Friday news roundup

• A little more on the Hoeffel pullout.
  
  
  
  1. AAJane excerpts parts of two messages sent out to supporters, thanking them and promising that no shady deals were made.
     
  2. Albert remains suspicious, but personally I think that the only one who comes out of this looking any worse is Ed Rendell, the broker of all iffy deals...
     
  3. The Daily News opinion page appears to agree with me that the problem is leaving the voters out of such decisions.
  
  
• The state minimum wage bill is back on hold after brief hope that it might come to a vote this week. No reason not to keep the pressure on, especially if a member of the Harrisburg leadership is your representative.
  
  
• Yuck: Bristol Township employees are charged with dumping raw sewage into the Delaware River. It was over a year ago, however, so no rush to install a filter on your tap. (Please don't talk to me about bottled crap!)
  
  
• The continuing federal probes of Citizens Alliance, a charity linked with state Senator Vince Fumo, may be adding some obstruction charges after revelations that some key personnel wiped their email after learning that computers had been subpoenaed. (Background on the case is included in this piece about 1/3-1/2 way down.)
  
  
• Philadelphia's City Council appears to like Clarke's idea of putting the red-light surveillance program up for voter approval before plunging ahead with it. The referendum has been voted out of committee and will be considered by the full body later this spring. More here.
  
  
• Meanwhile, City Council is also battling Mayor Street for control of capital funds, such as those being used to fix up City Hall or which might be allocated to improvement projects in council districts. Council undoes a cut, Street refuses to spend it, they hold up his bond issue request... eesh.
  
  
• America's Hometown notes that alternative energy business is expanding in the Philadelphia region, most recently with the opening of several wind turbine-making plants in Bucks County.