Cranky Friday round-up

Apparently it's very exciting to have two ex-Presidents in town. Many stories on this, fawning, fundraising, etc. Look 'em up for yourselves. Elsewhere in the regional news, these highlights:

• Nutter suggests that Street should declare a state of emergency because of violence in Philly. eh.
  
  
• One neat sidenote of Clinton's visit was an appearance with Bon Jovi and a local homeless advocate at a new eco-friendly development project sponsored by Project HOME, Habitat for Humanity, and other charitable groups. Spiff!
  
  
• A PA Superior Court judge is told she cannot decline the pay-raise. Or rather, she can, if she's willing to still pay taxes on the higher rate. yeesh!
  
  
• NJ is on the verge of a gay marriage ban, but Corzine is waiting to sign it until the State Supreme Court rules on constitutionality of such marriages. Interesting hedge.
  
  
• Philadelphia City Council hasn't passed any bills since its session started two weeks ago, despite dozens of pending measures. They did manage a bunch of meaningless ceremonial gestures and a show of infighting, however. Makes you proud...
  
  
• AAJane catches a little bit of sexual predator scandal closer to home, where a state rep tried to get a constituent lighter sentencing.
  
  
• A YPP poster uses the appearance of an SIEU leader/author at a pub tonight as the spur for some musings on American unions and the plight of today's working folks. [Total tangent: Andy Stern and Anderson Cooper -- clones born 10 years apart?]
  
  
• Another YPP poster looks at one of the new Council nominees and the degree to which one "earns" versus "inherits" ones political stripes.
  
  
• Tom Ferrick describes Santorum's visit to the Inquirer and speculates on how he's positioning himself as a candidate for President (in the Churchillian mold) whether he wins or loses his Senate seat. ick.
  
  
• Two feisty letter-writers take on the issue of violence in the Daily News: one arguing that black public officials are letting down black neighborhoods (although this overlooks/begs the question of whether economic and geographic factors are more important than just race, and/or whether we might have an obligation to one another for reasons other than either guilt or economics) and the second saying we need better enforcement, not new gun laws (or is he arguing that jail is too cushy to act as punishment? who can say!)... Well, then!