Out of the loop

The Pittsburgh Comet (pghcomet.blogspot.com) turned to freshman state Rep. Chelsea Wagner, D-Brookline, last week for the inside scoop on the Legislature's marathon, last-minute budget negotiations. Problem was, she didn't know much more than the Comet:

"The whole way the budget is brokered in Harrisburg, it's brokered between about 15 people," she told the Comet. "It's ridiculous."

"As for the major outstanding points of contention, she believes Democrats may be fighting to raise the limit on capital projects, but even that's just 'speculation.' "

Ms. Wagner said she understands "the frustration Lisa Bennington came up against," referring to a fellow freshman who, citing disillusionment, has announced she will bow out after one term.

Missing in action

414GrantStreet.blogspot.com congratulates Pittsburgh voters for forcing a City Council hearing on the proposed merger of the city and Allegheny County governments by signing a petition. As for city and county leaders ...

"After dropping the equivalent of a policy A-bomb on area residents a few months ago with the idea of merging the two governments, our local leaders have been pretty much MIA on this subject. Sure, there have been a few closed-door meetings with other elected officials, but as of yet no real concerted effort to engage the most important people of all in this discussion: the voters."

Toss the bottles

Alternet.com reports that the U.S. Conference of Mayors, at its annual gathering last weekend, voted to encourage all city governments to phase out bottled water and promote tap water.

"Research conducted by conference staff has found that bottled water is being sold for as much as 4,000 times the cost of tap water delivery even though up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from the same source. ... Cities are also spending more than $70 million a year to dispose of plastic water bottles."

Gay and blacks

Creators Syndicate columnist Deb Price (creators.com) calls on other prominent African-American politicians to follow the lead of Masschusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and publicly declare their support for gay rights. Gov. Patrick's 18-year-old daughter recently told her parents that she is a lesbian. Their response: "We love you."

The Patricks recently told their family story to Bay Windows, a gay publication. Ms. Price thinks "something very powerful and very special is happening within the black community to counterbalance the often unaccepting messages from the black church."

Casino neglect

Chris Briem at nullspace2.blogspot.com wonders why Pittsburgh City Council is spending so much time arguing about a $10,000 legal bill (incurred by council members who challenged the digital sign at the Grant Street Transportation Center) and so little time investigating the mega-million-dollar casino going up on the North Shore:

"The casino project for Pittsburgh is something on the order of an $800 million project. According to the news accounts of deliberations in City Council [Wednesday], they spent 2.5 hours discussing a $10K legal fee. Looking at that in terms of dollar per minute and using some advanced ratio analysis it means City Council should spend the next 22 years (working 24/7) on casino-related issues."

Pinkwashing

This from Anne Landman at PRWatch.org:

"You've heard the term 'green- washing.' It refers to corporations that try to appear 'green' without reducing their negative impact on the environment.

"Since 2002, the group Breast Cancer Action has promoted its 'Think Before You Pink' campaign. It's fighting 'pinkwashing,' which is when corporations try to boost sales by associating their products with the fight against breast cancer. Pinkwashing is a form of slacktivism -- a campaign that makes people feel like they're helping solve a problem, while they're actually doing more to boost corporate profits. Pinkwashing has been around for a while, but is now reaching almost unbelievable levels."

One culprit: BMW, which donates $1 to breast cancer research for every mile people test-drive its cars during its "Ultimate Drive" promotion. The problem: All those test miles spew chemicals into the air that cause cancer.