Luke Ravensthal/target

===September Whispers in the Trib===
MAYOR LUKE ERECTS BARRIER AFTER FORD CRASHES. 
Party crashers, beware. It's not as easy as it once was to come uninvited to one of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's news conferences.
Attorney Lawrence Fisher attempted to do just that recently as Ravenstahl gathered the press to defend his administration from unspecified allegations of corruption made by former Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Pat Ford.
Fisher is Ford's attorney. Ford stepped down Aug. 27, four months after being suspended after admitting he and his wife accepted gifts from a Lamar Advertising executive when Lamar was having business with the city.
Fisher was recognized and escorted out of the press briefing before it began, but the damage was done.
To thwart future gate-crashers, the mayor's office has now instituted a new media sign-in sheet to try to prevent non-media types from scurrying past the watchful eyes of Ravenstahl's three-member media and public affairs staff.
===LTE in April 2009 ===
We commend Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for the work he has done over the last week or so. It's too bad he didn't completely understand that his term began more than two and a half years ago.
Last week, he implemented new regulations to end no-bid contracts and submitted a watered-down version of campaign finance reform legislation. All this work has made his schedule so busy that he has had difficulty finding the time to engage in an open and spirited debate with the other candidates in the Democrat mayoral primary.
It does take time to fit all of the decisions that should have been made over the last two and a half years into a short mayoral campaign cycle. But for most of his tenure he has had plenty of time to be in parades, attend the Super Bowl, attend a concert in a city-owned vehicle purchased with Department of Homeland Security funds, fly to New York City in a private jet and make sure that Pat Ford got all of his severance.
We are certain that Councilman Patrick Dowd, who is running in the primary against the mayor, understands that taking the oath of office means you start that day.
William Hula & Shannon Hula, Highland Park