PITTSBURGH — For the third consecutive year, Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center is asking the county for $2 million to help cover its 2009 deficit.

The request to the Allegheny Regional Asset District angers some state lawmakers who believe funding the center will cut money slated for cultural and educational activities.

Officials who oversee the center say money from gambling revenues has fallen short.

Rather than get a promised $2 million annually for 10 years to cover the center's deficit, it will only receive $1.7 million a year for 12 years.

In addition, the center will not be receiving a promised $20 million lump sum from the state, which was meant to cover a loan.

Instead, that money will also be received over a 12-year period.

PITTSBURGH — The Port Authority of Allegheny County said it will resume tunnel boring work in Pittsburgh this week and plans to have two light-rail tunnels completed by year's end.The tunnels are part of a $435 million plan to expand Pittsburgh's light-rail service.It will connect the city's downtown to its outlying northern shore, home to popular sports stadiums.The 500-ton boring machine completed the first tunnel last month.Port Authority spokesman David Whipkey said the second tunnel should be completed by the end of the year.

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh's National Aviary is allowing visitors to get a peek at how sick birds are cared for in a newly opened hospital wing.The $26,100 annex opened Tuesday. Now aviary visitors can watch through a window while veterinarians repair cracked beaks, splint wings and even give shots to owls.The annex can hold 16 birds and has three ponds, meant to help ducks and other birds being treated in the hospital avoid foot infections and feather issues.The aviary's director of veterinary medicine Pilar Fish says the idea is to let visitors "appreciate birds as individuals with amazing personalities."

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police are without a chaplain after Chief Nate Harper fired the volunteer filling the post due to questions raised about her religious credentials.Lara Zinda filled the post for about 10 months, assisted by a partner, Keith Smith.Zinda says in a statement on Tuesday that she stands by her credentials, and is proud of the work she has done for the police.Harper says there were "discrepancies with their documents." He says Smith also has a criminal record. He says Zinda brought Smith and was fired last week as a result.Zinda and Smith both say they are reverends with the Methodist Institute, part of the Methodist Church in America in Newgate College.But the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church says it knows of no such organization.

PITTSBURGH — Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh say a Western Pennsylvania woman embezzled more than $87,000 from the United Steelworkers of America.Prosecutors say between June 2006 and January, 42-year-old Donna Simpson of East McKeesport embezzled the money from a bank account for the Steelworkers Organization for Active Retirees. Prosecutors say Simpson was working as a field secretary for the union at the time and wrote 82 unauthorized checks to herself.A grand jury has indicted Simpson on a charge of embezzlement from a labor organization.A phone number listed in her name rang busy continuously on Tuesday afternoon.

PITTSBURGH — Carnegie Mellon University says it will not publicly reveal any decision about a questionable master's degree that led to the resignation of its public policy school's dean.Mark Wessel resigned this month as dean of CMU's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management after acknowledging an "error in judgment.The university says Wessel approved excessive transfer credits and independent study instead of coursework for one student's 2004 degree.The university said it would review the degree and other degrees issued. Spokesman Ken Walters says CMU won't announce what decision was made about that degree. He says the school also likely won't comment on whether the internal review had been completed.Wessel remains at CMU as a nontenured lecturer.