Today's big news items

...come in two flavors: state governor's race and city payola scandal.

1. Bill Scranton has given up his try for the GOP nomination (see also here), conceding that Lynn Swann was getting more regional endorsements than he could hope to overcome before the official party nomination this Saturday. Maybe the Superbowl glow in Pittsburg was just one thing too much.
   
   
2. Indictments have been handed down to a group of men who are charged with using campaign donations (to Mayor Street) to get airport contracts (DN story here). Their plot involved scamming the company they worked for as well. The Inquirer offers an additional piece on one of the men involved, Joe Moderski, who they describe as the "go-to guy" for linking powerful and influential figures in politics, business, religion, and anything else, in his role as a consultant. This is considered only the first of several rounds of indictments that could come out of the airport contract investigations.