A short time ago, the office of Natalia Rudiak sent out a press release announcing that she's been named to a task force intended to study the latest skirmish in the "War on Snow": 

Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak today was named to lead a task force convened by Council President Darlene Harris to look into the City's performance during the current snow emergency ...

"Four days after the storm there are still thousands of people across our City who are snowed in," said Rudiak. "People are angry that it is taking so long to get power restored and streets cleared, and there needs to be accountability."

The task force will initially convene later this week to begin its review. Until then, City Council will focus on helping the Mayor’s Emergency Operation Center with constituent calls ...

"We want to make sure we can dig out of this storm before we start getting too academic. We are in an emergency and we need to be focused on that right now,” Rudiak said.

I'm trying to find out who the other task force members are. Council offices seem a bit harried at the moment.

One of the things that has long plagued the Port Authority is a failure to communicate. And I'm not just talking about surly bus drives: For years, the agency just hasn't done a great job of telling riders about what's going on with the system. Witness, for example, the absence of posted schedules at bus stops -- something you can find in transit systems all over the world. 

But I want to give credit where it's due ... especially in light of a snowstorm that has generated a blizzard of complaint about the region's transportation network. Over the weekend, I found myself hooked on the Port Authority's Twitter account, which I've never really noticed before. 

Apparently, I'm what's called a "late adopter." Authority spokesperson Jim Ritchie tells me that the Twitter account -- which the Authority has done little to promote -- really took off during the G-20. Of the account's 1,800 current followers, something like half signed up during last year's global economic summit, to figure out how the hell they were supposed to get to work while world leaders shaped our economy. 

But it's at a moment like this -- with an event that we didn't have months of advance warning about -- that the account proves its worth.

Another gubernatorial endorsement today -- the statewide chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is backing Joe Hoeffel for governor. 

Like the endorsement from some SEIU locals earlier today, the choice isn't that surprising. Unlike his major rivals, GOP or Democratic, Hoeffel's pro-choice credentials haven't been questioned. (At a candidate's forum last weekend, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty both said they support the state's existing abortion law ... but questions have been raised about where their hearts are on the issue.) And he couches his support of reproductive freedom as a matter of trusting women -- a full-throated case for equal rights. At last weekend's candidate forum, for example, Hoeffel was the only one who complained that Pennsylvania's current abortion law was too restrictive.

Text of the press release follows:  

February 8, 2010 – The Pennsylvania National Organization for Women (PA NOW) has endorsed Democrat Joe Hoeffel for governor of Pennsylvania.

No surprise here: In the wake of county executive Dan Onorato's decision to support a "prevailing wage" bill, the SEIU is endorsing him this year's gubanatorial race. (UPDATE: This is terribly sloppy wording on my part. It ain't "the SEIU" making this endorsement -- as the release itself makes clear, it's three SEIU locals. That's different from the SEIU's statewide body. So the press release was clearer than the reporter was ... oh, the shame.) 

There's been some debate about just how progressive Onorato really is ... and rival Democrat Joe Hoeffel used Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's New Year's Eve veto of a city prevailng wage bill to score some political points.

Stop the presses: If former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum runs for president, he's got the endorsement of FOX News asshat Glenn Beck.

During his radio broadcast today, Beck was musing about a right-wing conference in St. Louis, where he is scheduled to give the keynote address. While citing some of the luminaries in attendance, Beck noted that Pennsylvania's very own Rick Santorum was on the roster. (Santorum is giving a talk and a workshop session whose title is "How to rid your TV of ALL Sexual programs and advertisements." Have you tried turning it off?) 

"Am I going to get a chance to see Rick Santorum?" Beck asked. "I'd like to." 

"He would be my pick" for president, Beck added a moment later.

I just wanted to flag this little item in yesterday's New York Times, for the benefit of local college students and othe readers of this blog:

Four months ago, it appeared all but certain that the White House and Democrats in Congress would succeed in overhauling the student loan  business and ending government subsidies to private lenders.

President Obama called the idea a "no-brainer" last fall, predicting it would take billions of dollars from the profits of private lenders and give it directly to students ... But an aggressive lobbying campaign by the nation’s biggest student lenders has now put one of the White House’s signature plans in peril.

The way student loans currently work is this: Private companies like Sallie Mae make out loans to students. But even if a student defaults, the bank carries no risk: These loans are fully backed by the government, so the bank makes out either way. Student loans are, in essence, a license to print money ... while burdening young workers with debts that can take years to pay.

There's no reason why the government couldn't just issue the loans directly -- taxpayers are on the hook anyway, and cutting out the middle man could save up to $8 billion a year.

Patrick Kennedy, 39 of North Huntingdon in Westmoreland County has Announced his Candidacy for Congress in the 18th Congressional District.

He is married to the former Stacey Falbo of Irwin. He has two children Jebediah and Brandon ages 15 and 12.

Kennedy is a Graduate of Millington High School and served in the United States Marine Corps from 1988 to 1992 and the United States Army from 1993 to 1996 and is a member local Teamsters 249 working for Yrc Frieght as a Freight worker.

In announcing his Candidacy Kennedy stated, "The founding fathers did not intend our system of Government to be run by elitist professional politicians that are unresponsive to the peoples needs. It is time to elect men and women who know the daily struggles people endure."

"I am the only non-professional politician in this race and who has not been part of the problem in Washington D.C. These professional politicians have distorted our system of Government and it is now time for a new start."

Kennedy's issue page lists healthcare reform first, and it's the first issue he mentioned to me during a conversation we had a little while ago. Instead of paying insurers to act as middlemen, he counsels expanding Medicare across the board, essentially turning it into a universal insurance program.

PoliticsPa is reporting that the field of Democratic gubernatorial wanna-bes is likely to get more crowded. State Senator Anthony Williams, who hails from Philadelphia, says he hopes "to, at minimum, force the Republican and Democratic candidates to begin addressing issues such as gun-control and inner-city poverty."

Out in Philadelphia itself, there's been talk about this for the past week or so. Williams, who would be the lone black candidate in the race, is apparently concerned that none of the current contenders is paying enough attention to urban issues or poverty.

Williams hasn't committed to a race yet, and it's hard to image how he's going to pull together a viable campaign between now and a primary election just over three months away. But it appears increasingly likely that he'll enter.

Ever since the US Supreme Court cast aside federal laws limiting corporate and union influence on election advertising, I've heard the same nightmare scenario. Thanks to the court's decision, critics of the ruling warn, special interests will buy up the airwaves days before an election, filling our heads with ads in support of their cronies. By the time Americans realize they've been suckered, it will be Too Late.

Maybe. But to be honest, I've always kind of felt that's how it worked already -- at least as far as being suckered is concerned.

Today's Scranton Times Tribune is reporting that gubernatorial candidate Chris Doherty -- who was just in Pittsburgh for a candidates' forum yesterday -- may be dropping out. Citing anonymous sources, the paper is reporting that Gov. Ed Rendell is trying to broker a deal in which Doherty would take a run at lieutenant governor instead, while backing Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. 

Doherty, currently the mayor of Scranton, has denied the rumors. So has a representative of Rendell, who is publicly neutral in the race though said to be quietly backing Onorato. In any case, no deal is immiment, the paper says. 

Statewide polling shows that none of the four Democratic hopefuls have anything close to a lead among voters. But as the Times Tribune notes, Onorato has millions on hand, while none of his rivals has cracked seven-digits in previous reports.