Wednesday round-up

Shhh.... Blogger is sleeping. Don't wake it!

• Politicians
  
  
  
  • Perzel not to sink into obscurity following his defeat in the State House Speaker election: Republicans create a new post, Speaker-emeritus, to keep him happy (and, I guess, close to the action in case of another power shift).
    
    
  • Two pieces on new State Speaker Dennis O'Brien: John Baer gives us a peep inside the room (at Ed Rendell's house) in which the deal was made that led to his election, and Jill Porter admonishes him to reconsider his stance on gun regulation (or at least on whether the legislation deserves a hearing).
    
    
  • Chris Carney hoped to take his opponent's Appropriations seat, but will have to make do with other committe assignments for now, namely Transportation and Homeland Security.
    
    
  • I'm sure that lots of City Council candidates are starting to have websites, but two that I've been made aware of in the last week or so are Irv Ackelsburg and Marc Stier, both of whom are candidates I'm pretty enthused about off the bat.
    
  
  
• Philadelphia Housing Authority shake-up
  
  
  
  • PHA announces plans to lay off around 22% of its staff because of decreased funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (its own budget slashed by the Bush Administration).
    
    
  • Mayor Street is headed to D.C. to find a new source of funding, hoping that the Democratic majority will have more mercy on the plight of city functions.
  
  
• Other news
  
  
  
  • A Philadelphia Weekly article notes that the recent Inquirer layoffs have decreased diversity of the paper's staff.
    
    
  • In contrast, a high % of death row inmates are still minorities, especially in Philadelphia.
    
    
  • In another PW piece, Gwen Schaffer takes a closer look at the CSX agreement to provide safe pedestrian access to the Schuylkill River Park (and to park its trash trains elsewhere).
    
    
  • An Inquirer editorial argues that a PGW rate-hike might be justified, especially by the need to pay down past debt.
    
    
  • Dan at YPP looks at the Committee of Seventy's ethics agenda, and what it does and doesn't ask of mayoral candidates.