Tuesday round-up

• State doings:
  
  
  
  • Hazardous-site program barely going, official says -- state funding is about to run out, leaving Pennsylvania with virtually no oversight or enforcement capacity. eep!
    
    
  • Rendell links energy plan with defense -- that is, too much reliance on foreign oil leads to entanglements like Iraq. Unclear whether this will be enough to convince Harrisburg opponents to sign onto his alternative energy plan (especially since they've been quick with their own versions). John Baer also reports that the usually lively Governor delivered a real sleeper with this speech.
    
    
  • Judge criticized for public stand -- a State Superior Court Justice appeared at an anti-immigration press conference/event, raising questions about the propriety of such apparent advocacy. The judge in question, Correale F. Stevens, is on the November retention ballot...
    
    
  • 2 face investigation for Pa. film-lobbying role -- a state legislative panel wants to know whether lobbying loopholes were exploited in the establishment of a large tax-credit to companies that produce and/or film in Pennsylvania.
  
  
• Philadelphia and its environs:
  
  
  
  • Report questions Convention Center competitiveness -- a newly disclosed report wonders whether the planned expansion will really launch Philly into the convention big-leagues, given increased competition from other expanding centers. More here.

    The report notes that expansion will enable Philadelphia to compete for just 33 events it's currently too small for, "but it will do so along with 61 other exhibition centers that are also big enough to host these shows."

    Also noted are problems with utilization of the current space, and with perceived labor issues. (Much muttering ensues about why this report wasn't circulated six months ago, with a variety of obvious theories springing to mind...)
    
    
  • Neighbors' disdain postpones SugarHouse hearing -- the city's agreement requires that the casino negotiate a community benefits agreement (CBA), but neighborhood groups are so disgruntled that they blew off invitations to meet. City Council has rescheduled its zoning discussions to allow more time for, one supposes, rapprochement.
    
    
  • Ronnie Polaneczky | Is SRC's new openness going to backfire? (or rather, after ploughing right over us with every previous decision, why come to us about what we want in a CEO, about which we know least?!)
    
    
  • Editorial | Judge Rayford A. Means -- another man of the law who thinks nothing of running illegal and unsafe rental properties.
    
    
  • DN Opinion: EX-CON JOBS -- the Nutter/Goode bill is a good idea.
    
    
  • YPP: Turning the Suburbs Blue -- prospects in the Montgomery County Commissioners race.
    
    
  • The Philadelphia Zoo has a new website. (It's flash-tastic!)
    (via America's Hometown)
    
    
  • Also new on the web: Anne Dicker for State Senate -- a timely alternative to the man who stands for Entrenched Corruption?
  
  
• New Jersey:
  Fudging grades: it's not just for elementary students anymore. That is, an NJ Medical School has just admitted that its dean fixed grades of some failing students, for reasons that are unclear. (At least with the statewide tests, the enormous pressures are obvious; here, it appears completely perverse.)