Other news items of interest

• The federal investigation of Councilman Rick Mariano spreads to engulf another businessman, Reinaldo Pastrana, who benefitted from a convenient (75%!) discount land buy via a Commerce Department agreement sponsored by Mariano. Looks bad, of course, although there's some discussion about the land being contaminated and thus difficult to sell. (That ring a bell with anyone else?)
  
  
• The Washington Monthly looked at US colleges and universities from the perspective of their service contributions, rather than the usual academic measures. Some local insitutions did quite well in the national ranking, including Penn State and U.Penn (which jumped past its ivy rivals) and the smaller colleges Bryn Mawr and Haverford.
  
  
• Philadelphia has started a domestic violence hotline, which centralizes the responses of several agencies dealing with such cases. The city will fund this service, and also announced some new federal funding for domestic violence programs and training in the city.
  1-866-723-3014 (1-866-SAFE-014) Great idea, terrible mnemonic!