The Hilton hotel has been front and center at Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle for five decades, but on Thursday, Hilton Hotels & Resorts announced that it had terminated its franchise agreement with the Downtown stalwart, meaning the hotel and its owners can no longer use the Hilton name.

The owners, Shubh Hotels Pittsburgh LLC, have been struggling with financial problems for years. A sweeping expansion to the building, adding 18,000 square feet of banquet rooms and recreation area on three levels, has been stalled, with contractors walking off the job due to nonpayment.

A spokeswoman for the hotel said it would still use the Hilton name for the time being.

At an informational session on energy and drilling held at Consol headquarters in Washington County, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, told an audience last week that energy companies should be allowed to drill for natural gas on Pittsburgh International Airport's 9,000 acres, something that the county government and the Allegheny County Airport Authority have been discussing since 2008. (The Airport Authority tried to sell off natural gas rights under Pittsburgh International and Allegheny County airports, but received no bids at the time.)

With that lease money, and possible future tax revenue, "we could pay off the debt for the airport, pave those potholes, buy some new furniture for the waiting areas, and get some planes back in Pittsburgh. Quite frankly, that also extends to the county parks and state forests too," Mr. Murphy said.

He also called "Gasland," a film about the potential environmental consequences on deep natural gas drilling, a "pseudo-documentary, which totally falsifies what happens with Marcellus Shale, showing flames coming out of faucets -- which is an absolute blatant lie."

Mr. Murphy sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and formed a natural gas caucus within the House.

"The man, in my opinion, did everything except stand on his head stark naked in the middle of Carson Street and ask for help, because that's how bad that area has become."

­-- Pittsburgh Police Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly, speaking of Councilman Bruce Kraus' pleas to get more help from police in monitoring East Carson Street and the South Side business district on the weekends. Residents complain that the many bars are bad neighbors, leading to crime, vandalism and litter.

... Visit www.post-gazette.com/businessnews for Erich Schwartzel's story about two Pittsburgh tech firms that competed to build a specialized touch-screen device to be featured in "Abduction," a movie being filmed in Pittsburgh over the summer.

And while you're at it, be sure to check out Steve Twedt's blood-boiling story about hidden "facilities" fees being charged to patients after routine doctor's office visits.

The more people you lay off, the more you get paid as CEO. That's the moral of the story written by the PG's Len Boselovic. A Washington research group compiled a list of the 50 American companies that had laid off the most people since late 2008 (a list including Alcoa, U.S. Steel and PNC Financial Services Group, all of which have laid off thousands). At those companies where layoffs were the largest, CEOs made "42 percent more last year than the average large company CEO."

"Money Q&A" and "Company Town" are featured exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.