Laurel: To the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Presentation, presentation, presentation. Next to the art itself, that’s what art is all about. Kudos to the organizers of Pittsburgh’s long-running festival for freshening up this year’s event, running 16 days beginning June 6. Among the changes, an indoor juried exhibition concentrating on western Pennsylvania artists and the expansion of its footprint to the 900 block of Liberty and Penn avenues. Lance: To Jeff Habay. The Republican state legislator is embroiled in a dicker-and-bicker with Shaler officials over the size of signage on his Butler Park Road office. His signs exceed the township’s limits. One, measuring 180 square feet, is the size of a small billboard. Mr. Habay defends the sign, saying it’s needed to better help constituents find his office. Sounds more like a taxpayer-financed campaign sign to us. Laurel: To Dave Fawcett. The Allegheny County at-large councilman wants to install a governor on the dangerously high-revving engine that tax-increment financing has become. Mr. Fawcett, an Oakmont Republican, finds it simply ridiculous that pristine fields and hills and dales are being declared “blighted” to qualify for tax breaks to build malls and strip shops. Bravo! It’s time to redirect TIFs to the real blighted areas of our communities. Lance: To the Federal Transit Administration. It’s given final federal approval for the completion of the design phase of the North Shore Connector. That’s the hellaciously expensive ($390 million) plan to lay a tunnel underneath the Allegheny River and extend light-rail service from the Golden Triangle to the North Side. (Another extension would run to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.) A boondoggle this project was, is and always will be. Good luck: To the Pitt Panthers. The Big East basketball champions play their first-round game in the NCAA tournament today. Pitt, 26-4, ranked No. 5 in the nation and the No. 2 seed in the Midwest bracket, takes on the Northeast Conference’s Wagner, 21-10, at the Fleet Center in Boston. It has been an exciting and remarkable year for Coach Ben Howland’s hardcourters. And we wish the Panthers the best of luck.

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