Bits & Bytes has learned that Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Chief Operating Officer David Palmer is in talks to join North Side-based biotech startup Clear Count Medical Solutions. Neither Mr. Palmer nor Clear Count co-founder Gautum Gandhi would comment. But an announcement of Mr. Palmer's departure is expected as early as next week.

Former city councilman Sala Udin has agreed to become the president and chief executive officer of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, the South Side-based leadership and public service nonprofit.

Idea Foundry, the Oakland-based tech startup generator, is courting "all the big banks in town," to launch a $20 million "risk capital fund," said Mike Matesic, the group's recently named chief executive officer. The fund is designed for new startups that aren't well established enough to qualify for bank loans and other traditional financial resources.

"It's a shame we're not engaging the [local] banks more," he added.

The fund will include contributions from financial institutions, local corporations and foundations, and will offer convertible loans up to $250,000 to companies. "It's an economic development effort, but one with returns," said Mr. Matesic. Investors, he added, will earn money from interest.

Having a CEO as the group sought outside funds was critical, Mr. Matesic said. He took the helm, he said, because of his background in finance. "For the most part, it'll be the same structurally," Mr. Matesic added, since his partners, Jeryl Schreiner and Patrick Stewart, remain with the organization.

The bipartisan team at South Side-based lobbying, government affairs and consulting shop GSP Consulting found themselves embroiled in political controversy this week, when a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint against the firm with the Federal Elections Commission.

CREW, which is often described in media reports as liberal or "left-leaning," alleged that GSP co-founders John Dick and Joe Kuklis violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by overcontributing and soliciting outside donations to the political action committee they set up for their firm.

Noting that both Mr. Dick and Mr. Kuklis were former staffers of Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, the group alleged that among other violations the duo contributed $14,000 and $11,800 respectively to their "GSP-PAC" -- which exceeds the $5,000 limit on PAC contributions.

CREW staffers said they began to investigate GSP's campaign contributions after an article published this month in the Washington-based newspaper Roll Call reported that GSP had refunded in March more than $25,000 in "excessive contributions to its PAC" to donors.

CREW's complaint cited other alleged infringements, such as accepting donations to the PAC from nonemployees or stockholders -- the chiefs of two local firms, PittOhio Trucking's Charles Hammel and Precision Therapeutics' Sean McDonald.

The complaint was filed on Election Day, and Mr. Dick dismissed the allegations as "politically motivated." GSP, he said, has "self-policed" by returning the excessive contributions and hiring an auditor to review GSP's political contributions. "We caught it and reported it to the FEC," said Mr. Dick, adding that campaign contribution guidelines were "cloudy" and "ambiguous," and that making mistakes was not uncommon.

"Our attorney has assured us that the claims in this are inaccurate or misleading," he said. Mr. Dick added that GSP is filled with former staffers of both Republican and Democratic officials, including one who worked for Rep. John Murtha, a Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Roy Schotland, a campaign finance expert and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, agreed that the complaint could be politically motivated, adding that GSP's infringements "weren't sinful," because, "It's not a lot of money."

Still, Mr. Schotland said he was surprised by the alleged violations because rules such as PAC contribution limits and restrictions on who can contribute to PACs are well-known. "This is basic stuff, like you don't go 60 mph in a school zone. It's so fundamental and obvious," he said.

CREW's Deputy Director Naomi Seligman denied that the complaint was politically motivated.

And CREW isn't without its own ethical accusations. A March article in another Washington newspaper, The Hill, reported that the nonprofit, group could come under the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service for engaging in partisan political activity and quoted a Republican party official saying that GOP lawmakers were mulling filing an IRS complaint over the group's seemingly partisan activities. The article noted that CREW has filed more ethics complaints against Republican lawmakers than Democrats.

"The Democrats are not in power; the Republicans are, so the Democrats just don't have the power to abuse," Ms. Seligman responded.

North Side-based HyperActive Technologies has entered into a license agreement with Zaxby's Restaurants to install HyperActive Bob, its kitchen production management computer system, into corporate-owned Zaxby's restaurants through the second quarter of this year. Zaxby's is a fast-food restaurant chain with locations in Southern states.