Attention Philadelphia Republicans

from the inbox:

On April 24th, Pennsylvania goes to the polls for its Primary election.  In that election I, Adam Lang, am running for Delegate to the Republican National Convention.  As many of you know, my activism and involvement is predominantly local and focused on ethics, transparency and data-driven policy at City Hall in Philadelphia.  This can be seen from the recent press coverage I have had as well as older published works and coverage.

So why am I interested in a national party position?  Because I believe my views about and experience with ethics, transparency and data-driven policy is what Washington, D.C. needs.  We need people to go to the convention for the intellectual agenda, not the social agenda.

In the remaining days leading up to the election, I am going to ask you for help in supporting my run for Delegate.  Together, we can help move things for the better.

Adam Lang
www.adamlang.com

 

Metro Article on Voter ID

Metro Philly has a very good article on the process for getting the type of ID required to vote under the new voter id bill.  Check out "In wake of voter ID lawsuits, how hard is it to get ID?" by Alex Wigglesworth (4/10).  It's more convoluted than just going to the DMV.  Keep in mind, as you read it, that women who have a different name than the one on their birth certificate or social security card will need to provide documentation for the name change (marriage certificate, for example). 

National Library Week

This is National Library Week.  Public libraries serve an invaluable function in our communities.  Long considered "the People's University," public libraries provide the basics for self-education, and also often provide the basic research information for students at online colleges.  Public libraries often also act as community centers, with space for tutors and students to meet, whether those students are high school or college students trying to master new material, immigrants learning English as a second language, adult literacy classes, or some other form of learning.  These days public libraries are the Internet access point for those who do not have Internet access at home.  People can submit resumes, read email, do research, or simply keep in touch with family and friends on social media. 

Public libraries are often a first exposure to literature for children.  Story hour is an American tradition.  Neighborhood children come in to pick out books and listen to someone, a parent, a library employee, or a special guest, read a story aloud.  The only political press release I received acknowledging National Library Week is from Montgomery County"

“Reading is a solid foundation on which to build a child’s education and a great way to spend quality time with your family,” said Josh Shapiro, chair of the Montgomery County Commissioners.  “I urge everyone to support this effort and take time to explore their local library.”

If you haven't visited your local public library in awhile, this is a good impetus to stop in and see where some of your tax dollars go, though libraries have taken some big funding cuts lately so the hours might be shorter than last time you checked.

SEPTA Phillies Express

from the inbox:

Fans heading to Wednesday’s Home Night Opener can start the evening off with a Phillies rally at the Walnut-Locust Station from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Riders can then board a special five-car train decked out in Phillies paraphernalia for the trip to AT&T Station.

SEPTA will also run Sports Express trips every 10 minutes during the hour before Wednesday’s 7:05 p.m.  game. The same schedule for extra service will be in place for the final game of the Phillies-Marlins series, scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Thursday.

Fans can look forward to a season full of convenient travel to-and-from Phillies games on SEPTA, with extra service before each game on the Broad Street Line. The Broad Street Line is accessible from a number of other SEPTA services, including the Market-Frankford Line, Regional Rail and bus and trolley routes. Fans from South Jersey can access the Broad Street Line from the PATCO High Speed Line.

SEPTA is also an economical travel option for Phillies fans. With the purchase of a two-pack of tokens, fans can get to-and-from AT&T Station on the Broad Street Line for just $3.10. One-way cash fare is $2.00.  Savings are also available with the purchase of a SEPTA Independence Pass, which offers unlimited one-day travel on all SEPTA services for one low price.

For more information, including fares and schedules, visit SEPTA’s Website, www.septa.org.

Axelrod Campaigns for Patrick Murphy

from the inbox:

Senior Obama Campaign Advisor David Axelrod campaigned today in Philadelphia for Patrick Murphy, giving a boost to his run for Pennsylvania Attorney General.

In a strategy meeting with key supporters at a Philadelphia law firm, Axelrod said Patrick Murphy has the experience, leadership and vision to be a great Attorney General for the people of Pennsylvania.

He also noted Murphy's ardent support of the President during some of his tougher fights including ending the war in Iraq, repealing Don't Ask, Don't

Tell and protecting women's rights.

“President Obama has never had a better friend in politics than Patrick Murphy.  He was with us early, he was a great supporter of the election, but more importantly he was a leader we could count on to help end the war in Iraq and repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Patrick has taken up fights for people, not for special interests, but for people who needed a voice,” Axelrod said.

“There are the people who run for public office because they want to be something, and then there are people who run for public office because they want to do something, because they want to serve and they see it as a way of making our community stronger. There is nobody I know who exemplifies that ethic more than Patrick Murphy, who has served his country so honorably, served his community so honorably. I’ve never met anyone who impressed me more than Patrick in terms of that commitment and that sense of service. This is a guy who represents a better future for Pennsylvania,“ he added.

Giant's Shop From Home Comes to PA

All sorts of things come in via the inbox.  This is a new service from Giant grocery stores, being tested at the Willow Grove and Camp Hill locations.  Note that at present it is only available at those two stores.   I've checked with the people who sent out the press release, to make sure it is okay to broadcast the promotion code.  They gave the go ahead.  I haven't used this service and so cannot make any personal comments or guarantees about it.

Do you not have enough hours in the day to squeeze in that last minute Easter grocery run? Giant Willow Grove has got you covered – test our Shop From Home grocery service between now and April 14, 2012 and receive $10 off any order of $50 or more. Just enter the promotional code PUPSO10 upon online checkout.

Never used Shop From Home before? The service is new to Giant – but allows you to shop wherever, whenever. Just logon at www.giantfoodstores.com, add groceries to your cart and select a pickup time (allow four hours). One of our specially trained shoppers will hand select your groceries, and load them in your car upon arrival. You don’t pay until you pickup – so make sure to bring your coupons!

Whitman and Rendell at National Constitution Center

This Monday, April 9th, the National Constitution Center is hosting a conversation with Christine Todd Whitman, New Jersey governor from 1994-2001, and Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania govern from2003 to 2011.  They will talk about the 2012 election, key players and issues, and provide their opinion on the caucus and primary system.  The event starts at 6:30 p.m.

 

Federal Tax Receipt

Wondering where your tax money goes?  You can now get a federal taxpayer receipt itemizing what percentage of your money goes where.  Check it out .

Book Review: The First Frontier by Scott Weidensaul

Slightly off topic:

Recently I read The First Frontier:  The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, & Endurance in Early America, by Scott Weidensaul (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).  We tend to think of the American frontier as the Western United States, west of the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast.  As Weidensaul discusses in detail the first frontier was actually the East Coast, where Europeans initially settled.

Weidensaul starts by presenting evidence that some European communities, specifically some small fishing communities in Portugal and Britain, were well aware of the American continent long before there were established settlements.  In the past 20 or so years this has become a more accepted historical theory.  Further on in the book Weidensaul gives some apocryphal evidence that Native Americans visited Europe; a fascinating story that I had not heard of before.

The early European visitors brought new diseases that wiped out a large percentage of the Native American population so when settlers arrived it seemed the land was almost uninhabited.  This also contributed to unrest and shifting loyalties and tribal boundaries among the Native Americans.

Weidensaul writes well and presents detailed information, both the big picture and individual stories, about the interactions between settlements, ethnic groups among the Europeans, conflicts among native tribes and, of course, conflict between the Europeans and Native Americans.  Cultural misunderstandings accounted for a lot of unavoidable fighting.   The book ends just as the revolutionary movement was getting started.

Pennsylvania played a dominant role in this story; and not just the Walking Purchase, but a great many other interactions and altercations.  The book opens and closes with the Hochstetler family in eastern Pennsylvania.  I was fascinated by the map of Indian trails in Pennsylvania on pages 286 and 287.  I sat down with a road map and compared it to the trail map.  Many of the Philadelphia area roads that I looked at match up almost exactly with frontier trails.  Certainly some of that is dictated by geography, but driving along a state road this evening and realizing that pathway had been traveled for 300 years or more added depth to an otherwise uneventful trip, and a sense of greater connection to the area's past.

Anyone interested in colonial, Pennsylvania, Native American, or early American history will enjoy this book.  On a more personal level I appreciated the way Weidensaul integrated the stories of individual women and groups of women into the story.  They weren't set aside as something different, but folded in to the larger narrative.  Hannah Duston, who was taken captive by Native Americans shortly after giving birth, managed to escape, but then went back to scalp her former captives, presents some interesting moral questions.

This book would make an excellent gift for friends or family who enjoy history.  Since buying it to read myself I've bought two other copies for birthday gifts.

STOCK Act Fact Sheet

from the inbox:

In the State of the Union Address, the President laid out a blueprint for an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules, including those who have been elected to serve the American people. 

 

Today, the President signed into law the STOCK Act, a bipartisan bill that prevents Members of Congress from trading stocks based on nonpublic information they gleaned on Capitol Hill.  While this is a good first step, the President will continue to work with Congress to do even more to help fight the destructive influence of money in politics and rebuild the trust between Washington and the American people.

 

Details of the STOCK Act:

Answers the President’s Call to Ban Insider Trading for Members and Congressional Staff:  The STOCK Act expressly affirms that Members of Congress and staff are not exempt from the insider trading prohibitions of federal securities laws and gives House and Senate ethics committees authority to implement additional ethics rules.  The Act makes clear that Members and staff owe a duty to the citizens of the United States not to misappropriate nonpublic information to make a profit.  

 

Increases Transparency in Financial Disclosure Reporting:  The STOCK Act amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to require a government-wide shift to electronic reporting and online availability of public financial disclosure information.  The STOCK Act provides additional transparency for Members of Congress, legislative staff and other government employees currently required to make public financial disclosures:

·         Trade Reporting:  requires that Members of Congress and government employees report certain investment transactions within 45 days after a trade.   

 

·         Online Availability: mandates that the information in public financial disclosure reports (currently made available on request) be made available on agency websites and ultimately through searchable, sortable databases. 

 

New Ethics Requirements:

·         Expands Pension Forfeiture for Corrupt Members:  the STOCK Act requires forfeiture of federal pension if a Member of Congress commits one of several corruption offenses while serving as an elected official.  Current law forfeits a Member’s pension for conviction of offenses committed while serving in Congress.  The STOCK Act expands forfeiture to apply to misconduct by Members committed in other federal, state and local elected offices and adds further federal crimes, including insider trading, for which forfeiture will be required.

 

·         Requires Disclosure of Terms of Mortgages:  the STOCK Act will require Members and certain high level government officials to disclose the terms of personal mortgages.

·         Bans Special Access to Initial Public Offerings (IPOs):  the STOCK Act limits participation in IPOs by Members and senior government employees to purchases available to the public generally.

 

·         Requires Report on Political Intelligence in the Financial Markets:  the STOCK Act requires GAO and CRS to produce a report on the role of political intelligence firms in the financial markets. 

 

·         Requires Job Seekers to Disclose:  the STOCK Act requires that Members of Congress and senior federal employees file a written notification with their ethics office when starting a job negotiation to leave the government. 

 

Bans Bonuses for Fannie & Freddie Executives:  the STOCK Act bars senior executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from receiving bonuses during any period of conservatorship after enactment.

Prez O on the STOCK Act

from the inbox:

April 4, 2012

 

 

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT STOCK ACT BILL SIGNING

 

South Court Auditorium

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

 

 

11:56 A.M. EDT

 

 

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you, everybody.  Please, have a seat.  Have a seat.  Well, good morning, and welcome to the White House.  I want to thank my outstanding Vice President, Joe Biden, for being here.  (Applause.)  And we are joined by members of both parties in Congress who helped to get this bill to my desk.  So I’m very grateful to them.

 

I want to recognize Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, and wish her a speedy recovery.  She broke her leg yesterday, so she can’t be here in person.  I think she’ll be okay.  But she first introduced the STOCK Act in 2006, and I know how proud she is to see this bill that she championed finally become law.

 

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about the choices facing this country.  We can settle for a country that -- and an economy where a shrinking number of people do exceedingly well, while a growing number struggle to get by, or where we can build an economy where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules.

 

That last part -- the idea that everybody plays by the same rules -- is one of our most cherished American values.  It goes hand in hand with our fundamental belief that hard work should pay off and responsibility should be rewarded.  It’s the notion that the powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else. 

 

And if we expect that to apply to our biggest corporations and to our most successful citizens, it certainly should apply to our elected officials -- especially at a time when there is a deficit of trust between this city and the rest of the country.

 

And that’s why, in my State of the Union, I asked members of the House and the Senate to send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, and I said that I would sign it right away.

 

Well, today, I am happy to say that legislators from both parties have come together to do just that.  The STOCK Act makes it clear that if members of Congress use nonpublic information to gain an unfair advantage in the market, then they are breaking the law.  It creates new disclosure requirements and new measures of accountability and transparency for thousands of federal employees.  That is a good and necessary thing.  We were sent here to serve the American people and look out for their interests -- not to look out for our own interests.

 

So I’m very proud to sign this bill into law.  I should say that our work isn’t done.  There’s obviously more that we can do to close the deficit of trust and limit the corrosive influence of money in politics.  We should limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries that they have the power to impact.  We should make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa.  These are ideas that should garner bipartisan support.  They certainly have wide support outside of Washington.  And it’s my hope that we can build off today’s bipartisan effort to get them done.

 

In the months to come, we’re going to have plenty of debates over competing visions for this country that we all love:  Whether or not we invest in the things that we need to keep our country safe and to grow our economy so that’s it’s sustained and lasting.  Whether or not we’ll ask some of our wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.  How we’re going to make sure that America remains the land of opportunity and upward mobility for all people who are willing to work.  Those are all debates that I’m looking forward to having.

 

But today, I want to thank all the members of Congress who came together and worked to get this done.  It shows that when an idea is right that we can still accomplish something on behalf of the American people and to make our government and our country stronger. 

 

So to the ladies and gentlemen who helped make this happen, thank you very much for your outstanding work.  And with that, let me sign this bill.  (Applause.)

DVRPC Photo Contest

Good blogs usually include a lot of pictures.  This blog tends to be text-based with few images.  One reason being that if I am taking the pictures there would be a lot of demon-eyed, blurry, or decapitated politicians and candidates here.  Those who actually can take good photographs might be interested in this:

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) today reminded photographers to submit their images for the first ever “I Love Classic Towns” photo contest.

The deadline for the contest is April 14. Online voting will begin on April 15.

The contest is part of DVRPC’s groundbreaking Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia program and is designed to engage the community in showcasing the region’s unique neighborhoods in both the city and suburbs.

At present, there are 20 towns designated as Classic Towns by DVRPC. They are: Ambler, Ardmore, Bordentown City, Bristol Borough, Collingswood, Germantown, Glassboro, Haddon Heights, Kennett Square, Lansdale, Lansdowne, Manayunk, Media, Merchantville, Moorestown, New Hope, Overbrook Farms, Phoenixville, Souderton/Telford, and West Chester.

Both amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit their best images from these towns in seven different categories including: community, local history, main street, parks and recreation, people, residential, and seasonal.

The winning photographs will be selected by a panel of judges that will include Karen Chigounis, Director of Arts Education Programs and Associate Curator at the Perkins Center for the Arts; Meredith Edlow, visual assets manager for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, and David Maialetti, photojournalist at the Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Each winner will be awarded $100 for the top image in each category. In addition, a $500 Judge’s Choice prize and $300 Voter’s Choice prize will also be awarded. The photographs will then become part of a traveling exhibit.

The “I Love Classic Towns” photo contest is co-sponsored by Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ.

All photographs must have been taken on or after January 1, 2010. Online voting will take place from April 15, 2012 to May 14, 2012, with formal judging and winners announced by July 31, 2012. Complete submission requirements and contest rules may be found on the Classic Towns website at www.classictowns.org.

About the Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia Program

Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia is a groundbreaking DVRPC initiative designed to promote the region's unique communities in both the city and suburbs.

With more than one million people relocating throughout the Greater Philadelphia region every year, this program highlights the “classic” communities and helps residents rediscover the beauty and diversity of our older towns.

Although the Greater Philadelphia region as a whole is promoted as a tourist destination and business center, many suburban communities lack the resources necessary to launch sophisticated and effective marketing programs that target specific demographic groups.

Understanding that the lifestyle and community amenities people desire may change as they move through different life stages, DVRPC introduced Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia to appeal to three different markets: young professionals and childless couples, young families, and empty nesters.

The genesis of the Classic Towns program dates to 2004 when, with funding from the William Penn Foundation, DVRPC launched the Strategies for Older Suburbs Initiative to stimulate and support reinvestment in the region’s older suburbs and urban neighborhoods through multiple and varied efforts.

To learn more about the Classic Towns program and these communities as a whole, as well as specific neighborhoods and their amenities, visit www.classictowns.org.

Two Pet Related Notes

Two pet related press releases came across the transom this week.

1) Rob Teplitz, Democratic candidate for the 15th state senate district, has been endorsed by Humane PA, which is dedicated to electing candidates who demonstrate an understanding and a willingness to work to amend Pennsylvania laws to eliminate animal cruelty within the Commonwealth.

2) Jason Salus,  Montgomery County Treasurer, sent out this notice:

The Treasurer’s Office provides a website that allows dog owners to apply, print and pay for their 2012 dog licenses online. The website provides for payment by credit card or online check. The Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office will mail your dog tag out to you within three days of receiving your application and payment via the internet. Visit http://treasurer.montcopa.org to link to www.PaDogLicense.com for secure, online payment. The cost for an annual spayed/neutered license is $6.45. If you choose to pay via the internet, a small convenience fee of $2.00 per license by our agent is applicable.

A Note on St. Christopher's Hospital for Children

A week ago last Friday the Inky ran a story on shopping for health care when you have a high deductible plan ("Patients becoming shoppers under high-deductible health plans," by Dan Sapatkin, 3/23).  One of the examples the story gave concerned St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.  I hadn't really given St. Christopher's much thought before; it is outside of my normal health care routine and geographic area.

But as it happens I spent most of the day at that hospital on March 23rd so I read that story with great interest.  It's true that routine health care tests can be done much less expensively at clinics like Quest Diagnostics.  That's where my family doctor sends me for blood tests, etc.  While we are a frugal family, health care is not really where I want to cut costs. 

We ended up going to St. Christopher's because at the point of initial contact for this particular situation all of the specialists in our area were booked up for a few months and we needed something immediately.  The doctor associated with St. Christopher's had an opening.  Shopping around is great if you have the time but sometimes that's a luxury you don't have.  The article also takes note that teaching hospitals are expensive.  That's true.  It's also true that most doctors spend some time at one during their early training years.  Something things are simply a public good.  If you want properly trained doctors we all have to share in some of that cost.

Perhaps another point to consider is this:  if someone is going to take a sharp object, open up your child's body, and poke around in there with other sharp objects, is that really when you want to go with the lowest possible bidder?  I'll pay a little extra for quality there.

St. Christopher's is not in the best neighborhood (going by appearances) but the decor is wonderful, and designed for children.  There are interactive wall and floor panels; the whole thing is done in a forest motif.  (I've included a few pictures.)   The people there are professional but friendly. 

We do need to find ways of reducing health care costs and routine testing may be one place that outsourcing can be effective.  I'm also in favor of clinics for urgent but not emergency care.  We still need good hospitals though, with well-qualified and well-trained doctors, and that is not an inexpensive proposition. 

New Art Project at Fox Chase Cancer Center

The Fox Chase Cancer Center has unveiled a new public art project by Meg Saligman Studios. The 60 foot long backlit glass panorama is in the institute's cafeteria. "Pathways" is sponsored by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and created in collaboration with Emily Ledieu, is open to the public, patients, family and friends.

Social Media and the 2012 Election

from the inbox:

For Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was radio.  For John F. Kennedy, it was television.  And for presidential candidates in 2012, the key to communicating with the masses and garnering votes on Election Day is social media.  Political strategists and social media/technology experts Maria Cardona, Andrew Rasiej, Daniel Sieberg, Alex Torpey and Todd Van Etten will join the National Constitution Center to take a hard look at the role of social media and its impact on the 2012 presidential campaign.  Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post will moderate the discussion.  The event takes place on Thursday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m.  Admission is FREE but advanced registration is required

This program is presented in partnership with the Kal and Lucille Rudman Media Production Center at Temple University and the Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies at Drexel University.

The Specialties of Kathleen Kane

I learned several things today.  A few of them are applicable to current political races.  Here goes:

The American Bar Association has a Code of Ethics, as many professional associations do.  For a non-blog project I've looked at several such codes but not the ABA's.  Today I did.  Like others the ABA's spells out confidentiality rules, behavioral expectations and so on.  Another common feature is a list of guidelines for how someone in that profession presents themselves.  Occupational groups tend to have their own terminologies or jargon.  For example, point 7.4 of the ABA Code of Ethics states:

(d) A lawyer shall not state or imply that a lawyer is certified as a specialist in a particular field of law, unless:

(1) the lawyer has been certified as a specialist by an organization that has been approved by an appropriate state authority or that has been accredited by the American Bar Association; and

(2) the name of the certifying organization is clearly identified in the communication

That seemed odd since many law firm advertisements that I'd seen mentioned they worked with a particular issue or part of the law, but, as in all things, it is the wording that counts.  This is why, kids, you really need to have a firm grasp of a large vocabulary.  Those small differences in meaning can be important.  Lawyers and law firms will talk about "practice areas" or will say "with a focus on."  I checked out about half a dozen law firms in the area whose URLs or names I knew and they all used words like that.  My standard reference point for lawyers is Martindale and looking at their search interface, it also uses the phrase "practice area."  Where I did find the word "specialize" used on a firm's site, there would be a note of the certifying organization.  To double check I googled a few key phrases, such as "specializes in child abuse law" and "specializes in elder abuse law."   There were remarkably few results and most of those were not law firms but articles that use those terms. 

So it was odd to see that Kathleen Kane, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, uses that phrase on her campaign website: 

As an Assistant District Attorney for Lackawanna County, Kathleen began in the child abuse/sexual assault unit spending several years prosecuting gruesome cases of physical and sexual abuse of children and adults. Simultaneous to the duties of this unit, Kathleen specialized in cases involving elder abuse, prosecuted white-collar criminals, and exposed abuses in Orphans’ Court.

The National Elder Law Foundation states that:

The National Elder Law Foundation is the only national organization certifying practitioners of elder and special needs law. NELF's Certified Elder Law Attorney designation is itself certified by the American Bar Association.

You can search for a certified lawyer by state.  Kathleen Kane is not listed, not under Kane or Granahan, on the PA list.   

This may be significant.  It may not.  In the law, as in many things, the devil is in the details.  This seemed like a detail.

Kathleen Kane, Patrick Murphy, and Bill Clinton

There are two Democratic candidates for Attorney General in Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane and Patrick Murphy.  Former Pres. Bill Clinton has talked about both of them.

Bill Clinton on Kathleen Kane, March 26, 2012:

“The first elected office I ever held was Attorney-General, so it’s a job I know something about. The Attorney General can have an enormous positive impact, so it’s important to elect someone who understands how to use the office and the legal system to protect and advance the lives of Pennsylvanians.  Kathleen Kane would make a great Attorney General. She’s smart and tough. She’s prosecuted more than 3000 cases, protected senior citizens, and put child molesters and violent criminals behind bars,” remarked President Clinton.  “Kathleen is a great Democrat who understands that an Attorney General’s job is to stand up for consumers and people. I’m proud to endorse my friend Kathleen Kane and I hope she’ll become the first woman ever elected Attorney General by the people of Pennsylvania.”

Bill Clinton on Patrick Murphy (then running for Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district), Oct 11, 2006:

"Do we got a great candidate or what?" (source:  Scheid, Brian.  "Clinton stumps for Murphy," Intelligencer 10/12/2006)

Murphy supported Obama in the 2008 presidential election; Kane supported Hillary Clinton.

Kathleen Kane Video

Kathleen Kane, one of the Democratic candidates for Attorney General, released an introductory video today.  You can watch it at:  http://www.kathleengkane.com/kathleen-kane-introduction/

The Incredible Shrinking Paper

The Philadelphia papers recently reduced their news staff again.  Now there is the possibility cutting even more staff.  The paper is already a shadow of its former self, thinner and lighter in size and content.  There is nothing left to cut.  Just as disturbing are some of the names in the group hoping to buy the papers.  Any successful growing city needs a robust local media.  Right now Philadelphia doesn't have it and what it does have is in danger. 

I read the paper on one of their Philly Tablets.  There are a few sponsors whose ads briefly appear on the tablet but I kind of miss seeing the multiple daily advertisements in the printed paper.  Surely there must be some way of creating an advertisement section for the tablet.  I don't read any of the sports section and usually skip the comics (since "For Better or Worse" ended the only one that appeals is "Zits") but I'd scan through the ads. 

We need a local paper with good investigative reporters, political reporters, feature writers, business writers, etc., and at least a few copy editors.  Without this counterbalance corruption and apathy run amok.  Bloggers and citizen journalists cannot pick up the slack.

This is a serious problem.