Clout: Public to get a say in Philadelphia City Council sessions

FOR MORE than half a century, most of the fun in City Council came from what the members said to or about their colleagues. That's about to change.

Now it's your turn to talk.

The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling made public yesterday, says Council has been violating the state's Sunshine Act by refusing to allow people to comment on legislation during Thursday's weekly sessions. Council argued that allowing people to comment in committee hearings before legislation is considered by the full Council was adequate.

The Homeowners Association of Philadelphia challenged the practice in 2007, amid concerns about legislation requiring property owners to list their city business-license numbers in advertisements for rentals. A Common Pleas judge ruled against the Homeowners Association, a decision later upheld by the state Commonwealth Court.

In the majority opinion, Justice Thomas Saylor said the Sunshine Act does not give Council the power to assign public comment to some other sort of meeting. Chief Justice Ronald Castille, writing the dissent, worried that the ruling would cause "disruption" in Council practices in use for more than 50 years.

"This will have a significant impact for all meetings in the future, way beyond our specific case," said Darrell Zaslow, attorney for the Homeowners Association. "We look forward to participating with Council effectively and respectfully. We're sure all citizens will be appropriate with their conduct before Council."

Victory laps before resolution

Republican State Committee has continued to lambaste Democrats in the wake of the general election, but there's been no word from state GOP chairman Rob Gleason about the still-pending dispute inside Philadelphia's Republican organization.

In September, the state party's credential committee stripped the title of Philadelphia GOP chairman from Vito Canuso, citing "numerous irregularities" in his election in June.

The credentials panel suggested that the seat remain vacant until "an election free of substantial irregularities" is conducted.

Gleason announced then that he was "temporarily" reinstating Canuso until after the election.

"I imagine we'll get to it in a few weeks," party spokesman Mike Barley said. "We're still kind of doing the victory lap here."

Canuso told PhillyClout that Gleason shouldn't bother.

"There won't be a new election, because we don't have to listen to them," Canuso said. "They don't run our organization. . . . If they think I shouldn't sit up there at state committee meetings, that's another issue. They can make that decision. It doesn't make any difference to me. It would save me a lot of time and money."

City Commission strikes back

The fascinating feud continues between the City Commission, which runs elections, and the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit watchdog group.

The Committee of Seventy in June released a report on the May 18 primary election called "Five Easy Ways to Improve Local Elections." The group suggested the City Commission bring its website "into the 21st century," clamp down on electioneering, take charge of finding polling officials, mandate training for those officials and invite public feedback and then take it seriously.

Bob Lee, the Commission's voter-registration administrator, this week released the first of five responses. It's a fair reading of Lee's 11-page missive that he found the Committee of Seventy's report lacking. Lee spends a page and a half rebutting what Seventy had to say about his wife.

Allow us to explain:

Lee joked at a May 19 Commission meeting that his wife showed up at the wrong spot for her polling place on Election Day.

The Committee of Seventy then used her as an example of confusion in finding polling places.

Lee writes that his wife didn't check before heading to her polling place to see if it had been moved. There was a sign on the door directing voters to the new location across the street.

"Is Seventy implying that because I personally did not remember to tell my wife of the change, that it is indicative of anything more than that?" Lee asks, adding that he can't "personally inform all 1,064,000 registrants of their polling-place location."

Up go Philly insurance rates

Clear the streets and look both ways: Gov. Rendell, who leaves office in January, will soon be driving for the first time in 20 years.

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US Department Store Cutting Price Of Apple iPad To $399

I have been musing and writing about technology since 1999 back in my native country Mauritius, dreaming back in 1997 of a world full of avatars...

TJMaxx (not to be confused with TKMaxx) will apparently sell an Apple iPad, at least in the US, for as little as $399 or $100 less than Apple's official recommended selling price.

An Engadget reader found a huge poster in one TJMaxx store and it seems that stocks are being held back to coincide with Black Friday sales which start next week.

The price is, as you wold guess, for the cheapest 16GB, Wi-FI only version of the tablet. We're not sure whether this is an Apple-sanctioned fire sale (if not, heads may roll) or if other iPads will be included in the sales.

Now here's the kicker; TJMaxx is called TJHughes in the UK and guess what, we exclusively reported a few days ago that the discount department store was selling the 64GB Apple iPad 3G for £599.99, a £100 discount from Apple's official price.

TJHughes no longer carry stock of the 64GB 3G iPad for now. Will other sellers and high street stores (John Lewis, Best Buy et al) follow suit and slash their prices?

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Obama stimulus saves 3.5 mn jobs

The multi-billion dollar fiscal stimulus pumped into the US economy by President Barack Obama at the height of the global economic crisis has exceeded the original goal of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010, a White House report said on Thursday.

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), in its latest quarterly report on the economic impact of the fiscal stimulus launched under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, said it played a key role in changing the trajectory of the economy.

"Specifically, the Recovery Act added 2.7 per cent to third quarter GDP growth and by some measures has exceeded the original goal of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010," said the report.

The report also shows that the third quarter was the biggest yet for public investment spending, with more than USD 33 billion spent on clean energy, transportation and other infrastructure projects.

According to the CEA's analysis, public investment spending supported over 1 million jobs nationwide through the third quarter of 2010.

"Public investment spending was responsible for more than 1 million jobs in the third quarter. Clean energy investments were responsible for nearly a quarter of the 1 million public investment jobs -- or 224,500 clean energy jobs," it said.

"Less than USD 20 billion of discretionary programme funding remains 'unobligated'  and the majority of those funds have already been awarded," the report said. It shows that the GDP began to grow in the third quarter of 2009 and has now grown for five quarters in a row, including continued growth in the third quarter of 2010.

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White House to push for tech policy action in 2011

News: Page (1) of 1 - 11/18/10

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on will push Congress next year to move ahead on critical technology policies, the White House's technology chief said on Thursday.

The White House will work with Congress on bills dealing with on patent reform, privacy and corporate taxation, said Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra at a technology forum hosted by the Politico news service.

The administration needs Congress to help it reach its policy goals, he said.

"Much of the policy work is really contingent on congressional action or budgetary action, so you're by default waiting for some bigger stakeholders to participate," he said.

Chopra said he wants to find a balance between long-term policy goals, such as expanding high-speed Internet access and increasing government transparency and results that he can get in 90-day timeframes.

Republicans will take the House of Representatives in January, while Democrats will remain in control of the Senate. The divided Congress has led many political watchers to predict two years of legislative gridlock.

Lawmakers at the Politico forum echoed Chopra's hope for movement on technology legislation.

"Spectrum, (universal service fund) reform, privacy issues -- those kinds of things we need to work on and we can work on in a bipartisan fashion," Republican Senator John Ensign said at the forum.

Online privacy, which Congress has debated in one form or another for more than a decade, is being hailed as a consumer protection issue as more companies collect personal data and use it in advertising or sell it to third parties without telling people that they are doing it.

Patent reform, another recurring theme, has the backing of technology investors who say the system is not keeping up with the fast pace of software development and other innovations.

Ensign, ranking member of the Commerce subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet, was less optimistic about prospects for Net neutrality legislation.

The underlying idea is that high-speed and mobile Internet providers should not give preferential treatment to content providers that pay for faster transmission.

Companies like Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc and Comcast Corp have lobbied against this because they say it would hurt their profits.

At stake is how quickly handheld devices, like Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry and Apple Inc's iPhone, can receive and download videos and other content.

"Parties are not going to agree on Net neutrality," Ensign said, adding that there is no need for it.

Democrat Anna Eshoo, a candidate for ranking member of the House communications subcommittee next year, disagreed.

"I'm very concerned about what the Internet is going to look like," she said at the forum. "Is it only going to be the realm for those that are giants in the industry? Is it going to remain open and unfettered?"

Still, she said, Congress likely will avoid the issue because of a lack of consensus.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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NIS America announces acquisition of...

Earlier today NIS America announced that they have acquired the license to release the subbed version of Working!! the Anime for American shores. The name has been changed to Wagnaria!! but that isn’t much of an issue considering the actual restaurant that everyone works in is called Wagnaria. Regardless of that this is great news.

Instead of a simple DVD release, NISA is releasing Wagnaria!! in a Premium Edition. Wagnaria!! Premium Edition will be coming with a hardcover art book and a collectible case to go along with everything. The price will run at $59.99 and will be released at some point in March of 2011. The entire 13 episode series of the show will be included in one package so expect to get the entire Wagnaria!! experience in one pack.

Now what is Wagnaria you may ask? Well it revolves around the life of high school freshmen Sota Takanashi who works at the restaurant Wagnaria along with his fellow eccentric and high spirited co-workers. Wagnaria is a family restaurant so expect lots of comedic scenes between Sota and his co-workers, especially Popura who got him into the job in the first place!

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4 in 10 Americans believe that marriage is becoming obsolete

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Friday 19th November, 2010 (ANI)

A new survey in the US has revealed that almost four in ten couples believe that marriage is becoming obsolete.

More people are accepting the view that wedding bells aren't needed to have a happy family, reports the Daily Mail.

A poll by the Pew Research Centre in conjunction with Time magazine highlights the rapidly changing notions of the American family.

According to their report, nearly one in three American children are living with a parent who is divorced, separated or never married - a five-fold increase from 1960.

Broken down further, about 15 percent have parents who are divorced or separated and 14 percent who were never married.

Within those two groups, a sizable chunk - 6 percent - has parents who are live-in couples who opted to raise kids together without getting married.

About 39 percent of Americans said marriage was becoming obsolete. And that sentiment follows US census data that showed marriages hit an all-time low of 52 percent for adults 18 and over.

In 1978, just 28 percent believed marriage was becoming obsolete.

When asked what constitutes a family, the vast majority of Americans agreed that a married couple, with or without children, fits that description.

But four of five surveyed pointed also to an unmarried, opposite-sex couple with children or a single parent. Three of 5 people said a same-sex couple with children was a family.

"Marriage is still very important in this country, but it doesn't dominate family life like it used to," said Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University.

"Now there are several ways to have a successful family life, and more people accept them," he added.

The changing views of family are being driven largely by young adults aged 18-29, who are more likely than older generations to have an unmarried or divorced parent or have friends who do.

Young adults also tend to have more liberal attitudes when it comes to spousal roles and living together before marriage, the survey found.

But economic factors, too, are playing a role. The Census Bureau recently reported that opposite-sex unmarried couples living together jumped 13 percent this year to 7.5 million.

It was a sharp one-year increase that analysts largely attributed to people unwilling to make long-term marriage commitments in the face of persistent unemployment.

Still, the study indicates that marriage isn't going to disappear anytime soon. Despite a growing view that marriage may not be necessary, 67 percent of Americans were upbeat about the future of marriage and family.

And about half of all currently unmarried adults, 46 percent, say they want to get married. Among those unmarried who are living with a partner, the share rises to 64 percent. (ANI)

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Climate talks should not set deadline for pact - U.S.

ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's climate envoy said on Thursday world powers shouldn't get bogged down on a deadline for greenhouse gas emission cuts at the upcoming global climate talks, but instead should take small steps that could lead to a broader agreement.

Steam and other emissions are seen coming from funnels at a chemical manufacturing facility in Melbourne June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Mick Tsikas/Files)

"I don't personally think so," Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate negotiator, told reporters after a two-day meeting of the Major Economies Forum, when asked if there should be a deadline. "I think it should get done when it's ripe."

It was the last meeting of the group of 17 economies, including China, India, Russia and countries in the European Union, that debate ways to fight emissions before annual United Nations climate talks that run from Nov 29. to Dec. 10 in Cancun, Mexico.

With the 2012 expiration looming for the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, some countries have pressed for a pact on binding emissions cuts by next year's climate talks in South Africa.

If that goal is out of reach, they say a deadline on agreeing to a binding pact should be set to to help speed negotiations.

"I would rather have the concrete stuff done while we are trying to get the legal treaty than say we are not going to do anything before we get the legal agreement," Stern said.

Rich and developing countries can take steps in Cancun to help build trust on fighting emissions, he said.

These include agreeing on a global system to monitor, report, and verify emissions and the architecture of a fund to help developing countries deal with the worst effects of climate change.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS

Agreeing on systems to ensure technology transfers between rich and poor nations to mitigate and adapt to global warming and to fight deforestation are also areas where progress could be made in Cancun, he said.

The United States is not a member of the Kyoto pact that binds other developed countries to cut emissions of gases that cause global warming, which could lead to more floods and droughts.

Still, Obama pledged at last year's U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen that the United States would cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. That is about a 3 percent reduction from 1990 levels, the baseline used by many other countries, including those in the EU that have agreed to stronger cuts.

Stern reiterated that Washington would stick to that pledge despite the U.S. Congress' failure to pass a bill to deal with climate change. With Republicans winning control of the House of Representatives in this month's elections, chances are now even more remote a climate change bill will be considered.

The Obama administration is taking steps to cut emissions from vehicles and from smokestack industries like power plants and cement manufacturers.

An increase in the number of climate change deniers in Congress after this month's elections is something the U.S. will have to get through, Stern said.

Since binding cuts are off the table for the Cancun talks and the two biggest emitters -- China and the United States -- remain at odds on how to fight emissions, some analysts have said the coming talks will serve as a referendum on whether the U.N. process has been a failure.

Stern allowed that the U.N. talks must make more progress. "The process can't continually stalemate," he said. "If we can't make any progress this year or next year there will be a point it won't work."

(Editing by Russell Blinch and Chris Wilson)

Copyright © 2010 Reuters

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