Friday round-up

• Politicians
  
  
  
  • Battles over provisional ballots underway in the two close Chester County races for State House seats, with absentees and military ballots also still to be counted.
    
    
  • The Philadelphia Tribune has released a poll of African-Americans and their mayoral preferences. The poll probably measures name recognition as much as anything, at this point, and puts Chaka Fattah in the lead -- see here and here -- but with a third of voters remaining undecided. I wonder about the timing of such a focused poll -- is somebody trying to weed out the field and/or be an early kingmaker?
    
    
  • Rick Santorum says no Presidential run for him.
    
    
  • Apparently Michael Nutter can ruffle feathers even when he's cleaning out his office in City Hall. Other political gossip here includes rumors that Rendell is trying to flip a Republican legislator to guarantee the state House; speculations that US House leadership votes could have local consequences (making Brady more likely to run for Mayor); and images of Gene Stilp taking his big pig back to Harrisburg to send a message to freshman legislators.
    
    
  • A Daily News piece wonders whether Johnny Doc's mayoral aspirations may have gone up in smoke when the feds visited his house earlier this week. Answer? Hard to tell...
  
  
• Miscellaneous local
  
  
  
  • New Jersey continues to set precedents that give Harrisburg headaches. Most recent? Atlantic City considers removing casino exemption to smoking ban.
    
    
  • The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is concerned about budget decisions, given that they are already dealing with excessive class size and other impediments to good teaching.
    
    
  • Looks like Pennsylvania is set to enact higher mercury emission standards than the federal guidelines, unless the state legislature acts quickly to block the regulatory board's decision.
    
    
  • Local market giant SuperFresh is adding stores rather than closing them for the first time in a while. Interesting notes here about the relative fates of union and nonunion supermarket chains. Apropos of nothing: I had no idea that SuperFresh evolved out of A&P...
    
    
  • Unsurprisingly, Jefferson alumni upset over the proposed Eakins sale, especially as their association bought the painting for the institution originally.
    
    
  • Here's a cool site that tracks Philadelphia's water -- its remaining streams, sewer systems, their histories and other cool stuff.
    (via phillyskyline)
    
    
  • South Philly tournies breed Rock, Paper, Scissors champion!
    
    
  • Finally, get out of the office! It's the weekend! In case you're stuck inside, here's an inspiring photo-tour along the Wissahickon in the fall -- you can almost hear the water and smell the leaves.