Seventeen Pittsburghers — including one city council member — have chosen to put the brakes on their personal car use for a month and rely on a car-sharing service, public transit or their own two legs to get around the city.

The group of men and women, most of whom looked to be in their 20s and 30s, relinquished their car keys yesterday as part of Zipcar’s 30-day Low-Car Diet challenge. They’ll get their keys back Aug. 15.

Among the participants is City Councilman Bill Peduto. About half of the 1,000 miles a month he puts on his MINI Cooper are work related, he said. He’s rearranged his work schedule and is coordinating personal trips with Zipcar availability, he said.  read more »

Labor talks between the Port Authority of Allegheny County and its 2,100-member drivers union came to a halt Monday.

Officials from both sides conceded they reached an impasse and are seeking help from the state Labor Relations Board, authority spokeswoman Judi McNeil said.

Buses and T cars will continue operating on normal schedules for now.

The contract for workers who belong to Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, which also represents mechanics and some office staff, expired after 11:59 p.m. Monday. The employees will continue working under terms of the expired agreement.

As directed by the authority’s code, both sides sent letters to the state board, asking it to intervene.  read more »

What do you all think of this “unity tour”? Will it make a difference in your vote or were you going to vote Democratic either way?

Barack Obama returns to Pennsylvania Thursday morning for an invitation-only “economic competitiveness summit” on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, has been touring the country and trying to show working-class voters he not only gets how they are struggling but also has solutions to make things better.

The next day, Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin their “Unity Tour,” to help repair some of the rifts from the primary and get Clinton backers on board with Obama.

With fuel prices skyrocketing and carriers slashing flights and raising fees, it might be next to insane to try to persuade an airline to expand in Pittsburgh or anywhere else at this time.

But that’s exactly what Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato will be doing today, when he travels to Dallas to meet with Southwest Airlines and its chief executive officer, Gary Kelly.

Accompanied by Allegheny County Airport Authority Executive Director Bradley D. Penrod and board Chairman Glenn Mahone, Mr. Onorato said he would make a pitch to Southwest to become a “major player” in Pittsburgh, where it now is the second-largest carrier with nearly 17 percent of all traffic.  read more »

Two-term City Councilman Bill Peduto says he won’t run for mayor next year and will travel much of the summer to get away from the pettiness of city politics.

Peduto is a two-time mayoral candidate who was thought by some to be the primary challenger for the Democratic nomination next year when Mayor Luke Ravenstahl runs for re-election. Ravenstahl is also a Democrat.

But Peduto says he’ll run for one more four-year term on council but doesn’t have plans beyond that. One thing’s for sure, Peduto says he doesn’t want to leave Pittsburgh.

He plans to spend 40 of the next 105 days traveling to Boston, Washington, Turkey and Norway. During the trips he’ll study everything from pension fund questions to “green” government initiatives.  read more »

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Peduto won't run for mayor as independent

For years, Pittsburgh has been an anomaly among urban districts because of its low number of ESL students. While districts in Texas, Florida and California have swelled with immigrants, Pittsburgh enrolled only 273 ESL students in 2004-05.

A sluggish job market may have been responsible for the low numbers, Tim McKay, the ESL curriculum supervisor, speculated. Now, affordable housing and immigrants’ family networks may be fueling an increase.

The number of ESL students jumped to 485 this school year and is projected to reach 1,085 by 2010-11.  read more »

The American Lung Association today dealt Pittsburgh a black eye.

The city topped the group’s annual ranking of metropolitan areas with the worst short-term fine particle pollution — the first time in its nine years that the “State of the Air” report has given a city outside California the dubious title.

Environmental officials say it’s undeserved because the association bases its ranking on one air quality monitor. Pittsburgh’s ranking is based on a monitor in Liberty, a small Mon Valley town about 16 miles from the Golden Triangle.  read more »