In other Thursday news

• State senators yesterday passed a bill to "rein in spending," but which really sets artificial caps on the budget and the degree to which it can be expanded or reshaped (see prev. DN editorial against this measure here).

  While Democrats noted that spending caps have left other states unable to respond to some dire public needs, Republicans say their legislation addresses those concerns by allowing a two-thirds vote to exceed the spending cap or appropriate money from an emergency reserve fund.

  Not clear what the House thinks of this measure, but Senate Republicans are working on a parallel effort to amend the state constitution to a similar end.
  
  
• The CityPaper's political notebook takes a look at the upcoming election for City Controller and a bit at what the office might be expected to do better in coming years.
  
  
• America's Hometown points us to Pennsylvania's latest marketing campaign (slick and amusing all at once).
  
  
• Finally, the CityPaper's cover story this week is the fate of the Daily News, given planned cuts and other changes in the industry.

  "The mood is shit," says one reporter. "We're doing our best to put out a great paper but we're also really busy looking for jobs."

  What's amazing is that both the Inquirer and Daily News have hefty profit margins, but the corporate bosses are under pressure to push the numbers ever higher. There's gotta be a minimum staff necesssary just to make the paper worth reading...