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Local Courts Apply Laws to Citizens, Ignore Law Themselves
Recently, I commented briefly on how Allegheny County is failing to conduct sunset reviews every four years as mandated by the Home Rule Charter. Sunset reviews help determine whether taxpayer dollars are being used appropriately and the current review is three years late. The failure of County Government to obey the law even as it expects [...] -
Threatening Student Health: A New Policy Briefing
Executive Summary Parties, college. College, parties. The two are almost inseparable from one another. Whether being profiled in major publications like Playboy and U.S. News and World Reports as outstanding party schools or not, almost all major colleges and universities around the nation serve as havens for imbibing young adults to let loose. Unfortunately, a byproduct [...] -
Lost and Stolen Gun Ordinances: A New Policy Briefing
Executive Summary A prominent aspect of the debate surrounding crime and gun ownership, lost and stolen gun laws represent a particularly heated point of contention in an ideological debate between gun owners and anti-gun interest groups. After the Pennsylvania State House refused to pass a statewide lost and stolen law in 2008, lobbyists presented these ordinances [...] -
Beverage Tax Follies: A New Policy Briefing
Executive Summary Emulating Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl proposed a sweetened-beverage tax of 2 cents-per-ounce in March and, although the Philadelphia tax is dead, the Pittsburgh Beverage Tax is still very much alive. One in a series of taxes, fines and fee-hikes proposed by city politicians as a partial solution to Pittsburgh’s pension crisis, [...] -
The Case Against Pitt Students for a Democratic Society
Executive Summary In its six-month history on campus, Pitt Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) evolved from an organization that hosted lectures and film screenings to one that participated in and trained other students to conduct disruptive protests on Pitt’s campus. Pitt SDS is clearly in violation of at least two student organization guidelines and, [...]