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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Throwing away the key
The Supreme Court is considering whether a juvenile can be sent to prison for a crime that doesn't involve a murder.

Should a juvenile be sent to prison for life for a crime that doesn’t involve murder?
 

That’s the question the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing in two cases before the panel.
 

It is hoped that the high court will conclude that sending a minor away for life for a non-homicide offense violates the Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
 

Indeed, the court ruled in 2005 that juveniles can’t be executed for a murder conviction. At the time, the court cited a “national consensus” against the practice, along with medical and social-science evidence that the brains of teenagers are still evolving and that they are too immature to be held accountable for their crimes to the same extent as adults.
 

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Posted by Inquirer editorial board @ 2:00 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Monday, November 2, 2009
Judicial slime
Pa. Supreme Court candidates Jack Panella (front) and Joan Orie Melvin (center) during a debate last week at Temple.

Both candidates for Pennsylvania Supreme Court have been ruled out of order for misleading campaign advertisements in the waning days of their lively race.

In an evaluation of the ads, FactCheck.org said Republican Joan Orie Melvin's campaign had "no evidence" to back up its claim that Democratic opponent Jack Panella "turned his back" on kids while a member of the Judicial Conduct Board. The board received an anonymous complaint about one of the Luzerne County judges who was eventually convicted in the "kids for cash" scandal, taking kickbacks in return for placing juveniles in two private detention centers.

It's been well documented that the anonymous complaint did not mention juvenile placements, although Orie Melvin's ad keeps trying to link Panella to the issue that is still making headlines.

Meanwhile, Panella's campaign is guilty of stretching the truth in an ad claiming that Orie Melvin's judicial career has been "mired in controversy" and that her rulings are "extreme." 

Both candidates are currently judges on the state Superior Court, where facts presumably still count for something.

 

 

 

Posted by Dave Boyer @ 4:07 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Monday, November 2, 2009
The kid mayor

Pittsburgh's young mayor was the subject of a positive profile in The New York Times today. 

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl became mayor of Pittsburgh at age 26. Three years later, he's expected to coast to reelection tomorrow. Ravenstahl has been successful as mayor, The Times said. "He cut the city’s work force by 2 percent, streamlined snow removal and received increased economic development aid from state officials in Harrisburg. The result has been budget surpluses for the last four years."

Pittsburgh, like Philadelphia, is losing population and jobs and faces big challenges with city pension plan. The budget woes prompted Ravenstahl to reduce the city's work force. Pittsburgh recently played host to the G-20 summit. The city has received praise for transitioning its economy from steel to a center for health care and education.

  

Posted by Paul Davies @ 4:05 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Monday, November 2, 2009
What environment?
While Pennsylvania cuts back on funding its environmental office, the state is handed permits to gas drillers as fast as it can.

A boom in natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania will ease energy demands and boost the state economy. But there’s reason to be concerned that environmental regulators won’t be able to keep up with this new gold rush.

Natural gas deposits trapped miles underground in bedrock called the Marcellus Shale in the northeastern United States could hold enough to supply the entire country for 15 years.
 

A relatively new drilling technique enables natural gas operators to extract the gas from the shale beds. Known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” the process pumps up to four million gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to break apart the rock and release the gas.
 

Fracking is used safely in most oil and gas operations, but it does contain risks, including well and stream pollution from the salty water that returns to the surface.
 

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Posted by Inquirer editorial board @ 2:20 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Monday, November 2, 2009
Trouble on the tracks
John J. Matheussen, CEO of the Delaware River Port Authority, addresses a public hearing last year. (Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer)

A plan to restore trolley service along east Market Street to link Center City with the Delaware River waterfront seems problematic on several fronts.

Beyond the danger of snarling downtown traffic, the surface line would duplicate service provided by buses and the Market-Frankford subway.
 

Another big-picture concern is that any plan to run trolleys up and over I-95 would saddle the waterfront for decades with the ugly, existing scissor ramps leading down to Columbus Boulevard.
 

Straddling I-95 with a new rail bridge might also deter city officials from pursuing a better solution for the highway: to bury or cover it. As long as I-95 stands as a barrier to Center City, it will complicate and possibly stymie efforts to create the thriving waterfront envisioned by Mayor Nutter and city planners.
 

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Posted by Inquirer editorial board @ 2:00 AM  Permalink | 2 comments
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Corzine, Williams are best in their races
Gov. Jon S. Corzine speaks to a gathering about early education during a campaign event in Linden. (AP Photo / Mel Evans)

General elections Tuesday come as many Americans want to vent their frustration with a recession that has them juggling bills and high taxes. Incumbents had better watch out. But voters shouldn’t be so shortsighted that they don’t thoroughly evaluate everything said, and not said, by candidates.

That said, here’s a review of The Inquirer’s recommendations after analyzing the candidates.
 
As Gov. Corzine nears the end of four tumultuous years in office, polls show he’s in a very close race. But the opposition is split between Republican Christopher J. Christie and Independent Chris Daggett, and neither has made a convincing case that he would do a better job in Trenton.
 
Over the better part of a year of campaigning, Christie has given the public astonishingly few reasons to vote for him. Instead, he has dodged fundamental policy questions. Dagget at least has a detailed plan to reduce property taxes by expanding the sales tax. But his other ideas are few.
 
Even if he had sturdier opponents, JON CORZINE would deserve a second term. He has taken stern steps to push school and municipal consolidation, while capping property taxes. He has pushed for the nation’s strongest campaign-finance laws, closed the book on dual officeholding, and ended an unsustainable system of heavily subsidizing some poor school districts at the expense of others almost as poor.
 
These are the sort of once-unlikely changes that New Jerseyans hoped for in first electing Corzine. They should serve as his model in a second term.
 
In the Senate’s Sixth District, voters should return Democrat JAMES BEACH to the seat he was appointed to fill when John Adler was elected to Congress last year. All voters should say YES to a bond issue allowing more land to be set aside for open space.
Pennsylvania
 
The most important decision facing city voters in this off-year election is the race for Philadelphia district attorney. Incumbent Lynne Abraham isn’t on the ballot, having chosen to retire from the post she’s held since 1991.
 
The Inquirer endorses SETH WILLIAMS. He faced his strongest challengers in the Democratic primary. Williams served 10 years in Abraham’s office, gaining management experience. One of his best ideas is to establish teams of prosecutors familiar with specific neighborhoods, to encourage witnesses to come forward and coordinate with police earlier when arrests are made. Republican Michael Untermeyer was an assistant DA for four years but doesn’t have Williams’ grasp of what it will take to fight crime.
 
In the race for Philadelphia controller, first-term incumbent Democrat Alan Butkovitz has done a credible job. But this position screams for a watchdog who is not as entrenched in the ruling political establishment as Butkovitz, who is a party ward leader.
City voters would be better served by electing Republican AL SCHMIDT. He has the credentials, having spent five years at the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office in Washington. Schmidt isn’t apolitical. He spent one year as executive director of the city’s Republican Party. But he ignored party leaders who told him not to run for controller.
 
In the judicial elections, the better candidate for state Supreme Court is Allegheny County’s JOAN ORIE MELVIN, whom the state bar gave its highest rating for a “solid record of performance” on the bench over a 24-year period. Recommended for Superior Court are JUDITH F. OLSON and ROBERT J. COLVILLE of Allegheny County, and Philadelphia’s ANNE E. LAZARUS and TERESA SARMINA. Best picks for Commonwealth Court are LINDA JUDSON of Pittsburgh and Harrisburg’s KEVIN BROBSON.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 5:00 AM  Permalink | 7 comments
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The most segregated hour in America
For the first time in centuries, two congregations torn apart by race - St. George's Methodist Church and Mother Bethel AME - united in joint worship. Laticia Stauffer (left) and Paultett Dunker-Jenkins take up the collection (TOM GRALISH / Staff photographer).

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once referred to 11 a.m. Sunday as “the most segregated hour in this nation,” but two Philadelphia congregations have shown it doesn’t need to be that way.

White members of St. George’s Methodist Church and black congregants from Mother Bethel A.M.E. gathered last Sunday to worship together under the same roof at St. George’s in Old City. Not only was their union inspirational, it had historical significance.
 
The forerunners of these two congregations split, black from white, more than 220 years ago. They had been separated ever since.
 
Two central figures back then were Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, both born into slavery, who had become free men and settled in Philadelphia. They joined the congregation of St. George’s, one of the few churches in the city at the time that opened its doors to blacks. Allen even preached from its pulpit.
 
But one Sunday in 1787, Allen, Jones and several other African Americans were praying when white church leaders tried to pull them off their knees and move them to the balcony, where they’d be segregated.
 
Offended, Jones and Allen left, never to return. They formed the Free African Society, and eventually founded what became Mother Bethel at Sixth and Lombard streets. It was an important Underground Railroad stop before the Civil War.
 
But enmity between the two churches lingered. In fact, some of today’s Mother Bethel members still recall family who expressed animosity toward St. George’s.
 
The current pastors of both churches deserve credit for working to overcome that sad legacy. As St. George’s prepared to celebrate its 240th anniversary this year, its pastor, Rev. Fred Day, invited Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler of Mother Bethel to preach as part of the commemoration. Tyler suggested bringing Mother Bethel’s congregation with him. And last Sunday, black and white worshippers filled St. George’s, 222 years after the schism.
 
Day presented Tyler with a wooden cross, fashioned with nails from the church’s balcony. Some hurts are never too old to try to heal.
 
Perhaps this gesture will lead to future examples of cooperation and understanding, among these and other congregations. To paraphrase a good book, love keeps no record of wrongs.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 2:00 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Let someone else walk in your shoes
If you've purchased new shoes, share with others.

Here’s a good reason to clean out your closet and help a worthy cause.

Philadelphia Sports Club is collecting new and gently worn shoes for Soles4Souls, a Nashville-based nonprofit that depends on the generosity of footwear companies and the public to recycle shoes for the needy.
 
With Americans hoarding an estimated 1.5 billion pairs of unused shoes, no need to wait to make space in cluttered closets. Let someone less fortunate walk in your shoes.
 
The shoes will be refurbished and shipped around the nation and world to natural-disaster victims and those living in extreme poverty.
 
The campaign was started by Wayne Elsey, who was motivated to organize a footwear relief effort after seeing a single shoe wash ashore after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast a year later, Elsey tapped friends in the shoe business, who sent more than one million pairs.
 
Since then, the charity has given away more than 5.5 million pairs of shoes in the United States and 125 other countries, including Kenya and Thailand.
 
Shoes may be dropped off at the Philadelphia Sports club in Chalfont until Nov. 15, when the drive culminates with a “Phillyfit Bash.” Visit www.giveshoes.org to find other participating locations.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 6:00 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Hit-and-run bicyclist a worst-case example
Andre Steed was hit by a bicyclist and fatally injured.

Somewhere in Philadelphia, there’s a hit-and-run driver who needs to face up to the awful consequences of having run down and fatally injured a pedestrian in mid-October.

Anyone walking on a Center City street should keep a wary eye out for him. Description? He’ll be riding a bicycle.
 
How’s that for giving a knock to the normally warm-and-fuzzy image of cycling?
At a crucial juncture — where Mayor Nutter is taking important steps to promote environmentally friendly cycling — the bizarre accident on Oct. 15 at the intersection of 16th and Locust Streets turns the issue of cycling safety on its head.
 
More often than not, it’s bicyclists who risk life and limb at the hands of reckless motorists when venturing out on city streets. But the crash that took the life of Andre Steed, 40, a Center City paralegal, was a reminder that pedestrians face serious risks, too.
 
Indeed, the dangers of riding on city streets perversely leads many cyclists to ride illegally on city sidewalks, swerving around and between pedestrians.
 
A fitting memorial to Steed — in addition to holding the man who struck him accountable before the law — would be to take strides toward making the streets safer for everyone, whether on foot, bicycle, or in a vehicle.
 
With its push for more bicycle use, the city is steering the right course in promoting commuting by bike to reduce congestion and pollution and promote exercise.
 
The recent opening of dedicated cycling lanes along Spruce and Pine Streets as a pilot project means that, for the first time, cyclists can cross Center City with greater safety. If the city establishes a bike-sharing program, even more people will hop on bikes.
 
But these efforts raise the stakes in assuring that cyclists ride safely, and obey the rules of the road just as drivers must do.
 
So it’s good to hear that Nutter officials are planning a two-pronged approach once grant funding is secured: a public-awareness safety campaign, followed by enforcement. In the meantime, the city’s new handheld cell-phone ban for drivers and cyclists alike could reduce dangerous riding distractions.
 
Everyone in the city has a stake in making cycling safer.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 4:00 AM  Permalink | 7 comments
Friday, October 30, 2009
Why is Halloween gaining on Christmas as a holiday?
Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson used to get into the spirit of the season at the Playboy Mansion Haunted House in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)

What does it say about our culture that Halloween has become the second biggest decorating holiday in America, lagging behind only Christmas?

Notice, that’s second biggest holiday for decorating. Halloween ranks number-six when it comes to overall consumer spending, says the National Retail Federation.
 
When it comes to all shopping, it would take a lot more trick-or-treat candy to pull ahead of Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and what retailers now coyly call “the winter holidays.”
 
But who knows how high Halloween would go if retailers could convince consumers to send flowers for this holiday, too? Black roses, anyone? Oh, those don’t really exist.
 
Neither do the characters that make up this year’s list of most-popular adult Halloween costumes. The top five are witch, vampire, pirate, clown, and wench. For kids, it’s princess, witch, Spider Man, pirate, pumpkin.
 
Guess those costume choices send a message about people today, too. Policeman didn’t even make the children’s costume list. It’s number-10 for adults, but you have to wonder if the cop is naughty or nice.
 
Posted by Harold Jackson @ 11:26 AM  Permalink | 3 comments
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About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

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