POLS ON THE STREET: Sen. Kitchen Stakes Her Claim
State Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen (D-N. Phila.), who easily won her fifth term to the 3rd Dist. State Senate seat she has held since winning her first term in November of 1996, has made it obvious to all Democrats everywhere she “has a mind of her own.” To prove that, she hosted a party last [...]
BY TONY WEST/ The courtroom was overflowing with jurors, witnesses and concerned citizens. A lot was riding on the outcome of this case. Especially for Goldilocks. Had she eaten other people’s – I mean bears’ – porridge and broken their chair? Did she have a right to sleep in their bed? Furrowing their brows in the [...]
BY RORY McGLASSON The more than 75,000 daily commuters who pass through Manhattan’s Staten Island Ferry terminal are seeing a new and important message about an endangered national icon, the SS United States. The recent installation of a 70-foot-long banner in the main waiting room of the famous Whitehall Terminal is part of the SS [...]
State Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood (D-Northwest), Democratic chair of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, decried the House passage of a bill that removes the stipulation that Philadelphia receive two casino licenses, saying this undermines a key provision in the State’s 2004 law that established gaming. If the Senate also moves to pass HB 65, she [...]
On Saturday, May 19, the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists will hold its annual awards ceremony celebrating the past, the present and the future of journalism in our town. Hosted by former Philadelphia Daily News columnist Elmer Smith, this year’s awardees include the following: the late Fatimah Ali, host of WURD-900AM’s The Real Deal With [...]
The story least reported in the press is that last year, 148 workers in the tri-state area went to work, but never returned home alive. They were killed on the job. Just this week, a construction worker fell to his death at a construction site at 20th & Parrish. The 148 deaths recorded in 2012 [...]
Philadelphia’s property-tax collections are a mess. So are its land records. So is its building-code enforcement. So is its bail enforcement…. Do we see a pattern here? All these monetary woes stem from two things: vast amounts of data poorly managed, and collaboration between different agencies poorly managed. The resulting losses are staggering: $470 million [...]
BY TONY WEST/ Beleaguered Philadelphia homeowners staring at a back-door tax increase may find rescue in an unlikely place: Harrisburg. Concerns over Mayor Michael Nutter’s Actual Value Initiative have prompted two state lawmakers to scrutinize the plan more closely. State Sen. Mike Stack and State Rep. Mike McGeehan (both D-Northeast) are offering alternative solutions that would [...]
BY JOE SHAHEELI/ What made State Rep. John Taylor’s annual Historical Site Cigar & Wine Tasting at Colonial Dames headquarter on Latimer Street so exceptional this time? It wasn’t the cigars, or the various wines, or the VIP crowd of regular supporters who appreciate Taylor’s solid performances in the State General Assembly as the 177th Dist.’s [...]
BY JOHN KROMER & DAVID LYNN/ Three of the incumbent State Representatives who ran for re-election in the 2012 primary were not particularly dynamic. Their challengers were well-spoken, attractive, and well-financed. The results: one challenger won, another came close and is well positioned for a 2014 rematch, and a third lost badly. Here’s how it happened. [...]