Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Sunday, September 07 2008 - Index

going to be attracted to a
McCain-Palin ticket.”
Conservatives praise Palin’s
pro-life position, lifting up her
decision to keep a baby who
would be born with Down
yndrome. Palin opposes aborion
totally, even in cases of
ape and incest.
On the other hand, Clinton
as received a 100 percent
pproval rating from NARALro
Choice America for her votng
record on maintaining a
oman’s right to choose.
Earlier this year, Palin
ttempted to do away with
laska’s Certificate of Need
CON) program, which limited
ompetition for health care to
rotect the availability of emerency
room and other hospitalrovided
services. Palin criti-
Sunday, September 7, 2008 • Page 4-B
City Controller picks through funding mess
Robert Hightower
Tribune Staff Writer
City Controller Alan
Butkovitz has been busy laying
out a litany of financial knots
that the city is currently faced
with.
Butkovitz has taken exception
with the current state of
many of Philadelphia’s schools,
citing the lack of fire escapes,
shoddy electrical wiring and, in
some cases, asbestos.
When Butkovitz came into
office in January 2006, Paul
Vallas served as the CEO of the
School District of Philadelphia,
a position he held until 2007.
Although Butkovitz is not
blaming Vallas for the problems,
he made it clear that
many of matters the schools
are facing occurred under his
watch.
“He had a blank check to say
what he wanted. He was using
borrowed money. He borrowed
nearly $2 billion for a school
construction plan that hardly
built any schools. He initially
promised 75 new schools.
“When he left, The Inquirer
gave him credit for five new
schools. He started a whole
bunch of programs that he didn’t
get to follow up,” he said.
Butkovitz went on to say that
Vallas tried to get the school
district to hire their own auditors
so he could pick the people
who would oversee his books.
“It was very much like the
Music Man,” said Butkovitz.
“He came to town and spat a
pretty good story. Everybody
wanted to believe him and he
left us in this terrible hole.”
Damages discovered are not
Palin
From Page 1A
WJJZ
From Page 1A
“Unfortunately, we have had
limited success with smooth
jazz as judged by the marketplace.
We are grateful for your
oyalty and support and we
ppreciate your understanding.
“Like our other top tier FM
adio stations in the market,
e are committed to serving
just held to schools. Butkovitz
said that police stations and
recreation centers are suffering.
“In trying to stretch dollars
in the ongoing tax cut policy
that city has, (the city) can’t get
any more money [and] maintenance
in one of those things
that gets more and more
deferred,” said Butkovitz.
Many of the recreation centers
are so atrocious Butkovitz
called them “a total disrespect
for the lives of the children.”
“If they’re going to a have the
recreation center open and
they are inviting people to
bring their kids in, then it
needs to be in a condition
where they are not going to get
their eyes poked out by a metal
rod,” he said.
Ambulance response time is
also a concern of the Butkovitz.
He said too much time elapses
from the point when an
ambulance is alerted to when
they actually show up.
“The national standards are
ambulances should be running
42 percent of the time and in
Philadelphia, they are running
85 percent of the time which
means that they don’t have
regular maintenance,” he stated.
“They break down in route,
which I heard happens quite a
bit.”
Every time an ambulance is
called, an insurer owes money
for the trip. According to
Butkovitz, there is about $25
million that is uncollected by
the city.
As a way to address this
deficit, Butkovitz suggested
that the uninsured could be
excluded from the collection.
cized CON, suggesting its regulations
interfered with business.
A supporter of free-market
health care, Palin’s bid to
repeal CON failed when it was
unable to get enough votes in
either the Alaska House or
Senate.
Like most staunch conservatives,
Palin also opposes
stem-cell research, an issue
Clinton has supported as a
way to conduct life-saving
research. And while Clinton
has been an advocate for issuing
benefits to domestic partners,
Palin used her first veto
to deny benefits to same-sex
couples in 2007, deeming it
unconstitutional.
While the thinking behind
the Palin pick may have been
done partly to appeal to the
bloc now known as “disaffected
Clinton voters,” it doesn’t seem
like the two women could ever
be mistaken for one another
the largest population possible,
and we are excited to offer our
listeners a powerful new
choice. We will reveal our new
vision on Monday at 9 a.m.
“Again, we appreciate what
you have done with us in the
past and look forward to a
bright future together. Stay
tuned, because the feedback
we received from listeners tells
us you will enjoy the new
adventure.”
“We say people who don’t
have insurance, don’t even go
after them. We’ll cut that figure
down. We are saying that we
could get $15 million out of
them,” he said.
Butkovitz also found that
Korean War veteran
killed in area robbery
Larry Miller
Tribune Staff Writer
Enor Williams was a veteran of the Korean
ar and managed to live through that brutal
onflict, but didn’t survive Philadelphia’s savage
rban war.
This “urban war” is a conflict with no political
oals and no standing armies; only thugs with
llegal weapons who routinely slaughter each
ther, murder innocent bystanders and prey on
he unarmed and elderly.
There have been 221 victims of this war in
hiladelphia this year, and Enor Williams is one
f them.
Police said that on Friday, Aug. 29, at around
p.m., Williams fell prey to three young males
ho were looking to rob someone and decided
he 78-year-old war veteran would be an easy
target.
A week later, law enforcement authorities
announced that they had arrested two suspects
in Williams’ murder and had also recovered the
murder weapon.
Law enforcement officials said that Karl
Jarmon, 18, of the 3200 block of West Page
Street and Terrell Bennett, also, 18, from the
same block of West Page Street, were charged
with murder, robbery and related offenses.
Law enforcement officials said they are also
looking for a third male in connection with the
murder but as of Tribune press time, they
haven’t released his name.
According to Captain James Clark of the
Homicide Unit, Bennett and Jarmon were part of
City Controller Alan Butkovitz discusses city services Thursday
afternoon. — SHIRA YUDKOFF/TRIBUNE STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Karl Jarmon Terrell Bennett
a trio who were looking to rob someone and
decided that Williams would be easy prey.
Williams, of the Fern Rock section of
Philadelphia, was standing outside of the Capt.
Robert Tresville VFW Post at 2033 North 33rd
Street in Strawberry Mansion talking with a
friend when he was attacked and killed.
The suspects didn’t get any money, Clark said.
“From different witnesses we learned that the
suspects were looking for someone to rob. The
suspects took the decedent, they pushed him
against the wall and they took a gun and put it
to his head while attempting to rob him,” Clark
said in a published report. “The decedent did
struggle somewhat, and at that point, he was
shot and killed.”
Clark said that no one else was injured in the
incident and the investigation is continuing.
when it comes to their political
beliefs, said Vicky Lovell, interim
director of research for the
Institute for Women’s Policy
Research.
“The fact that their policy
stances are so different means
that Sarah Palin won’t be
attractive to Hillary supporters,”
Lovell said. “I think Hillary
supporters like the fact that
(Palin) is a strong, determined
woman, but she’s not supportive
of women’s right. What
Hillary supporters are looking
for is someone who has empathy
for women across the
board.”
Like the NCNW, the Institute
for Women’s Policy Research is
non-partisan and is encouraging
women to do their research
to see what both tickets are for
and against.
Taking time to learn what a
candidate stands for is vital,
regardless of their gender,
Lovell said, adding that the
flurry of interest in Palin may
cause voters, especially women,
to do their homework as
Election Day approaches.
“I do think it will inspire people
to want to be involved and
learn more,” Lovell said. “I certainly
think it’s great when voters
are more interested and feel
that the campaign is more relevant
to them and that the
choices they make will make a
difference.”
neighborhood health centers
needed drastic improvement.
His research yielded that on
average it takes a new patient
five months to get an appointment.
“If you have any kind of
Jeannine Aversa
WASHINGTON — The
nation’s unemployment rate
bolted above the psychologically
important 6 percent level last
month for the first time in five
years — and it’s likely to go
even higher in the months
ahead, possibly throwing the
economy into a tailspin as
Americans pick a new president.
A blizzard of pink slips propelled
the jobless rate from 5.7
percent in July to 6.1 percent
in August, the Labor
Department reported Friday.
Such a sharp increase is usually
a strong recession warning,
and it dashed investors’ hopes
for a late-year recovery.
Worried about the economy
and their own business
prospects, employers cut payrolls
by 84,000 in August,
marking the eighth straight
month of losses.
So far this year, a staggering
605,000 jobs have vanished —
slightly less than the population
of Alaska. The economy
needs to generate more than
100,000 new jobs a month for
employment to remain stable.
Richard Yamarone, economist
at Argus Research, feared
that the jobless rate would
cause consumers and businesses
to “move from a moderately
concerned stage to outright
fear” and reduce their
spending even more.
A toxic trio of housing, credit
and financial problems has
badly shaken the economy, and
the crisis shows no signs of letting
up. It’s the public’s top
worry, and many experts
believe the situation will get
worse before it gets better.
The unemployment increase
means many companies will
feel pressure to reduce their
business investments — either
in capital projects or hiring —
for the rest of the year.
“Mix business caution with
consumer exhaustion and you
have a recipe for a real recession,”
said Terry Connelly, dean
of Golden Gate University’s
Ageno School of Business.
At an unemployment center
in St. Louis, Kimbel Adams
could recite the exact date he
was let go from his job as a hospital
security guard — April 8.
Since then, he has applied for
10 or 15 jobs, with little luck.
“Most of the jobs you can get,
it’s hard to make a living off. I
could always work at a fast food
restaurant and struggle to pay
the bills,” Adams said.
Adams, 27, said unemployment
checks and irregular gigs
as a nightclub bouncer help
make ends meet. But eating at
problem where you have to see
a doctor, you have to see him
in less than five months. It’s
ridiculous,” he said.
Even though Mayor Michael
Nutter’s administration put $3
million into health centers,
Butkovitz said more is needed.
“The computer system program
(that is used by health
centers) will only pick up Blue
Cross insurance. If you have
other kinds of insurance, the
city doesn’t make any efforts to
get reimbursement for your
health center visit.”
There was also an international
aspect to the controller’s
concerns.
As it stands now, the genocide
in Darfur, Sudan, has
claimed the lives of over
400,000 people and displaced
more than 250,000. Butkovitz
said he is doing his part to help
end this travesty.
In his first days as city controller,
he took an interest in
Sudan. After research, he
linked up with the Sudan
Divestment Task Force and
became part of a campaign to
divest pension money.
He then began a campaign
with the Philadelphia Pension
Fund to get the city’s entities
out of Sudan.
After developing a list of
companies that had partnership
with the Sudan government
that was giving money to
the Sudanese military, the
total figure of investments of
these companies was $144 million.
The companies did not
pull out of Sudan, but this
raised awareness with any
business that desires to do
business with the Philadelphia
restaurants is a thing of the
past, and Adams continues to
drive a 1991 Buick in spite of
the constant maintenance
problems.
The number of unemployed
rose to 9.4 million in August,
compared with 7.1 million a
year ago. Economists predict
more job losses ahead, pushing
the unemployment rate to 7
percent by fall of 2009, according
to some projections.
Against this backdrop, a
growing number of analysts
predict the economy will jolt
into reverse in the final three
months of this year and possibly
in the first three months of
next year, meeting a classic definition
of a recession.
The economy shrank late last
year and barely budged at the
start of this year. Growth
picked up in the spring, thanks
to brisk exports and the government’s
tax rebates, which energized
shoppers at home. But
that rebound wasn’t expected
to last.
Slower growth overseas will
probably cause exports to fall
off just as Americans are cutting
their spending and the
benefits of the rebates disappear.
Job losses were widespread
at factories — especially housing-related
manufacturers and
automakers — as well as construction
companies, retailers,
mortgage brokers, real-estate
firms, hotels and motels, and
temporary-help firms, which
are looked at as a barometer of
demand for future hiring.
Those losses swamped
employment gains in government,
education, health care
and elsewhere.
After the last recession, in
2001, the unemployment rate
rose as high as 6.3 percent in
Pension Fund.
“Managers know that this is
a big issue,” said Butkovitz.
Butkovitz has been working
with the Minority Business
Enterprise Council to equalize
the treatment of minority contractors.
Butkovitz said that
his finding resulted in the contractors
were always junior
partner and subservient to the
general contractors.
It was also found that it
would take the minority contractors
sometimes up to three
years to get certification in the
city.
“We recommended things
like, if you’re certified by the
federal government,
Philadelphia should recognize
it,” he said.
Butkovitz did find that
Philadelphia has many troubles
that need to be fixed.
However, he said that the city
should pace itself in doing so,
“Maybe the city can’t afford
the services that it’s doing. My
way of thinking is if they were
to at least make a decision, at
least the things that you are
saying that you are doing, you
can do them right,” he said.
There is one portion of the
population that is directly
affected by many of these problems,
according to Butkovitz.
“The city hasn’t been prioritizing
these service issues and
they have been in the throws of
this anti-tax philosophy for at
least 20 years. They are cutting
business taxes and they are
saying that it costs less to do
things. The minority community
bares the brunt because
that’s where the biggest need
for the programs are.”
Unemployment rate hits
5-year high of 6.1 percent
June 2003.
By historical standards, the
country is far from the employment
carnage seen more than
two decades ago, when unemployment
climbed above 10 percent
during President Reagan’s
first term in the early 1980s.
Still, some groups are being
hit harder than others. The jobless
rate for blacks jumped to
10.6 percent last month, the
highest since late 2005. And,
the unemployment rate for
Hispanics rose to 8 percent, a
five-year high.
The grim report prompted
Capitol Hill Democrats to renew
their push for a second stimulus
package. The Bush administration
and other Republicans
have been cool to the idea.
Presidential candidates
Barack Obama and John
McCain seized on the job figures
to attack each other’s proposals
to turn the economy
around.
“The working men and
women I meet every day are
working harder for less,”
Obama said. He advocates tax
cuts for working families and
investment in road, bridges and
other projects to lift the economy.
McCain vowed to “fight for
those that lost their jobs, savings
and real-estate investments.”
He said tax reductions
for people and businesses, job
training and measures to promote
trade will help ease the
economic woes.
The latest employment snapshot
was worse than economists
were forecasting. They
were expecting payrolls to drop
by around 75,000 in August
and the jobless rate to tick up a
notch, to 5.8 percent.
The White House was disappointed,
too. – (AP)