Matthews called the Democrats' proposals "a storm of sound-good ideas." "What they're confronted with," he said, "is a superbly run county government for the past eight years." |
Many researchers and politicians have deemed the decreased income equality as a pressing problem but James Sherk, Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy at the Heritage Foundation, believes the trend largely follows the increased use of a well-intentioned and arguably advisable business practice-compensating workers based on their performance. |
PALCS, a "cyber school" based in West Chester that educates children from K through 12 via computer, has become a refuge of learning for thousands of children - many gifted, many with learning disabilities and many average students - seeking an education that serves their learning style. An estimated one-third of the students are from the Philadelphia area. |
Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel, LLC, successfully powered up the cars with a biodiesel fuel it has created not from vegetable oils -from which most biodiesel has been made - but from more affordable trap grease. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani greets supporters at a rally in Wilmington, Del., on Thursday. | |
Rudy Giuliani, the centrist former Mayor of New York, believes he is the apt Republican selection in the 200s primary to go after such states, and his pitch to active Republicans yesterday at Terrace at Greenhill in Wilmington bespoke his supporters' assessment that he, more than any of his GOP opponents, can get a presidential win next year. |
The Newark (N.J.) chapter of the American Federation of Teachers maintains the "traditional mission of our public schools has been to prepare our nation's young people for equal and responsible citizenship and productive adulthood."
But the nonprofit Center for Union Facts (CUF) has spent months telling parents that the city's teachers remain worlds away from realizing their mission.
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Reps. Kathy Watson (R-Bucks) and Scott Boyd (R-Lancaster) are spearheading alternatives to proposals by Rendell's initiative. They fear the latter will impose too heavy a burden on employers and deprive patients and doctors of their ability to make important health care decisions. |
"I want to educate - and warn - our families, and our children, about Internet crimes against children," C. Michael Green, Delaware County District Attorney said. "The Internet is an amazing and wonderful tool. Kids love to connect through sites like MySpace and Facebook. But there are dangers. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Krystle Marcellus/The Bulletin
Connie Jefferson, a volunteer at the Delaware Valley Veterans Home, was recognized yesterday with a certificate given to her by Representative George T. Kenney, Jr. | |
Kenney, now a member of the home's advisory council, honored their services to elderly and ailing veterans in the Philadelphia region yesterday at a luncheon to kick off State Veterans Home Week. |
As State Supreme Court elections draw nearer, another such name comes increasingly to mind for Pennsylvania's judicial conservatives: Lower Merion native Michael Krancer. |
The county, though overwhelmingly Republican in terms of voter registration, poses a difficulty to some local GOP campaigners.
But Specter remains exceedingly popular in this area and has conveyed much confidence in his Republican brethren who control all of its county departments. |
Montgomery County's Board of Commissioners unanimously approved grants totaling $816,200 to improve parks and preserve open space in Royersford, Pottstown, Lansdale, Lower Pottsgrove and New Hanover at their meeting Thursday. |
In the wake of last week's City Council resolution forcing Philadelphia's Boy Scouts chapter to leave their Fairmount Park headquarters or pay "fair-market rent" because of their alleged discrimination against gays, the Scouts are weighing their options and awaiting answers to a number of questions.
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The Bucks County Board of Commissioners approved a grant of $82,500 from the county's Natural Areas Program to acquire a portion of the largely undeveloped Tessmer Property in Buckingham Township.
This acquisition will add five acres to the already roughly 500 acres of open space that Buckingham, Solebury and Plumstead townships have collectively preserved. |
| | | | | | | Photo Courtesy of Damsker?Hoeffel ’07
Democratic Montgomery County Commissioner Ruth S. Damsker, left, and former Democratic commissioner and Congressman Joseph M. Hoeffel. | |
Democratic Montgomery County Commissioner Ruth S. Damsker and former Democratic commissioner and former Congressman Joseph M. Hoeffel said if they were both elected to the Board of Commissioners in November, community redevelopment projects would receive greater attention and financial support. |
A team of academic researchers has prepared a report to recommend reforms. Given Upper Dublin's strong record of student achievement, they took care to make a compelling case against total preservation of the status quo. |
"Our opponents have flip-flopped on the issue of tax reassessment," Castor said, characterizing the two Democrats as "saying one thing and saying another thing and doing a third thing." |
Particularly of concern to residents and local officials have been reports of benzene contamination detected in the area's soil and groundwater as well as in the homes of some township residents. Some of these residents told Barrar about the findings and got him interested in this matter. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Krystle Marcellus/The Bulletin
Ray Rodriguez holds up a picture of his son Alex, who is on the waiting list for mental disability care. Rodriguez and State House Speaker Dennis O’Brien were at the Down Town Club to praise the budget increase for mental retardation services. | |
Rendell would increase funding for public services to the mentally disabled by 10.4 percent in the budget he introduced in February. As of 2006, 22,759 individuals awaited such services but could not receive them due to insufficient funding, according to the Philadelphia-based PA Waiting List Campaign, a group working to end the funding shortfall. |
The free-market Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives reports that between 1970 and 2006, state spending rose 160 percent. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania ranked 49th in job growth, 45th in personal income growth and 48th in population growth among all states in the U.S.
Now the Foundation and its allies in the General Assembly are taking action to reverse course. |
| | | | | | | Photo Illustration by Jared Gruenwald / The Bulletin | |
Gov. Edward G. Rendell has said, and most other state officials have acknowledged, that Pennsylvania's roads, bridges and mass transit systems lack the funding they need.
And the agreement appears to end there. |
Republican political efforts have, to say the least, not seen any upswing in the Philadelphia suburbs of late. After deducing that Democrats may indeed wrest control of Montgomery County's executive and legislative body, current Commissioner Ruth S. Damsker asked Hoeffel to run with her on a slate in the 2007 Board of Commissioners race. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Douglas Healy / Associated Press
Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson attends the Prescott Bush Awards Dinner last week in Stamford, Conn. The senator is moving closer to announcing his candidacy. | |
Since early this year, some prominent conservatives have intimated they may have such an alternative in Fred Thompson, the commanding yet avuncular former Tennessee senator and (real-life and on-screen) lawyer. And one Web site, run out of the Philadelphia suburbs, has added its voice to the modest but growing chorus of pro-Thompson sentiment. |
A Delaware County campaign to help families enroll their kids in the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has led to 25 percent more children signing on than did last year, the County Council announced yesterday. |
"As the trend toward more school choice continues," Aud writes, "it is worthwhile to assess the fiscal impact of these programs. There is still a strong contingent that believes school choice should only be allowed if it can be proven not to have a detrimental fiscal effect on the current system of public schools." |
"This would kill us," said James Hanak, CEO of the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS), grades. "If this bill passes, we'll all go out of business."
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Montgomery County's allocation to MCCC will total $18,688,505, mostly for operating costs and about $2 million for capital plant costs and debt service expenses. The county now contributes 27 percent of the college's total budget, with 30 percent coming from the state, 40 percent from student tuition. Three percent come from varied other contributions. |
Matthews and Castor, the county's district attorney, support a cut in the county property tax by 0.05 mill in 2007 and want to enact a reduction of similar size in 2008. (Mills express the tax rate per dollar of property value.) They point out that a property tax reduction enacted in Montgomery County last year resulted in a savings of $2.6 million to taxpayers. |
DiMino announced that the county has set up a bio-watch system to detect hazards in the air, comprised of five monitors placed in undisclosed locations throughout the county. The monitors can identify the presence of such bio-chemical dangers as anthrax or smallpox and signal the threat to the state medical laboratories who would report the threat to the county within six hours.
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The Bucks County Board of Commissioners yesterday unanimously approved the purchase of 137.51 acres of farmland in Springfield Township from the family of John and Linda Keller. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Matt Rourke / Associated Press
Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Michael Galantino, center, makes remarks as Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood, left, and Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green, right, listen during a news conference in Upper Darby yesterday. | |
Upper Darby Police arrested Mia T. Sardella yesterday morning and charged her with the killing of her newborn son, Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood and Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green announced. |
Wonderling, chairman of the Senate Communications and Technology Committee, says the bill will result in improved patient care and reduced health care costs. |
With the network, officers can receive calls from dispatch, as well as transmit back to dispatch information such as license plate numbers, operator information and driver license photos. Officers will also be able to check criminal histories or driving records with the system. |
"We know now that your efforts were successful and that democracy has won the day," Harper said. "But at the time, for many of you, it must have seemed like your own personal version of hell." America lost over 33,000 combat troops in Korea and suffered thousand of other deaths. |
Steven Camarota, research director at the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), has demolished a myth about the foreign-born that has influenced public policy for many years. It's one crude stereotype that multiculturalists can live with. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Jared Gruenwald/The Bulletin
Retired General Colin Powell cuts a ribbon to officially open the Eisenhower Fellowships’ new headquarters during a ceremony held Thursday at South 16th Street in Philadelphia. | |
"I want to thank everybody who works so hard here, on the staff and also the board of trustees," Powell said. He said the ceremony culminates "50 years of success in the old building" and anticipates "50 more years of success here." |
The proposed tax shifts, if enacted, would have benefited mostly senior citizens and would have offered no benefit to renters. |
Cast your trust: O'Keefe said that she feels "completely energized" after weathering the primary and that the time is ripe for voters to register their dissatisfaction with a Republican Party that, she feels, has been insufficiently responsive to voter concerns. "Each vote is a sign of trust," she said. |
End of the quest: While most sitting City Council members received their party's nod on Tuesday to continue their campaigns for general election in November, several members of district and at-large seats will find themselves seeking life elsewhere. |
In Bucks County, Democrats, as of this writing turned out mostly endorsed candidates for County Board of Commissioners Diane Marseglia and Steve Santarsiero to face incumbent Republicans Charley Martin and Jim Cawley. |
Efforts to "get out the vote" among the public at large and among youngsters in particular sometimes leave one asking, to what end?
But William Devlin, an influential and devoted Philadelphia-area nonprofit and business leader, has become president of a group working to energize young voters that is anything but value-neutral. |
Speaking at the Union League at an event put on by Pennsylvania Women Impacting Public Policy (PA Wipp), and co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Young Democrats and Young Republicans, each hopeful or his spokesperson discussed why he deserves the votes of the city's women. |
"So far I think this is working," said Michael M. Stokes, assistant director of the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Stokes called the investments made by the program "instrumental to attracting residents back to the wonderful communities we have." |
The initial hiring of a forensic tester for the county has drawn much criticism from Commissioner Ruth Damsker, who has questioned the original RFP's stipulation that the provider of this service cannot be headquartered outside the county. By all accounts, that left only one company that was qualified to do the job: National Medical Services (NMS) of Willow Grove. |
After resolving to create the task force, each township or borough that was contacted was asked to nominate a task force member. "I think, Mr. Chairman, being that every municipality responded in the affirmative and sent a name, I think it speaks very highly to the commitment of the individual municipalities to see this be a success," said County Commissioner Jim Cawley. |
Most of the Republican row officers in Bucks County and a few municipal candidates spoke about their re-election efforts to a group of senior citizens at Center Square Towers last night. |
"People have seen their jobs go, their taxes are up. This is very frightening."
Oh refers to America's long history of newcomers arriving on its shores, and says Philadelphia must relive that story on a microcosmic level, since it has seen significant population decline since 1970, when almost 2 million people lived here. Now about 1.4 million do. |
| | | | | | | Photo courtesy of Peter Amuso | |
For Peter Amuso, the Democrat seeking Montgomery County's top prosecutorial post, Norristown would be, if he were elected, one of many destinations across the globe to which his young life and legal career has taken him. |
"This election is about community safety," she said. "It's not an election about what goes on in the battlefields of Iraq, it's an election about what goes on in the battlefields of our backyards." |
This has concerned Gerlach, State Senators Andy Dinniman (D) and John Rafferty (R), State Representatives Mike Vereb (R) and a host of other local lawmakers because of scientific analysis indicating that a presence of TCE in the atmosphere increases the risks of liver, ovarian and prostate cancers as well as others. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Krystle Marcellus/The Bulletin
The panelists were (from left) Margaret Downey, president of Philadelphia Freethought Society, Father Gregory Fairbanks, director of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Dr. Peter Lillback, senior pastor at Proclamation Presbyterian Church, Rabbi Greg Marx, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Or and Imam Anwar Muhaimin of Quba Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies. | |
The Free Library of Philadelphia's Central Library branch hosted a discussion panel yesterday with the topic, "One Nation Under God: Does Religion Unite or Divide?" |
The meeting was off the record, but the senator and others at the meeting took a few minutes after the discussion to talk with the Bulletin about the issues raised and the general sentiments of those in attendance. |
Montgomery County Commissioners established the Montgomery County Greenhouse Gas Reduction Task Force on Jan. 4 to generate measures for reducing emissions on the county level. The resolution creating the task force expressed the commissioners' view that "there is increasing scientific evidence that greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere are currently influencing climate change." |
| | | | | | | Photo Courtesy of Tricia Lehman
Rep. Ron Raymond (R-Sharon Hill) speaks at a press conference announcing the awarding of the 2007 Speaker’s Golden Apple Award for Education Innovation to the DCIU Sharon Hill Early Childhood Center in the category of Administrative Leadership. Pictured left to right is Raymond, DCIU Executive Director Chris McGinley and Speaker of the House Dennis O’Brien. | |
Delaware County Intermediate Unit's (DCIU) Early Childhood Development Center in Sharon Hill is one of only six schools statewide to win the 2007 Speaker's Golden Apple Award for Education Innovation. |
The State Senate Monday passed a bill sponsored by Stewart Greenleaf, Republican of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, to allow state corrections officers to use any (including deadly) force necessary to halt a prisoner who has escaped from a state correctional facility. |
The State Senate Monday passed a bill sponsored by Stewart Greenleaf, Republican of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, to allow state corrections officers to use any (including deadly) force necessary to halt a prisoner who has escaped from a state correctional facility. |
| | | | | | | Photo Courtesy of Haverford High
(ABOVE) Haverford High finalists (from left) Ellen Corrigan, Jonathan Matusky, Julia Corrigan, Scott Winkleman, Simon Fox Krauss and Sean Farrell. | |
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) yesterday named about 2,500 high school seniors who have demonstrated what the organization considers outstanding academic promise. One hundred and twelve of those scholars are from Pennsylvania, and many of those hail from the Philadelphia area. |
Many have speculated for several weeks that Paul Vallas, the departing chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District, as to whether he is considering a move to New Orleans to occupy the same post for their Recovery School District. |
A filing issued late last week by Schwemler's firm, Elliott Greenleaf and Siedzikowski (EG&S;), on behalf of their client Municipal Revenue Services (MRS), a company specializing in tax lien sales, accuses Ellis and Matthews of "ongoing misconduct" oriented toward avoiding deposition. |
Larry Glick, outreach director for Murphy, urged the roomful of committeepersons and other active Democrats as the event began to focus sharply on potential gains this November and beyond.
"You should be proud to be a Democrat today," Glick said. "'08's just around the corner." |
Police were able to retrieve the gun and no injury to the other boy in the squabble was reported. They do not yet know how the boy came to possess the weapon.
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| | | | | | | Photo by Jared Gruenwald /The Bulletin Backed by community leaders, State Representative Angel Cruz (seated) discusses his support of a proposed amendment to legislation he introduced that would create a gun registry system in Philadelphia with the goal of stemming the tide of gun violence during a press conference held yesterday. | |
The bill, once amended, would mandate a Philadelphia gun owner to sign and date a registration form in the presence of a notary declaring he will sell the gun. The gun buyer would then sign the registration. Lamenting the lack of a comprehensive tracking system of gun possession in the city or state, Cruz said his proposed system would allow authorities to trace a gun used in a crime to its source. |
On Saturday, a panel of business experts gave attendees a picture of the state's economic health compared with the rest of the nation.
It wasn't pretty. |
"These forces in our culture - we got to talk about this,"?Ingraham said. "We got to talk about what they're doing to our young people. And we've got to talk about how this is affecting the way young people think about life, relationships, marriage, the way they treat each other, behave in school yards." |
| | | | | | | Photo by Lauren Victoria Burke / ABC News / Associated Press | |
The former speaker is confident that once conservatives abandon their preoccupation with party labels, personalities, and ideologies, and simply beat the Left at its own game of creating better solutions, a new permanent majority will emerge. |
As Bucks County's "Earth Week" began, Board of Commissioners Chairman Charles H. Martin expressed pride in the measures his jurisdiction has taken for greater energy efficiency, emissions reduction, sprawl control and recycling. |
Municipal Revenue Services (MRS) has long been engaged in legal action against New Jersey-based XSPAND, Inc., the company hired to collect from delinquent taxpayers in the county. It accuses XSPAND of winning government contracts through political patronage. |
| | | | | | | Photo by Krystel Marcellus / The Bulletin
General Eric Shinseki speaks after receiving the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Union League on Thursday. | |
The Union League of Philadelphia, an organization formed in 1862 initially to raise money and recruit manpower for the Union Army, yesterday bestowed upon General Eric Shinseki its Abraham Lincoln Award, the group's annual recognition of an American's service to his or her country.
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Many candidates for public office attempt to broaden their support by running close to the political center. But a panel at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg last weekend had some advice for those who desire to carry the mantle of unabashed conservatism into local office.
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| | | | | | | Myrna Field Baum. a prominent Philadelphia judge, passed away yesterday, at age 71. | |
She is described as someone who was always active and who loved to travel to many places abroad, to go on biking trips and to climb mountains. "She was a terrific individual," Harris said. |
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