Tuesday non-politician round-up

• The remainder of June is budget-battling time for the state legislature. Lots of unknowns here, between the primary upsets and some half-passed bills... Ben at YPP notes that the rightward shift of the state GOP may mean more interference with Rendell goals, which could be bad for the minimum wage but good for casino opponents.
  
  
• Also for the state legislature: will they start to talk campaign contribution limits or will cities struggle to set up local financing to help remove the effects of money from politics?
  
  
• Because waiting all day at home isn't annoying already: Comcast now has a monopoly on Philadelphia cable service. Some hoped to press for public-access cable services, but City Council declined to make that a condition of monopolization. The Daily News opinion page still hopes that the 20-year wait for access might be over, but it's not clear why things should change now, if the city is already spending the money it was supposed to put toward building a new public station. Separately, Dan at YPP considers this a test for councilman Michael Nutter's dedication to city residents versus corporate interests.
  
  
• Another DN opinion column looks at the controversial building planned for the Art Museum area and argues that (a) its height is not the only thing that makes it a poor fit for the neighborhood, but that (b) reform of zoning regulations is a better fix than trying to argue aesthetics and other abstractions on a case-by-case basis.