Talent : Buzz

Worries over immigrants potentially taking jobs from native-born Americans run high in parts of the nation, but some U.S. cities are taking a different view: Wooing immigrants can reverse long-term declines in population, reports the Wall St. Journal.

"In Pittsburgh, local nonprofit Vibrant Pittsburgh recruits highly skilled foreigners at national conventions, sends frequent emails to immigrant-community groups about Pittsburgh job opportunities and, since June, has given out $100,000 in grants to 25 local community groups that focus on immigrants.

Teanna Medina, a 25-year-old Cuban American, had already bought a plane ticket to Brazil for a job last year after receiving a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Then, Vibrant Pittsburgh helped her find a job in the area and she decided to stay. A few months later, her 41-year-old cousin, Lazaro Rodriguez, crossed the Mexican border as a Cuban refugee with about 20 others. "A lot went to New York and a lot went to Miami," Ms. Medina said. "But he was the only one that came to Pittsburgh."

We included the Pittsburgh part of the article in case you aren't a WSJ subscriber. If you're a subscriber you can read the article here.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds right midfielder Jason Kutney leads a dual existence. Come gametime, he's just any other player - but after he steps off the field, he's part owner of the team. Thanks to his efforts and those of the other owners, Highmark Stadium is nearly complete. However, this duality comes at a cost to Kutney. The more he sweats the details of the stadium, team logistics, scheduling, and the like, the less time he has to commit to his team.

To read how Kutney makes it work, click here.

Get the lowdown on the Startup Weekend in Pittsburgh recently which attracted more than 100 pitches and ideas.

Read the full story here by Pop City's Marty Levine in our sister pub, Keystone Edge.

Using seawater, manganese oxide, and a healthy investment from Bill Gates, Aquion Energy of Pittsburgh is poised to take the battery market by storm, reports Silicon Republic.  By replacing all of the harmful chemicals and heavy metals in conventional batteries with more organic and inert materials, Aquion aims to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly battery that won't leach harmful substances into the soil when they are discarded. The proprietary technology for the batteries is based on research conducted by CMU's Professor Jay Whitacre.

To read the full story, click here.

Pittsburgh's own Lou Astorino is  the only American architect in history to design a chapel for The Vatican. When the Cardinals are sequestered to vote on the next pope, they'll attend mass in The Chapel of the Holy Spirit; a small, intimate chapel designed by the Pittsburgh native.

Though the construction of the chapel faced a few obstacles, the least of which was the plot of land Vatican officials selected for the chapel, it now stands pristine next to the hotel the sequestered Cardinals will be frequenting.

To read more, click here.

Eric Koger and Susan Gregg Koger are featured in Under 30 Ceo's list of the 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs of 2012 for Modcloth, a Pittsburgh based online clothing distributor specializing in vintage style apparel. The Krogers are in good company, with Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger of Instagram, and Daniel Elk of Spotify all appearing in the same list.

To read more, click here.

You've probably never wondered what it would be like to charge your phone with a hot cocoa or maybe an ice water. Epiphany Labs did. With their new Epiphany onE Puck, the New Castle startup wants you to charge your phone with your beverage--or any other source of hot or cold you can find. A simple heat engine, a drink coaster, and a USB port combined into one device creates what Epiphany hopes will be a solution for people who never have enough time in the day to plug in their smartphones and pave the way for future application of heat engines to places and people in need of electricity.

To read more, click here.

Our statewide sister publication, Keystone Edge, reports encouraging news on the just released Youth Opportunity Index. Allegheny and Butler County are both showing signficant gains in youth population.

"Increases in residents ages 18-24 in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the 2010 census signalled the beginning of the end for the longstanding "brain drain" conundrum across Pennsylvania."

Read more in the article here.

Move over, Nate Silver. Civic Science just released data on profiles of voters and who's more likely to vote for Ravenstahl or Peduto in the mayoral election (done before Michael Lamb announced).

As an example, college-educated voters are twice as likely to vote for Peduto while those 65 and older favor Ravenstahl by a wide majority.

From social media (Peduto reigns with Twitter users while the candidates evenly split with Facebook users) to technology, the findings are quite interesting. There's even a favored Big Burrito restaurant category.

Read the blog here.

"Irvine, Pittsburgh and Plano may not be the first places that come to mind when you think about where you’d be happiest—but it turns out those three cities are where some of the nation’s most contented young professionals are, according to online career site Careerbliss.com.

"Its list of the 20 happiest cities for young professionals is based on analysis from more than 38,000 employee generated reviews between 2011 and 2012. Young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years’ experience in a full-time position, were asked to rate ten key factors that affect workplace happiness, including work-life balance, one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, the work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and job autonomy."


Read more here.

For the third time, the renowned photographer Lynn Johnson, who is based in Pittsburgh, won the prestigious National Geographic Photographers' Photographer Award. 

"Our winner is one of those people who is assiduously understated, does meticulous research, and enters the subject’s world with extraordinary depth of compassion. The pictures this photographer takes are the slippery pictures of ephemeral moments and framed in a way that, to be perfectly honest, would even elude almost everyone in this room..."

Read the full comments as the award was presented, here.

Find the Pittsburghers! How many Pittsburghers and Pittsburgh scenes can you spot in this latest video by Public Enemy?

To get you started, the first person you see is Justin Strong.

See the video here.

Unicorn Mountain is a collective of Pittsburgh artists that publishes anthologies of local art, comics, music and literature. Their third anthology, The Black Forest, takes a different tack from their previous collections by exploring much darker, stranger themes. My friend Tara Helfer did the layout and supplementary illustrations for The Black Forest and sent me a copy to check out.
The collection covers a broad range of styles, and is packed with more than twenty different artists' work. Some parts are creepy and scribbly. Others are intricate and mysterious. I've picked some samples of a few of my favorites here.



Read the piece here.

PNC was just named one of the 2013 Best Places to Work for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index, scoring a perfect 100 points.

Over the past 11 years, the CEI has become the gold standard for corporate policies and practices related to LGBT employees and their families. The CEI rates companies on 40 such policies and practices. A total of 889 businesses have been rated in the 2013 CEI, including the entire Fortune 500. This year a record 293 of the Fortune 500-ranked businesses have an official CEI rating, with the other 201 rated based upon publicly-available data.


Read the full report here.

"Congratulations are in order to the Pittsburgh makers of "Blood Brother."

The documentary will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It's one of 16 films in the documentary competition and just 113 features (chosen from thousands of submissions) at the Jan. 17-27 festival in Park City, Utah."

Read the full blog here.