More Wednesday news bits

• CSX decided to turn up at this week's City Council hearing, after skipping out on previous subpoenas, and offered to try to walk more lightly. Specifics were notably absent, however, to the frustration of many.
  
  
• Two stories of regional power struggles:
  
  
  
  1. Philadelphia would like to reclaim control of the PPA from the state, but Street's court case was defeated. Why would it ever be considered reasonable for the state to run city parking??
     
     
  2. Governor Rendell would like to reclaim Vally Forge from the federal government, to whom it was sold in 1976 for $1. The major conflict comes over how a long-overdue museum should be built on the site, with the National Park Service renegging on support for the plans of the American Revolution Center (and a donor offering priceless artifacts to the proposed museum). The park as a whole has been allowed to decay during NPS oversight as well.
  
  
• Latest on Mariano: both Inquirer and Daily News note that the latest Mariano staffer to testify against him found herself the recipient of harrassing calls and then a job termination. Protests that this was a normal staffing decision ring hollow in the extreme, especially given that this is the third firing to follow upon FBI testimony. subtle.
  
  
• Mayor Street is pushing heating assistance measures for city residents, ranging from seminars on how to weatherize to encouragement of individual donations to the already existant Utility Emergency Services Fund, which offers grants to needy families, matched equally by utility company funds. Seems like a good year to raise awareness of all of these approaches.
  
  
• America's Hometown points us to a study of Philadelphia-area residents and the factors that go into their decisions about where to live. Perhaps unsurprisingly, quality-of-life issues (from safety to school quality) top the list.
  
  
• Finally, the new Philadelphia Weekly uses the occasion of the holiday season to recognize 10 local sources of inspiration, from institutions to individuals to neighborhoods, "things that make us feel gifted to live in Philadelphia." From the heart-warming to the humorous...