The Next Mayor

Thursday, District Attorney Lynne Abraham announced charges against nine people in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl who was supposed to be in the care of the Department of Human Service. Danieal Kelly, who suffered from cerebral palsy, starved to death while her parents and social workers assigned to her case did nothing. Abraham released several incredibly disturbing photographs of Kelly's emaciated body. The Daily News has a short but powerful editorial about the indictment and what it means:

ON MANY SCORES, the grand-jury report on the short life and horrendous death of Danieal Kelly is a remarkable document. From its opening line, "We almost wish this had been a whodunit," to its last, "No More." the report has an element rarely found in legal documents: humanity. Clearly, the author of the report was outraged at how multiple failures - of parents, DHS, DHS providers and others - caused the death of a neglected, bedsore-ridden 14-year-old girl who weighed 42 pounds when she died. The report is as compelling as a work of fiction. And sickening, because it's true.

The grand-jury report is on www.philly. com. Because it includes Danieal's autopsy photo, it comes with a warning. We'll add another: By the time you finish reading the story of her death, a small part of your soul will have died, too. *

Tragic. Of course, no story about the complete failure of city government is complete without looking at the money. Danieal Kelly was supposed to have been watched over by a private non-profit that had a contract with DHS. MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. was paid $3.5 million by keep tabs on abused and neglected children. The contract was awarded by DHS to the agency despite numerous complaints about the non-profit. For example, according to reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in 1997, the executive director was stripped of his state certification as a drug and alcohol counselor after being convicted for abusing his girlfriend.

This really should cause the city to reconsider the relationship between DHS and various the non-profit groups they contract with. For one thing, these contracts are not transparent, and the bidding process is exempt from the kind of openness that other contracts are subjected to. DHS has a total budget of nearly $600 million (much of it state funds) and spends about $500 million on contracts. About $30 million goes to non-profits responsible for monitoring at-risk youth.

Many non-profits are able to perform certain functions --- such as casework and providing direct services to clients--- much cheaper than the unionized employees who work for the city. However, in cases like Danieal’s, the cost cutting comes with a price. Workers for non-profits often receive much less training than city employees and may be assigned to a case in a neighborhood they are not familiar with. We clearly need controls in place that ensure the work contracted out by DHS is going to people with comparable skills to social workers employed by the city. Less money is not always best, particularly when we're talking about child safety.

Of course, employees who work directly for DHS are often no better. Abraham's indictment makes clear that some workers are both incompetent and indifferent. We shouldn't be wasting a cent on the kind of do nothing attitude that caused Danieal's death.

Abraham's report on Danieal went beyond the narrow confines of a single case to include recommendations for the reforms needed to prevent another tragedy. First and foremost, the grand jury says that we need more transparency at DHS so that independent watchdogs can monitor how the agency functions. They also suggested appointing an ombudsman to provide oversight and a citizen-review panel to keep an eye on the agency.

Happy Monday to everyone out there in blog world! Several stories caught my eye.

Read the Daily News editorial on the city commissioners.

Fallout from the grand jury report on the death of Danieal Kelly continues. Mayor Nutter has suspended several top DHS employees implicated in her death. The department, which has a budget of nearly $600 million, is likely to undergo more scrutiny in the coming weeks. You can read my take on Danieal's death by reading this blog post.

Did anyone else catch this bit from the Daily News on Friday? Apparently the city paid for Mayor Michael Nutter's ticket back from Aruba to announce the new contract for AFSCME DC 33. The total cost to taxpayers? $1,368. I can't help but point out that is more than the bonus given to DC 33 members in place of a salary increase.....

The Allentown Morning Call reports that the Philadelphia Police Department was ordered to pay $1,001 to a man who was beaten after assaulting a police officer. That amount gets added to the $14.4 million already paid (and first reported by It's Our Money) by the city for police misconduct over the past five years.

Also, be sure to check two interesting reports from the WHYY newsroom about 311 and bike-sharing.

Fallout continues from the criminal charges connected to the death of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year old girl who died of starvation after being put under the care of the Department of Human Services. On Monday, Mayor Michael Nutter announced the suspension of 7 more employees at the DHS. That brings the number to 9 total. Most of the people suspended were career employees with decades of experience. In many ways, this is one of the most troubling aspects of the story.

I might have more sympathy for those involved if they had less experience. It might be understandable if Danieal's case was given to someone without the proper training and that person messed things up. Instead, the indictment paints a picture of an entire department that is asleep at the wheel. I think Nutter's suspension of a bunch of career employees will rattle things to the top.

At the same time, all of the focus on city employees should not overshadow the involvement of private contractors. As I wrote last week, a private non-profit called MultiEthnic Behavioral Health was charged with protecting Danieal. The agency received more than $3.5 million from the city to keep tabs on troubled kids. City officials should remember their role in this debacle and make sure that non-profits receive the same kind of scrutiny currently being given to DHS.

On the issue of the mayor's use of some... uh... colorful language to express his disappointment with several incompetent, lazy and negligent DHS employees, I have to go with Philebrity on this one:

But here’s the problem: You can only clean it up so much. So when you hear Nutter cursing, it is not just out of pure, raw, justified outrage that such a thing can happen, it’s also out of frustration that the game of Whac-A-Mole he’s found himself in cannot possibly stem the twin tides of death and national embarrassment that the City of Philadelphia has been swimming in longer than anyone can remember.

So let the man curse. He speaks for all of us.

Amen, brother.

I wrote about the money that can be saved by recycling in the Philadelphia Daily News today. I thought readers might be interested to learn more about single-stream recycling. Below is an interview with Christine Knapp from the environmental group PennFuture.

My questions are in bold.

1. What is single stream recycling? How is it different from how the city previously recycled?

Single stream recycling means that all materials can be collected in one bin. The recyclables are sorted from each other at the Blue Mountain recycling facility in South Philadelphia, which has state of the art equipment to handle single stream collection. Single stream is a better collection system because it is easier for residents, allows for more materials to be collected at once, and is more efficient than regular collection, which can save money for operations in the long run.

2. Single stream recycling is supposed to make things easier for city residents. What materials can be put in recycling bins?

As in the past, residents can recycle glass, metal (such as tin and aluminum), and paper including magazines, newspapers, junk mail, phone books and food boxes. With single stream, they can now also add plastics #1 and #2 (like soda or water bottles) and cardboard that is empty and flattened. For information on how to recycle items not collected by the city, visit the RecycleNow Philadelphia website here.

3. What types of containers can be used to store recyclables? And when will the city pick up these containers?

Residents can continue to use a blue bin, which are available at city sanitation yards and will soon be available at recreation centers and other sites throughout the city. You can also arrange a pick-up or drop-off of more than one recycling container, by calling 215-685-RECYCLE. However, you do not need a blue bin to recycle. Any hard-sided container can serve as a recycling bin. Simply write the word “RECYCLING” on the side, or call the Streets Department to request a sticker to put on your bin.

Recycling collection is still the same day as trash day, although most parts of the city still have collection every other week. Only Center City and the Northwest have collection every week. To find out which week is your recycling week, you can check the city website here.

4. Why did it take so long for Philadelphia to get on board with single stream?

Philadelphia is actually at the forefront of single stream recycling and is now the largest city on the East Coast to provide it. Philadelphia began a pilot program to test single stream in 2005, then expanded it to the Northeast section of the City in 2006 and continued to expand until its most recent increase which brought the entire City into the system.

5. How does Philadelphia compare to other cities when it comes to recycling?

Our commercial recycling rates are comparable, but our residential diversion rate continues to lag behind other cities. Currently just over 8 percent of all waste thrown away by residents is recycled in Philadelphia. In comparison, New York and Chicago’s residential diversion rates are over 20 percent and Los Angeles is over 30 percent and growing.

6. Are there any other improvements that could be made to how recycling is done in Philadelphia? Has city government done everything it can do?

The commitment to single stream recycling is an excellent first step. And the Nutter administration has also committed to providing weekly collection citywide by the end of the year, which is another crucial step to increasing rates. There still remains more to be done in educating citizens and helping them to participate. Recycling bins have to be easier to access and residents need regular reminders on how, when, where and why to participate in the recycling program. Enforcement also needs to be a tool to get the cooperation of apartment and commercial buildings to provide recycling programs for their tenants.

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About Christine:

Christine Knapp joined PennFuture in July of 2005, with a background in grassroots organizing, issue campaigning and policy work. Knapp’s work at PennFuture is primarily focused on the Next Great City initiative, which is working to implement a common sense, cost effective policy agenda that enhances Philadelphia’s environment, strengthens neighborhoods and increases economic competitiveness.

Previously, Knapp worked for four years at Clean Water Action, working on local air pollution issues stemming from the South Philadelphia Sunoco refinery and advocating for improvements to Philadelphia’s lagging recycling program. In this capacity she organized and recruited participation in the Philadelphia Bucket Brigade, a community based air sampling program. She also served as Secretary for the Community Labor Refinery Tracking Committee, as a Co-coordinator for the Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia and as the Organizer for the Philadelphia Environmental Meet-Up.

Knapp graduated cum laude from Villanova University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Communications. While at Villanova, she served as a Communications intern for the Philadelphia Streets Department.

Knapp is a frequent guest on news programs such as Fox Philadelphia, CN8 and WHYY’s Radio Times, She is the chair of the Urban Sustainability Forum and is a moderator of PhillyFreecycle. She served on the transition team for Mayor Nutter and won the Florence Neilson award for her work on the board of the Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia.

Plan Philly's Andrew Goodman sends along a "Postcard from Pittsburgh" and finds the Steel City to be way ahead of the City of Brotherly Love in at least a few respects.

While one of those is percentage of population lost, Pittsburgh has a several good things going on:

Pittsburgh is a smaller version of the best sections of Philadelphia, marked by walkable neighborhoods connected by commercial corridors on the same scale as Baltimore Avenue or Frankford Avenue. And despite falling on hard times, Pittsburgh has learned how to maximize the vacant land left by dirty industry quicker and better than Philadelphia. At the convergence of three rivers -- the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela -- Pittsburgh has 36 miles of shoreline and is quickly creating models for riverfront development that surpass anything going on in Philly. So to all the yet-to-be-named members of the new Delaware Waterfront Corporation, take note: we could learn a few things from Pittsburgh.

Check out this brilliant post by Zach Patton of The 13th Floor in which he compares a pivotal scene in this summer's biggest blockbuster to the way cities compete to have major employers move within their borders.

If you're familiar with game theory (which you can brush up by watching another great movie - A Beautiful Mind), you probably have heard of "the prisoner's dilemma." As Patton explains, businesses play a version of the prisoner's dilemma game with cities that show interest in them:

It's the same situation for cities competing against one another for the same business, [Greg] LeRoy [the executive director of Good Jobs First] says. The cities are prohibited from discussing their negotiations with one another, and the business uses that to its advantage, playing each city off the other in an effort to get more lucrative incentives.

Philadelphia should remember this when it tries to lure Boeing away from Chicago or Microsoft from Seattle. Or maybe when it deals with Unisys again.

You can read Patton's whole article, without the Batman references, unfortunately, in this month's issue of Governing Magazine.

Philadelphia has had its share of embarrassing, nation-profile scandals involving high government officials this decade, but none of them comes close to what they have going on in Motown these days.

I'd say the headline to this story is just a little bit of an understatement:

Mayors: Kilpatrick's actions hurt region's image

One could only hope that from now on Philadelphia's scandals are limited to harmless incompetence and not out and out corruption. As this past week's news events has shown us, even incompetence can sometimes be far worse when it leads to the death of one of our most vulnerable citizens.

Yesterday, I mentioned a piece on Plan Philly about our sister city from Western Pennsylvania. The piece painted a pretty nice picture of Pittsburgh and even suggested that we in Philly could learn a lot from the Steel City.

I posted this item because it wasn't the first time that I heard nice things about what, on paper, would seem to be a pretty bleak and depressing place. In fact, Attytood wrote a pretty well-received piece about how cities like Pittsburgh may be the key to a sustainable future for this country.

Or maybe I posted it because, like every other city larger than Des Moines, Pittsburgh has won a major sports championship (several, in fact) since Philadelphia's last win in 1983.

Whatever the case, Governing.com's The 13th Floor coincidentally posted a piece which takes a slightly less optimistic view of Pittsburgh:

So you're filming a movie about a post-apocalyptic future, and you need to find a location that can stand in for a bleak, post-disaster wasteland. Where do you go?

Except it's not a joke.

Of course, before we here in Philadelphia laugh too much, we should remember that our fair city has served as the backdrop for at least one post-apocalyptic movie that was done slightly before computer-generated effects could make any city into ruined dump.

Can anyone think of any other not-so-flattering portrayals of Philadelphia in film? (No, Mannequin 2 doesn't count.)

On Tuesday, Federal prosecutors indicted Christopher Wright, who is City Councilman Jack Kelly's chief of staff, on corruption charges. Check out the Philadelphia Daily News editorial. Wright is accused of selling influence and access to a pair of politically connected real estate developers. A closer look at the charges reveals that Wright appears to have manipulated the political process to enrich himself and his patrons on the backs of taxpayers.

Wright was allegedly working on behalf of two bothers named Ravinder and Hardeep Chawla. The Chawlas paid him $16,000, gave him access to a free apartment, and paid for legal bills connected to Wright's divorce. In return, Wright pushed his boss to introduce legislation helpful to developers in city council and intervened on their behalf with the city law department to deal with an outstanding tax bill of $53,000.

Hardeep Chawla requested that Wright try to reduce the amount and penalties associated with an overdue tax bill totaling $53,000. Wright successfully lobbied the Philadelphia Law Department and, in return, Chawla presented him with a check for $1,000.

The city and it's taxpayers were swindled out of tax revenue owed by Chawla. The notion of fairness is thrown out the window if politically connected con artists can reduce their tax bills with a phone call. Philadelphia will never attract and retain businesses if the playing field is not level. Why should someone do business in our city if their competitors can buy enough political influence to get an underhanded financial advantage?

There is some good news for city taxpayers. The Nutter Administration has made clear that the city solicitor will not assist Wright with his legal defense. The city did not pick up the tab for his legal expenses before the indictment either. In contrast, the Street Administration paid $2.8 million in legal fees for city employees under federal investigation. The most high profile example was former City Councilman Rick Mariano, but more than a dozen people had their legal bills paid by the taxpayers. Nutter should be given credit for ending this senseless practice.

Philadelphia Bicycle News and SEPTA Watch both use a recent incident along Kelly Drive to make an interesting plea for more some funding for their respective issues.

Check out the links for some pretty cool (which I can say since everyone made it out ok and no one was seriously injured) pictures of a car being extracted from the Schuylkill. Last time I checked, not a great place for a car.

Of course SEPTA Watch doesn't explicitly call for more funding for SEPTA so I just kind of filled that in myself by assuming that if SEPTA expanded service, the driver of that car wouldn't have had to drive or go so fast to get into Center City.

PBN, on the other hand, makes a good point about getting a pedestrian guard rail for the entire length of the Kelly Drive jogging path.

No word yet on whether the Schuylkill Navy, governing body of Philadelphia rowing, has any thoughts on the matter.

...by someone who is apparently very interested in keeping the system as closed as possible. YPP's Ray Murphy responds to the response, while his commenters do what I just don't have time to do today: break it down point by point.

Two old sayings come to mind while reading the letter written by someone who works in the Commissioner's office but who, according to the letter's editor is expressing his "personal opinion."

1. It is difficult to convince a man of something when his paycheck depends on his not understanding it. (Upton Sinclair said that. He wasn't the muckraker who called Philadelphia corrupt and contented.)

2. Follow the money.

The Commissioner's office has, for years, charged media outlets for access to this information. I don't know exactly how much since last time I needed it (blogging primary night, 2006) I just called them up and asked nicely while saying that I work for public radio/tv. They were more than happy to help me out. Regardless, the commercial outlets here probably haven't been too quick to change the system because it means that web users (and television viewers) would continue to depend on them for their results.

At the same time, the Commissioner's office has been able to get money for something that other jurisdictions have been providing for free. While we sometimes rip on our city government - especially the bureaucracy - for its lack of vision and creativity, I have to say that I'm impressed that the Commissioner's were able to do something that most news outlets have been unable to do - make money on the web.

Now, if only they weren't doing it with a product that is essentially owned by all of us taxpayers.

The editorial board weighs in on the Penn Praxis study of the proposed casino sites and a new program from Philadelphia Community College that allows students to get their associate degree for free.

Ronnie Polaneczky feels betrayed by Sen. John Edwards.

John Baer says that "easily 40" members of the state legislature are ready to boot embattled Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese.

Elmer Smith thinks it's time for casinos to come to Philadelphia.

Deborah Levy is cheering for Olympic athletes and Jim Castagnera compares the U.S. to Rome.

Daily News readers respond to the mess at DHS, the failing economy, and more.

Editorial: Perzel's property tax relief plan for seniors and the wrongful-death lawsuit by Danieal Kelly parents against DHS.

Signe Wilkinson tackles the Edwards mess.

John Baer wonders if McCain will pick Ridge for VP.

Op-eds: A tribute to Bernie Mac and Charles Desnoyers writes about China.

Letters: Should the Mayor curse?

"Obliviously you don't want a child maced."

Not Ramsey, apparently.

Editorial: SEPTA is expanding service and saving the Boyd Theater

Cartoon: How does Signe beat gas prices?

Columnists: Ronnie Polaneczky has good news and Stu Bykofsky on Danieal Kelly

Letters to the Editor: Issac Hayes, Danieal Kelly, and changing diapers in the White House

Op-ed: Michael Smerconish is asking questions and Ralph Reiland on big government

Editorial: We don't know Jack about City Hall scandal

Cartoon: What happens if minorities take over?

Columnists: Elmer Smith writes about tenants being ripped off and Clout has a run down of all things Fumo related

Letters to the editor: Recycling, the Phillies, and more on DHS

Op-eds: Christine Flowers on the lawsuit brought by Danieal Kelly's family and an explanation of the Russia/Georgia crisis.

Editorials: Ramsey and police discipline, Jimmy Rollins, and DC 47's new contract

Cartoon: Minors in the Olympics

Columnists: John Baer on paying for the legal fees of politicians under indictment and Stu Bykofsky on the troubles facing the Mummers museum

Op-ed: In defense of John Edwards (really!) and the news from sports hell.

Letters: The debate over election information, DHS, and Mayor Nutter's foul language continues.

On Tuesday, August 5th, City Councilman Jack Kelly's chief of staff was indicted on multiple counts of fraud and corruption. You can read more about the case here and here.

Councilman Kelly has yet to issue any statement, except to say that he is away on vacation and will be consulting with Council President Anna Verna about the appropriate response when he returns. One of Kelly's key employees was indicted for defrauding the public and Kelly still decided to skip town.

Philadelphia deserves better. We have a right to know what happened, what Kelly's response will be, and how he plans to stop something like this from happening in the future. Kelly needs to be prepared to answer these questions when he returns from his vacation.

If you agree, post this milk carton cartoon on your blog. If you don't have a blog, pick up a phone and let Councilman Kelly know that you want answers. You can contact Councilman Kelly by calling his office at 215-686-3452.

Editorial: Buying wine from out of state and buying plane tickets with public dollars

Cartoon: How to change DHS....

Op-eds: China and the Olympics

Letter to the Editor: Philly Fellows, homeless, and handicapped parking spaces

Councilman Kelly expected to make statement today on Chris Wright indictment.

Except when it's not.

Jack Kelly: Chris Wright will go on unpaid leave.
(via Philly Clout)

Our guest blogger today is Shelly Yanoff, the executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth.

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Fixing the System: Ringing the alarm

Every day, every hour the phone rings at DHS - reporting a child at risk of abuse and neglect. A case worker goes out, investigates, returns and with consultation decides whether the child should be accepted for DHS service. Every day, every hour, children at risk enter the system; the overwhelming majority of them are adequately provided for and protected. But some are not.

Philadelphia like most counties and big cities contracts with private, non-profit agencies to provide the actual care for children whose families have not been able to provide for them. DHS next works with private provider agencies to develop plans for the child. Sometimes the worker goes to Family Court to make the case to remove the child or to keep the child at home; either way the worker is to monitor and update the plan and oversee the child’s progress. All sides have representation at Court hearings and there is a body of law as well as policy that stresses the importance of keeping the child at home with the family if at all possible. To watch out for children, particularly those who are young or who have special health care needs who are in vulnerable situations requires strong oversight, committed case workers and a system that catches gaps, that can sound alarms and be heard. Like all alarms, people need to know where they are and be certain they are connected so that they can be heard. In too many instances, our systems are disconnected.

Disconnect #1: “the Chain of Command”
DHS’ organizational framework is that of a chain of command. Those who chose this work to help families spend much of the time policing the performance of others. If they are troubled by what they see, they are to report it up the chain to a supervisor who usually does not carry a case load. The path then goes up and up and then crosses over to the private agency to go down. The case worker thus can become distanced from the actual “family” work which in turn diminishes the worker’s sense of impact. The city’s case workers, many of whom went into this work to help children become distanced from their mission by being part of a system that emphasizes chain of command over action, and paperwork over social work.

Disconnect #2: "The City’s pace and practice in staffing and monitoring providers"
DHS is hampered by the city’s historic slow pace in filling positions; thus workers are often trying to cover cases “temporarily” while waiting for new workers to be hired. . Add to this mix, the large number of providers to monitor, mix in some political considerations, union support for all workers, an overlay of racial issues and the only thing that is easy to say about the system is that it is challenging.

Disconnect #3: "The difficulty of monitoring so many agencies"
The City contracts with hundreds of child welfare non-profit agencies; most are mission driven and determined to provide good care. Even those considered excellent, suffer from the city’s late and low payment history, and often have trouble keeping staff due to low pay. The City ‘s record of monitoring them, providing them with guidance and oversight is complex at best .

Disconnect #4: "Other public agencies not getting involved"
Other city and state agencies do not regularly play roles in the story. The children in the family were not attending school; Danielle was a child with special health care needs. Yet neither the education nor the health systems reached out to help.

Disconnect #5: "None of us acted or viewed taking care of children at risk as part of our responsibility."

If we had what would we have done?

The people who tried to ring the alarm in Danielle Kelly’s case were not able to make the alarm heard How do we change that?

We begin:
By remembering that most workers and most agencies and most families are caring for and protecting their children;
By modifying the chain of command culture to the caring and compassionate culture;
By making it easier to express concern about a case and to feel that the insight matters;
By creating more crossovers between private providers and city workers;
By having supervisors carry cases to increase the sense of the agency’s purpose:
By limiting the number of private providers so that they can be adequately monitored;
By requiring more involvement of the education and health care systems in dhs’ work; and
By creating a strong well-publicized office of ombudsman to oversee and investigate cases so that the alarm is heard; AND

By remembering that a disconnected system hurts all of us.

Read Ben's op-ed about the how "our money" - federal, state and city tax dollars - is used to guarantee the welfare of at-risk children through the city's Department of Human Services.

You can use this post to comment on the story. Do you have experience with DHS? Are you a social worker with one of the subcontractors or non-profits that contract with the city to deliver these services? Or are you a city employee? We want to hear from anyone with a perspective on the "The Child Welfare Machine."

To continue the conversation that we have going at It's Our Money about DHS, I bring you this factoid from an editorial in today's Daily News:

We have the money. But we can't begin to know whether we have too much money or not enough, until the city and state decide on the mission for its at-risk children, and design a system that has less of a chance of failing them. In the meantime, maybe the most efficient way is to divide the DHS money by the number of children in its case files. According to our calculations, that would mean a check to each child for $30,000, every year.

The suggestion is, of course, only half serious. We know that there are a ton of problems with just handing over $30,000 to each child in DHS's care every year. Equality: what about the kids who aren't DHS's care? Responsibility: If the parents or caregivers are shaky enough to require DHS intervention, could they ever be trusted to do the right thing with this money?

The point in throwing out that figure is not to seriously suggest just getting rid of all of the child welfare bureaucracy at the federal, state and local levels. Rather, it's to illustrate the enormous amount of money that we as a society have already agreed to commit to care of at-risk children.

But, geez, it's still kind of intriguing to think about whether $30,000 per year per child would do the trick. Don't ya think?

Philadelphia prison population goes up

Apparently we're not the only ones interested in DHS dollars.

Editorial: Second chapter of the casino saga?

Cartoon: The green Convention Center

Columnists: John Baer on Bob Casey and Clout on the Democratic National Convention

Op-eds: Reforming the criminal justice system and feeling bullish on Biden

Letter to the Editor: Obama, abortion, and Jimmy Rollins

Editorial: Unisys sign controversy and turning boos into booze

Cartoon: Hillary hits the mark

Columnists: John Baer doesn't hate Biden, Clout on the convention, and Ronnie Polaneczky writes about real estate

Op-eds: Smerconish's convention diary

Letters to the Editor: Slavery, teachers, and the real John McCain

Heard in the Hall has a rundown of the possible new locations.

Also, check out Casino-Free Philadelphia's principals for resiting.

A few months ago, Sen. Vince Fumo said that he offered the casinos $50 million to relocate. It will be interesting to see if taxpayers are forced to pay Foxwoods and/or Sugarhouse to make resiting happen.

Labor talks have been underway between the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the School District for months. Very little information about negotiations have been provided to the public. Parents, students, and taxpayers have no seat at the table.

Do you think the public should have a voice in the process? If so, what would you say? Use this thread to sound off.

Election returns are open to everyone.

Editorial: Silence over teacher talks not golden

Cartoon: Slime and history

Columnists: John Baer, Jill Porter, and Elmer Smith all write about Obama. Clout looks ahead to the GOP convention

Op-eds: Christine Flowers on Hilliary and Obama

Letter to the Editor: Race, DHS, GOP, and labor unions