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Archive: May, 2011
Can we brag for a second?
City Paper's April 21, 2010, cover story "The Billion-Dollar Boondoggle" by Ralph Cipriano won top honors from the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Awards. Thats puts us in the company of other award-winners such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Miami Herald.
Woo!
Big news: Former Mayor John Street is going to endorse Verna Tyner in the 8th Council District race, sources tell City Paper.
This is the second high-profile endorsement that Tyner has secured today: Earlier, incumbent Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller announced her endorsement of Tyner, saying she "knows what it takes to make things happen in city government."
Tyner is one of the percieved front-runners in the race, along with Cindy Bass, who's been racking up big political endorsements for weeks now — from Mayor Michael Nutter, District Attorney Seth Williams, state Rep. Dwight Evans, and, just announced today, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel.
Tyner's two new endorsements surely change matters — though in what capacity, we won't know until May 17's election. It's also worth noting that Tyner has vowed to not support a DROP-enrolled official for the next Council president — i.e. Marian Tasco, who is Nutter's presumed choice. Councilman Darrell Clarke — a Street protégé — is also expected to run for president.
Bass, meanwhile, has declined to say who she'll support for Council president — and, as mentioned before, has been endorsed by Nutter, who ran for office as the "anti-Street."
Just now, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller endorsed Verna Tyner in the fierce 8th Council District race.
You can read her reasons in the statement below:
Today, after months of consideration, I decided to publicly endorse Verna Tyner for the Eighth Council District race in the May 17th Primary election. My decision was based on Tyner’s fifteen years of enthusiastic dedication and work that she has put into the community; and the commitment to those she represented while working for two other Council members.
Verna Tyner has a wealth of knowledge in regards to the operation of City Council and city government; and I know she has the necessary experience to represent the Eighth Council District. While so much has been accomplished, there is still a lot to be done. Verna Tyner brings with her the kind of pragmatic leadership that is required to continue this task.
While many Eighth District candidates are bogged down in idealism, they offer no real solutions. Verna knows what it takes to make things happen in city government. Furthermore, she has the requisite relationships to effectively serve the constituents of the Eighth Council District. I ask you to join me in support of Verna Tyner’s candidacy.
Look for more on what this means from ElectionEar later.
The state House is currently debating state Rep. Matt Baker's highly controversial abortion bill, which women's health advocates have claimed is an anti-abortion "Trojan horse," which might close down every abortion clinic in state because of allegedly unnecessary regulations. It was written in the wake of Kermit Gosnell.
For a good show, watch the state House debate on the bill here.
They are currently discussing amendments to the bill. Sources tell City Paper that one such amendment would change the language in order to make Baker's bill more like one written by Sen. Pat Vance, which women's health advocates have called "way better."
UPDATE: I'll be live-tweeting the debate. Follow along @hollyotterbein!
Hot on the heels of success from his campaign video likening Philly to the Libyan dictatorship — which made it onto the Drudge Report — GOP mayoral candidate John Featherman has released another ad.
In this one, he yet again pokes fun at the city's political machine — in particular, the allegedly cozy relationship between leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties — as well as his opponent Karen Brown. For folks in the 8th Council District, you might want to tune in: Germantown Settlement is mentioned.
Watch below:
For years, the natural gas industry has stuck to a single line as if the legitimacy of its existence depended on it (because maybe it does):
"Hydraulic fracturing has never contaminated ground water."
Today, a study by Duke University researchers refutes that claim, as reported by Pro Publica and links hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale to cases of well contamination.
(The Pennsylvania DEP, under the leadership of former Secretary John Hanger, had already linked the contamination of water in Dimock, Pa. to drilling).
The ElectionEar is a good listener send tips here.
The Board of Elections' Tim Dowling informed CP that 2nd Council District candidate Damon K. Roberts will appear on the ballot in this primary election, despite having announced his intention to drop out of the race a few days ago and throwing his support behind candidate State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson.
To officially drop out of the race, Roberts needs a court order, which he still hasn't obtained, as far as Dowling knows.
But according to Dowling, the ballots are sealed and can't be changed, even if he gets the court order — "It's impossible," says Dowling.
If Roberts does officially drop out, Dowling says, "There will be a thing on the website saying this candidate was removed by court order," but voters will still be able to push the button for Roberts.
Another question now is whether Roberts will bother to get that court order or not.
In a few videos making their way around the web, people who attended a Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission meeting to speak against — or perhaps just not favorably about — drilling, claim that Corbett's people blocked them from speaking at the hearing by providing two speakers' lists, one for the drilling industry and another for everyone else.
When the meeting began, they claim, speakers were invited from the former list and not the latter.
Newsworks' Dave Davies has a good piece on this and links to the following video, in which an anti-drilling activist directly challenges what Chad Sailor, communications director for the Lt. Governor, says about how the speakers were invited to speak (he says all of the activists showed up late).
In the video below, more people, including noted University of Pittsburgh professor Conrad Voltz, confirm exactly what this woman says.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Pat Vance's bill regulating abortion clinics, which was written in the wake of the Kermit Gosnell case, passed out of committee.
Women's health and pro-choice advocates have praised most parts of Vance's bill — noting that it will allow patients to make complaints about abortion providers anonymously, create a licensing system and guarantee regular inspections.
"The basic idea behind it is one they support," says Sue Frietsche, senior staff attorney of the Women's Law Project, adding that abortion providers were "outraged, frustrated and worried" when they came across Gosnell patients who tried to complain to the state's Health Department, but were allegedly turned away because they wanted to speak anonymously.
Still, women's health advocates argue that there are problems with Vance's bill.
Frietsche claims that while good abortion providers are happy to comply with regular inspections, Vance's bill would basically give the state's health department carte blanche "to do lengthy, disruptive, intrusive inspections" — which could be abused under certain anti-abortion leadership, she says.
She adds that, under the new bill, abortion providers would be the only medical facilities in the state that must be inspected after a "serious event" is reported to the health department — another factor that pro-choice advocates fear might lead to abuse.
Frietsche is quick to add that she doesn't believe the current health department secretary or state inspectors are abusive, but says that "somewhere down the road this bill could be a very potent tool."
As of press time, Vance declined to comment.
Carol Petraitis, of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union, is also concerned that Vance's bill could threaten patients' and employees' privacy. The bill gives "full and free" access to all abortion clinic records and employees.
Still, Petraitis calls Vance's bill a "good-faith effort to make sure there are no more Gosnells."
Conversely, pro-choice advocates have strongly criticized another bill drawn up in the wake of Gosnell, written by Rep. Matt Baker, which they claim could shut down every clinic in the state.
Baker says his bill "will provide the highest possible level of health care and safety for women."
There was speculation that an amendment might be added to Vance's bill that would have made it more like Baker's — but that, say women's advocates, has not occured.
Only one Senator in the health committee voted against Vance's bill yesterday — Bob Mensch, the same person who Baker said might pen such an amendment.
Vance's bill will now go to the Appropriations Committee, and then onto the Senate for a full vote.
Following the death of two young children in a recent fire, members of the Olney neighborhood are speaking out against Mayor Michael Nutter's "brownout" policy.
On Feb. 22, a fire claimed the lives of two young boys, Peterson and Kevin Taing, who were 9 and 7 years old, respectively. It also destroyed the Taing family's house in Olney.
Several groups, including the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Media Mobilizing Project, One Love Movement and Firefighters Union Local 22, claim that the city’s brownout policy might be to blame for the boys’ deaths, since the closest fire station was on its scheduled shut-down at the time. Last summer, Nutter put forth a policy of "rolling brownouts," in which rotating fire stations are shut down, in order to save the city more than $3.8 million.
In a press release today, the groups admit that there’s no way of knowing whether or not the local station, Engine 61, would’ve been able to better fight the fire had it been open. “What we can say is, maybe if they were there, they would have had a shot,” says Mike Kane of Local 22 in the release.
The groups will rally against the brownouts on May 9 at the former site of the Taings’ home.
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