LEMIEUX AND SMG KEEP TALKING; MARIO MAKES NEW RENT OFFER

          Mario Lemieux's investment team has made a "new lease
     proposal" to SMG, according to Suzanne Elliott of the
     Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW.  Lemieux attorney Chuck Greenberg
     said that he could not disclose any details of the new
     offer.  In his original restructuring proposal, Lemieux
     offered to pay SMG $500,000 per year.  The team currently
     pays between $6-7M a year in rent.  Meanwhile, Pittsburgh
     City Council member Alan Hertzberg criticized Mayor Tom
     Murphy "as being overconfident the Penguins would remain in
     the city despite the team's financial straits."  On Tuesday,
     Murphy called the NHL's intention to sell the team to a
     back-up buyer and relocate it if local efforts were
     unsuccessful a "bluff."  Hertzberg: "I think the mayor is
     playing with fire.  It's like he is trying to call a bluff. 
     And I don't think this is a bluff" (TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 5/13).