Mr. Wolf has said the tax needs to be restructured so that the wealthier pay more and middle-income and lower-income taxpayers pay less. It’s part of an overall strategy to boost state financial support for public schools.
“Minimum wage” all about definition
The new state-mandated minimum wage — for adults only — would reflect what a worker earns to be ineligible for subsidies and benefits. Corporate executives and shareholders can no longer take advantage of government benefits to low-income people to amass their wealth.
California revises policies on mentally ill inmates
The increasing number of mentally ill prisoners in prisons and jails across the country — in 2013, mentally ill prisoners made up just over 28 percent of California’s prison population — has raised questions about their treatment in corrections systems poorly equipped to deal with psychiatric symptoms.
Chronicle Book Review: “To End the War on Drugs”
“Incrementalism” is, in Becker’s view, a trap, a detour, a diversion. Drug prohibition, with all its horrors, has gone on more than long enough, and half-measures like drug decriminalization are not sufficient to end the evil. It is time to quit screwing around and end the drug war, he writes.
Enough stonewalling
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: City Council approved a reasonable moderation of Philadelphia’s approach to marijuana enforcement more than a month ago. But despite the increasingly antic advocacy of the bill’s sponsor, Jim Kenney, Mayor Nutter has greeted the legislation with the sort of lassitude often blamed on heavy use of the drug. It’s time for the administration […]
Analysis: Casino tax relief falls short of expectations
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE COLUMN: …In almost all of the state’s 501 school districts, the average homeowner pays more today than he or she did in the 2003-04 school year, just before lawmakers legalized casinos, the Trib’s analysis of property tax rates and gambling-funded rebates showed… Lawmakers promised homeowners an average of $300 a year in property […]
French hospital to open wine bar to cheer up terminally ill
DAILY BEAST / REUTERS: A hospital in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand is to open a wine bar where terminally ill patients will be able to enjoy a “medically-supervised” glass or two with their families. “Why should we refuse the charms of the soil to those at the end of their lives? Nothing justifies such […]
LETTER: Let commuters absorb the full costs of rail service and parking
Taxpayers already provide too much of a subsidy for Amtrak riders.
Israel begins redeploying along Gaza border
USA TODAY: Israel’s military has begun redeploying along its border with Gaza after the government signaled it would reassess its operations. A number of tanks and other vehicles were seen leaving Gaza on Sunday. In a televised address late Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested troops would reassess the operation after completing the demolition of […]
Federal defenders barred from massive clemency drive
ALJAZEERA: The Obama administration’s ambitious plan to extend clemency to thousands of prisoners suffered a serious blow Thursday after the agency that oversees the federal courts said that hundreds of federal public defenders and other court-appointed attorneys were not authorized to represent inmates in the process… In a memo circulated to federal defenders and the […]
LANCASTER INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL
Article “Safe Havens: Pa. law allows mothers to relinquish babies without prosecution” explains: Pennsylvania’s Newborn Protection Act — also known as the Safe Haven Law — allows women or girls who are not ready to be mothers to leave their infants at any hospital in the state… Pennsylvania is one of 49 states with a […]
A Mound of Forgotten Money, and Even You May Have a Claim
NEW YORK TIMES: For years, Jerry Seinfeld and Joan Rivers, and as many as 6,914 other customers, have never claimed refunds due them from Bergdorf’s. General Motors has been in hock to Rupert Murdoch for nearly a decade. Russia’s mission to the United Nations is still hoarding unredeemed gift certificates from BJ’s Wholesale Club… These […]
Too much ‘demand’ for Amtrak parking; so ‘supply’ gets more expensive
Just across the far tracks is eleven acres of undeveloped land as a result of the demolition of a hotel A parking garage built on an acre of that ground could readily be linked by a short tunnel to the Amtrak station.
Obama: After 9-11, US ‘Tortured Some Folks’
Addressing the impending release of a Senate report that criticizes CIA treatment of detainees, Obama said he believed the mistreatment happened because of the pressure national security officials felt to forestall another attack. He said Americans should not be too “sanctimonious,” about passing judgment through the lens of a seemingly safer present day.