http://www.post-gazette.com/ All News en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:09:33 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209939-100-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml HARRISBURG -- A judge rejected a request that the jury for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky be chosen from outside Centre County, and also ruled that Mr. Sandusky will be able to visit with most of his grandchildren and some adult friends in his home as he awaits trial. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:45:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209930-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml An overnight fire destroyed the ski lodge at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:26:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209530-114-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml It started when Deborah Bishop was still in her 20s. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209529-114-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Excela Health, in cooperation with the American Heart Association, is sponsoring a "Buzz on Women's Health," featuring presentations from the health concern's female cardiologists, at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 21 at Ferrante's Lakeview, 6153 Lincoln Highway, Hempfield. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:14:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209835-152.stm?cmpid=news.xml Conservatives and their libertarian kin have long contended that Barack Obama's vision for America is fundamentally different from the founders' ideal. With his policy on free birth control -- and even in his shell game of a reversal -- he has proven them right. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:08:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209938-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, beat U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, in the battle Sunday for the Allegheny County Democratic Committee endorsement. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:36:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209937-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- Education and transportation emerged as top priorities for President Barack Obama, who this morning presented his fourth spending plan, one that would increase taxes on the wealthy while preserving most government programs. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:34:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209936-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml Pittsburgh police are investigating a bank robbery this morning in Brookline. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:20:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209935-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml All lanes of the Parkway West outbound have reopened after a multi-vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer was cleared in Carnegie, state Department of Transportation spokesman Jim Struzzi said. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:07:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209833-139-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml There's no business like show business, and there's no better show business than the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: It makes the Grammys look like the ESPYs. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:54:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209528-129.stm?cmpid=news.xml After a bike accident in Virginia, film director and producer Tom Shadyac suffered debilitating concussion symptoms. When he had recovered, he wrote and directed the documentary "I Am" about our consumer-oriented society. It explores two questions: What's wrong with our world, and what can we do about it? Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:35:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209819-120.stm?cmpid=news.xml Here's what you may (or may not) remember from "Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace," now back in theaters in 3-D. The laughs, what few there are, skew very young. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209852-455-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml It's up to Allegheny County property owners who challenge the values placed on their real estate to prove those new assessments are wrong. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:31:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209838-294-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml I know where you were at 11:22 p.m. Saturday. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:29:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209934-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml State police said one person was killed in a crash Sunday afternoon in Bedford County. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:51:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209933-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml A little more than a year after financial woes forced West Penn Allegheny Health System to close the emergency room at West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, plans call for reopening the facility on Tuesday, officials announced this morning. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:42:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209932-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml Thiel College announced it will use the $25 million bequest from the late businessman William S. Dietrich II to fund an honors program named for his parents, who graduated from the school in the 1930s. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:24:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209899-388-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Winners in highlighted categories at the 2012 Grammy Awards Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:09:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209872-505.stm?cmpid=news.xml Declining commercial assessments and the lack of a county-wide reassessment this year are two major contributors to a $3.5 million Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:16:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209895-53-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml For the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, 2011 was a thrilling year. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:10:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209896-503-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether specific Marcellus Shale drilling and compressor station Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:47:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209830-144-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Suddenly the only noise in an arena that had been loud all day was the happy screaming of the West Virginia Mountaineers, who had just managed possibly the program's biggest upset. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:27:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209889-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Penguins have spotted the visiting team a 2-0 lead in three consecutive games, so it is clear that something drastic is in order. OK, maybe nothing really radical. Like, say, actually scoring first. Hey, no need to get crazy about it. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:25:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209926-388-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml From the moment the nominations were announced, the 54th Grammy Awards had an air of predictability. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:24:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209854-454-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml House Republicans and Democrats united last week to pass a bill that supporters say could reduce how much taxpayers must contribute toward the costs of pensions for future Allegheny County employees. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:59:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209864-122-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Raymond L. Casper believed in second chances. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:58:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209873-122-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Fred Yee was 20-something and wasn't exactly enthralled working in the business world. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:58:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209868-298.stm?cmpid=news.xml Jaunna Cobb, 11, thought she lost her chance to play basketball this season when she was cut from the fourth and fifth grade co-ed Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:57:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209871-147-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Like many drivers who arrive at crowded Port Authority park-n-ride lots after all the spaces are taken, Michelle Kotlinski of Richland sometimes makes one up, leaving her car at the end of a row outside of the marked spots in the lot on Perrysville Avenue in Ross. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:54:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209837-51-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml When Calvin, Julie Iverson's shetland sheepdog, takes the ring at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday, he'll have steak on his mind. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:52:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209869-53-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml A Knoxville man left to watch over his girlfriend's 11-year-old son while she was at work beat the boy to death over a span of nine hours on Saturday, according to Pittsburgh police. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:50:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209879-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- With his decision to embrace an independent super-PAC last week, President Barack Obama issued a plea for deep-pocketed Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:47:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209861-84-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- The new budget that President Barack Obama is sending to Congress aims to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:44:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209897-51-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml When Calvin, Julie Iverson's shetland sheepdog, takes the ring at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday, he'll have steak on his mind. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:41:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209901-388.stm?cmpid=news.xml LOS ANGELES -- Investigators worked Sunday to piece together what killed Whitney Houston as the music industry's biggest names Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:38:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209880-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- As the United States turns increasingly to special operations forces to confront developing threats scattered around the world, the nation's top special operations officer is seeking new authority to move his forces faster and outside of normal Pentagon deployment channels. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:36:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209903-388.stm?cmpid=news.xml Whitney Houston's death at 48 on Saturday permeated every moment of the 2012 Grammy Awards, from tears on the red carpet to the prayer that opened the ceremony. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:34:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209847-314.stm?cmpid=news.xml The occasional bizarre outfit marched down the red carpet of the Grammy Awards Sunday night, but the glamour girls were out in force on a night when each arrival was asked about Whitney Houston's death as often as "Who are you wearing?" Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:30:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209870-455-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Three longtime Pittsburgh area social service agencies that have coordinated care for the Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging's thousands of senior clients are losing their contracts to do so. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209853-454-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml HARRISBURG -- The odds are against a state-licensed slots casino being built near the Gettysburg National Military Park, but state Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:21:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209900-388-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml With only nine actual awards given out during the broadcast, there was ample time for the stars to show their stuff. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:21:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209875-84-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- Only days after having to explain a comment about women and emotions in combat, Republican presidential candidate Rick Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209860-84-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations rose 11.57 cents to $3.5101 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209857-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- A provincial judge from a restive eastern province was assassinated on Sunday, Afghan officials said. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:16:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209858-84-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- Conservatives said Sunday the flap surrounding President Barack Obama's birth control mandate was far from over, with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying he will push to overturn the requirement because it was another example of government meddling. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209863-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- Youthful state governor Henrique Capriles won Venezuela's first-ever opposition primary vote by a wide margin on Sunday, emerging as the single candidate who will try to end President Hugo Chavez's 13 years in power. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:14:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209862-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml CAIRO -- The Arab League called Sunday for the U.N. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209845-454-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml HARRISBURG -- The horse racing industry is protesting a proposal by Gov. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:10:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209859-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml ATHENS, Greece -- Greek lawmakers today approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the debt-crippled Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:09:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209379-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml In early January, the two Democrats on the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision that concluded that employers may not force employees to sign, as a condition of employment, an agreement requiring the arbitration of disputes if the agreement includes a waiver of the ability to bring a class claim over wages, hours or other working conditions because such a prohibition runs directly Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209459-115.stm?cmpid=news.xml Since the beginning of January, Mars has dramatically doubled in brightness and will double again in February from magnitude --0.5 to --1.2. The latter figure is the maximum brightness of the Red Planet when it goes into opposition on March 3. Mars' westward or retrograde motion against the starry background has also accelerated the rate it rises in the evening sky. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209460-51.stm?cmpid=news.xml What does a reality show like "American Idol" have to do with football? Most kids have seen the show, but for those who haven't, here's what happens: "American Idol" starts with lots of folks who think they can sing and want to become pop music stars. The contestants are like sports teams that start the season with great hopes of winning the championship. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209809-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Politicized culture wars are debilitating because they almost always require partisans to denigrate the moral legitimacy of their opponents, and sometimes to deny their very humanity. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209810-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Is the commonwealth government's sense of responsibility to uphold the constitutional mandate to work for the common good of all Pennsylvanians dead? Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209811-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml All elected officials, and those who help finance elections in the expectation that certain promises will be kept -- and everyone who cares about the rule of law -- should hope the Supreme Court agrees to hear Don Siegelman's appeal of his conviction. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209812-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml American women in uniform have been fighting and dying for their country for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209813-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml Any Pennsylvania group that has an award for outstanding civic achievement should consider Amanda E. Holt for a prize. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209814-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml Pennsylvania already has a love-hate relationship with Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209815-110.stm?cmpid=news.xml I hesitate to start this critique of the American political scene this election season. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209818-60.stm?cmpid=news.xml BOX OFFICE: Estimated ticket sales in millions for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209822-449.stm?cmpid=news.xml Louisville freshman Chane Behanan takes former Pitt and San Antonio Spurs standout DeJuan Blair's mindset to heart when it comes to rebounding by pretending each loose ball is worth money. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209823-175.stm?cmpid=news.xml Double digits. Georgetown freshman Greg Whittington got there for the first time. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209824-143.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Penn State Lady Lions had four players score in double figures en route to a 77-63 Big Ten Conference victory Sunday against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209827-364.stm?cmpid=news.xml The crowning of Canon-McMillan and Bethlehem Catholic as PIAA team tournament champions Saturday marked the end of the dual meet season. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209829-175.stm?cmpid=news.xml A victory the Pitt Panthers had to have Sunday afternoon at Seton Hall was almost in the bag, but an eight-minute stretch of futility led to a devastating loss that vaporized any realistic chances they had of making the NCAA tournament. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209831-63.stm?cmpid=news.xml Tim Lincecum thought about the seismic shifts of baseball's offseason, the ones that saw Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder migrate to the American League. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209832-66.stm?cmpid=news.xml For Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff, the support of his teammates and the lessons learned from his Midwestern upbringing have helped keep the biggest miss of his career in perspective. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209836-136.stm?cmpid=news.xml He knew his game was getting close, and he broke through with flair Sunday in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in California. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209840-139.stm?cmpid=news.xml The United States completed its 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the first round of the Davis Cup Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning the closing singles matches. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209841-287.stm?cmpid=news.xml American Hannah Kearney won her 15th consecutive World Cup moguls event Sunday, breaking downhill great Ingemar Stenmark's all-discipline record for consecutive Federation of International Skiing World Cup victories. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209851-455.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Community College of Allegheny County is entering the public phase of its fundraising campaign and has increased the overall goal to $40 million, up from $30 million. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209881-139.stm?cmpid=news.xml Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova won her second consecutive Pattaya Open title Sunday in Thailand, defeating Russia's Maria Kirilenko, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3. This was Hantuchova's fifth career title and her first since winning in Thailand a year ago. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209885-87.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Tampa Bay Lightning played at Consol Energy Center April 27 and beat the Penguins, 1-0, in Game 7 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series. I remember walking out of the grand building thinking Penguins defenseman Kris Letang played a lousy game to complete a lousy series in a lousy second half of the NHL season. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209887-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th consecutive win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3, on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209888-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml It is not unusual for coaches to shower opponents with praise, but Tampa Bay's Guy Boucher went above and beyond Sunday when talking up Penguins center Evgeni Malkin. And he did it in his second language. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209892-275.stm?cmpid=news.xml Amar'e Stoudemire returns to the Knicks after spending a week in Florida grieving the loss of his older brother Hazell in a car wreck. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209893-275.stm?cmpid=news.xml After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play in Toronto. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209906-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml SO that hot towel you might get in a first-class domestic flight isn't making you feel as fresh as you'd like? Perhaps Emirates Airline might interest you in an in-flight shower. And the omelet you ate between San Jose and Dallas didn't inspire? Etihad Airways has employed a private chef for first-class passengers just like you. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209907-96.stm?cmpid=news.xml SAN FRANCISCO -- Technology used to be so simple. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209908-96.stm?cmpid=news.xml Facebook's pending initial public offering gives credence to the argument that personal data is the oil of the digital age. The company was built on a formula common to the technology industry: offer people a service, collect information about them as they use that service and use that information to sell advertising. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209909-96.stm?cmpid=news.xml BERLIN -- European lawmakers, who two years ago capped fees for mobile data roaming within the European Union at €50 a month, want to expand the protection to cover the whole world. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209910-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- With the election-year budget he unveils on Monday, President Obama more than ever confronts the challenge of persuading voters that he has a long-term plan to reduce the deficit, even as he highlights the stimulus spending and tax cuts that increase deficits in the short term. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209911-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- As the United States turns increasingly to Special Operations forces to confront developing threats scattered around the world, the nation's top Special Operations officer, a member of the Navy Seals who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is seeking new authority to move his forces faster and outside of normal Pentagon deployment channels. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209912-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml They have hosted fund-raisers and raised millions of dollars for his campaign. They employed some of his top operatives after his first White House run, helped create the platform for his second bid and have deployed regularly to attack his Republican rivals on the campaign trail. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209913-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml WASHINGTON -- Only days after having to explain a comment about women in the military and emotions in combat, Rick Santorum seemed to struggle a bit on Sunday to explain a remark in his book "It Takes a Family" that accuses "radical feminists" of undermining families and trying to convince women that they could find fulfillment only in the workplace. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209914-298.stm?cmpid=news.xml MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Sixty educators from across the nation roamed the halls and ringed the rooms of East Mooresville Intermediate School, searching for the secret formula. They found it in Erin Holsinger's fifth-grade math class. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209915-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- The country's political opposition overcame years of division on Sunday as millions of voters turned out in an impressive show of strength to choose a single candidate to take on President Hugo Chávez, in what is shaping up to be a bruising and potentially tight election campaign. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209916-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml ONAGAWA, Japan -- At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March's tsunami, oversees a community where the votes, money and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to those of his generation and younger. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209917-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml ATHENS -- After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country's foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209918-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A Saudi journalist was deported Sunday to his home country, where he was expected to face arrest and possibly death for writing about the Prophet Muhammad. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209919-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Two boys equipped with suicide vests were arrested here over the weekend, less than a year after one of them had been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai for the same crime, and presented to reporters on Sunday. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209920-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml FALLUJA, Iraq -- Not so long ago, Syrians worked to send weapons and fighters into Iraq to help Sunnis fighting a sectarian conflict; suddenly, it is the other way around. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209921-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml CAIRO -- The Arab League asked the United Nations Security Council on Sunday to send a peacekeeping mission to Syria, and it called on Arab nations to sever diplomatic relations with Damascus in an effort to pressure the government to end the violence there. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209922-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 6,000 refugees living in the Charahi Qambar camp did not object when American soldiers came by Saturday to deliver 1,100 blankets for the families there. Nor did they mention that the day before, an Afghan aid group, Aschiana, had also made a delivery of blankets, and was planning to come back on Sunday with clothing -- at least the third such donation in a few days, the others coming from businessmen. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209923-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Ollanta Humala of Peru announced Sunday that government forces had captured the leader of one of the two remaining factions of the Shining Path, a onetime guerrilla group that has become a major operator in the cocaine trade. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209924-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml MALE, Maldives -- For much of the world, the Maldives means idyllic and exclusive beach resorts, a kind of G-rated version of Thailand, but for many of the people who live here it has been no paradise. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209925-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml JERUSALEM -- Israel's first general strike in five years ended Sunday with an agreement that improves conditions for nonunionized contract workers used by government agencies. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209820-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml Fire departments from four counties are fighting a large blaze at the Mystic Mountain Ski Lodge in Wharton, Fayette County, tonight. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:30:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209821-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Penguins overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2,, tonight at Consol Energy Center. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:08:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209441-388-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Silence has a special place in music. Rests are just as important as notes whether in complex rhythms, grand pauses or syncopation. John Cage's infamous 4'33" asks for no playing whatsoever and Franz Joseph Haydn's "Farewell Symphony" ends with the performers leaving the stage one by one, slowly muting the orchestra. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:37:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209817-388.stm?cmpid=news.xml Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209436-155-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Our schizoid winter is playing with Pittsburghers' minds. My neighbor Tom had the top down on his '66 Mustang convertible in January, when it felt like May and even bald guys went hatless. He called me to say I should be bold and come out in favor of global warming. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:52:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209735-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml Roman Catholic Bishops have sharply criticized a compromise President Barack Obama offered Friday over a health care regulation requiring religious-affiliated employers to pay for insurance plans that offer free contraception, declaring that the new plan remains "unacceptable and must be corrected. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:41:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209423-454.stm?cmpid=news.xml When Democratic leaders in the state House awarded nearly $2 million in bonuses to staffers in 2007, Majority Leader Bill DeWeese asked the recipients to keep quiet about it. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:33:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209366-454-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml The following timeline traces the major developments in the Pennsylvania Legislature bonus scandal as it has unfolded in Harrisburg over the past seven years. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:31:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209807-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml A mine worker was injured in an accident at a Consol Energy site in Washington County Saturday. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209686-122.stm?cmpid=news.xml Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow was killed Friday when he lost control of his car on a snowy road after promoting his latest book in northern Michigan. He was 53. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:54:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209442-437.stm?cmpid=news.xml In celebration of Black History Month, 10 screen prints and collages by Romare Bearden are being exhibited at The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky St., North Side, through Feb. 29. Also being shown are five Warhol works. The late artist lived in New York but frequently visited relatives in Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School in 1929. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:40:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209736-84-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:33:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209512-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Marcellus Shale legislation awaiting Gov. Tom Corbett's signature would introduce a quiet player into the divided, often loud, world of gas drilling: the Public Utility Commission, a relatively unknown state agency suddenly charged with determining which communities are illegally regulating gas extraction. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:31:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209440-34.stm?cmpid=news.xml "Marshmallow Madness!," the forthcoming cookbook from baker and blogger Shauna Sever, is as cute as, well, a marshmallow. From the puffy, pastel cover to the "Marshmallow Madness" bracket in its end pages, it embraces the sweet frivolity of its namesake treat. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:29:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209446-37-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Carnaval de Quebec, the world's largest winter festival with parades, sleigh and dog-sled rides and a crazy ice canoe race on the St. Lawrence River, concludes today. Yet there's still plenty of cold-weather merrymaking to be had on a winter vacation to Quebec City, site of Canada's world-famous Hotel de Glace. Unlike the ice hotel, most don't involve shivering. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:28:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209450-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml QUEBEC CITY, Quebec -- I'm not going to lie. My husband thought I was nuts when I suggested spending my January birthday at Hotel de Glace here in Canada. Our winter getaways typically are spent someplace warm, preferably with a sandy beach, always with a pool or waterfront bar that serves fruity cocktails garnished with colorful paper umbrellas. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:26:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209706-176-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml So is Mitt Romney going after the angry Toby Keith fan? Is Barack Obama looking for the edgy-yet-mellow independent voter, grooving to Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" or indie band Arcade Fire? What about Rick Santorum, who was just endorsed by Pat Boone? Is "Love Letters in the Sand" about to lead the Santorum campaign playlist? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209445-107-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml While the batter recipe makes a scant 12 cupcakes, I had tons of leftover frosting. Next time, I'll make a double batch of the graham cracker and chocolate cake recipes, so I can have twice as many cupcakes to share. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209699-455.stm?cmpid=news.xml In Carrick, the reassessment elicits shrugs. In South Side, squeals. In Bloomfield, head scratching. The effects of the first-in-a-decade Allegheny County reassessment, now spreading into the suburbs, emerge in the data and reactions from city wards. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:11:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209741-82-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Britain's biggest-selling newspaper was fighting to contain the damage after five employees at The Sun tabloid were arrested Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:04:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209808-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml NEWARK, N.J. -- Seton Hall defeated Pitt, 73-66, this afternoon at the Prudential Center. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:46:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209775-100-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml LOS ANGELES -- Whitney Houston's last days were spent surrounded by family, catching up with old friends and doing a bit of what she was best known for: singing. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209803-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml A 29-year-old man faces homicide charges today in the beating death an 11-year-old boy at the child's home along Knox Avenue. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:37:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209429-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml The home at 2266 86th St. is just another three-story home in the Fairfax section of Cleveland. It comes near the end of a long block and is more forlorn than many of the well-tended houses in this struggling neighborhood. Its once wooden frame is wrapped in brown awnings and a dull beige aluminum, which is stained and peeling away. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:56:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209444-325.stm?cmpid=news.xml With all the romance in the air this Valentine's season, it's hard not to long for a loved one to be near. For about a dozen dancers with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, that wish is fulfilled year-round because they are partners not only on the dance floor, but also in life. "It's definitely unique to this degree," says artistic director Terrence Orr. "It just kind of happened along the way." Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:02:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209806-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml Frigid temperatures have combined with blustery winds to deliver a blast of winter to the Pittsburgh region. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209802-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml Several Westmoreland County fire companies worked late into the frigid night Saturday, battling a blaze that heavily damaged an Arona building that once had housed a church congregation. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:44:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209685-66.stm?cmpid=news.xml If the Steelers have decided to release Hines Ward, it is news to Ward -- and maybe even the Steelers. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:10:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209745-114-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml Pittsburgh spends more on hospital care per person than any other major U.S. city, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. This region is also near the top in the number of hospital admissions for chronic conditions that should be managed without being hospitalized, such as diabetes or asthma. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:09:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209371-148.stm?cmpid=news.xml At the end of World War I, the victorious powers carved up the territories formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire. With President Woodrow Wilson committed to self-determination as the guiding principle of their deliberations, while European leaders insisted on establishing colonies in the Middle East (and elsewhere), they recognized, with French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, that "the art of arranging how men are to live is even more complex than that of massacring them." Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209392-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml Valentine's Day is almost upon us, which means it is time to repeat some of my most often asked for words of advice. Although jewelry, flowers and chocolate will be on the minds of many women next week, they should probably be thinking about investments instead. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209396-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml A new political season has kicked off, with Canadians nervously digesting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's double-edged message at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Mr. Harper's Davos speech dominated the first House of Commons session of the new year Monday, with rival politicians accusing him of deceitful braggadocio overseas. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209397-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Indian government's recent announcement that it taps nearly 300 new phones every day has sparked a debate about privacy in a country that traditionally views such concerns as an ugly offshoot of Western individualism. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209398-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml Everyone in Kenya knows the phrase "kitu kidogo." Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209419-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Columnist JOANNA WEISS marvels at how we supply the content while Facebook rakes in billions Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209420-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Former Reagan adviser BRUCE BARTLETT explains the difference between the 1980s and the 2010s Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209434-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml They must act like men now, but not for long, writes professor JOSEPH S. NYE JR. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209435-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml And so is U.S. clout in the Middle East, argues foreign affairs analyst TRUDY RUBIN Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209518-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml The conventional wisdom is that, in business, innovation brings success. But there is a necessary corollary: Only continued innovation can ensure survival. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209533-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the Pennsylvania Game Commission began petitioning the state Legislature to license hunting as a means of funding and controlling wildlife management. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209534-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml According to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation, approximately 143,000 Pennsylvanians considered themselves walleye anglers. That's about 19 percent of those with fishing licenses. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209679-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml It is not, for most people in the NHL, the most pressing concern at the moment. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209696-55.stm?cmpid=news.xml A meeting last week in the Duquesne City School District to talk about education options turned into a contentious session that Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209697-57.stm?cmpid=news.xml In between two pristinely kept homes in Ingram, Stanley Biolowas Jr. lived in a decaying two-story house filled with trash. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209700-135.stm?cmpid=news.xml Andrew Nicholson has produced some off his better games statistically against Duquesne, including two 29-point efforts as an underclassman. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209714-53.stm?cmpid=news.xml A 14-year-old girl who had been missing for nearly a year from a youth center was arrested in a prostitution sting at an Oakland hotel Friday. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209720-361.stm?cmpid=news.xml In a matchup WPIAL girls basketball had not seen in 23 years, it took Seton-LaSalle a little over two minutes to reign supreme in a Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209721-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml Evgeni Malkin was playing his 400th game in the NHL. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209729-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml Some things felt new to Jordan Staal Saturday when the Penguins faced Winnipeg at Consol Energy Center. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209737-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to extend a payroll-tax cut, with the clock ticking. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209758-169.stm?cmpid=news.xml The Colonials beat Saint Francis, 70-56, clinching their ninth consecutive NEC tournament bid. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209763-61.stm?cmpid=news.xml Everything seems to go right for the New York Rangers when they play the Philadelphia Flyers, even their anemic power play. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209766-364.stm?cmpid=news.xml Moon Area used the right amount of championship effort and depth to win its first WPIAL gymnastics championship in four years. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1207183-67.stm?cmpid=news.xml PASADENA, Calif. -- American history often gets passed on in a too-simple narrative, especially in pop culture. PBS's "Slavery by Another Name" reveals a largely hidden history that belies the popular narrative that the enslavement for African-Americans ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209369-148.stm?cmpid=news.xml In Josh Bazell's 2009 debut novel, "Beat the Reaper," Pietro Brnwa was an ex-hitman forced to dispatch old Mob demons while creating a new, respectable life for himself as Dr. Peter Brown. It was a sick, funny thrill ride, and Dr. Bazell's sequel, "Wild Thing," is no less so, as this time "Bearclaw" Brnwa sports yet another alias, Lionel Azimuth. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209370-148.stm?cmpid=news.xml 'Anyone who tells you America is in decline ... doesn't know what they're talking about," proclaimed President Barack Obama in his 2012 State of the Union address. Robert Kagan, author of "The World America Made" and a foreign policy adviser to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, agrees. Confounding the pundits, Mr. Obama made headlines by endorsing this book. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209400-115.stm?cmpid=news.xml Almost hidden in the northern hills, the pilot water treatment plant here does not seem a harbinger of revolution. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209402-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml The pilot sat strapped to a chair, held in place as if he were in the backseat of a helicopter. Beside him, on a mock wall, was a window. The window was closed. The pilot wore opaque goggles. He could not see the window, or anything else. The chair was attached to a rotating stand in the chest-deep water of a swimming pool. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209403-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml On paper, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin would seem to be the ideal ally for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209404-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml As the nation climbs slowly out of the Great Recession, young adults appear to be having the toughest time of any age group gaining a foothold in the recovering economy. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209405-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml Three months before proposing in his State of the Union speech to speed up construction projects, President Barack Obama designated replacement of New York's Tappan Zee Bridge for "fast-track" approvals, saying he wanted to cut red tape and create jobs. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209406-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml Before winning a spot in the House Republican freshman class, Rep. Tim Griffin was a high-ranking GOP political operative and a top aide to strategist Karl Rove. But despite his extensive Washington experience, Mr. Griffin, R-Ark., said he was blindsided last year by budget "gimmicks" that blocked a clear victory for his top priority: cutting federal spending. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209409-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209413-370.stm?cmpid=news.xml Mashup artists are invited to show their editing skills to the world in the global Mishmash music video remix competition sponsored by Getty Images. Entrants create a short video, using clips from Getty Images' massive video library, which includes footage from Universal Studios, Warner Bros., iStockFootage and Archive Films. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209414-325.stm?cmpid=news.xml Karla Boos is the Bedouin of Pittsburgh's live theater scene. As founder and artistic director of the 22-year-old Quantum Theatre, she unpacks her metaphorical tent in nontraditional settings all over town -- basements, museums, abandoned industrial settings, parks, ravines. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209418-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml A note posted on Facebook by a Pakistani friend about a message of uncertain origin: "I liked the answer of the German Muslim scholar when he was asked about terrorism and Islam: He asked who started the First World War. Muslims? Who started the Second World War? Muslims? Who killed about 20 million Aborigines in Australia? Muslims? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209421-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml ELHAM KHATAMI examines her complicated relationship with her ancestral homeland as the first American in her family Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209422-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Columnist DICK POLMAN says tolerance is centrism these days Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209424-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml The more the economy rebounds, the harder it will be for him to win Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209425-110.stm?cmpid=news.xml Regarding the letter "Dickensian Mitt" (Feb. 8) from William E. Wells: How much did he give to charity in the last two years? Mitt Romney gave 15 percent to government and 15 percent to charity -- 30 percent is not very Scrooge-ish ! So Tiny Tim surely got a farthing in his stocking. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209426-373.stm?cmpid=news.xml In 1968, Paul Ehrlich, a butterfly expert at Stanford, published "The Population Bomb." It was filled with apocalyptic predictions: "In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now," he wrote. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209427-372.stm?cmpid=news.xml Eisenhower should be memorialized more for what he did than for the roots from which he sprang Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209438-109.stm?cmpid=news.xml Facts that speak for themselves Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209448-388.stm?cmpid=news.xml Ralph Stanley has already won three Grammys, and tonight he goes for his fourth. But there are a lot of other great talents bidding for best bluegrass album -- Alison Krauss, Jim Lauderdale, Steve Martin, Del McCoury and Chris Thile. "I guess I don't have a chance," Mr. Stanley says with his customary stoicism, "but I'd really like to win this one. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209453-388.stm?cmpid=news.xml Four tales with a touch of evil make up the Pittsburgh Opera's 2012-13 season, announced today. The mainstage season at the Benedum Center is Verdi's "Rigoletto," Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" and Rossini's "La cenerentola." From a jealous jester to a despicable Don, from an offensive officer to a snaky stepfather, there's plenty of wicked behavior to go around. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209494-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml LET US NOW PRAISE famous men -- or at least one man who was great and deserved to be more famous for his good works in the Pittsburgh region. C. Fred Fetterolf, president of Alcoa from 1984 to 1991, died at age 83 last Sunday in Beaver County. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209495-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml Last week saw two related developments on gay marriage. In the first, a three-judge federal panel in San Francisco voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court decision that said California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209496-192.stm?cmpid=news.xml What remained of Occupy Pittsburgh walked away from Downtown's Mellon Green on Wednesday evening, declaring the group's protest a success but offering nothing more than slogans to support the claim. Just because a protester carried a large sign reading "Victory" did not make it so. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209497-110.stm?cmpid=news.xml Post-Gazette writer Tony Norman said it well. We are in, or going back to, the era of "rugged individualism and mindless austerity" ("State Is Liable to Wreck Transit at Any Cost," Jan. 31). Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209500-63.stm?cmpid=news.xml Just 106 days after the surprising St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, baseball returns this weekend when pitchers and catchers for the Seattle Mariners report to spring training in Peoria, Ariz. There's been a whole lot of change since the Texas Rangers' David Murphy flied out to Allen Craig for the final out of 2011. Tony La Russa is gone. Bobby Valentine is back. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209509-435.stm?cmpid=news.xml Overwhelming passage of two versions of legislation targeting those who would convert political capital into the real thing demonstrates there's no time like an election year for lawgivers to find religion. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209510-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml LOS ANGELES -- Doug Willmore wasn't on the job long as city manager in El Segundo, Calif., before discovering just how deep the town's loyalty runs to the oil giant that put it on the map. After the city began discussing a big tax increase for the Chevron oil refinery a few months ago, he walked out of City Hall to find a note on the windshield of his car. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209511-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml Question: I'm thinking about buying a new car, but before I do, I want to make sure it's doable for my budget. What are some things I should be aware of before making my purchase? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209513-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml So much has occupied the news last week, including the dis-occupation of the former occupation of Mellon Green, which was formerly known as the People's Park but is now known as a mess. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209515-318.stm?cmpid=news.xml People on the Move Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209516-468.stm?cmpid=news.xml Question: I know you were at the Consumer Electronics Show recently. Did anything stand out to you this year? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209517-467.stm?cmpid=news.xml Successful entrepreneurs are focused individuals who come up with a product or service idea, create a company around it and then do everything they can to make it successful. Most technology companies have started in this way. One of the things entrepreneurs need is capital. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209526-28.stm?cmpid=news.xml Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209531-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml The National Park Foundation and retail outfitter L.L.Bean are on a mission. The groups recently embarked on a year-long effort to increase outdoor recreation among families and introduce more children to America's national parks. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209532-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml Science-based wildlife management or commerce-driven population control? Post-Gazette outdoors editor John Hayes will examine the controversial antler restriction regulations in a live interview with a representative of the Pennsylvania Game Commission at 7 p.m. Saturday at Stage 3 at the Allegheny Sport, Travel and Outdoor Show, Monroeville Convention Center, near Monroeville Mall. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209535-358.stm?cmpid=news.xml A successful plan is a beautiful thing, especially when the story grows from an apparent failure. In 2001, electro-fishing surveys conducted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission charted a disturbing decline in walleye numbers on jointly managed Pymatuning Reservoir. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209684-66.stm?cmpid=news.xml Offensive lineman Mike Schad remembers getting knocked unconscious while blocking as part of the wedge for the Los Angeles Rams' kick-return team. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209690-175.stm?cmpid=news.xml This time, Scoop Jardine was ready when Syracuse was tested by a heated rival. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209693-175.stm?cmpid=news.xml It has been an overlooked part of Pitt's success for years. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209695-144.stm?cmpid=news.xml Rick Pitino's deep bench is paying off in the rugged Big East. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209698-298.stm?cmpid=news.xml Each time Jordan Montgomery shouted "Budget cuts," the crowd of 250 gathered in Schenley Plaza yelled back, "I've had enough." Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209702-136.stm?cmpid=news.xml Charlie Wi played bogey-free at Spyglass Hill for a 3-under 69 to build a three-shot lead Saturday in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209704-143.stm?cmpid=news.xml All Jamil Pollard knew about his Signing Day ceremony was that he needed to bring a Penn State sweatshirt and his parents should be there. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209707-176.stm?cmpid=news.xml Mitt Romney's subtle but unmistakable shift in rhetoric this weekend was just the latest evidence of the churning course of the Republican race for president. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209708-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in Maine's Republican caucuses, state party officials announced Saturday, Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209716-87.stm?cmpid=news.xml Evgeni Malkin played in his 400th NHL game Saturday and had five points, just another day at the office. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209718-364.stm?cmpid=news.xml Canon-McMillan coach Chris Mary and his staff will be meeting with a group of amateur barbers Tuesday in the school's wrestling room. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209724-450.stm?cmpid=news.xml Billy Oliver looked every bit the part of a member of Penn State's basketball team. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209726-135.stm?cmpid=news.xml Duquesne University women's coach Suzie McConnell-Serio had a heart-to-heart talk with her team, benched four starters who showed up Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209740-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml Even dying is being outsourced here. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209742-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml Gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus Saturday in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209750-56.stm?cmpid=news.xml Allegheny County homicide detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of two men whose bodies were found in car parked on a Wilkinsburg street early Saturday. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209751-455.stm?cmpid=news.xml Chelsa Wagner gave birth Saturday to a son, the second for the Allegheny County controller and her husband, Khari Mosley. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209752-53.stm?cmpid=news.xml The victim of an apparent drug deal gone bad Friday afternoon in Brighton Heights has been identified. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209761-275.stm?cmpid=news.xml Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209774-361.stm?cmpid=news.xml Basketball Box Scores Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209776-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml HIGH-END diving this was not. Off the coast of Havelock, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, we bobbed along on a dunghi, an oversize, motorized canoe, joined by only two other divers and two guides. A plain blue tarp pulled over curved bamboo stays provided shade, and our dive gear was piled unceremoniously in the back. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209777-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml MORE than 15 years ago, the first "upscale" Indian restaurants began appearing in London, including the now-famous Tamarind, which opened in Mayfair. The occasion was notable: in a city filled with curry joints, here was a white-tablecloth operation with Michelin star aspirations. It was eclectic, exciting, expensive and successful -- and yes, it got its star. It remains crowded and popular, and I don't have an unkind word to say about it. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209778-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml UPSHOT Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209779-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml AS a longtime veteran of the coach cabin and all the horrors therein -- the battles for overhead space, the wheelie-bag traffic jams, the knee-numbing legroom -- one can only imagine my thrill when I boarded a recent American Airlines flight from San Jose, Calif., to Dallas. There I was, after all, in the first row. My seat was wide, the armrest was enormous, and the guys behind me were talking, businessman-style, about real estate and golf, bankruptcies and bogies. This was the high life, I figured, a conv Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209780-37.stm?cmpid=news.xml THE woman at the front of the line at Coava Coffee Roasters, a coffee bar and small-batch roaster that shares a warehouse in Portland, Ore., with a woodworking shop called Bamboo Revolution, posed the kind of question that every barista longs to be asked. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209781-115.stm?cmpid=news.xml Does your ponytail splay outward or droop limply? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209782-185.stm?cmpid=news.xml El Paso, Tex.FORT BLISS may be the least British place on earth. It's a million acres of Texas and New Mexico desert where it always seems hot, it practically never rains and virtually everything has been sun-scorched brown. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209783-185.stm?cmpid=news.xml CAR reviewers tend to have a blind spot when it comes to price. Money is a tricky issue, because what seems expensive to me might be cheap to someone else, and vice versa. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209784-185.stm?cmpid=news.xml TESTED 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209785-407.stm?cmpid=news.xml Q. You have been out of work for a long time and believe that potential employers are holding that against you. Even though many people lost jobs during the recession for reasons unrelated to performance, you fear that your long-term unemployment is sometimes equated with desperation and a lack of competency. What can you do about this? Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209786-407.stm?cmpid=news.xml I WAS born in what is now called the Homestead Air Reserve Base, outside Miami, while my father was serving in the Army. My parents decided to return to their home state of North Dakota when I was a toddler. Their families were ranchers and farmers near Dickinson, in the southwest part of the state. After a couple of years helping his family on its grain farm, my father went into construction, becoming the business manager of a local company. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209787-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml LINDSTROM, Minn. -- Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209788-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml A majority of Americans say they expect to pay more in federal taxes over their lifetime than they will ever receive in benefits from the government, according to a recent New York Times poll. At the same time, the taxes Americans pay today are not keeping pace with the growing costs of government. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209789-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml FORT WORTH -- Bach's Concerto in D minor for two violins filled the conference room in the administrative corridor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra office building. The interpretation was a mix of power, eloquence and swiftness. Applause emanated from behind the closed doors to the room after Michael Shih, the concertmaster, and Swang Lin, the senior principal associate concertmaster -- without any other members of the orchestra -- stroked their bows across the strings of their violins on the final note Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209790-84.stm?cmpid=news.xml Ross Ramsey, the executive editor of The Texas Tribune, writes a column for The Tribune. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209791-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml NEW DELHI -- Ranjan Mathai, the Indian foreign secretary, made the rounds in Washington last week, describing India's relationship with the United States as one of growing comfort, depth and candor, if not perfect harmony. On that last point he could have been talking about the recent frictions between the two countries over Iran. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209792-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Even dying is being outsourced here. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209793-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml ATHENS -- Prime Minister Lucas Papademos urged Greeks on Saturday night to accept a tough new austerity package sought by its lenders. The alternative, he said, was certain bankruptcy. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209794-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Three gunmen ambushed a military general on a residential street in Damascus on Saturday, the Syrian government reported, in an assassination of a government stalwart that was the first of its kind in the Syrian capital and another step away from the nonviolent roots of the antigovernment protests. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12043/1209795-82.stm?cmpid=news.xml BEIJING -- When China's vice president and presumptive next president, Xi Jinping, arrives at the White House on Tuesday, American leaders will be scrutinizing him for hints of future stances on crucial issues, from Chinese military intentions to the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500