Folks fighting to save the Civic Arena can breathe a sigh ofrelief. Their efforts to keep the old auditorium from the wreckingball won't include a battle with Batman.
Internet rumors had the arena being destroyed in spectacularfashion this year as part of the filming of "The Dark Knight Rises."The next Batman movie will be shot in Pittsburgh over the summer.
Local movie blogger Fiore Mastracci wrote that "it appears thearena will be immortalized by its destruction on film." He positedthat local and state governments' willingness to let the building beblown up might have clinched the deal to bring the production toPittsburgh.
No doubt the Penguins, who own the redevelopment rights for theold arena's site and are fighting preservationists' efforts to leavethe building standing, would sign off on such a plan.
But Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office and state Sen.Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, who chairs the Pittsburgh-AlleghenyCounty Sports & Exhibition Authority, told KDKA-TV there was nothingto the speculation.
We instantly recognized the rumors as hooey. Everyone knowsBatman never would join forces with a hockey team that shares itsname with one of his most dastardly foes -- the Penguin.
THE BLANK-CHECK MOCK. It wasn't the sweetest item to include inU.S. Rep. Jason Altmire's Easter basket.
The National Republican Congressional Committee sent faux blankchecks to Altmire, D-McCandless, and 20 other House Democrats onThursday, slamming them for failing to vote for the House budgetresolution or any alternative to it.
Politico reported the NRCC hopes to paint the lawmakers, whom ithas dubbed the "21 Blank Checks," as fiscally irresponsible. Sincemany of the targeted members belong to the fiscally conservativeBlue Dog Coalition, the attack strikes at the heart of that group'sidentity.
A FEATHER IN HEATHER'S CAP. Republican Allegheny County Councilcandidate Heather Heidelbaugh has landed a heavy hitter for herFriday fundraiser at the Duquesne Club, Downtown.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey will be on hand for the $300-per-personluncheon. Toomey and county Republican Committee Chairman Jim Roddeyare backing Heidelbaugh in her race against county Councilman EdKress for the GOP at-large seat.
Council's Republican caucus last month appointed Kress to replaceCouncilman Chuck McCullough, who resigned to run for countyexecutive.
HE PROBABLY ISN'T MUCH OF A WILDE FAN, EITHER. Think RickSantorum might have a few unkind words for the person who came upwith his presidential campaign slogan?
We do.
A member of the media noticed that the slogan that appears on thewebsite of the former Pennsylvania senator and likely 2012presidential candidate bears a striking resemblance to the title ofa Langston Hughes poem.
The Santorum slogan: "Fighting to make America America Again."The Hughes poem: "Let America Be America Again."
Santorum probably is irked over more than the obvious similarity.There probably are few poets more ideologically opposite fromSantorum than Hughes, who pushed a pro-communist, pro-gay agenda.
CONTROLLERS' DOUBLETALK. Pittsburgh and Allegheny County finallyagreed last week to merge their financial accounting systems, whichshould save taxpayers millions of dollars and eliminate unnecessaryduplication of services.
That's certainly a good move. But did anyone find it amusing thatcity Controller Michael Lamb and county controller and countyexecutive candidate Mark Patrick Flaherty announced theconsolidation by issuing separate news releases?
CATCHING UP WITH ED. Ed Rendell is making money these days, buthe doesn't seem very happy. The former Pennsylvania governor appearsto miss the trappings of power.
"I used to have 78,000 people working for me. Now I have three,"Rendell griped to the Philadelphia Daily News. "I was my own boss.Now I have a dozen bosses, and they expect me to show up when theywant me."
Rendell is working at least a dozen part-time law, banking, mediaand business board jobs -- including his much-publicized gig as anMSNBC talking head.
Less publicized has been Rendell's return to his old law firm,Ballard Spahr. That's hardly surprising, given the amount of statework the firm received while the Edster was in the governor'smansion.
NAMING RIGHTS. The Washington Post drew chuckles with a contestto rename some of the streets, towns and rivers in Iraq near theU.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Among the winning entries:
Bed, Baath and Beyond Boulevard
Known Knowns Avenue, with cross-street Known Unknowns
The Dick Cheney "Welcome Liberators Arch"
Bremer Bridge to Nowhere
The Bush Hanging Gardens, featuring the Wolfowitz Water(Boarding) Slide and Douglas Leap of Feith bungee jump
Richard Perle Gateway
and the Weapons of Mass Destruction gym.
Not making the cut were the Curveball Coliseum and Bring 'Em OnBoulevard.
LEAVING SO SOON? First-term U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey has introduced aproposed constitutional amendment that would set terms limits formembers of Congress.
A Fox News poll last fall indicated 78 percent of Americanssupport such term limits.
What's surprising, though, is that 74 percent of Democrats and 84percent of Republicans favor limits on terms. Those numbers are up 8percent over those in a 2009 survey.
For the amendment to become law, it must pass both the House andSenate by a two-thirds majority in each, then be ratified by atleast 37 states.
LOCK AND LOAD. Republican Tyler Courtney, a Westmoreland Countycommissioner hopeful, is raising money for his campaign by notholding his fire.
No, he's holding a fundraiser in the form of a trap shoot, setfor noon to 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Pike Run Country Club in Donegal.
For $100 -- or $500 for what his website,courtneyforcommissioner.com, calls "a 5 person squad" -- you canblast away to your heart's content.
But the only clay pigeon that Courtney really wants in his sightsis a Democrat candidate come fall.
-- compiled by Tribune-Review staff
Have some dirt to dish? A tip to flip? E-mail the intrepidWhispers desk at: whispers@tribweb.com.
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