellow denotes the New Castle Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To endear a hotel to the oil and gas crowd, give them a place to eat and sleep at all hours of the day, a place to wash their boots, a warm place to smoke in the winter and a cold beer once in a while.

So goes the formula developed by Tejas Gosai, president of the Washington, Pa.-based business Shale Hotel Inc.  The company is managing two hotels geared toward oil and gas workers, building two others and preparing to turn the Monroeville Holiday Inn into an industry destination for workers summoned here by the Marcellus Shale, the natural gas deposit underlying much of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Gosai represents a group of four doctors, among them his father, who bought the 187-room Monroeville hotel in June.  His goal is to replicate there what he has helped to do in Bentleyville — attract at least half of the guests from oil and gas fields.

The Gosais have been in the hotel business for a dozen years.  Kam Gosai, a practicing physician in Washington County, co-owns the Holiday Inn Express and the Best Western Garden Inn in Bentleyville.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/pittsburgh-area-hotels-find-niche-in-oil-gas-workers-694646/#ixzz2YT5pEbAE

PNC Bank To Close 10 Branches In Pittsburgh Region

PNC Bank will close 10 more branches in the region within the next 90 days as part of an effort to cut costs and focus on serving customers who increasingly are banking online and via smartphones.

The closures, which include the last remaining bank branch in the city of Clairton, come on top of four other branches shuttered earlier in the year.

Spokeswoman Marcey Zwiebel declined to say how many more branches in the region might be closed this year, saying decisions beyond 90 days may not be final.

Pittsburgh‘s biggest bank has said it planned to close about 200 branches this year across its footprint in 19 states and Washington, D.C., which is about 7 percent of its network of roughly 2,900 offices.  The bank closed 65 branches last year.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/pnc-bank-to-close-10-branches-in-region-687669/#ixzz2TQEP42Sq

Western Pennsylvania’s Rural Areas Increasingly Struggle With Population Loss

Locator map of the Greater Pittsburgh metro area in the western part of the of . Red denotes the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, and yellow denotes the New Castle Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James DeBlasio has lived all 88 of his years in southern Lawrence County, where he’s a longtime Taylor Township supervisor and has seen many of the people he grew up with move away or die — with no young people coming in to replace them.

Like most of rural Western Pennsylvania, and the non-urban sections of West Virginia and eastern Ohio as well, his is an area where census counts and estimates have noted a population decline due to multiple factors that appear hard to reverse.

The trends have been especially rough in Taylor, which experienced a 13.6 percent population decline between 2000 and 2010.  Of its 1,052 residents, more than twice as many are over age 65 as under age 18.  That ratio is practically unheard of among municipalities and doesn’t bode well for the township’s future.

“I don’t think there’s been a new house built here in 10 years, maybe longer,” Mr. DeBlasio noted.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/western-pennsylvanias-rural-areas-increasingly-struggle-with-population-loss-681566/#ixzz2PAdHb86b

Pittsburgh Sees Asian Population Increase

Locator map of the Greater Pittsburgh metro area in the western part of the of . Red denotes the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, and yellow denotes the New Castle Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle CSA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Deepti Alampally moved here from India four years ago, she didn’t have to explain where she was going.

“Everyone back home knows about Pittsburgh,” Ms. Alampally said.

She said Pittsburgh is famous among Hindus because its three rivers make it a holy city in the religion. It’s fitting, then, that Pittsburgh is home to nearly 15,000 South Asians, according to 2010 Census data. In total, nearly 50,000 Asians and Asian-Americans live in the Pittsburgh metro area — making them the second-largest minority group after African-Americans, and ahead of Hispanics.

That puts Pittsburgh right in line with the national trend, according to a Pew Research Center report released Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/pittsburgh-sees-asian-population-increase-641096/#ixzz1ySpSmX00

Oversight Of Allegheny County Transit To Shift From Pittsburgh Port Authority To Public Utility Commission

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

The Pennsylvania Legislature has approved a measure stripping the Port Authority of its power to regulate transportation services in Allegheny County, transferring it to the state’s Public Utility Commission.

Supporters of the measure, sponsored by House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, said it will end the Port Authority’s “monopoly” on providing transit service in the county.

“By allowing other transportation agencies to offer services, the people will be far better served,” Mr. Turzai said in a news release after the Senate approved the bill in a 27-21 vote. “Eliminating the transit monopoly is a win-win for taxpayers and transit riders.”

The bill was passed earlier by the House and now awaits Gov. Tom Corbett‘s approval. He will sign it, spokeswoman Kelli Roberts said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/oversight-of-county-transit-to-shift-from-port-authority-to-public-utility-commission-639869/#ixzz1xV84CRR5

“American Idol” Puts Adam Brock Of Washington, Pa., In Top 24

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Amid the glitz of Hollywood and Vegas, a creative arts director from “Little Washington” sung his way onto the main stage of “American Idol.”

Adam Brock, 27, was announced Thursday night as one of the 24 finalists in the venerable Fox talent competition. Live shows kickoff next week and viewers will have the chance to vote for their favorites, ultimately naming the 11th American Idol.

For Mr. Brock, who graduated from Trinity High School and Messiah College in Harrisburg, it had to have been a tough week. The latest selection process was completed last month but the bluesman, who calls himself “White Chocolate,” was forbidden to reveal the results.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12055/1212400-67-0.stm#ixzz1nPzv0MWX

Metropolitan Pittsburgh Records Population Gain For Second Year In A Row

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For most of the span since the end of World War II, more people have been leaving the Pittsburgh region than flocking to it.

For the second year in a row, that trend has been halted. The relative health of the local economy appears to be a motivator for retaining existing Pittsburghers and creating new ones.

The seven-county metropolitan region attracted 1,430 more people than the number who left it between 2009 and 2010, based on new Internal Revenue Service migration data, according to a report by Christopher Briem, a regional economist for the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11344/1195941-53.stm#ixzz1gBpZAiaH

Pittsburgh’s Port Authority Transit Facing 35 Percent Cuts In Service And Major Layoffs

The Port Authority has begun preparing for service cuts that are more than twice the size of the reductions that took effect in March, when thousands of riders were stranded and others jammed into overcrowded buses.

CEO Steve Bland told the authority board last week that planning has begun for a 35 percent reduction in service hours that will come next fall if Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature fail to act on a statewide transportation funding shortfall.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11333/1193283-53.stm#ixzz1f949DohH

Some Thoughts About Onorato’s Loss In Allegheny County

This is an interesting article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Dan Onorato’s unsuccessful bid for governor and what went wrong for him in Allegheny County, where he should have won handily over GOP rival Tom Corbett.  I found this article insightful.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10308/1100517-455.stm