No corking Soda Wars | Editorial
Feb. 05, 2018
The first rule of the Soda Wars is that there appears to be no end to the Soda Wars.
Philadelphia City Council in June 2016, pushed by Mayor Kenney, approved a tax of 1.5-cents-per-ounce on most sugary and diet beverages sold in the city. The goal: Raising $92 million to fund pre-K education, community schools, parks, recreation centers and libraries.
The American Beverage Association has lobbied hard against the tax, using a variety of arguments […]
Meehan’s time is up | Editorial
Jan. 28, 2018
Pat Meehan must go.
The Delaware County Republican exposed for using taxpayer dollars to secretly settle a sexual-harassment claim made by a former staffer should resign from the U.S. House.
Meehan must go now, not 11 months and five days from now, at the end of the 115th Congress.
Now.
Meehan, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, should still possess a prosecutor’s sense of how evidence establishes guilt.
Meehan was seeking […]
Get real on drug policy | Editorial
Jan. 10, 2018
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has been attorney general for a year now, and, as 2018 gets underway, he is finally getting serious about the war on drugs.
No, not about the opioid crisis that is claiming lives from big cities to tiny towns across the country.
No, not about the fentanyl scourge, an additive to heroin that vastly increases the drug’s deadly danger.
No, Sessions last week decided to roll back previous Department of Justice guidance […]
Pelosi claims momentum, has cheat-sheet for proof
June 26, 2017
By Chris Brennan
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the U.S. House, wants voters to know that her party is gaining momentum in the run-up to the 2018 mid-term elections.
And she has a cheat sheet to prove it.
It lists statistics on the recent special House elections held in Kansas, Montana, South Carolina and Georgia, called to fill seats vacated by Republican members of […]
For more than a year, FBI wiretapped labor leader John Dougherty, Councilman Bobby Henon
June 26, 2017
By Craig R. McCoy, Chris Brennan, and Mark Fazlollah
For more than a year, FBI agents wiretapped the cellphones of Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty and City Councilman Bobby Henon as part of an ongoing investigation into union corruption, according to a disclosure letter by federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors recently sent what are known as “intercept letters” to scores of people whose conversations were picked up […]
Philly DA campaign is nationalized as it draws a billionaire’s gaze
April 30, 2017
By Chris Brennan
Jeff Ashton describes it as “a hostile takeover of the criminal-justice system. “
Ashton, running for a second term as the state attorney for the Ninth Judicial District in Florida last year, was challenged in the Democratic primary by an opponent with little money or support.
“She was a nobody from nowhere,” Ashton said of Aramis Ayala.
In the closing four weeks […]
Philadelphia lawyer is eyed for U.S. post
John Giordano, who worked on the Trump campaign and transition, is called a serious candidate for U.S. attorney here.
March 08, 2017
By Chris Brennan
John Giordano, a Philadelphia lawyer who worked on President Trump ‘s campaign and transition, is a contender to be the next U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
David Urban, a lobbyist who served as senior adviser to the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania in 2016, […]
Let Electoral College do its job – and let there be probes of hacking
December 19, 2016
by Chris Brennan
Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College members will gather in Harrisburg on Monday to vote for Donald Trump for president.
That is how it should be.
Trump won Pennsylvania by a sliver of the vote, 0.73 percent, out of more than 6.1 million ballots.
Still, a win is a win.
Some people don’t see it that way. The Electoral College members have […]
Recount bid quashed, GOP seeks apology
Jill Stein’s camp says she’ll continue her quest for a better way of verifying vote totals in Pennsylvania.
December 14, 2016
By Chris Brennan
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s recount effort in Pennsylvania is over, but her campaign vowed to keep fighting in federal court to make it easier to verify vote totals in the state.
Stein, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, accused Commonwealth Court of “financial extortion” […]
Intramural fights may mar annual Pennsylvania party
December 05, 2016
By Chris Brennan
Think of the Pennsylvania Society, the swank political soiree in New York starting Friday, as an obligatory holiday trip to visit bickering in-laws.
The squabbling families are the state Republican and Democratic Parties.
There will be forced laughter at unfunny jokes, blown tempers about dumb disputes, and, every few years, maybe a drunken donnybrook.
It’s tradition, you see.
And traditions in […]