Misc. Wednesday developments

• Pennsylvania:
  
  
  
  • Delaware County's US Rep. Kurt Weldon is spinning paranoia stories -- is he uncovering governmental negligence or making up bizarre stories to keep attention on national security issues? It sure looks weird...
    
    
  • Supporters of gay rights rallied in Harrisburg yesterday in protest of the constitutional amendment under consideration (apparently the current law is not enough) to prohibit gay marriage. A vote is expected today.
    
    
  • The PA GOP is suing to challenge the ballot petitions of Santorum's primary challenger, John Featherman, who doesn't have much of a safety margin in the number of signatures that he submitted. If the challenge is successful, then Santorum can wiggle out of his offer to debate...
    
    Update: Featherman is officially out, citing the cost of the legal defense to the challenge.
    
    [Further down in the Inquirer link is also a note that Milton Street managed to get on the ballot for state House, despite appearances that he's not even living in the state. eesh. Challenges may follow.]
    
    
  • Even though there's a Gaming Board to make final decisions about casino locations, Harrisburg legislators are trying to get their fingers into the mix, working on legislation that tweaks the restrictions on sites in ways that would favor or eliminate a subset of applicants. More as it progresses and/or as I understand it better.
    
    
  • Tom at YPP thinks that Pennsylvania needs a statewide community blog on the model of YPP or dailyKos, rather than just news aggregators and columns, like PoliticsPA offers. He argues that progressives need to start coordinating their activities to the degree that conservatives seem to have already mastered.
    
    
  • This just in: apparently sometimes used car dealers can't be trusted. Thank goodness the Inquirer was there to catch the story!
    
  
  
  
• Philadelphia:
  
  
  
  • The special election to replace NE Philly state Rep. Butkovitz has resulted in a new Democrat for the city's delegation, John P. Sabatina, Jr., who won with an overwhelming margin. He will have to run for re-election in the fall.
    
    
  • City Council thinks that the Recreation Department needs more money than Mayor Street's new budget allocated for its use. I suspect that they're right. Apparently there's some dissatisfaction with the parks portion as well...
    
    
  • Friends of Mariano were on parade yesterday, as the defense portion of the trial debuted with a line-up of character witnesses.
    
    [Side note: this article has some text with slash-through; is Phillynews allowing corrections to their web articles? spiff!]
    
    
  • An Inquirer editorial looks at the ongoing debate about the fate of Dilworth House on Washington Square, and shares my opinion that grafting the current facade onto an otherwise new building is a stupid solution on all fronts. I'm not sure, however, that their suggestion to make the house into a civic building will stave off the forces of Change and Modernization.
    
    
  • The Phila Weekly's Gwen Shaffer looks at the recurrent frustrations with the city's recycling stalemate. The company that is drawing interest from cities and countries around the world is apparently unable to get Philadelphia to commit to expanding its first pilot program to more than a token number of homes. A long-overdue recycling czar may help. Local activists also hope to get a large citizen turnout for the City Council hearing March 29.
    
    
  • A heap of young progressives will be descending on Philly for an inter-organizational conference March 25-26.