An observation: The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership says that for the new North Shore Connector to really serve the public, it must be part of an extended Downtown no-fare zone and that there must be service at a higher frequency than the Port Authority apparently is planning. The mass-transit agency says it can't afford that, which is why the partnership is seeking private sponsorship. But this once again calls into question the very rationale for this project. A nearly half-billion-dollar public transportation system that ill serves the public is the definition of a boondoggle.

On the "Watch List": State intervention in the Highmark-UPMC dispute. Why• If UPMC insists on cooking its own goose by, beginning next June, refusing to accept Highmark-insured patients, let it. The patient census will drop like a rock. UPMC physicians will migrate to other providers who don't fear competition. Nonintervention actually is the best way to break the UPMC monopoly.

Lance: To Doug Shields. The Pittsburgh councilman dismisses the idea that a mayoral plan to buy four natural-gas powered garbage trucks is a "green" initiative. After all, he says, the drilling process used to extract natural gas harms the environment. By Mr. Shields' standard, the consumption of meat should be banned because cows flatulate and human beings going to the bathroom is environmental degradation.

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