Today the papers announce that Lynne Abraham is declining to press charges against Judge Willis Berry. Maybe you forget who that is. Would a dead mouse help trigger your memory?
The apartments were small and spare, with aging appliances, drab cabinets and sagging floors. In one, a dead mouse lay [...]
Yesterday more than 200 people packed the school board to support dozens of youth from South Philadelphia High School who testified about their experiences at the school and about [...]
Members of the Philadelphia Student Union are outraged and saddened with the violence at South Philadelphia High School. We believe that young people need to come together to get the root causes of these issues [...]
Business has been tough in Philadelphia's legal market, what with layoffs and salary freezes and de-equitizing of partners. But the one apparently stable employment is in suing and defending the City ethics board. Nutter's sued, and Dougherty's IBEW, and now, ex-DA-hopeful Dan McCaffery has brought a suit.
What did the' [...]
Statement by Wei Chen, president, South Philadelphia High School Chinese-American Student Association
It is our opinion that South Philadelphia High School is still not a safe place for us. Because we are Asian immigrants, we are targeted. We have been working with the school a long time, but still the school [...]
From an email just sent out by the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia:
City Council received an overwhelming response to the proposed bicycle legislation and they are listening and responding to our concerns. We have been assured that there will be no action on the two bills for [...]
This post has been updated with new information
The latest beatings against Asian students reported at South Philadelphia High School are an outrage.
The ordeal began Wednesday, Lin said, when a Vietnamese student was jumped by 14 students across the street from the school.
Yesterday, the attackers were roaming the halls "searching" [...]
As if this were a surprise:
Three years ago, the Foxwoods group won one of two licenses for slots parlors in Philadelphia. But the project has been stalled by political and neighborhood opposition, turmoil in the credit markets, and financial problems for a main investor, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, [...]
Dear Friends
The Senate is now taking up the health care bill. Before we get deep into the debate, I want to give you a sense of where we are.
Learning how to win
At this point in our campaign, the most important thing I want to say is that we [...]
There shouldn’t be a city in this country that tolerates what happened to Joaquìn Rivera on Thanksgiving weekend.
According to Philadelphia police, Rivera walked into Aria Health's Frankford Campus, on Frankford Avenue near Harrison Street, about 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
He was alone, and apparently had walked from his nearby home' [...]
And I thought I would point out a really excellent post by Max over at ACT UP Philly's blog. Here's a sample:
What are you doing for World AIDS Day?
There are a lot of options. You could, for example, listen to Alicia Keyes' free YouTube concert. You could go to' [...]
The only reason that the two deaths caused by cyclists in recent days are notable is because deaths caused by cyclists are so rare.
Let's let that sink in for a second.
If you look at it with [...]
On Tuesday, we officially learned that Comcast has challenged the City of Philadelphia's application to the federal government for stimulus funds to build broadband infrastructure for disenfranchised communities. This decision by Comcast exhibits the worst of corporate malfeasance and it must be challenged.
In comments last week to a [...]
All righty! Election year fun begins with this little number introduced yesterday into the House by a sub-sub-subset of the Republican brain trust: HB 2112: An act prohibiting membership in labor unions by illegal aliens.
No labor organization representing public or private sector employees shall:
(1) Knowingly have as [...]
Defensiveness and indignance replaced last week’s spunk and incisive critique by Joe Biden at this morning’s annual fundraising breakfast for the Committee of Seventy.
Last week, Biden spoke of the current health care system as “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.” This morning however, most of [...]
As we all know by now, Councilmen Kenney and DiCicco have decided that the city needs new laws to regulate bicycles. These proposed regulations include:
1) That not only must you register your bikes- for a 20 dollar fee- but you must have a license plate on that bike;
2) Riding [...]
Former Commonwealth Court judge Doris Smith-Ribner is running for Senate.
Her campaign appears to be just getting underway.
I don't know that much about her except that she is from the Pittsburgh although I think she has lived in Mt. Airy for some time. I don't know much about her positions [...]
Each year in the U.S., 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school with limited options for higher education or employment. Many undocumented youth were brought to this country as children, even infants, by their parents. They are indistinguishable in every way but one from their citizen friends, classmates, and siblings: [...]
Members of the Philadelphia Digital Justice Campaign are concerned about the potential merger between Comcast and NBC-Universal. And you should be, too. Here's why:
If the FCC approves the deal, it is obvious that consumers will end up paying higher fees for both content and access to programming. The cable giant [...]
I will leave it to Dan to pound the nails into the coffin, but the front page of today's papers and this quote are pretty amazing:
Perzel, the former House speaker, was charged yesterday with 82 counts of theft, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and conflict of interest. The grand jury [...]
This story rocks:
Eighteen months ago, Hauger set his students' eyes on what ought to be an absurd competition for a small, underfunded high-school club to enter: the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.
The competition requires entrants to create an affordable car that gets 100 mpg and can be mass-produced.' [...]
Some progressives, motivated in part by Dennis Kucinich’s vote against HR 3926 are expressing disappointment with and even opposition to the health care reform legislation going through Congress.
While HR 3926 is not perfect—and the anti-abortion language added to it is terrible and will, we believe, be removed later in the [...]
I cringed when I saw the cover of this morning’s Philadelphia Daily News: the blurred back of an Asian man with the headline "The lonely, illegal world of â€Mr. Cheng’."
After all, how many Daily News covers do you see with Asians on them? So now we get a [...]
Political Scientist Michael Parenti catalogued seven generalizations about the way the news media create anti-union messaging--from painting workers as greedy, to omitting the salary of management or depicting public officials (like Mayor Nutter) as neutral. Using this lens to dissect the coverage of the SEPTA strike, it becomes clear [...]
Please make a few quick phone calls to help prevent foreclosures, bankruptcies and increased poverty in our communities. At present there are a number of state lawmakers working hard to promote [...]
All the work we have been doing to create a guarantee of quality affordable health care for all is coming to a point: The House vote on HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act is scheduled to take place this Saturday, November 7 at around 6:00 pm.
The vote [...]
While on the subject of unions, the Temple Nurses union has been in tense negotiations with the hospital for months. At issue, among other things, is a contract demand that the union shut up about the bosses at the hospital.
The workers say the gag order sucks. [...]
The mainstream press across Philadelphia is turning commuters against transit workers. Instead of practicing journalism and explaining to the public why transit workers have gone on strike, they have instead given a platform to one side of the contract negotiations and helped the Mayor pit working people across the [...]
The Inquirer recently printed a cheerleadery puff-piece about Marcellus Shale development in Southwest and Northwest, Pennsylvania. Too bad they didn't combine the story with about how the drillers managed to weasel out of a severance tax (and the Governor's very unconvincing rhetoric' [...]
My ancestors immigrated to the US for the assortment of typical reasons we all know about, including escaping the hostile climate towards Jews in Eastern Europe, and leaving Ireland in search of a better, more secure life.
It wasn't an uncommon story. My great-grandfather supported my Grandmom and her 11' [...]
Man, I knew him when:
This was Seth Williams at Drinking Liberally at Ten Stone, if I remember correctly. It was 2005, there hadn't been an Obama campaign yet, YPP was still in its infancy, Seth had some more hair, and a lot of us (i.e. me' [...]
Right behind Norma Fiorentino's house, they have been drilling for natural gas. Some of the gas is coming from under Norma's property, so she gets a little money for it (not all that much so far, though). She also got a present on New Year's Day. Her water well [...]
SEPTA is on strike.
I spent a lot of my walk to work today thinking about the strike. And although there is a lot more that could be said, more than anything I was happy that in this country--which has been ravaged by corporate interests and a rapid right-wing--that every [...]
On Friday, the Media and Democracy Coalition stood with SEIU, the Teamsters, UFCW, Healthcare for America Now, small business owners, Greenpeace, PennEnvironment, AFSCME, Change to Win, the Sierra Club, and many other groups in denouncing the regressive policies of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at its meeting in Philadelphia.
The [...]
Ways of tackling the drop-out crisis that make me happy
Philly Student Union members cut a CD addressing the drop out crisis to raise attention to the issue and raise funds for a great org whose 99% graduation rate is testimony enough of their success. Check out Koby's pitch below, listen' [...]
Hello All-
With the Judicial and District Attorney elections rapidly approaching, voters are asked to choose among judicial and district attorney candidates without having any real information upon which to base their choice. In order to make an informed decision as a voter, it is important to know what like-minded people [...]
Daily News reports that Philadelphia has only spent $1m of $157 awarded to date (not counting money that went directly to agencies like PHA or SEPTA), and saved a total of 52 jobs. The article cites lack of communication and competition between agencies (hopefully resolved), with Council kept somewhat in [...]
Today's Daily News cover story has it all. It's a cautionary tale very much for our time.
* One landlord
* Nearly 300 properties, many inhabited by tenants believing they had rent-to-own agreements
* 185 houses currently scheduled for sheriff's sale November 3 for unpaid mortgage obligations
* Years [...]
From today's Daily News:
"A tax-policy task force appointed by the mayor will release a report today recommending that the city lower wage and business taxes, and shift the tax burden to a revamped property-tax system. [...] The report, which sets a goal of creating 70,000 more jobs" [...]
I felt guilty reading this:
Cher Bryant, a former clerk later promoted to general manager and then accounting, spent the last few days fighting back tears as she helped her colleagues prepare for the fire sale.
Her favorite film, she said, is the Cannes Film Festival selection, "Santa Sangre." Even though [...]
Dear Marge,
I was reading a Marcia Gelbart story about a PICA report on elections, and I couldn't help noticing this comparison between City Commissioners and your peers in the burbs:
Among other points, (PICA board member William) Leonard focused on a chart that compared the 15 counties' number of registered [...]
Philadelphia City Council’s Finance Committee has approved Councilman W. Wilson Goode, Jr.’s 2009 Depository Compliance Bill. The legislation will remove three banks from the authorized list of city depositories.
The 2009 Depository Compliance Bill enforces Goode’s Fair Lending and Community Reinvestment Ordinance, which requires City depositories to annually submit goals [...]
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, of Erie.
This is almost impossible to believe - but it's actually true.
About a month ago, the Obama administration announced its intent to write policy that would protect, by law, the freedom that has allowed the Internet to grow and flourish.
It's no [...]
OK So I'm not sure whether to be relieved or appalled at the fact that the District is claiming they bridged a $200 million shortfall in their budget expectations mostly without harming classrooms. Let me repeat that - $200 million. In one year.
For perspective, heads rolled when Vallas announced a' [...]
Pennsylvania's swing to the left (of center) continues.
According to a Rasmussen poll released today, Congressman Joe Sestak has pulled within 4 percentage points of Arlen Specter in the Democratic senatorial primary, after trailing the 28 year incumbent by 19% in June, and 13% in August.
Sestak's dramatic rise comes despite the [...]
Tonight Bread & Roses Community Fund honors Harvey Finkle at our annual Tribute to Change.
Harvey is a social justice photographer who helped invent Philadelphia's late-century social justice scene. For more about him, check out this awesome profile from today's South Philadelphia Review or this column in [...]
Oh man.
[...]Businesses often do things that harm innocent people or the public.
But the health insurance industry is the only business in America that ties to increase its profits by deliberately targeting people who are sick or likely to be sick.
Dawn Smith has a rare but treatable brain tumor and health [...]
From Clean Water Action
As if I wasn't already excited enough about this Friday's 13th Annual Clean Water Action Party on Boathouse Row, we have something new on offer this year. Environmentally' [...]
The Zoning Code Commission (ZCC) has produced a set of Draft Recommendations for a New Zoning Code, available at http://www.zoningmatters.org. It's a must-read. It's well-organized and full of good ideas. But it's also got a big, fat poison pill that could destroy the ability of communities to have [...]
This won't be just any tame progressive gathering. This Thursday, many of Philadelphia's finest and fiercest grassroots activists will be gathering at the National Constitution Center to honor movement photographer Harvey Finkle at the annual Bread and Roses Tribute to Change celebration.
The Bread and Roses Community Fund has [...]
A couple of weeks ago Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came to our city as part of their “Listening and Learning Tour” regarding a national agenda for public education reform. Students, parents, teachers, and community organizations were left wondering who [...]
Workers Regain Collective Bargaining Rights After 17 Years
The two year effort to form an independent labor union for the AlliedBarton security guards at the world famous Philadelphia Museum of Art finally resulted in a victory for the union this weekend. The formerly unionized guards lost their union in 1992 when [...]
Today at 11:30, Seth Williams and Mike Untermeyer debate on Channel 6. These things are generally pre-taped, and this is no exception. So, rumors of what happened have already filtered out, and, apparently, we are going to be treated to some pretty disturbing statements by Untermeyer.
11:30 this morning, Channel [...]
The most recent version of SB1033 contains a proposal from Sen. Farnese to create Casino Community Improvement Districts whose governance seems to strike a nice balance, with directly elected community members serving as voting members, and elected officials or their designees serving in ex officio capacity.
These Districts, though, would get [...]
Reposted from http://blog.stier.net
It wasn't much fun. Indeed for most of the time it was excruciatingly boring. But it was an interesting experience and I learned something from my almost fifteen hours in the lockup at police district 9. Of course, I could have learned most of this in' [...]
From today's Inquirer by Stephen Salisbury
Security guards seeking to form a union at the Philadelphia Museum of Art have received some outside support from area political figures just days before a vote on the union is scheduled.
[...]
Photos c/o Casino Free Philadelphia
As a number of groups appropriately mark and protest Day 100 without a state budget, it should be noted that one of the primary reasons for the budget hold-up is . . what [...]
It was a long and torturous wait, but it was worth it:
During a meeting in his Cabinet Room with a small group of reporters, Nutter said he favored shifting the responsibility for setting property values to the city Finance Department.
He also wants to end an arrangement under which 80 [...]
Bryan Mercer and Milena Velis from Media Mobilizing Project have a post up worth reading. An excerpt:
The lesson we can learn from a year of repeated deficit announcements, “civic engagement” budget workshops, and political negotiations, is that the poor and working people of the city are paying for this crisis. [...]
Maybe he really is, but this doesn't look good, to put it mildly.
' [...]Ah, Bykofsky. He decries the patronage mess of the BRT and the illogic of DROP, and then issues a call of action centered on November 3rd, when we should all...
vote Republican?
Machine politics are a real problem, though the system does some good as well. But the answer is putting [...]
Alternate title: "Here's to principled Republicans"
Al Schmidt, God bless him, is naming names at the Parking Authority and making his pitch for an opposition party that actually opposes: backroom deals between the parties that steal money from our schools, waste and patronage. I may disagree with him in part on [...]
This woman, Stacie Ritter, is going to Media today to stand outside the mansion of Cigna CEO, H. Edward Hanway. Her 2 kids had cancer and the family finances have been wrecked as a result. So she's gonna ask Hanway if they can stay with him. After all, if these [...]
It’s a question that Parents United for Public Education, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and the Education Law Center are considering right now.
At issue is this section of state law, 72 PS 5341.21, which states that responsibility for the expenses of the BRT lies with the county:
§ 5341.21. All [...]
(I'm speaking for myself here, not for any organization)
Hey guys. A number of folks have asked be to write about my experiences in jail yesterday with the other activists from Casino Free Philadelphia. Most questions have been focused on the "what was it like" track – how did' [...]
Philadelphians Get Serious About Sugarhouse
14 Arrested for Blockading Sugarhouse Construction Site
Activists Demand Neil Bluhm and Sugarhouse Leave Philadelphia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dan Hajdo, dan@casinofreephilly.org, (267) 971-0937
David McKenna, (215) 917-5640
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 29, 2009 — Fourteen activists from Casino-Free Philadelphia were arrested this morning while blockading the SugarHouse [...]
It is hard to believe that 25 days have already passed since the Pennsylvania Democratic Party nominated me to the open fourth spot on the November 3rd ballot for Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Since then I have been running around our fine state trying to meet as [...]
At this week’s School Reform Commission hearing, in addition to the grilling of District staff that proved that Heidi Ramirez might very well be the smartest person in the room, was – finally – a presentation on the School District budget.
It should be noted that through an entire summer, while [...]
It's hard to believe what a difference a year makes from one Mid-Autumn Festival to another. But a year's reflection on my last post at this time to today has been a long ranging dialogue about predatory gambling, the voices of community, race and politics, politics and politics, civic [...]
The last post I wrote here (a long time ago) was about gun violence and how I was personally affected by the epidemic. Soon after, I became interested in gun violence and ways in which the problem could be addressed. When I decided to start my senior thesis, I [...]
The group fighting to get gender stickers off of SEPTA passes (disclosure: I am a part) may have a meeting with SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey. They want to bring as many signatures to petition as they can. So please sign it (if you have not already) or post to [...]
As Ray noted yesterday, Joe Hoeffel is running for Governor:
Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph M. Hoeffel has decided to run for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010, positioning himself as the true "progressive" in a growing field of contenders.
"I am in the race, and I am ready to ride!" [...]
Good editorial in Daily News today. Written as a memo to Mayor Nutter, it asks him for plans to slow incarceration, halt poverty and deal with parks.
Speaker Pelosi was here yesterday with local congressional leaders regarding health care. More here.
State plans to impose a new sales [...]
The news is grim:
In the state budget agreement announced last week, basic education funding, the biggest chunk of money for schools, received a $300 million bump statewide over last year's spending plan. But that's still under what Gov. Rendell proposed earlier this year - and what Philadelphia staked its $3.2 [...]
Don’t miss this event tomorrow:
Because there just isn’t a more important national issue than passing a quality health care reform bill. And tomorrow is PA’s turn to shine on the national stage:
Health Care for America NOW rally
Tues., Sept. 22
4:45-6 p.m.
Dilworth Plaza
RSVP here.
Don't let the' [...]
On Wednesday, a Halliburton subcontractor hired by Cabot Oil & Gas spilled over 8000 gallons of an as yet undisclosed substance (known only as a "drilling gel") into a wetland and a creek in Dimock, Pennsylvania. Efforts by environmentalists to figure out just what's been dropped in the backyards of [...]
No rest for the weary. One crisis may be down, but another looms for the second biggest entity next to city government: the School District of Philadelphia.
One week into school and the School District is facing an almost certain $150 million budget deficit and counting. It’s a number that’s [...]
No layoffs tomorrow! Or at least not as many as had been planned. Yea!
More at It's Our Money:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/our-money/Philadelphia_Dodges_Doomsda...
Isaiah Thompson at City Paper also has some good stuff to say:
Over at Philadelphia Weekly, my colleague Joel Mathis responded to my own assertion that nearly everybody – Nutter, the [...]
If you skim the headlines and do your best to keep up, but don’t always have enough time to delve in, here in a nutshell are the details you need to know about the city’s current budget mess:
The city does not have enough cash on hand for all of the [...]
It's a chain of panic: city agencies have doomsday information up on their websites, people see it, post it on Facebook and everywhere, their friends in DC and Austin say 'oh no that's awful how could a state/city do that, do they hate books?'
The confusion is not exactly any one [...]
Bob Casey, casting doubt on the Max Baucus craptacular health care bill:
But in an interview on CNN, Mr. Casey said he had several concerns about the Baucus bill, first and foremost being the lack of a public option, which he strongly supports.
Mr. Casey said a public option would be [...]
Whatever you think about the importance of the Bureau of Revision of Taxes, there’s no question that what the city, and perhaps most importantly the Mayor, does with this mess of an agency is a test of leadership and vision that’s under the public – re: media – scrutiny.
The draft [...]
So I was just fooling around with a calculator and Google today. Want to play along?
Let's assume the average salary of the 3,000 or so city employees who might get layoff notices on Friday is $32,000 a year.
And let's just say that the unemployment benefits they get after the [...]
Do we really have to choose between a sales tax increase and devastating cuts to services? Is there another way?
[...]
There's a heartbreaking Daily News cover story today about how dog fighting's not just a PR problem for the Eagles, it's an enforcement problem for Philadelphia.
I fostered this pitt bull puppy from PAWS (info on fostering is here), which matches people with animals picked up [...]
Starling claims from the SEIU about how truly broken the American healthcare system is.
But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that "domestic violence victim" is also a pre-existing [...]
It’s all budgets all the time with the news that a veto-proof agreement may have been crafted. The compromise however leaves a lot of areas hanging:
Education: The compromise blows a major hole in the education budget as reported by Dan Hardy, confirming rumors that have been swirling for months [...]
Mike H, Dan U-A, jennifer, HelenGym, Marc Stier, twolfson, Ray Murphy, DreamActivistPA, BradyDale, Gwen, Blkleaf
