Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is perhaps best known as the home of the Pirates and the Steelers, and the birthplace of the mighty Ohio River. This week the city is trying to put on its best face for the International Coal Conference and the G20 Summit of world leaders, chaired by President Barack Obama.

"The Pittsburgh Summit is an important opportunity to continue the hard work that we have done in confronting the global economic crisis, and renewing prosperity for our people," said President Obama in a statement. "Pittsburgh stands as a bold example of how to create new jobs and industries while transitioning to a 21st century economy."

Yet thus far this week, Pittsburgh has shown itself to be a bold example of police harassment of private citizens.

Hundreds of people from across America have arrived in Pittsburgh to voice their concerns about the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the G20, in which a small group of people from the largest, most powerful nations make decisions behind closed doors that will affect the health and prosperity of millions of poor people in smaller, developing countries.

The protestors are relying on food provided by two small volunteer groups, Seeds of Peace Collective and Everybody's Kitchen, which have refurbished old school buses into travelling kitchens. These buses have fed thousands of people for free at disaster sites, such as during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Students from across Kentucky braved snow, icy roads, fallen power lines - and no cell phone service across western Kentucky - to come to the Sierra Club's annual Activist Weekend at the Kentucky Leadership Center in Jabez, KY.

Sierra Club leaders wanted to focus this year's program on student activism, because there are so many great young leaders now in the Mountaintop Removal campaign and they have such good positive energy and momentum.

Most of the presenters came from Mountain Justice, SEAC and the UK Green Thumb student group. Speakers included MJ member Emily Pollom of Murray State, who talked about MTR and the Endangered Species Act; Scott Beckmeyer of UK who taught how to make stencils ("Clean Coal is a Dirty Lie") Dana Kuhnline of the Alliance for Appalachia, who spoke on anti-oppression and helped pull the whole weekend together with a session on how Sierra Club and students can work together; Danny Chiotos of SEAC who spoke on Green Jobs; Emily Gillespie of WKU who was scheduled to speak on Kentucky Student Activism.

Angie Armstrong of Union College and Doc were the Keynote speakers Saturday night after dinner - they talked about the MJ clown rally when the Ku Klux Klan came to Knoxville in 2006 - Angie showed her short documentary film and this was a highlight of the weekend - plus there was a cave trip, 5K run, bonfire, and rowdy mountain music by the Mountain Justice house band Heres to the Long Haul.

It seemed like lots of good connections were made between students and Sierra Club and upcoming events like Powershift and the Mountain Justice Spring Break and the Summer Training Camp were promoted.

Following the weekend, the Sierra Club Cumberland Chapter Executive Committee was so impressed with the quality of the young people who are leading these campaigns that they voted to be a $500 sponsor of the Mountain Justice Summer training camp in Harlan County this spring.