Category: Uncategorized

Tribune Review: Property tax elimination seems doubtful

MY FIRST CLIP appears in this morning’s Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

HARRISBURG — One Republican lawmaker wants to eliminate school property taxes by broadening sales taxes across Pennsylvania, but at least one Democratic leader says the bill doesn’t have a chance.

“I don’t want to see someone lose their life defending their home against a government official,” said state Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks County, who sponsored the legislation.

Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said the Legislature’s packed agenda before the June 30 budget deadline will doom Rohrer’s bill.

Read the rest at Pittsburgh Live.

Photo source.

Property taxes abolished, probably not

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks, is making a second attempt since January to eliminate property taxes in the commonwealth.

I covered a rally he held in the rotunda of the State Capitol this morning and wrote a brief and filed a story for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the first paper for which I am writing during this post-graduate internship.

The story runs tomorrow on this House Bill 1275, which was largely crafted with the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition.

It doesn’t seem like anything will come of the bill… again, as suggested by a Reading Eagle story last week and by a quote I got today from West Oak Lane’s own Dwight Evans, D-Phila.

It’s not going to happen. We just don’t have the time: bottom line.”

Here’s Rohrer talking about Pennsylvania taxes last month.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2gxiGpA39k]

Cartoon courtesy of the Indianapolis Star.

Finally, a women's soccer franchise in Philly

Looks like Philadelphia will take another swing at a women’s soccer franchise, as part of another attempt at a successful women’s soccer league.

This from the Philadelphia Business Journal:

Women’s Professional Soccer, a new league set to begin play next year, signed a letter of intent Tuesday to add an expansion franchise in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia team will begin play in 2010, joining seven teams set to begin play next year in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

The region hasn’t yet opened it’s men’s soccer franchise in Chester and already more are swooning. Does this seem like a wise decision to anyone else?

Photo courtesy.

Indiana Jones IV

TONIGHT I SAW “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in the Pearl Theater at Avenue North.

I thought Harrison Ford was fairly solid – despite concerns over his age – and the film was surely pretty entertaining for the fourth enstallment of any series.

The movie made $127 million its first weekend, tops in U.S. box offices, but, as Inquirer film critic Steven Rea wrote, it doesn’t have the feel of a classic. I enjoyed it mostly because of my adoration for the previous three, but this fell short, despite Ford’s solid performance. Still, if you liked the others, you have to watch this one, which is why it’ll continue to make money.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPTJ4v6KPrg]

Picture courtesy of the The Somewhat Manly Nerd.

UWire 100: I'm on it

UWIRE REALIZED PEOPLE LOVE lists.

The 14-year-old college journalism association spent the past few months compiling their inaugural list of what they’re calling the UWire 100 – the 100 top, most promising college journalists in the country. It’s a first go of it, so it is surely not comprehensive, but an honor nonetheless. See the list here.

It also seems strange to be called a top college journalist even though I graduated on Thursday.

Here’s my page.

I am also happy to report that my good friend and fellow Temple alumnus Sean Blanda made the list. See his page here.

Check out coverage of the list by CBS News here, by CNN here, by Editor and Publisher here, by the Chronicle of Higher Education here, and by Gawker here.

Also, one of the other young journalists with whom I will be working this summer in Harrisburg made the list, David Spett of Northeastern Northwestern’s celebrated Medill School of Journalism.

JoAnne A. Epps: new dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law extended interview

As filed – without edits – for last Friday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal. This is the extended interview.

Name: JoAnne A. Epps
Title: Dean, effective July 1
Company: Temple University Beasley School of Law
Education: Trinity College, bachelor’s degree, 1973; Yale University School of Law, 1976
Career History: associate dean of academic affairs, Temple Law (1989-present); professor, Temple Law (1985-2000); assistant U.S. attorney, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1980-85); deputy city attorney, City of Los Angeles (1976-80)

What do you see being the biggest pending change in legal education in the coming years?

I think one of the big changes in legal education is going to be to ensure legal education fully prepares our students to be practicing lawyers. We’ve had the same educational model for nearly a century. All legal educators will be asking themselves how we can improve on that model.”

Do you think law schools need to add more classes to prepare students for the business aspect of practicing law? Or does that take away from legal education?

I’m not entirely sure that law schools must include a course on the business of practicing law, althoiugh I do think it is important that students do acquire that education. I am not against it, but I don’t think that it’s urgent or mandatory. I am of the view that what’s needed is more introduction to practicing law, not introduction to the business of practicing law, including the handling of moral and ethical dilemmas, understanding how to take our place as leaders in the community, understanding collaborative problem solving. For all of that law schools are ideally suited. Part of my hesitation in thinking of the business of practiing law is that we can intellectualize that topic and we can seek to help our students, but the practicing part will be a better teacher than we can.

What effect does the high cost of law school education, specifically the prohibitive loans students are saddled with, have on students making choices about which school to attend and what career path to pursue afterwards?

Continue reading JoAnne A. Epps: new dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law extended interview

Bill Green: three generations profiled by Philadelphia magazine

This month, Philadelphia magazine has a great long-form piece on three generations of Philadelphia political leaders named Bill Green.

AT AN EVENING meet-the-candidates session for State Senate, Bill Green proves he is his father’s son. The first-term City Councilman has come to the Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square for a function thrown by the Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club, and is using the opportunity to pepper one of State Senator Vince Fumo’s aides with questions. “Is Senator Fumo committed to serving four years?” he asks, standing in the crowd.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fumo’s aide, Ed Hanlon, replies.

“What about the indictment?” Green shoots back.

“I don’t think that’s an appropriate thing to talk about,” responds Hanlon. “We want to talk about the issues.”

Just hours from now, Fumo will withdraw from the race to focus on the 139-count federal indictment he faces. This entire conversation will be rendered moot. What’s memorable about it is the way Bill Green stands up in an open forum and tries to commandeer the floor, the way he turns a pizza-and-beer political event into his own personal grandstand. “Is Senator Fumo committed to serving four years?” he asks again. The crowd seems a little uncomfortable. MORE

There are also mentions to Dave Glancey and other people I’ve interviewed.

Linda Rosanio: raising money for Susan G. Komen with Mama Nancy Catelli meatballs

As filed – without edits – for last Friday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

IF PHILANTHROPY ALWAYS HAD this much to do with meatballs, everyone would get involved.

Looking for a new way to raise money for Susan G. Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure, Linda Rosanio enlisted her mother “Mama” Nancy Catelli to sell her homemade meatball sandwiches in the cafeteria of the Star Group, a marketing and communications company in Center City.

“I don’t think she realized how many sandwiches she would have to make,” Rosanio, who is CEO of the company, said of her 82-year-old retired mother.

Continue reading Linda Rosanio: raising money for Susan G. Komen with Mama Nancy Catelli meatballs

Susan Barnett: bringing local news to CBS 3

As filed – without edits – last week for today’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

YOUR LOCAL TV NEWS usually isn’t all that local.

Anchors travel from market to market, like Susan Barnett did, geography be damned.

She had worked in Miami, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Champaign, Ill. But the new co-anchor of CBS 3’s 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts has finally landed the big spot in her native region.

“You have to travel all over the country and earn your stripes, especially when you come from a huge city like Philadelphia, it is hard to get here at all,” the Bucks County native said. “Making it to this level is really the ultimate for me.”

Barnett grew up in Levittown, graduated the University of Delaware and now lives with her husband in Delaware County, but does her job better here because she’s done it elsewhere, she said.

“The Philadelphia news style was ingrained in me,” she said. “But, in my travel, I got to see how news is reported around the country.”

Continue reading Susan Barnett: bringing local news to CBS 3