P-G: Mt. Lebanon commission names liaison

To maintain a direct line of communication between governing bodies, Mt. Lebanon municipal leaders have appointed one of their own as school board liaison and will soon name two representatives to follow.

New Commissioner Kristen Linfante will serve as the liaison to the school district and will be responsible for staying informed on its actions, including attending meetings whenever possible.

"I personally think it's something that should have happened a long, long time ago," she said.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1205979-55-0.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Grocery store gets tentative OK in Mt. Lebanon

Developers hope to break ground on a grocery store in Mt. Lebanon by early next year after the municipal planning commission granted preliminary approval for redeveloping the former Roth Carpet store.

Developers would demolish the vacant carpet store and replace it with a 19,000-square-foot Fresh Market specialty grocery near the intersection of Washington and Connor roads. Four driveways off Connor Road would be condensed into two, which would be shifted farther away from the intersection to improve visibility and would be shared with the existing Jos. A. Bank clothing store next door.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_778344.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

P-G: Mt. Lebanon topples No. 1 Chartiers Valley

A mix of new and old helped the Mt. Lebanon boys basketball team knock off the top team in WPIAL Class AAAA.

Kamic Anyang and Luke Hagy combined for 36 points -- including 14 in the fourth quarter -- to lead No. 4 Mt. Lebanon to a 51-42 victory Tuesday night at No. 1 Chartiers Valley in Section 4.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12025/1205794-361.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon's Ford the fastest around in 50-yard freestyle

Cerebral often describes swimmers. With a 4.0 GPA, no doubt, Katie Ford is smart. However, the Mt. Lebanon sophomore doesn't put much thought into her races. That is, if she anticipates being successful.

"I don't like to think about anything when I swim," she said.

Hence, the 50-yard freestyle is not just her favorite event. To date, it's her best race.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/sportstory11/01-25-2012-Katie-Ford-w-pic (The Almanac)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon revs up after slow start

If Joe David is going to keep complimenting Luke Hagy, he might need an updated thesaurus.

"Maybe there are some superlatives out there I haven't used yet," the Mt. Lebanon coach said Saturday, after Hagy's 13-point second half sparked the slow-starting Blue Devils in a 53-41 win over Canada's Regional Elite Development Academy at the Shaler-hosted Planet Athlete Pitt National Showcase.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/highschool/s_777879.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Laurels and Lances

An observation: Legally unenforceable prohibitions against using any information from the taxpayer-funded websites of the Mt. Lebanon School District and the municipality of Mt. Lebanon (other than for "personal use") will lead to far wider non-personal use -- and decidedly non-flattering -- than either entity could ever have imagined.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_777471.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

PBT: Columbia Gas to invest $10.6M on upgrade

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania will spend $10.6 million to upgrade natural-gas pipelines in the Pittsburgh region, the company said Tuesday.

Regions that will see upgrades are portions of Upper St. Clair, the Overbrook area of Pittsburgh, Mount Lebanon and the Brighton Heights part of Pittsburgh.

Read the full article:

• www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2012/01/17/columbia-gas-to-invest-106m-on-upgrade.html (Pittsburgh Business Times)

P-G: Ex-pizza shop worker in Mt. Lebanon faces child porn charges

A former pizza delivery man was arrested today on charges that he secretly photographed two young boys while they were using the bathroom in a Mt. Lebanon pizza shop.

Police said Andrew Dahmen, 22, of Mt. Lebanon, was working as a delivery man at Mineo's Pizza House on Washington Road on Jan. 2 when officers received a call from a man who said he walked into the shop's restroom and found Mr. Dahmen using a cell phone to photograph his 5-year-old son, who was using a urinal.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12020/1205011-100.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon magazine goes online to offer more news, more often

Mt. Lebanon is moving its municipal magazine into the 21st century, with a new website hosting an online edition and breaking news updates to its 10-times-a-year print publication.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_776902.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Claim against Mt. Lebanon cops, paramedics settled

Mt. Lebanon and the Medical Rescue Team South Authority paid $70,000 to settle a federal lawsuit by a Western Pennsylvania woman who claimed a police officer and paramedics used unnecessary force and filed false charges against her when they responded to a 911 call.

The municipality released the settlement agreement in response to a Tribune-Review Right to Know request.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_776932.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

The Almanac: Lebo's visit to USC thrilling

Kamic Anyang's putback with 24.1 seconds remaining propelled Mt. Lebanon to a thrilling victory, 57-56, over host Upper St. Clair in Section 4-AAAA boys' basketball action.

Anyang, who finished with a game-high 27 points, and the Blue Devils though had to hold their breath as the Panthers pushed the ball up the court for a final shot, which rimmed out of the basket with 5.2 seconds remaining thus sealing the decision.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/story11/01-17-2012-Lebo-USC-hoops (The Almanac)

P-G: Ceremony to mark start of Mt. Lebanon High School renovation project

A long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the Mt. Lebanon High School renovation project is set for 4 p.m. next Thursday.

The event, which will be held on the lawn next to the Fine Arts Theatre on Horsman Drive, will feature the Mt. Lebanon Blue Devil Marching Band and the Triple Trio voice ensemble and high school choir.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12019/1204362-55.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon High School to close student parking

Student parking on the Mt. Lebanon High School campus will be closed starting Wednesday as construction crews prepare for a major renovation and rebuilding of the school.

Students must park at either Mt. Lebanon United Lutheran Church on Washington Road or at Dixon Field parking lot on Cedar Boulevard. The lots will be open to students with valid parking passes on a first-come, first-served basis. A crossing guard and high school staff will help students navigate new walking routes to school.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_776931.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon should be commended

Often news agencies announce an elderly person has wandered or driven away, or a special needs child is missing and anxious parents or caregivers are frantic in their search.

More often than not, the missing child or person has left without needed medication, complicating the search. And, unfortunately, sometimes, the outcome is tragic when the person is found deceased in a ravine or another remote area.

But thanks to a new program in Mt. Lebanon known as EmFinders, tragic outcomes will more easily be avoided.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/story11/01-18-2012-editorial (The Almanac)

Patch: Drugs a Major Problem for Area Communities

Drugs and alcohol are public enemies numbers one and two in the Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon communities, according to district Judges Robert Wyda and Blaise Larotonda.

The judges spoke to community members during an event Wednesday night called "Straight Talk: A Discussion With Our Local Magistrates," sponsored by the Upper St. Clair Youth Steering Committee. Deputy Chief of Police Douglas Burkholder came to the meeting to represent the Upper St. Clair Police Department.

Read the full article:

• chartiersvalley.patch.com/articles/drugs-a-major-problem-for-area-communities (Chartiers Valley Patch)

The school district’s bold copyright policy

The Lebo Citizens blog is reporting about the copyright policy advertised on the school district’s web site. In case you’re wondering what the fuss is about, here’s the policy, in full:

Copyright Notice

© 2012 Mt. Lebanon School District. You are welcome and encouraged to access and print material from the Mt. Lebanon School District website (“Website”) at http://www.mtlsd.org for personal use only. Any other copying, posting to another website, distribution, modification, transmission, or dissemination of any of the Website content is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission from the School District. Please see Terms of Use.

Careful readers will note that I have “violated” the policy by printing it here without the school district’s permission. Am I worried?

Nope.

As law professor and Blog-Lebo alum Mike Madison helpfully pointed out to Lebo Citizens’ editor, Ms. Gillen, this policy is impotent when it comes to preventing the public from discussing the school district and the things it publishes on its web site. He writes:

This is clearly overbroad and unenforceable. You’d think that the School District would have consulted an actual copyright or trademark lawyer before putting out something so obviously and legally obtuse. Nothing that the School District puts on its website or in its so-called “Terms of Use” can change your rights – or the rights of any other citizen – under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nothing that the School District puts on its website or in its so-called “Terms of Use” can change the way that copyright law actually works (remember things like the public domain and fair use) or the way that trademark law actually works (things like non-commercial use, nominative use, and fair use – and I’m sorry to lay some legal jargon on you here!).

(That’s only part of Mr. Madison’s response, by the way. You’ll want to read the whole thing; it’s informative and entertaining.)

So how did this policy come to be? My guesses:

• Somebody tasked with keeping the school’s web site up to date just borrowed a policy from somewhere else without thinking too much about it.
• The school district is about to offer some e-learning courses of its own and wanted to “protect its IP” with tough-sounding new language.
• The policy has been this way for a long time, but nobody noticed until something on the page changed recently (perhaps the copyright date?) and Google flagged the page for review.

Any other hypotheses?

Other coverage:

• Monkey See, Monkey Do (Lebo Citizens blog; originally broke story)
• Times like these (James Fraasch’s blog “Politics, Policies, Government, and Economics”)

The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon mulls rebates on high school work

Mt. Lebanon could get more than $1 million back from the Pennsylvania Department of Education at the end of its high school renovation project, if the project is funded as planned.

At the Jan. 9 discussion meeting, the school board decided it preferred a higher reimbursement rate over time to receiving about $625,000 as a lump sum.

In practical terms, however, both paths would probably lead to the same end result. Director of fiscal services Jan Klein explained that if the district simply invested $625,000 at forecasted rates it would probably generate a return equal to the installment payments within the same timeframe.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/story11/01-11-2012-ML-school-board (The Almanac)

Patch: Donate Your Bra to Aid Domestic Violence Victims

Bras are the most needed and least donated clothing items.

This year, Soma Intimates in The Galleria of Mt. Lebanon has set the goal of collecting 500 bras to be donated to Womansplace to help make a difference in the lives of hundreds of women who seek their services.

Read the full article:

• peters.patch.com/articles/help-domestic-violence-victims-by-donating-your-bra-1d4417dc (Peters Patch)

P-G: Mt. Lebanon Fire Department has bracelets to help locate missing people

Mt. Lebanon Fire Department is accepting applications for a set of cellular-based tracking bracelets that help locate missing people almost anywhere in the country.

The $200 device made by Texas-based EmFinders is designed for people with Alzheimer's, dementia, autism and other conditions that can cause them to wander and make communicating their whereabouts difficult.

To gauge interest, the municipality has purchased 10 devices to start through a donation from the Mt. Lebanon Partnership.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12012/1202926-55.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The Almanac: Lebo girls help one of their own

Keith Mulvihill, 55, ran in the Chicago Marathon in 2006. Twenty-five years before that he completed the Marine Corps Marathon held in Washington D.C.

Since mid-December, however, he has been involved in yet another marathon; the race against leuke-mia.

Diagnosed 18 months ago with prostate cancer, Mulvihill had been hospitalized around Thanksgiving because of an allergic reaction to his chemotherapy. Scheduled for his second round of treatment in December, blood work and a bone marrow biopsy, however, revealed acute myeloid leukemia.

"That was a real punch in the gut," said Donna, Mulvihill's wife of 31 years. "Here we were dealing with the prostate cancer and then the doctors say 'you have leukemia.'"

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/sportstory11/01-11-2012-Lebo-coaches-for-cancer (The Almanac)

The Almanac: Mt. Lebanon tops BP in showdown

In a showdown between undefeated Section 4-AAAA girls' basketball clubs, Mt. Lebanon breezed by Bethel Park, 64-36.

With the road win, Lebo improved to 10-1 overall. The Blue Devils are 4-0 in the division.

"This game was a great test for us," said Lebo skipper Dori Oldaker. "Bethel Park is a difficult gym to win in, so it was a great road win.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/sportstory11/01-11-2012-Lebo-vs--BP-w-pic (The Almanac)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon groundbreaking set

The Mt. Lebanon School District will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the high school renovation and reconstruction Jan. 26, and is inviting parents and students to attend.

The district accepted $87.99 million worth of contracts last month for the project to demolish several wings of the existing high school and build academic and athletic wings. Work is expected to last until July 2015.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_776301.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon man makes climb to benefit Kenyan orphans

Climbing Africa's tallest mountain is just another way Jim Wolf has of helping others.

Beginning Saturday, Wolf, 65, of Mt. Lebanon, will begin his ascent through the Tanzanian forest and up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak at 19,341 feet above sea level. The Concordia Lutheran Ministries board member is raising money to help provide clothing, food and shelter for 1001 Orphans, a mission project to help Kenyan children whose parents have died of AIDS.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_776134.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Patch: St. Clair Expanding its Cancer Center

St. Clair Hospital broke ground this week on a expansion project that will increase the size of its cancer center by nearly 25 percent.

The hospital in Mt. Lebanon is building a new area for a “linear accelerator” that will be housed in a vault with 84-inch thick walls. The building will expand the existing 8,000-square-foot cancer center by an additional 1,885-square-feet.

Read the full article:

• chartiersvalley.patch.com/articles/st-clair-hospital-expanding-cancer-center (Chartiers Valley Patch)

Trib: South Hills communities in recycling smackdown

When Andrew Baram leaves his Mt. Lebanon home for work on curbside garbage and recycling pick-up days, he often peeks at his neighbors' garbage.

In doing so, he puts people into three categories: Those who recycle everything they can, those who recycle some things but not everything, and those who just don't care.

"So I thought, 'How can we get people more interested?' " said Baram, 41, a manager at PNC Bank Downtown and chairman of the Mt. Lebanon Waste Reduction Committee. "Well, I've been here 10 years, and I know Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair have a rivalry -- at least in football -- and I thought, that might be a way we can get people more involved: Start a competition."

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_776142.html"> (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Guilty plea expected for Mt. Lebanon man in pill mill

The Mt. Lebanon man who admitted to passing himself off as a doctor and performing illegal abortions is scheduled to plead guilty next month in a federal court in Philadelphia to a charge of illegally prescribing painkillers in a thriving pill mill.

Steven Massof, 49, a graduate of St. George's Medical School in the West Indies who never obtained a medical license, is due in federal court on Feb. 8 to enter a plea. Federal prosecutors say he used clinic owner Kermit Gosnell's registration to prescribe controlled drugs to patients in 2006 and 2007.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_775983.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Municipalities find different ways to make ends meet

Many municipalities have opted not to raise their property taxes this year or have reduced proposed tax increases, instead turning to fees, fund transfers and other taxes to help cover expenditures.

In Mt. Lebanon, 2012 will be the first full year of collecting an $8-per-house stormwater fee initially approved as part of the 2011 budget to pay for upgrades to storm sewers, gutters and curbs. The fee is expected to raise about $1.3 million this year, some of which will go toward services tangentially related to managing runoff, such as clearing debris from storm drains, street sweeping and reconstructing curbs as part of the municipality's road reconstruction plans.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_775017.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

P-G: Ex-realty agent pleads guilty in child sex case

John A. Brownlee III, a longtime fixture in the Mt. Lebanon real estate world, pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to coerce and entice a minor into sexual activity.

Mr. Brownlee, 62, who had moved to North Versailles prior to his arrest last year, could face a 20- to 24-year sentence, and is subject to a mandatory minimum of 10 years, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar. Mr. Brownlee's attorney, Leonard Sweeney, said he hopes to present mitigating information that would suggest a five-year sentence.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12006/1201693-55.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon convict admits guilt in recent robberies

A Mt. Lebanon man who was convicted of robbing nearly a dozen banks in Florida several years ago has pleaded guilty to a series of recent heists in Oakdale, West Virginia and Maryland, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Jeremy T. Dugan, 32, who entered the pleas on Dec. 28 before a federal judge in Wheeling, was on supervised release for the Florida holdups when the latest robbery spree began. The pleas were for robberies that occurred Aug. 31 at First Commonwealth Bank in Oakdale; Sept. 2 at a federal credit union in Elm Grove, W.Va.; and Sept. 26 at a bank in Perryville, Md.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_775277.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon job offers prestige, top-scale pay

When Chris Haering resigned Monday after 17 seasons at Mt. Lebanon, the head coaching position at one of the most prestigious programs in Western Pennsylvania prep football suddenly became available.

That's precisely how John Grogan intends to promote it.

Since Grogan became Mt. Lebanon's athletic director in 2000, the school has won 33 WPIAL team championships in 17 sports, including a football title. Grogan has a good track record, hitting home runs in hiring basketball coaches Joey David (boys) and Dori Oldaker (girls).

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/highschool/football/s_774908.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Trib: Mt. Lebanon, Thornburg get exemption to limit on increase in revenues

At least two Allegheny County municipalities have received exemptions to the state's anti-windfall legislation, allowing them potentially to collect more than 5 percent of any increase in revenue generated by reassessments of properties.

Common Pleas Judge Terrence W. O'Brien last week approved the exemptions for Mt. Lebanon and Thornburg so each municipality can collect enough revenue to cover expenditures in their 2012 budgets. The amount of revenue is limited to what municipalities have budgeted for this year.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_774689.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

PG: Mt. Lebanon coach resigns to join Pitt

Chris Haering has spent the past 18 seasons coaching football in the WPIAL. Next season, he will be on the Pitt sideline.

Haering has resigned as Mt. Lebanon High School's coach to become an assistant at Pitt under new coach Paul Chryst. Haering told Mt. Lebanon's players the news Monday and also gave the school his letter of resignation.

Haering coached Mt. Lebanon for 17 seasons and had a 111-71 record. He won the 2003 WPIAL Class AAAA championship and made the playoffs 13 times. He also coached at Hampton for one season (1994) and had an 8-3 record there.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12003/1200963-365.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Laurels and Lances

Lance: To Mt. Lebanon. Still in denial that deer are out of control -- it says it "has an active deer population" -- the South Hills community is offering tips on how to best hit those deer while driving: Don't slam on the brakes; just run 'em over. We kid you not. Instead of telling you how to more safely bag a buck with your Beemer and fell a fawn with your Ferrari, Mt. Lebanon officials should be culling the herd.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_774203.html (Pittsburgh Tribune Review)

Essential Public Radio: Stormwater Utilities Might Become More Popular

On days when the region sees heavy rain, many creeks and streams jump their banks and a slew of sewage systems overflow, pumping raw waste into the region’s rivers. The federal government is trying to eliminate those overflows and has entered into consent decrees with many of the region’s sewage utilities.

The repairs and upgrades required by the decrees will cost the region billions of dollars. Much of that will be born by the customers, but Mt. Lebanon has created a storm water utility that assesses a flat fee on every home and a fee on commercial property based on how much impermeable surface is on their land. The collections go into a special fund created to maintain some 75 miles of sewers, drains, curbs and gutters.

Read the full article:

• www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2011-12-27/stormwater-utilities-might-become-more-popular-9834 (Essential Public Radio)

The Almanac: Harmonica music a favorite of Mt. Lebanon woman

Reed and cover-plates, the comb and blues harp, terms just recently familiar to me. Artists of the music world, both young and old, will recognize these being parts of a harmonica.

As I visited with residents of Baptist Homes in Mt. Lebanon a few weeks ago, my attention drifted to Christmas tunes being played on a harmonica in another area. The tone was wonderful and so was the smile on Mary Beth Flickinger, a long-time resident of Baptist Homes. Her familiar harmonica melodies filled the air.

At 89, Mary Beth has been making delightful music on a harmonica since her small hands held the instrument in the third grade.

Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/story11/12-28-2011-roamin-harmonica (The Almanac)

Municipality launches "myLebo" web site

On December 30, the municipality announced its new myLebo web site, billed grandly as “the virtual gateway to your community.” You can see a screen-shot of the site below:

According an announcement on mtlebanon.org, you can now sign up for an account on myLebo. With an account, you can pay parking tickets, apply for permits, report problems, and do a variety of other things that used to require paper forms and the now-quaint practice of moving your body to and from municipal offices.

Check out myLebo and let your fellow Blog-Lebo readers know what you think. If anybody has actually used the site, please tell us how things worked out.