Wednesday

Ugh, late start, so late blogging. Also, quickish.

• Rendell re-inaugurated yesterday, lays out agenda including ambitious goals like widening health-care coverage while reducing costs, improving transit funding, and "making government more accountable." (More quirky take on the speech via John Baer here.) Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
  
  
• Nutter challenges Mayor Street, calls himself "an outraged black man." More on his anti-crime proposals here.
  
  
• Fattah talks of improved ethics in city government, but rather vaguely. Stalberg of Seventy reciprocates with lukewarm praise.
  
  
• O'Brien pledges that his rein as Speaker of the State House will be a nonpartisan era. Part of his deal involves not raising money for candidates of either party. Also notable is the creation of a new Deputy Speaker post, to be held by Democrat Josh Shapiro (who helped find O'Brien for the post); AAJane boggles at the rapid elevation of this wunderkind.
  
  
• Opinion pages:
  
  
  
  • The Inquirer grumbles about yesterday's per diem story, and hopes such excesses are covered by Rendell's reforms.
    
    
  • The Daily News wonders who's watching over the police these days, since the ousting of Office of Integrity and Accountability head Ellen Green-Ceisler.
    
    
  • A freelancer at the DN looks at the national budget as a moral document, as recent legislation looks to help out the disadvantaged after long neglect.
  
  
• A YPP poster looks at Chester County as an example of the idiocy of gerrymandering legislative districts, and suggests that average folks have to fight for a better system.