In September 2005, U.S. District Judge Bruce W. Kauffman sentenced Hoffman to two years in federal prison.

So far, he hasn't served a day in jail.

Hoffman, 52, used to be the city's top ticket-man, head of the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, the agency that hears parking-ticket appeals at 9th and Filbert streets. He did favors for many of the city's political figures, throwing out $6 million worth of tickets over a six-year period.

But that ended after an FBI videotape caught him watching as the city's longtime taxicab kingpin, Michael Etemad, counted out a pile of $100 bills. The jury found that Hoffman accepted $4,000 for knocking more than $40,000 off Etemad's tab for unpaid parking tickets.

Hoffman remained free on bail while appealing his conviction to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeal was turned down in August 2007, but then Hoffman filed new legal motions, challenging his lawyers' competence, the judge's sentencing calculations and the quality of medical service in federal prisons.

Hoffman got a liver transplant while his appeals were pending. His current attorney, Cheryl Sturm, said that his recovery depends on balancing anti-rejection drugs with the medicine that he needs to fight hepatitis C.

The federal Bureau of Prisons suggested a jail site that would give Hoffman access to transplant specialists at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and Kauffman rejected Hoffman's motions. But the ticket man is appealing again, to the 3rd Circuit.

It's uncertain when the 3rd Circuit will rule.

Climate change

A Clout informant was visiting Alabama in June 2006 and plunked down $10 to tour the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, an excellent downtown museum. Just before 11 a.m., guards told all the visitors they'd have to leave the building immediately.

A fire? A bomb scare? No. Outside, someone explained: Lynne Cheney, the vice-president's wife, was arriving for a private tour.

So Clout was interested to see a story last week in the Wilmington News-Journal, describing what happened when Joe and Jill Biden showed up at a Concord Pike theater, Secret Service agents in tow, to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

The movie was sold out. Did they clear the theater for a private screening? No.

"They went home, called it a night and decided to come back another time," said Biden's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander.

Opposition for Butkovitz

Former Common Pleas Judge John L. Braxton is planning a Democratic primary fight against City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who beat Braxton four years ago by getting him knocked off the ballot.

Braxton, 63, lives in Northern Liberties. He first ran for controller 30 years ago, in 1979, losing the Democratic primary to Tom Leonard.

He was elected judge in 1981, spent 14 years in Family Court and resigned in 1995, hoping to unseat South Philadelphia Congressman Tom Foglietta. Since then, Braxton's worked as an arbitrator and financial consultant.

He threw himself into the 2005 controller's race after Jonathan Saidel decided not to seek re-election. But two weeks before the primary, the state Supreme Court took Braxton off the ballot for omissions on his financial disclosure form. He'd failed to list his judicial pension, several rental properties and their mortgages.

Obama Java

From T-shirts to rap songs to sold-out Washington hotels, there's enough commercial activity surrounding Barack Obama's inaugural to resuscitate the economy (if it lasted more than a week).

The Peregrine Coffee Co., based in Tacony, has its own entry - a $17 Presidential Pack featuring two bags of custom-roasted coffee beans, one from an estate in Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, the other from a farm in Hawaii, where Obama was born and spent most of his childhood.

The company's owner and chief roaster is Kevin Lawrence, 40, a former marketing specialist with American Express and the Franklin Institute, who was drawn into the business after his coffee-maker died six years ago.

"First I was trying to find the best coffee pot, then I hooked up with a Web site for coffee geeks, next I found a subset of folks converting popcorn poppers into coffee roasters in their backyards," Lawrence said. "The Internet is a dangerous thing."

He opened Peregrine last June in a converted garage on Friendship Street, with a view of I-95. Lawrence imports raw beans from single-origin coffee farms around the world, roasts them to order for specific customers and delivers by priority mail in small batches, about half a pound, enough to sustain an average household for a week or 10 days. Any longer, he says, the coffee beans can't be considered fresh.

"If you toast and brew it properly, it's a totally different beverage," said Lawrence, who compares his job to that of a wine steward, helping "clients" identify their tastes and match them to specific beans and roasts.

His analysis of the Presidential Package? The Hawaiian beans have a "chocolatey, nutty taste," Lawrence said, while the Kenyan beans hint of grapefruit and black currants, sort of "fruity." He denies that Republican spinmeisters have any influence on his descriptions. "Peregrine tries not to take a political stance," he said.

Staff writers Bob Warner and Michael Hinkelman contributed to this report.