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Liquor and cigarette tax hikes, part of Mayor Nutter's scramble to fill a $300 million budget shortfall for the Philadelphia School District, were introduced in City Council today. The liquor-by-the-drink tax would go from 10 percent to 15 percent; cigarette taxes would increase by $2 per pack. The bills must pass two hurdles, the most daunting being in the state General Assembly, which would need to approve enabling legislation before Council's bill can be enacted. Some are skeptical that the state legislation will come through in time to be factored into the city's budget — but even if it does, would City Council pass the bills?
City Council President Darrell Clarke, who previously said there was no appetite for additional local taxes, sponsored the legislation, however, with an amendment that eliminated a proposal to direct some of the cigarette-tax revenues to smoking cessation efforts. However, he has said repeatedly that the state needs to provide funding, not push all the responsibility back onto the city.
People who represent themselves in court not only hurt their own chances, but throw a wrench into the entire legal system, judges, legal-aid attorneys and their clients testified today, at a State Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf. Greenleaf is holding three hearings on the subject, with an eye to designating a state budget item for legal-aid services. Currently, such services — which help the poorest Pennsylvanians in the most critical cases, where basics like access to their children, their homes or their livelihoods are at stake — meet only an estimated 20 percent of the need. They operate with funding from IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts), which has been running low in recent years.
"There have been efforts to expand IOLTA, but it's based on interest," Greenleaf noted today, "and we all know what's happened to interest [rates]."
A source familiar with Philadelphia politics notified City Paper that political fraudster John McDaniel had been spotted at Brett Mandel's campaign headquarters during yesterday's primary — to the displeasure of some high-profile Mandel backers. McDaniel, a former campaign manager for Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, was recently sentenced to a year in jail for his role in stealing political donations, while Mandel ran a second unsuccessful campaign against incumbent Controller Alan Butkovitz, painting himself as a squeaky-clean reformer.
Reached over the phone, Mandel denied that McDaniel had anything to do with his his campaign — although he acknowledged that he knew McDaniel.
"I have no reason to believe that [John McDaniel] was anyplace associated with the campaign yesterday. He has nothing to do with anybody I know that was associated with the campaign," said Mandel. He said the last time he had seen McDaniel in person was when he "bumped into him on the street a few weeks ago."
Earlier this week a Philadelphia preschool distributed a zealous letter to parents, complete with a striking graphic, claiming "the imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive." Citing the physical safety of its students as its primary concern, Tuny Haven International Early Learning wrote that it would be banning "wrestling, super hero play and monster games." (Did little Bobby get too excited about the hammer that came with his Thor costume?)
Outraged by the news, one parent posted the letter to the Philly subreddit under the username Oremor and tacked on the ire-provoking title, "So my son came home and told me make-believe was not allowed at school anymore." Ravenous Redditors proceeded to rip apart the school's plan and harp on the glaring typos in the letter. Later in the increasingly vicious thread, Oremor, the Redditor who started it all, expanded on why he had found the letter so disturbing in the first place: "It is this constant dialogue of ours [son and parent] regarding superheroes that has allowed us to address concepts such as right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice. You can therefore well imagine my anger when my son showed me the flyer with superheroes crossed out. I was livid!"
Thinking this could be a case of poor phrasing, we contacted the school to get a straight story. After repeated phone calls to Tuny Haven's site director, LaTanya Bernard and executive director, Adrienne McKinney we were unable to reach either for comment.
Brett Mandel & daughter Rose at a (desolate) polling place at 22nd and Spruce.
This morning, Controller candidate Brett Mandel hit some polling places alongside Larry Farnese, who happens to be not only a state Senator but also a Democratic ward leader. What's unusual about that? The Democratic City Committee, overlord of the ward system, has a candidate — and it's not Mandel.
If you could use one word to describe this morning at the polls, it might be "sleepy." If you could pick another, it might be "confused."
CP caught up with some of those scant handful of voters who bothered to show up at the polls for judge elections, the uncontested District Attorney primary and the city Controller race. They did not, in general, seem to have much knowledge of the candidates for whom they had voted.
That didn’t diminish the democratic spirit of John Taylor, who voted in the 15th division of the Northeast’s 64th Ward early this morning. When asked what brought him out to vote, Taylor said, “I came out to vote for Seth Williams for District Attorney.” Though Taylor had stepped out from the voting booth only moments before, he could not recall any of the other candidates for other offices he voted for. “I think I voted for Butkovitz. Probably.” Had he heard anything about the Traffic Court in recent months? “Yeah. All the corruption and everything.” Did he vote for any of the nominees for Traffic Court judge? “I probably did. I can’t remember who for, though.”
Here's the description posted with this video:
Five members of The Panic Hour were followed into the City Hall rail station in Center City Philadelphia. Kyle Prouty was illegally searched and detained by SEPTA police officer Nicole Lawson at 3:20pm on 5/20/13. Kyle was charged with "disorderly conduct" "obstructing a highway and other public passage" and "resisting arrest". The people in this video had just left an arraignment hearing for Adam Kokesh and Nikki Allen Poe who were kidnapped from a peaceful marijuana rally on 5/18/13. They are currently being held illegally in Federal Detention at the Federal Detention Center 700 arch street Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
I suppose it's not a huge surprise that people who call themselves The Panic Hour were at the center of a commotion like this. And, obviously, since the video picks up with the transit cop already confronting the skateboard dude, we don't have the whole story. Liveleak actually has two videos of the incident, both from up close.
Was it a joke, or a dire violation of election law? The election court at Court of Common Pleas has issued an injunction against Controller candidate Brett Mandel and his campaign to stop distributing election materials inside polling places.
Only, Mandel says he wasn't. He says it was a friendly gesture taken out of context by the opposition.
The complaint was brought by Second Ward, Fifth Division, committeeman Sal Deluca and Friends of Alan Butkovitz. Deluca, who was working the polls today, would not speak to a City Paper reporter. However, his complaint alleged that Mandel toured the inside of a polling place, spoke to election officials and gave out stickers inside the polling place. Flaster Greenberg lawyer Abbe F. Fletman says it's simple: “The law says that you’re not allowed to give out election materials within 10 feet of a polling place. If you’ve ever been in a polling place you can see that the posters and all that are outside the polling place. So we just put on evidence that Mr. Mandel was inside a polling place handing out election stickers.”
Mandel has a different memory of the incident, centered on some temporary tattoos he'd had made up for the campaign. He tells CP: "We're certainly not electioneering in any way," and in fact, "I had resolved not to go into any polling place." But a committee person asked him to step inside to say hello to someone, and while there he saw someone who had some tattoos. Mandel says he said, "Hey, you're inked up, have a [Brett Mandel for Controller] tattoo.' And that was the extent of my electioneering that caused multiple lawyers to run into court."
He chalks it up to the other side being "petrified."
Turnout has been low at polling places CP reporters visited. However, there have been a handful of other issues. Committee of Seventy also reports: "The Second Ward had another problem in the 21st division where the Judge of Elections refused to seat a Minority Inspector. The D.A.’s office had to intervene." And, "A number of divisions are having a tough time rounding up the five members of an Election Board to work at the polls. It may be time to revisit whether five people are needed during off-election years."
A picket line of young men clad in basketball shorts and over-sized International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 t-shirts spanned the sidewalk outside the Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village, the unofficial election day clubhouse of Philadelphia's political class. In place of rat-centric protest signs they held eight foot strips of plywood covered stem to stern with union leader John Dougherty's favored slate of politicians for today's primary. One name loomed large: Alan Butkovitz for City Controller.
Butkovitz's name was on the breaths of the assembled pols and their attendants packed into the tiled interior of the diner, once owned by former Zoning Board of Adjustments head and local Democratic party insider David Auspitz. The incumbent and party favorite for the Office of City Controller, the most hotly contested seat in a mid-term election year full of judicial candidates and little else, Butkovitz was greeted by a standing ovation from a crowd that included Councilmembers Jannie Blackwell (wearing a "Butkovitz for Controller" t-shirt) and Jim Kenney, former District Attorney Lynn Abraham and her successor Seth Williams, and two-time mayoral candidate Tom Knox.
It was a relatively impressive display of might for a political machine that is widely viewed as aging (the waitresses and this reporter were one of perhaps half a dozen folks under the age of 40) and verging on obsolescence. But when quizzed on the day's primary so far, several pols revealed a palpable nervousness about Butkovitz's odds against his challenger Brett Mandel (who caught flak today for allegedly campaigning in voting areas).
A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena in Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.
109 Spruce Street: Old conjectural drawing of Tun Tavern superimposed (badly) onto the site of the proposed project.
In last week's Empty Lot of the Week, I examined a dirty pile of empty land at the corner of Spruce Street and 38th Parallel Place, between Front and Second. At the end, I appealed to the sky for an answer as to why the city has been sitting on this space for the last 40 years without nary a sign of life, besides a brand new sidewalk that was just installed -- the first one this lot has ever had! In the comments section of that piece, Philaphile Bob Bruhin brought up the fact that a re-build of the legendary Tun Tavern was once set to happen here but never did. A Dead-Ass Proposal! This Dead-Ass Proposal is one of the worst kinds -- one that gets proposed over and over again but just can't get built. In fact, its hard to even declare this one fully dead since there are people out there intent on building this motherfucker!
Tun Tavern, built in 1693, existed for 88 years at the corner of Tun Alley and King Street (later Water Street), now a site several meters above the slow lane on I-95. This tavern was one of the many to claim to be the first of its kind in the city and/or America. Tun Tavern also carries the legendary significance of being the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps and the first Masonic Lodge in America. Though it is certain that Tun Tavern was the first Masonic Lodge, the Marine Corps Birthplace legend has never been historically confirmed. Nonetheless, any Marine would tell you that Tun Tavern in Philadelphia is where the Marines come from. Oh, I should probably mention that Tun Tavern is also legendary for being the birthplace of the first Philly Cheesesteak while the place was called Peggy Mullen's Red Hot Beefsteak House.
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