You’ve no doubt by now noticed that the sites got a bit of a re-design and some things got changed around last week. We wanted to highlight two changes to make sure everyone knows what changed.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

Bloggers and media types have been talking for a while now about how to save the newspaper industry.  The Post Gazette will launch PG+ at midnight tonight, a members-only area, which appears to be more focused on interaction with PG writers, as well as a social networking spin.

Ok, everybody, all at once, get ready to cheer for this one:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled today that Allegheny County must reassess its property values.

And by cheer, I mean quietly sob yourself to sleep.

The Post-Gazette reports this story, and while I was not a homeowner during the last reassessment, I seem to remember the lawsuits, the protests, the never-ending news stories (which I realize I’m not helping with) and the seemingly endless process.  Aren’t we all excited!

The Fraternal Order of Police has set up a fund where memorial contributions can be sent.  Click here for details.

All city and county meetings have been cancelled/rescheduled for this week, and offices will close at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and will remain closed through the end of the week (offices were scheduled to be closed for Good Friday).

A viewing open to the public will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the City County Building and as many as 1,000 police agencies from across the country and Canada are expected to be in attendance.

Violence continues:

• Shooting in Pine Township
• The SWAT team was mobilized in East Liberty

Google has begun a project to scan as many newspapers as they can (presumable to have a database to search and for history’s sake).  I was alerted to this fact via Lifehacker, who featured this issue of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from July, 1969.

The scanning isn’t perfect so far, and on as small a monitor as I have, it can be a pain to read the articles, but it’s still pretty cool.  Also, page 16 ends up as page 1 due to how it was scanned, a small detail, but it bugs me a little bit.

Anyway, it could be a fun tool to use and compare not only layouts and typography (I know, I’m a dork), but you know, the news.

Image by Christine ™ via Flickr

New Orleans Metbloggers Craig and Richard have been blogging all day.  Check out his posts:

From Craig:

• Craig and the Very Wet, Very Windy Day, 01 Sep 2008 in Uncategorized
  • …so our city this evening has lots downed branches and trees, plenty of missing signs and a lot of places remain without power. It’ll likely be the end of the week before things get completely back to normal (open banks, working gas pumps, neighbors returning, RESUPPLYING RESTAURANTS). But at least this one is over (here).
• ….like a day without sunshine., 01 Sep 2008 in Uncategorized
• Here we go…., 31 Aug 2008 in Uncategorized
• Good Day Sunshine, 31 Aug 2008 in Uncategorized
• Mandatory evacuation, 30 Aug 2008 in Uncategorized

From Richard:

• Two more months…, 01 Sep 2008 in Katrina& News& Uncategorized
• CNN bad, WWL great, 01 Sep 2008 in Uncategorized
• As if it weren’t bad enough, 01 Sep 2008 in Katrina& News& On A Personal Note& Uncategorized
  • I really wish CNN would stop running the headline “FLOODWATERS OVERTOP INDUSTRIAL CANAL LEVEE IN NEW ORLEANS”. The water is very high in the canal, and some water is blowing over the top, so maybe it’s semantic, but “overtop” sounds a little more dire and hysteria-inducing than necessary at the moment. Attention, CNN: we are already hysterical enough, thankyouverymuch. Also, CNN: I am within five blocks of your offices right now. Do not make me come down there.
• TV rationing, 01 Sep 2008 in Katrina& On A Personal Note& Uncategorized

Even more blog coverage

• Hurricane Gustav: Stories from the storm
• French Quarter, New Orleans Webcam
• The Ticker (Gustav edition): Shep, Anderson, Gibson…
• Hurricane Gustav and New Orleans

The Post-Gazette has, on Sundays, been running a feature called “The Cutting Edge”, where they post snippets from Pittsburgh-related blogs. (Yes, I still get 90% of my news on dead trees. Portable, useful for stuffing shipping boxes, and doesn’t require me to pay some silly “hotspot” to read it.) It has sunk to new lows. You may recall that Chinese newspaper that accidentally recycled a story from The Onion?. Scroll down this week’s Cutting Edge and find “One of America’s great newspapers” doing the same thing. I’d like to hope they’re just adding it in as a bit of comic belief, but the lack of framing text makes me think someone there is just plain asleep at the switch.

Not to worry, though. They’re a “manufacturer” according to state law, and thus aren’t required to pay property taxes. With all that money they’re saving, I’m sure they can put it towards finding, you know, real news to report on once in a while.

Nine days after it was announced, and almost a week since the letters began to appear on our skyline (read the story here), the USX tower still provides a Pittsburgh MadLib.  Now granted, the first day I saw the letters, I was a little confused and did not make the connection that there should be an “M” in the middle of “UP   C,” but I’ll chalk that up to my brain not quite firing on all cylinders that early in the morning.

 Anyway, I snapped these pictures, more updates to come as work progresses, and if I ever find myself in a place to see the third side of the building.

So Pittsburgh beat Los Angeles yesterday…

…and no, not in sports.

According to the latest American Lung Association report – “State of the Air 2008″ – that determines the nation’s most polluted cities, Pittsburgh has been named the “sootiest in the nation.”

Wow, what an honor.

What is this, the 1970s all over again?

The category Pittsburgh claimed top spot in measures short-term particle pollution, or ’soot.’ However, Janice Nolan, the assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy for the ALA, said that “it’s not that Pittsburgh has gotten worse; it’s that Los Angeles has gotten better.”

Small comfort, that.

Oh, and she said that “if the trend continues, Pittsburgh will top two lists, and LA will only be leading the nation in ozone.”

I see. So if the Steel City just keeps status quo, then we can’t make fun of LA-ites any more for being smoggy people. Great. Not to mention that everyone else in the country will revert back to the post-70’s assumption that Pittsburgh was a dirty, polluted city.

Guillermo Cole, a spokesman for the Allegheny County Health Department, told the Post-Gazette that Pittsburgh didn’t deserve the ranking as the high soot readings come primarily from emissions from U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. “The fact of the matter is that the ranking only applies accurately to the Liberty-Clairton area, and Pittsburgh, the rest of the county and the surrounding counties have much better air,” Mr. Cole said. “Liberty-Clairton is a unique situation. We have a large source, the coke works, sitting in a river valley, so it’s a real challenge. There’s no other area of the U.S. like that.”

The Liberty-Clairton area does not meet federal air quality standards for soot by far, but neither does the surrounding five-county metropolitan area – though soot levels are lower. Plans are in place, however, to improve the city’s overall air quality, especially for the Coke Works.

U.S. Steel has a $1B upgrade in the works for the site which will put the Liberty-Clairton area into attainment by 2015. The rest of the region should hit attainment by 2010.

Even if the area surrounding the Coke Works was removed from the data, Pittsburgh would still rank in the Top Twenty – 16th, to be exact.

So while the news is indeed hard to swallow, remember this: in traffic and commute, Pittsburgh is the fifth BEST city; L.A. is the ninth WORST. And when it comes right down to it, Pittsburghers get more quality time at home and not lodged on the Parkway inhaling exhaust. (Well, except when the “tunnel monster” is running loose.)

Commute vs. pollution? Yeah, I think Western PA wins that round.

Blast furnaces and iron ore at the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation mills, Etna, Pennsylvania (LOC), courtesy of The Library of Congress