Other Tuesday news

• City Council is considering instituting 311 service for non-emergency requests for information or service. The Street administration looked into this previously, but ran into budget worries.
  
  
• Newspaper negotiations continue to make progress.
  
  
• Philadelphia is about to try a new program using teams of retired city detectives, paired with a prosecutor, to work solely on illegal gun traffic. An innovative, if somewhat odd, way to get more dedicated feet on the street.
  
  
• The city Ethics Board is now up and running, its first move raising the donation caps in accordance with recently passed legislation (and Knox's presence in the mayoral race).
  
  
• A major player in the Foxwoods casino group was fined for making political donations in excess of limits set by the original casino legislation. In his defense, he brought up the issue himself, and also asked that all his money be returned. A couple of other groups had smaller fines and adjustments also given out. More here.
  
  
• Marc Stier has a chewy rant on how Philadelphia politics is broken, using as an example the battles over casino development.
  
  
• Ray Murphy wants to know whether the departure of Perzel as Speaker of the State House would mean a chance to take back from state control the many aspects of city life that were taken over by Harrisburg in the last couple of decades...
  
  
• AAJanes notes a piece arguing that potential replacement Speaker DeWeese needs a translator.
  
  
• Blinq notices that Milton Street has a white lawn jockey. What next, juggling bears?