The last Zogby International poll shows Republicans lead Democrats, 42%-41%, among likely voters on the question of which party’s candidates for Congress they intend to support. This is a tightening of the GOP margin from Jul. 29, when Republicans led, 46%-38%. President Barack Obama’s approval rating remains as it was at the end of July […]

State Rep. Ron Waters’ Village Family Reunion & Festival is one of the chief features of public life in Southwest Philadelphia. Last Saturday it was held again at Myers Recreation Center in Kingsessing. Thousands of people attended this merry affair, which included free food and entertainment. TOP PHOTO: The State Rep took his turn at […]

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 Bewilderment has seized the Commonwealth’s prison populations with the introduction of JPay into their lives.  Effective Sep. 1, unless prisoners and their families use JPay, bank checks and money orders will be returned to the senders.  That has left many prisoners in a quandary. Many of them come from poor family backgrounds, without much of […]

Mayor Mega? Say it ain’t so. WILL MEGA’s persona, combined with a little hard work and a lotta big ego, has carried him far through the years, but is he really mayoral material? Well, the answer may surprise you. Most politicos will line up behind MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER; he may not be popular, but incumbents […]

BY BRETT MANDEL/ In a city where approximately 60% of the budget goes toward employee compensation, our central challenge is finding ways to maximize the competence and productivity of our workforce. We need to use every tool in our toolbox to achieve those goals. We have a managerial tool in our hands. If we end […]

BY JOE SHAHEELI/ First commissioned in September of 2009 by Mayor Michael Nutter, the “official” release last week of the Report on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, known to all as DROP, has split City employees and their unions from the Administration. While most publications took the report at face value and ran with the […]

BY RUTH RUSSELL/ Funding for the courts not corruption was the theme of the talk given by Chief Justice Ron Castille to an overflow crowd of judges in Hershey. The occasion was the official opening session of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. Nearly 300 jurists from across the Commonwealth gathered for three days […]

BY TONY WEST/ Philadelphia’s bail system is a mess, most observers say. Reforms of some sort are inevitable, now the Clerk of Quarter Sessions Office, which used to process bail records, has been eliminated. At a hearing Tuesday at the Bar Association, leaders of the different branches of public-safety professions butted heads as they struggled […]

Republican Party   Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason yesterday charged Dan Onorato supporters and Democrat operatives circulated petitions for John Krupa, a candidate claiming to be the Tea Party nominee for Governor. “It’s obvious that Dan Onorato is willing to resort to any-means necessary tactics in a desperate attempt to improve his chances to win elections this […]