Other Friday news and chatter

• Harrisburg threats over control of casinos was perhaps more bluster than substance. Sanity sighted on the horizon?
  
  
• Gov. Rendell hasn't given up his dream of getting slots revenue to replace some property taxes, and he stumps on that theme...
  
  
• The Ward leader that punched a lawyer in the context of some ballot challenges will be arrested and charged with assault. Cue keystone cops music. sigh.
  
  
• The League of Women voters writes a plea for public election financing in Philadelphia.
  
  
• Rowhouse Logic presents the 4th installment of the series "why you should care about PA-08," focusing on the record of the Republican incumbent.
  
  
• America's Hometown notes that Philadelphia is considered to have a good housing market, in the sense that it should continue to expand when other cities plateau (or have their bubbles burst).
  
  
• And finally, Gar Josephs at the Daily News has some thoughts on the operations of Philadelphia's Democratic Party as a complex hierarchical system analogous to the mob, with bosses trying to keep peace among their lieutenants while getting business done. Amusing, but also a bit telling...