Talent : Buzz

Anyone who knows E2 loves E2. The Highland Park restaurant recently launched a Kickstarter campaign which netted $12,000 from the post we saw on Twitter and now this LA blogger writes a loving profile.

Read the full story here.

That Mad Men masthead photo we featured a few weeks ago, along with the guide to Mad Men-esque places throughout the burgh, was republished in Business Week online, aka, Bloomberg. Missed it the first time? See it here.

Kellee Maize's latest video features a fast-rapping Kellee and a 360 degree view of Market Square. View it here!

Graduating students prove what census numbers are starting to show: High-tech jobs, medical institutions, higher education and finance are motivating them to stay in Western Pennsylvania, reports the Tribune Review.

"Pittsburgh has so much to offer young people, from available jobs to high quality of life and affordability, and I'm happy to remind them that Pittsburgh has what they need and want after college," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said. His "Pick Pittsburgh" initiative touts the region's benefits in a letter to graduating seniors at Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Point Park universities and Community College of Allegheny County.

"Pittsburgh is very friendly for young people just starting out," said Totten, 21, a Churchill native who will graduate from Pitt with an exercise science degree. She lined up a job in West Mifflin while she works toward a master's degree online from California University of Pennsylvania. "It's inexpensive, and I had no problem finding a job."

Western Pennsylvania began suffering an "inordinate" job and population decline when the domestic steel industry began to suffer in the 1980s, said Chris Briem, chair of Pitt's Center for Social and Urban Research and an expert on census data analysis. In 1980, the number of people ages 18 to 24 living in the city was 67,445, census figures show. By 1990, the number fell to 51,692.

"Specifically, the people who were leaving were the young, 20-something, professional and educated workers who we really needed to transform and move our economy forward," Briem said.

By 2000, the number fell to 49,461, but the 2010 census numbers show the first increase in 30 years: a 16 percent boost to 57,745 people ages 18-24 living in Pittsburgh.

The rebound over the past decade came from investments and growth in the high-tech industry, engineering, the medical field, higher education and finance, said Court Gould, executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Pittsburgh.
"It essentially took a generation, an entire career-span, to turn this around," Gould said.

Read the full story here.

In a series about rust belt cities, Pittsburgh gets its turn in the spotlight with news ranging from Waffle Shop and Conflict Kitchen to Grown Pittsburgh and Hip Hop's new artists.

Read the full article here.

Tom Schneider just launched a new site, 412creative, devoted to showcasing smart and effective design and advertising in Pittsburgh. 'The website was motivated by a nagging question, one that pops up frequently when looking through magazines, surfing the Web or watching the news: “Who did that?” As in, “who wrote that copy,” “who ux’d that website,” or “who directed that spot?”

412creative will answer those questions, plus give you the stories behind the work, introduce you to the creative teams who conceived it and make sense of how and why a piece was produced the way it was.

We’re lucky to live in an area that has amazing creative resources. Pittsburgh’s ad agencies, design firms and tech companies compete on a national and global level. It’s our goal to curate the best area work."

View the new website here.

After thrashing the Bruins on Sunday, this sportswriter wants to know why the Penguins are so tough even without their best player on the ice. And what will they do when he returns?

Read the full story here.

"...But here’s a guy who over the past two decades has given us 13 dazzlingly dynamic novels. In an age of literary snobbery, MFA elitism and postmodern irony, all of which have helped marginalize the novel, here’s a guy who writes spectacularly without an ounce of pretension. A guy who writes about the people nobody else is writing about. An editor I know put it this way: “At a time when we are talking about class and income inequality, he’s the novelist who has best captured the shifting state of America, what it is like to live outside of cities, to wrestle with what has happened to the working and middle classes outside of shiny urban places.”I’m sitting across from Stewart O’Nan, and I’m thinking to myself: Is this guy our best working novelist?

Read the full story here.

Georgia Berner, CEO of Berner International and a much admired business leader in the Pittsburgh region,  was profiled in the Sunday Times' business column, The Boss, about taking over the air curtains company after her husband's death--and raising 4 children at the same time. She has since taken on a startup company and remarried. (You go, Georgia!)

Read the full story here.

The Quality of Life Technology Center is highlighted in this brief news report and video from the Consumer Electronics Show.
QOL is noted for its robots that help the elderly or disabled.

Read the full story here.

Pittsburgh rapper Kellee Maize's newest album release, Integration, is expected to hit the 100,000 download mark soon. Read more about the hot release here and check out Kellee's cool video.

For the full story, click here.

Ordinary Americans accomplishing extraordinary things is what "Champions of Change" is all about. ModCloth founder Susan Koger shook President Obama's hand this month at the White House, accepting an honor that recognizes Americans each week who are out innovating in their fields.

Read it on Above Average Jane and the White House Blog.

Monster's Top 10 list of the best places in the country to find jobs includes Pittsburgh and a few more surprises.

Check out MarketWatch.

The men's U.S. Luge Team is being assembled, and Ross Township's Robby Huerbin made the cut. He is joined by 37-time medalist Tony Benshoof of Minnesota and Chris Mazdzer of New York.

Click here to read the entire article.