Vol. I No. 155
Keeping You Posted With The Politics Of Philadelphia
February 4, 2011
Philadelphia
Daily Record
Wingèd Victory
JONATHAN SQUIBB, an accountant from South Jersey, mastered the numbers by downing 255 wings in a dog-eat-dog half-hour struggle to win the Wing Bowl at Wells Fargo Center this morning, for third straight year.
Fattah Announces $1.5 M In Affordable Housing For City
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Congressman Chaka Fattah (DPa.), a champion for affordable housing and mortgage-foreclosure relief, announced the award of $1.5 million in Affordable Housing Grants to nonprofit agencies to create 220 units in five Philadelphia neighborhoods. The Congressman announced the awards at Community College of Philadelphia’s Winnet Student Life Building this morning, joined by Sister Mary Scullion among others.
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“Affordable housing and home ownership for middle-class and lower-income Americans have been a priority throughout my three decades of public service,” Fattah said. “From tearing down publichousing ‘warehouses’ to developing a new approach to mortgage-foreclosure relief to awarding these grants to nonprofits, I have been dedicated to work on the cutting edge of urban housing efforts.” These grants come from longtime partner the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, assisted by Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and PNC Bank. The new units will provide much-needed housing to seniors, the homeless, veterans, individuals recovering from substance abuse and victims of domestic violence. THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD
The collaboration between Fattah and the Congressionally-chartered FHLBank of Pittsburgh has been a fruitful one for Philadelphia, culminating in a series of annual award announcements by the Congressman. Over the past two decades, FHLBank/Pittsburgh has approved $57,221,461 in affordable housing programs and homebuyer grants in the City of Philadelphia, channeled toward creation of 3,458 housing units. Fattah, almost two decades ago, proposed and championed the teardown of Philadelphia’s ugly and dangerous public-housing highrises. He advocated for and helped develop federal funding for thousands of units of affordable public housing on scattered sites that blended with and stabilized surrounding city neighborhoods.
Brady Praises President Obama’s Energy-Boosting Visit To Penn State Today, Congressman Bob Brady (D-Phila.) praised President Obama’s visit to Penn State’s University Park campus and the Dept. of Energy’s establishment of Energy Innovation Hubs across the nation. One of the hubs, the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings, is headquartered in the 1st Congressional Dist. at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, and the over1 JANUARY, 2011
all leadership for the GPIC cluster is being provided by Penn State. Last year, Brady was joined by 15 area Members of Congress and both Pennsylvania Senators in writing a letter to President Obama in support of the Penn State proposal to establish the GPIC as part of the FY 2010 Energy Efficient Building Systems Regional Innovations Cluster Initiative. “We asked and the administration positively responded,” the Congressman said. “And, as a result of the Obama administration’s commitment and strategy to invest in innovation and clean energy, Philadelphia is an emerging leader in the energy-efficiency field.” The major goals of the DOE HUB/GPIC are to improve efficiency and operability, reduce carbon emissions of new and existing buildings, and stimulate private investment and quality job creation. Brady has brought millions of dollars in funding to the Navy Yard which is now a mixed use office, research and industrial park that includes shipbuilding facilities and corporate headquarters for a diversity of companies.
into new jobs in emerging sectors of the economy,” the Senators wrote. The letter, which was sent to House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, urges leadership to “quickly introduce and pass a long-term extension of TAA” before it expires on Feb. 12. As one of the last acts before 111th Congress adjourned, Casey helped lead the effort to secure a sixweek extension of the TAA program, in addition to the Health Care Tax Credit, a program that helps trade-affected workers afford private health insurance.
Port’s 2010 Cargo Stats Show Big Gains
Casey: Extend Retraining Program For Workers Hit By Foreign Trade US Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, and 13 other Senators sent a letter yesterday to House leadership urging an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, a critical lifeline for workers who lose their jobs due to foreign trade. TAA, of which reauthorization must originate in the House of Representatives, is a package of training and reemployment services designed to help workers, who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade, develop the skills they need to find new jobs. “TAA is a critical part of our nation’s competitiveness strategy. It ensures that the workers affected by trade receive the support and training necessary to transition 4 FEBRUARY, 2011
STARTING FROM ZERO, Port of Phila.’s new line of automobile imports exploded last year to 69,000 vehicles. A recovering national economy, in conjunction with a variety of new business relationships established at the Port of Philadelphia in 2010, has resulted in a sizable gain in overall tonnage last year compared to 2009 levels. With 3,644,919 metric tons of cargo handled in 2010 compared to the 3,107,067 tons of cargo handled in 2009, overall tonnage at the Port of Philadelphia was up 17% last year, reported officials of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority today.
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“Last year, we didn’t point to a challenging national economy as an excuse for a reduction in port business,” said PRPA Executive Director James T. McDermott, Jr. “We went out and aggressively sought new business, even if many believed it unlikely we could land it. “What actually happened was the opposite: Hyundai and Kia made Philadelphia its preferred US East Coast port of entry, Sea Star Line established a major Puerto Rican service here, and M-real, a past Port customer, returned with its high-quality paper cargoes, to name three major new pieces of business that we attracted in 2010. On top of that, many of our previous cargoes and services moved in an upward trend, too. Now that the economy is showing signs of recovery, we’re already a step ahead.” McDermott credits aggressive marketing by PRPA and its terminal operators, along with continued state investment in the Port’s terminals and facilities, as prime components in the turnaround that’s taken place, a turnaround that is occurring faster at the Port of Philadelphia than at other US ports in the wake of the weaker economy of the immediate past years. “Recent developments have been gratifying,” said Mr. McDermott. “Another example is our MSC Eu4|
ropean service, which commenced in 2009. Though busy at its outset, that service matured in 2010, significantly increasing activity at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.” Both containerized and non-containerized cargoes all showed healthy gains in 2010. With 264,059 TEUs of containerized cargo handled in 2010 compared to the 222,900 TEUs handled in 2009, containers were up a dramatic 18%. Counted as tonnage instead of TEUs, 1,860,097 metric tons of containers were moved in 2010 compared to the 1,682,356 tons of containers handled in 2009, an 11% gain. Non-containerized cargoes also showed big increases. With 1,108,329 metric tons of non-containerized cargoes handled in 2010 compared to the 840,876 tons of handled the year before, these cargoes were up 32%. Particular highlights among non-containerized cargoes in 2010 include the following: Primarily as a result of massive numbers of Hyundai and Kia automobiles that have been arriving at PRPA’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal since spring of 2010, automobile business here went from being virtually non-existent in 2009 to about 69,000 units being moved in 2010. That business has continued strongly into 2011, with the regular arrival of Glovis autoTHE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD
Feb. 5Phila. Branch NAACP celebrates 100th anniversary at luncheon at HERO Ctr., 3439 N. 17th St., 12-4 p.m. Tickets $40. For info Renee (215) 439-0988 or Lynne (267) 481-5857. Feb. 8Denny O’Brien kicks off race for City Council at Rosewood Caterers, 8888 Frankford Ave., 7 p.m. Feb. 10Germantown Republican Club hosts Lincoln Day Dinner at Union League, 140 S. Broad St., 6 p.m. Honoree and speaker Lt. Gov. James Cawley. Tickets $65. For info Jack Morley (215) 3891768. Feb. 11Fundraiser Reception for Council candidate Lawrence Clark at Rose Tattoo Café, 19th & Callowhill Sts., 68 p.m. For info (215) 224-0727. Feb. 11Manayunk on Ice winter festival featuring Ice Carving Competition. Free 3day festival runs through Sunday. Fire & Ice Kickoff featuring an ice bonfire, 5 p.m. Feb. 15Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell launches campaign at 1st Dist. Plaza, 3801 Market St., 1 p.m. Feb. 185th Ward Democrat Leader Mike Boyle hosts dinner fundraiser for 5th Ward committeepersons at Bella Cena, 1506 Spruce St., 7 p.m. Candidates invited, $50 fee. 4 FEBRUARY, 2011
mobile-carrying vessels at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, with processing of the vehicles taking place at the adjacent Pier 98 Annex Automobile Processing Facility. Computed as tonnage, 77,350 tons of automobiles moved through the Port in 2010, compared to the 496 tons of the same cargo handled the previous year. The noted Scandinavian paper manufacturer M-real returned to the Port of Philadelphia after a several year hiatus in 2010, bringing along with it the company’s preferred ocean carrier, Wagenborg Shipping, resulting in a healthy 53% gain in forest products cargoes at the Port in 2010. 389,109 tons of forest products were handled last year here, compared to the 254,522 tons handled in 2009. As well as rolls of high-quality paper, forest products cargoes at the Port include pulp, lumber, and other wood products. PRPA’s dedicated Forest Products Distribution Center at Delaware & Snyder Avenues in South Philadelphia is the principal handler of the Port’s forest-products cargoes. A brand-new, state-of-the-art forest products warehouse opened at the Pier 74 portion of the facility last year, a major reason M-real’s paper cargoes returned to Philadelphia. With 328,904 metric tons of fruit being handled at the Port of Philadelphia in 2010 compared to the 321,702 tons handled the previous year, fruit was up 2%. Fruit from Chile and bananas from Columbia are two of the major fruit cargoes regularly handled at the Port.
Liquid bulk cargoes were up 16%, with 676,493 metric tons of liquid bulk cargoes being handled in 2010 compared 583,835 tons handled in 2009. While steel cargoes continue to be modest compared to 1980s and 1990s levels, steel experienced a 53% gain last year, with 170,215 metric tons handled. Cocoa beans (97,492 tons handled) and project cargo (39,156 tons handled) were roughly in line with 2009 figures. McDermott remarked, “We got our 45-foot channeldeepening project finally moving forward, and we made major strides in turning our Southport marineterminal project from a dream to a reality. Both of those initiatives signaled to the world that we seriously mean business, and directly or indirectly helped our cargo increases last year. “Our latest cargo figures demonstrate again what an important contribution a vibrant seaport makes to the state and local economy. Comparing 2009 to 2010, activity at the Port of Philadelphia generated a 29% increase in direct and indirect jobs, from 4,188 to 4,845, as well as bringing about a total increase in federal, State, and local revenue to $90.3 million from $63.9 million. Total business activity for 2010 amounted to $659 million, up from 2009’s $453 million. Clearly, it’s important for the Port of Philadelphia to be successful, because the stakes are so high.”
DiCicco Rallies His Backers A RELAXED and confident Councilman Frank DiCicco was introduced by his political lieutenant Renee Gillinger to a cheering throng of supporters at a fundraiser last night at Cuba Libre in Old City. He said there was important unfinished business in developing Delaware waterfront which he vowed to see to its end. If he wins in May Primary, this will be his last term as 1st Dist. Councilman, he said. 4 FEBRUARY, 2011
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Bar Releases 2nd Round of 2011 Judicial Ratings
form satisfactorily as a judge of the Superior Court and recommends his candidacy.”
The Pennsylvania Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Commission released its second round of ratings for potential judicial candidates seeking election to the State’s appellate courts yesterday. Among those rated are two candidates from Southeastern Pennsylvania. Each candidate requesting an evaluation by the PBA JEC is eligible to receive a rating of “Highly Recommended”, “Recommended” or “Not Recommended.” During the upcoming elections, voters will be filling one seat on the Superior Court and one seat on the Commonwealth Court. The ratings completed during the second round of evaluations are as follows: For Superior Court, PBA JEC called David E. Robbins of Delaware Co. “Recommended.” For Commonwealth Court, “Recommended” were Kathryn Boockvar of Bucks Co. and David E. Robbins of Delaware Co. On Robbins, PBA JEC reported, “The Candidate has served as a judicial clerk for several common pleas judges in Delaware County since graduating from law school in 1981. At the same time, he has maintained a general practice representing clients in both civil and criminal matters. His recent trial and appellate experience is limited, but he is highly regarded by his peers as a competent and ethical practitioner. He has been active in county and state bar associations, and he served a term as president of the Delaware County Bar Association. He frequently lectures before professional and community groups. Although his experience handling cases in the Superior Court is not extensive, the commission concludes the Candidate has the legal ability, integrity and temperament to per6|
Of Boockvar, the Committee said, “The Candidate has a varied background that includes working in a private law practice and as a legal-services and public-interest lawyer, most recently working on election law matters. She is regarded as bright, hard-working and a zealous advocate for her clients. She communicates well. Her record of community service and bar-association and professional-organization activities is adequate but not extensive. She is experienced in handling cases that regularly come before the Commonwealth Court, but her appellate experience, including her experience before the Commonwealth Court, is limited. The commission finds that the Candidate possesses the legal ability, experience, integrity and temperament to perform satisfactorily as a judge of the Commonwealth Court and recommends her as a candidate for a seat on that court.”
Sen. Leach: Voucher Proposal Raises Many Questions State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) has issued the following statement expressing grave doubts about the proposed school-voucher legislation just introduced in the State Senate. “Recently, there has been a lot of attention paid to SB 1, which would for the first time create a system of taxpayer-funded vouchers which parents could allegedly use to ‘choose’ what school their child can go to if their current school is inadequate. This is certainly a bold idea. It creates a very expensive, new entitlement program in the midst of an unprecedented budget crisis. Given that, as a member of the Senate Education Committee, I feel it is important to subject this legislation to the scrutiny that any proposal this far-reaching deserves.
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“SB 1 proposes to give each eligible student an average of $9,000 to use at any other public or private school that is willing to take them. Over the course of the first three years of the program, this will cost the state several hundred million dollars. The first obvious question is where all of that money is going to come from. ‘School-choice’ advocates say it will follow the child from the old school to the new. “The problem with that is the old school will not save $9,000 when the student leaves. Most of the costs of running a public school are fixed. If a child leaves, you still need the same teachers, you still need to heat the building, pay the nurse, hire a security guard, etc. So if more money is taken from the school than is saved by the child leaving, the old school is left worse off than before: poorer, and with fewer resources per child for those left behind. This is particularly important because the bill creates a structure where the overwhelming majority of children won’t actually get to ‘choose’ anything and will instead remain at their current school. “The bill says a student can use the voucher at either another public school or a private one. But no school is required to accept any child. Both public and private schools are not only free to set their own criteria for admission; 4 FEBRUARY, 2011
they are free to not accept vouchers at all. “In the case of private schools, most charge far more than $9,000 per year. Supporters of SB 1 do not explain how the ‘low-income’ people eligible for vouchers would come up with the additional thousands of dollars they would need to ‘choose’ to go to their favorite private school. Further, it is highly unlikely that those private schools with strict academic or performance standards will alter those in order to participate in a voucher program. So even if such schools do participate, only the top students of any given school are likely to be accepted, leaving the rest of the students exactly where they were. “Similarly, public schools are also likely to accept few, if any, children with vouchers. We are facing dramatic cuts in state aid to public education. In this climate, ‘better’ public schools are unlikely to subsidize the education of many students from outside of their districts. Who will pay the difference between the $9,000 voucher and the $20,000 or more that most of the better public schools spend per child now? Absent a source of those additional funds, most public schools will, quite reasonably, use their resources to educate the children of their own taxpayers.
enough that the proposed voucher would cover it. But putting aside the constitutionality or wisdom of using taxpayer dollars to fund specific Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or other religious education, this will also not be an option for most lowincome children. Parochial schools have been closing all across Pennsylvania. There are now 35 counties without any such schools at all. It is unlikely that the remaining religious schools will actually have room to educate more than a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of children eligible for vouchers each year. “There are many other questions raised by this voucher proposal, including whether schools accepting the vouchers would be required to comply with Federal legislation regarding children with special needs, or what level of accountability will be imposed on now unaccountable private schools who start taking State money. But for me, the key concern is that we don’t end up subsidizing a few children to go to private school by depleting our public schools. If we create a system where the slogan ‘my child, my choice’ is an empty false promise, and results in most children being relegated to schools that we incrementally abandon, we will have failed our children utterly and robbed our future of its greatest potential.”
“The tuition at some (but certainly not all) religious schools is low THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD
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Franklin Institute Opens Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibit FRANKLIN INSTITUTE’S newest exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci’s Workshop, amazed patrons at opening reception Thursday night. Seen here are, from left, Richard Green, CEO of Firstrust Bank, the presenting sponsor; Hope Cohen; and State Rep. Jim Roebuck. Roebuck congratulated Green for his support of education. Interactive exhibit is an innovative exploration into the genius of the ultimate Renaissance man, and it opens to the public tomorrow, running through May 22. Exhibit, which comes from Milan, brings to life dozens of Leonardo’s inventions, visions and concepts, including his gigantic flying machines, automobile, robots, weapons of war, and mechanical devices – all of which foreshadowed modern technology. (Photo by Bonnie Squires)
Unions Represented Formidably, Yet Pa. Hopefuls Are Still Thwarted In Wing Bowl
JOHN “FREAK OF NATURE” HARKER, from Woodbury, N.J., chows down under pressure.
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UNION-MEMBER CONTESTANTS included, from left, John “Freak of Nature” Harker, Henry “Hank The Tank” Goldey and Dave “US Male” Goldstein, winging it for greater glory of Teamsters 676, Longshoremen 1566 and Letter Carriers 769 respectively.
HANK THE TANK’S appetite and will to win was boosted by a vivacious band of Wingettes from Cheerleaders Gentlemen’s Club in South Philly. by Adam Taxin Approximately 17,000 people entered the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia before sunrise 4 FEBRUARY, 2011
this morning for the 19th edition of Wing Bowl, the eating competition held as always on the Friday morning before the Super Bowl. THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD
The contest was first held in 1993 by 610 WIP Morning Show hosts Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti as a means to distract Philadelphians from the ongoing failure (with one |
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exception since) of the Eagles to make it into professional sports’ most hyped event. The original choice of buffalo wings for the competition paid homage to the Eagles’ contrast with the Buffalo Bills, who competed in (and lost) four consecutive Super Bowls from January 1991 through January 1994, a feat never equaled. Jonathan “Super” Squibb, an accountant from Berlin, N.J., won the competition for the third straight year, setting a new record by eating 255 wings over two 14-minute and a final 2-minute segments. Squibb defeated crowd-favorite and fivetime champion Bill “El Wingador” Simmons, a truck driver from Woodbury Heights, N.J., by one wing. During the competition’s “halftime”, Takeru Kobayashi of Nagano, Japan, who did not compete in Wing Bowl and who is generally considered the world’s top competitive eater, set a new world record by consuming a cheesesteak in 24.3 seconds. As is typically the case, organized labor was well-represented, particularly among the most creative floats in the procession of eaters’ entourages that precedes the actual competition. The top union performer was Dave “US Male” Goldstein of Voorhees, N.J., a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 769 (Haddon-
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field), who placed fifth with 211 wings. In his 11th year in the competition, Henry “Hank the Tank” Goldey of Philadelphia, a member of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1566, placed in the competition’s Top 10 finishers as well. Other Philadelphians who placed in the Top 10 were David “Tiger Wings and Things” Brunelli of Northeast Philadelphia and Jason “The Shocker” Hull, a heating and air conditioning technician also of Northeast Philadelphia. The other Pennsylvanian who finished in the Top 10 was Richard “Not Rich” Razzi of Schwenksville, who finished third overall with 203 wings consumed. Nevertheless, this marked the 19th time in 19 years that a Philadelphian failed to win a competition known internationally as epitomizing Philadelphia. In fact, only once has a Pennsylvanian won; Eric “Gentleman E” Behl took the title in Wing Bowl 5 in 1997, when the competition was held at the Electric Factory in Northern Liberties. When asked to speculate why no Philadelphian has ever won Wing Bowl, 610 WIP Morning Show cohost Rhea Hughes, a lifelong Philadelphia resident who grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and now resides in Queen Village, had little explanation: “I guess I consider the suburbs ‘Philadelphia’?” THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD
El Wingador claimed appetites are bigger in South Jersey, the home of seven of the 10 all-time and eight all-time local Wing Bowl Champions. (Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas of Virginia and Joey Chestnut of California have also won the competition.) According to El Wingador: “We have more farms in South Jersey, maybe we’re eating more chicken?” Morning Show host and Wing Bowl creator Al Morganti blamed the lack of a Philadelphia champion on the city’s restaurant scene: “People are bigger in the suburbs because the food’s cheaper. Since Stephen Starr took over, it’s too expensive to eat in the city.” 610 WIP Morning Show voice impersonator Joe Conklin speculated a bit more wildly, linking the Keystone State’s futility to the holding of office by Mayor, then Governor, Ed Rendell, a notorious glutton, for almost all of the existence of the competition: “Rendell eats so much of the food that there’s a shortage in Pennsylvania.” Yet Philadelphia contestants remain hopeful at some point soon the city’s drought will end. According to Tiger Wing and Things: “It’ll happen eventually. I hope to be the first.” Adam Taxin, a Center City attorney, has competed in previous Wing Bowls as “Hungry Hungry Hebrew”. 4 FEBRUARY, 2011