Friday news

• Philadelphia
  
  
  
  • Street's live address on violence gets a lot of coverage -- the Inquirer's piece includes a description with background, and also an additional piece giving reactions from the mayoral candidate field. The Daily News offered its take here and a summary of the ongoing violence here. Albert was unimpressed, but offers the transcript for those who missed it.
    
    
  • City schools are showing their 5th year of improvement in test scores. In related news, the Schools Reform Commission is finally working on an extension of Vallas' contract.
    
    
  • The Daily News offers two pieces on Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson: one a news piece saying that his job is secure, whatever may be happening to violence rates, and the other an opinion column by Jill Porter calling for his ouster on the grounds that we need a more inspiring leader in the fight against violence. They also provide a list of past commissioners.
    
    
  • A CityPaper opinion piece (that I somehow overlooked) thinks well of Nutter's ideas on how gun violence might be reduced in the city.
    (via America's Hometown)
    
    
  • An Inquirer editorial calls on building unions to add more minority members, lest the boom in construction leave us short-handed. They also call on insitutions to make such a requirement a part of future contracts.
    
    
  • Matt at A Tattered Coat talks briefly to an Inquirer editor about how decisions are made about what stories to cover, which are investigative rather than just factual, etc. A fascinating glimpse.
    (via PhillyFuture)
  
  
• Pennsylvania/region
  
  
  
  • More feisty hearings on immigration, including testimony from organizations that often provide (medical or religious) services to illegal immigrants, as well as at least one person arguing that children born to illegal immigrant parents should not automatically qualify for US citizenship. Tom Ferrick appears unimpressed with the proceedings.
    
    
  • A group at Rutgers will be working on antiterrorism by scanning news and information sources for patterns of activity that might signal plans in development.
    
    
  • AAJane notes more petty attacks against Joe Sestak by Rep. Curt Weldon, who must not like seeing his opponent looking dignified.
    
    
  • Marc Stier offers some thoughts on the process of candidate selection in the state and local Democratic Party, and points out that there is no real "They" at the top against whom to rail, but merely a collection of smaller We's competing for influence.

    So there is no one to punish or reward. What we can do to prevent a recurrence of behavior we don’t like is to build progressive organizations across Pennsylvania so that our faction is one that the other factions here in Philly and across the state have to satisfy. And we have to build our capacity for getting out the vote so that progressive candidates for Senate and Governor will not back away from a difficult race because they know that they have a powerful progressive force behind them.

    An excellent challenge to all who care about the future of the region to Personally Make Things Happen.
    
    
  • A poster at YPP alerts us to outlets for progressive activism all over the state, organized around both issues and elections.