Do you want everything you need to know about all these lawsuits over the city's new limits on campaign contributions distilled into 8 easy to understand questions and answers? Check out Catherine Lucey's Answers to the hubbub over campaign finance.
Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. is pretty much responsible for all of this lawsuit tomfoolery and he's definitely not sorry about it.
After giving some subtle hints creating headlines last week that he would do so, Dougherty asks courts to remove Nutter from his seat on City Council. C'mon, Doc. Who else would we be able to watch eat his oatmeal and orange during 10am hearings?
To all of the faithful readers of this blog, which is literally reaching ones of people, feel free to come up with your own song parody reflecting the early goings of this mayor's race. I'm thinking of that great Phil Collins hit with the line "Just say the word, I'll sue- sue- sue ya oh oh oh!"
So lawsuits involving the Could-be mayoral candidates continue to make headlines while a quick search of this Daily News cover story about PGW reveals no comments from the Magnificent Six. Given soaring energy costs, the next mayor may have to face the fact that PGW's traditional three-fold mission (traditional utility company, social service program delivering heat to the poor, and generator of revenue for the city budget) needs to be rethought.
The social programs include subsidies for the poor and the elderly and for weatherization efforts.
PGW officials now say that because of soaring natural-gas prices, the social programs no longer make fiscal sense as the utility's paying customers, including thousands of working poor, face an ever greater burden.
PGW officials declined comment on what the company will do to address the growing gap between the haves and have-nots. They said they're in the early stages of making proposals for change to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).
"This is a social problem and not a utility problem," said PGW President Thomas Knudsen. "At the very least, there should be a public discussion of this."
Yes, at the very least...