Federal & State Funds to Help Pay G20 Security

Federal and state officials will kick in $16.3 million toward the estimated $19 million cost to provide security for the G20 Summit next month in Pittsburgh. The Ravenstahl administration says the federal will provide $10 million and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has promised $6.3 million which includes the cost of providing 600 state troopers for security.
State Senator Jim Ferlo of Pittsburgh is considering filing suit in Pittsburgh Federal Court after his request for a permit to hold a day-long rally in Point State Park the day before the G20 Summit was denied. Ferlo says he wanted to hold the rally so that people could speak out about political and social issues related to the G20. But he was told that police and the Secret Service want to use the park as a staging area.

Meantime, a coalition including the anti-war group Code Pink and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom plus other organizations was denied a permit to set up a "women's tent city" near the Heinz History Center....which is just a few blocks from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the headquarters for the G20 summit.