Itchygomba69

Kor what is your source on Pittsburgh being the city with the most pollution right b4 I moved down it was voted one of the greenest cities around, now back when they had the Steele mills running is was the most polluted cities in the country, but last I heard it had some of the best air quality in the Northeast

That report is flawed here is an article on it

Region passes L.A. on pollution list

By Allison M. Heinrichs

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Buzz up!

Post to MySpace!

StumbleUpon Toolbar

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.

"The air certainly is a lot cleaner in Pittsburgh," said Donald Welsh, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator for the Mid-Atlantic region. "Is it perfect? No, but the trend is in the right direction."

story continues below

The lung association defended its methods, saying some other pollution monitors in the region also have high readings.

In the Pittsburgh area -- covering Allegheny, Westmoreland, Butler, Beaver, Armstrong, Washington, Fayette and Lawrence counties -- the monitor used is downwind of U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, the nation's largest coke plant. The company plans to invest $1.2 billion to modify the plant to lessen pollution.

That monitor accurately measures air quality only in Clairton, Liberty, Glassport, Lincoln and Port Vue, where about 25,000 people live, said Guillermo Cole, Allegheny County Health Department spokesman.

"This is what's unfair about the ranking," Cole said. "This is a county of 1.2 million people -- 1,175,000 people throughout this county are not exposed to fine particle pollution at those levels found near Clairton."

The lung association ranks metro areas for three categories of pollution: ozone, and year-round and short-term particle pollution. The particles, from burning coal, wood or diesel fuel, are about 1/40th the size of a grain of sand. Short-term particle pollution refers to spikes in soot levels in a 24-hour period.

The 2008 report averages data collected by the EPA from 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Pittsburgh ranked second for year-round particle pollution and didn't make the top 25 for ozone, which is created when pollution reacts with sunlight and high temperatures.

Los Angeles, which last year ranked worst in all three categories, this year fell behind Pittsburgh for short-term particle pollution. It maintained its worst-ranking for long-term particle pollution and ozone.

Particulates are believed to contribute to between 5,000 and 50,000 deaths in the United States each year.

"They have been associated with increased cancer rates, but what they mainly do is increase deaths due to heart disease. They also cause increases in asthma attacks among children," said George Leikauf, professor of environmental health at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health.

To create its report, the lung association examined metro areas with at least one air quality monitor, a device that measures air pollution. Of the more than 3,000 counties nationwide, about 700 have monitors.

The Pittsburgh metropolitan area has monitors in 20 locations, and the lung association uses the one that records the worst pollution levels, as it does for all cities.

Because the coke works is located in a river valley, weather changes can trap pollution in the low-lying areas, Cole said.

"That's going to get lost, especially to outsiders who do not know the unique problem that we have here," Cole said. "The whole region and city gets a black eye that it really doesn't deserve."

The Liberty monitor had an average reading of 20.4 micrograms of soot per cubic meter of air -- the amount a person breathes in about two hours. Other monitors in the county ranged from 12.9 in South Fayette and North Park to 16.2 in North Braddock. The EPA considers 15 or less to be acceptable for human health.

"If you were to average the stations together, we'd come in under the national norm," said Frank Gamrat, senior research associate at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a Castle Shannon think tank.

"We don't average them together because you don't breathe average air," said Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy for the lung association.

Even if the association used the area's next highest-recording monitor in North Braddock and the worst monitors in every other city, Pittsburgh would rank in the top 25, Nolen said.

"It is true that (the Clairton monitor) doesn't represent the air quality for the entire metropolitan ... area," said Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution in Squirrel Hill. "But the truth is that nobody living in this area has pristine, healthy air.

"And that monitor is located where about 25,000 people live and work and are breathing," she said. "It's not like it's in some desolate area where we don't have to worry about it."

Pollution-reducing upgrades at the coke works are expected to begin later this year. When the work is completed in 2014, the Health Department expects pollution in the area to meet EPA standards.

Air pollution near the Liberty monitor has improved in the past several years, falling from 21.4 micrograms of soot per cubic meter of air in the 2002 report to 20.4 in this year's report. Next year, the Health Department expects it to fall to 19.8.

The ranking probably won't deter businesses from locating in Pittsburgh because they are more concerned with taxation and the labor force, Gamrat said.

"How does this come across to others in the country? Well, not good," he said. "But I doubt if it would really cause a business to say 'Huh, maybe we shouldn't go there.' Most people think of us as smoky and polluted anyway, even though those of us who live here know otherwise.

********************************************************************************

*****************

oh and the list was about the city and surrounding suburbs, not the city itself IDK who would want to live in a major city anymore, I did when I went to college. that was enough I take Suburbs anyday

Families thinking about relocating need look no further than Pittsburgh!

Just a year after reclaiming the title of the nation's most livable city, a new survey ranks Pittsburgh as the best US city to move your family.

After weighing nearly 50 factors from affordable housing and commute times to recent job growth and the proximity of top-ranked universities, the 2008 report from Worldwide ERC and Primary Relocation gives Pittsburgh top honors among large metropolitan areas in the country.

Pittsburgh beat out Indianapolis, Austin, and Fort Worth, Texas to win the top spot among cities with populations of at least 1.3 million people.

Best Cities For Relocating Families

(Among Metro Areas with Populations Of 1.3 Million & Over)

Source: Primacy Relocation

1. Pittsburgh, PA

2. Indianapolis/Carmel, IN

3. Austin/Round Rock, TX

4. Fort Worth/Arlington, TX

5. San Antonio, TX

6. Cambridge/Newton/Framingham, MA

7. Columbus, OH

8. Kansas City, MO/KS

9. Minneapolis/St. Paul/Bloomington, MN/WI

10. Cincinnati/Middletown, OH/KY/IN

By Jeff Passan

Yahoo! Sports

Someone’s going to die at a baseball stadium soon.

Might be a player. Could be an umpire. Possibly even a fan.

It almost was a coach.

The scar on Don Long’s left cheek still puffs around the edges, fresh enough that it looks like a misplaced zipper instead of the mark of someone who lived too hard. Like every scar, this one has a story, and it involves a piece of shattered wood, about two pounds heavy, that tomahawked 30 feet before slicing through his face.

Nate McLouth thought he just missed the sweet spot of the bat. It was April 15, the eighth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates were getting pummeled at Dodger Stadium. Long, the Pirates’ hitting coach, milled about the dugout until he heard McLouth hammer Esteban Loaiza’s 0-2 pitch. Long looked up and tracked the ball down the right-field line. He had no idea baseball’s greatest weapon was headed right at him, and that had he been positioned an inch to the left or right, he might not be here to talk about it.T

About two or three times a game. players swinging bats made of maple wood end up with kindling in their hands while the barrel – blunt and thick on one end, splintered and sharp on the other – flies every which direction. Pitchers and middle infielders stand in the greatest line of fire and do their best acrobat imitations to avoid the remnants. On occasion, the shard will land in the stands and harm a fan. And sometimes, as it did in the case of Long, it will wind up in the dugout.

“Didn’t see it at all,” Long said. “It just hit me. I backed up. I saw the blood coming out on the card I keep and on my shoes.”

The Pirates’ training staff rushed Long into the clubhouse to stop the bleeding. The bat sliced through the muscle in his cheek, catching nerves in its wake. A piece broke off and lodged under his skin. A doctor needed to remove the stray wood before he could sew 10 stitches.

When McLouth ended up on second base, he wondered why so many people were scurrying around the dugout. He ran to first with three inches of wood in his hands. He couldn’t find the other 30 or so, when it occurred to him: the ruckus was over his bat, the maple that was barely seen in baseball before 2001, when Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs using one. Now, about 50 percent of players use maple.

“They’re great,” McLouth said, “except for that.”

The incidents keep happening, and following Mike Coolbaugh’s death last season when a batted ball struck him in the neck while he was coaching first base in a minor league game, neither Major League Baseball nor the MLB Players Association can afford to wait for another tragedy when it could take preventative measures. Were officials from either party to meet with Long and see his face, they would understand the issue must be resolved immediately.

“When I blow my nose out of this side,” Long said, “I have to look in the mirror and make sure nothing’s hanging there because I can’t really feel what’s happening.

“Could’ve been a lot worse. Could’ve hit me in the eye.”

Long tried to smile. The right side of his mouth perked up. The left side didn’t move.

In 2005, alarmed by the increasing number of broken bats, baseball gave $109,000 to a man named Jim Sherwood and asked him to compare maple bats with the ash ones that used to be the norm. Sherwood runs the Baseball Research Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and the conclusion of the study did not jibe with the hundreds of players who swear maple leads to better performance.

“We found that the batted-ball speeds were essentially the same for the two woods,” Sherwood said. “Maple has no advantage in getting a longer hit over an ash bat.”

The study also found something evident to anyone watching baseball: Ash bats crack while maple bats snap.

Even so, something about the maple bats caused a frenzy. Sam Holman, who started the Original Maple Bat company out of Canada to give players an alternative to the softer ash, supplied Bonds with his first maple in 1999. Word spread, and soon Sam Bats, as they’re called, showed up across baseball. Chuck Schupp, the director of professional sales at Hillerich & Bradsby, the parent company for Louisville Slugger, saw the abundance of Sam Bats in clubhouses and urged his company to join the maple fray. More than 20 bat makers now are licensed to sell maple bats for about $65 a pop, compared to $45 for ash bats, and the demand isn’t lessening.

“I feel like they’re harder,” McLouth said. “Whether or not that’s scientifically true, I’m not sure. But psychologically, I feel like they are.”

Players love their bats irrationally. Ichiro Suzuki keeps his in a silver case. Kosuke Fukudome weighs his to the gram. Jeff Cirillo slept with his. Some talk to them, kiss them, massage them. Anything to keep them happy.

So when in 2006 MLB broached the issue of maple bats during the collective-bargaining negotiations, it did not go well. The union wasn’t receptive to a unilateral ban and didn’t budge at the thought of at least imposing specifications to lessen the likelihood of breakage.

MLB scoffed at putting nets in front of the seats closest to the field, as the NHL did after a stray puck struck and killed 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil. The discussions went nowhere quickly, and it ended with them agreeing to table the issue until a later date. Both sides spent the next year focusing on the Mitchell Report, and only after the Long incident did they revisit it.

“We have provisions in the agreement,” union leader Don Fehr said Thursday by phone. “There will be a committee that will be put together and meet on it. We’ll look at it in good faith.”

Said Rob Manfred, MLB’s lead labor counsel, in a statement through a spokesman: “Baseball is aware of the bat issue. We have done scientific research in the area. We brought the issue to the bargaining table in 2006 and we are embarking on a detailed consideration of the issue with the union in the context of the Safety and Health Advisory Committee.”

When that happens, the thickening of the bat handle seems the likeliest compromise. Sherwood said the study showed that as the size of the handle increases, the potential for broken bats decreases. Players might object to thicker handles because they add weight, and every 10th of an ounce counts.

An outright ban is unlikely to muster union support, and it would be a logistical nightmare: Schupp said Hillerich & Bradsby would need at least 18 months to fill the orders of ash bats for all their clients.

Though, as one union source noted, after long struggles the players agreed to add earflaps onto helmets and ban amphetamines. If MLB is insistent enough, and perhaps willing to sacrifice something in return, the players might agree to forgo maple.

“I do not anticipate players will jump up and down and say, ‘You can take our bats away right away,’ ” the union source said. “If that’s backlash, I do expect some, yeah. Players may say, ‘Aren’t there other things you can do first?’ ”

Yes, though sources said MLB, while not sold on an outright ban, will push for one. The day after Long was hit, officials received video of the McLouth at-bat from multiple angles. One particularly gruesome shot came from a field-level camera pointed toward the dugout.

That afternoon, MLB officials contacted the union to set up a meeting to discuss maple bats.

All last season, Jorge Posada encouraged New York Yankees teammate Doug Mientkiewicz to switch from maple to ash. Mientkiewicz was tired of his bats breaking.

“They blow up constantly,” said Mientkiewicz, a first baseman now with the Pirates.

He had seen his bats shatter and heard stories, like the one where Eric Byrnes, angry after a bad at-bat, slammed his maple into the ground and saw its shrapnel hit catcher Miguel Olivo in the head.

Outspoken voices are beginning to emerge. Pirates manager John Russell and Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon have called them “dangerous,” and Mientkiewicz said it was “amazing” that one hasn’t struck and injured a player.

“It’s going to take somebody getting severely hurt to think about a change,” Mientkiewicz said. “Anybody who thinks I’m overreacting should go look at our hitting coach’s face. It was spooky. It was really spooky.”

Doctors predict the nerves in Long’s face will regenerate and he’ll be able to smile again. He’s not calling for an outright ban on maple, either, because he understands how particular and superstitious players can be.

Look at McLouth. A 26-year-old who hadn’t finished a season with more than 329 at-bats, he ranks fourth in the National League in slugging percentage and is on target to make his first All-Star appearance.

No one would blame him for not changing his underwear, let alone the tool he uses to get his hits.

“I’m thinking about maybe trying ash again,” said McLouth, sitting in the clubhouse at Nationals Park last week, holding his maple bat, flexing his wrists, taking quarter swings. “I mean, just thinking about it. Because I swear, ever since I broke the bat that day in Dodger Stadium, it seems like, as a team, we’ve broken three or four bats a day.”

That afternoon, against the Nationals, on the third pitch of the game, McLouth’s bat split. The bat boy ran out to retrieve the refuse, returned from the dugout with a new one and handed it to McLouth, who walked back to home plate with his weapon of choice.

1711

I rather watch NHL, more face pace and action packed! :)

yeah it is, I mean it was on ESPN about it too

I cant beleave ESPN talked about Hockey, since they lost the Contract they have done everything they can to bad mouth the Sport,saying how its popularity is down and other BS, when in fact NHL has a better Attendance records currently then the NBA, but they dont mention that because NBA is on ESPN, also the NHL ratings are up and it is a fact that last year's NBA Finals were the lowest rated in 20 years, and they had the NBA biggest Star Labron James in them, Hockey's ratings were up and one of the teams in the Finals was a Small Market Canadian Team, Ottawa, so they dont want to admit the NBA is on the decline and Hockey is on the rise

i always thought she was one of the best eyecandy divas

shw should become a Deal or No Deal Model

Well now ya'll know why I really moved to Florida...its so I can go to Malls

LOL :giljotiini: :cops: :) :)

after last weeks NASCAR Sprint Cup Race I aint eating them cause The driver of the M&M car, Busch, crashed Dale Earnhardt Jr!

Oh Please! Even Jr. said it wasn't his fault!

he was just being the bigger man, M&M's are still boycotted by me, I'll be eating KitKats

yeah they are, and great Pretzels too

Breaking News!

Story By: Ryan Gray

WWE has posted the following on their official website:

WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Diva Torrie Wilson as of today, May 8, 2008.

We wish Torrie the best in all her future endeavors.

I like Dr. Who but somehow I can never make time to catch it

Please recall the dastardly plot executed by a Montreal radio station in which a man in a cape and a pig nose placed a Montreal Canadiens jersey on the Rocky statue in Philadelphia. A potential plot by Pittsburgh Penguins fans to offer their own brand of desecration to the Italian Stallion landmark leaked yesterday, and sports radio station WIP 610 and host Angelo Cataldi sprung into action, asking for a thuggish Philadelphia Flyers fan (or any Philly loyalist) to protect the statue during the day. The Philadelphia Inquirer wonders if the damage may have already been done:

Problem is: The attack may have already happened overnight - just as a similar outrage was apparently committed by Montreal Canadien fans during the previous hockey series.

The evidence: On the pavement in front of the bronze Italian Stallion lay a black No. 87 Sidney Crosby jersey around 9:30 this morning. The sleeves appeared to have been cut off, perhaps to facilitate draping it over Rocky.

The jersey was removed from the statue as in the eaerly (sic) morning hours, either by a security guard or a stone mason who decided to stop by, according to Mike Prince, the 23-year-old Penn State grad Cataldi tapped to be Rocky's bodyguard.

As of this morning, no traces of a Rocky-as-Crosby photo on Penguins loyalists The Pensblog and Empty Netters, where we'd expect such tomfoolery to turn up. If the Penguins fans failed to accomplish the mission, Flyers fans aren't about to hold back retaliation. The following appeared on the Pittsburgh section of Craigslist yesterday:

I am recruiting a Philly native and loyal Flyers fan that is living in Pittsburgh to place a Flyers jersey on a significant landmark in Pittsburgh (panther statue on Pitt campus, in front of Mellon Arena or anything you can think of) and send me a photo of it to submit to The Philadelphia Inquirer. This is in retaliation for a similar plot to put a Penguins jersey on the Rocky Statue. Once you complete your mission I will submit the photo with your name (if you want to be known) and if it gets published I will send you a link to it. Vengeance Now!

The Pittsburgh media is already wise to this plot. Can't imagine where Flyers fans will turn next in their search for potential targets ... although this citizen-proposed bet between the mayors of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh could also provide an interesting spot for a Flyers jersey.

The funny thing is Pittsburgh Fans dont have to worship a Movie Sport Hero, we have real ones, Roberto Clemente, Mario Lemieux, Honus Wagner, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, "Mean" Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Chuck Noll, John Stallworth, Lynn Swann, Mike Webster, Myron Cope, Bill Cowher, Chuck Noll, Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby, Jerome Bettis, & Hines Ward

We dont need to create heroes, Pittsburgh has a history of them and Championships! <_<

Peacocl is a funny word

I got an email from Alana, and she sent me a pic....most beautiful thing I saw today

(get your mind out of the gutter Kor!)

Gnochi's (SP) I finally found a resturaunt down here in Florida that serves them, having had them since I left PA, not man Italians down here like New York and PA has

actually Utz they are made from 100% Idaho Potatoes it was on the History Channe,l Modern Marvels, just a few days ago

IDK if I will be able to watch TNA or Smackdown this week, might be out

what was that thing on SciFi last night in place of Ghost Hunters, I caught part of It I was feeling great and fell asleep on it, do they plan on rebroadcasting it

thats all I have to say about that

IDK but alot of Potato Chips are made in PA

Snyder and Utz are 2 very well known Potato Chip companies in america, and were featured on the History Channel that PA is the Potato Chip capital of the World!

Whoo PA Rocks,

PA also has true sports fans Florida fans are mostly band wagon fans, IE Jacksonville Jaguars....and Miami Dolphin "Fans"

^ that looks pretty cool

I'm not gonna argue with you about this anymore,I have my opinion you have yours we'll just leave it at that

I would like to see a movie of the TNG era that includes elements from Voy, DS9 and TNG!

I just want the 4 seasons again

 

I mean we still get frost and stuff in Jacksonville, might as well live where I can truly experience all 4 seasons if I got to deal with that

 

What year do the Xindi attack Florida? not soon enough

 

like Homer Simpson said, Florida its america's wang

 

You're not funny - you're really not. To wish death on thousands of innocent people even as a joke isn't funny. I know you're depressed - I know you're down on life but it has nothing to do with Florida that you're so miserable.

your taking this topic way too serious

but coming from the North and having to live in the Deep South, well it sucks, people come to Florida to Die and Retire, I mean how important can the state be if the democrats arent gonna include their delegates in the election, i just think the democratic party is pissed cause Florida was the state that re-elected Bush

But you just way to serious and dont understand my sarcasm which almost everybody on here understands

Florida may be a nice place to visit, but to live down here sucks, cost of living is too high for one, only jobs down in Florida are almost all service jobs, I mean the state relies solely on tourism for its income, which is not a stable way for a goverment to run

I am so sick of being sick

I'll take the allergies you take the Lupus!

hey I think I saw a Ghost today!