pennsylvania politics: Philadelphia Metropolis

He's Baaack!

Now comes Rick Santorum's 15 minutes in the limelight. His showing in Iowa this week guarantees that.  With little money and no organization to speak of, the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania placed second in the Iowa caucuses, just eight... (Comments)

Scandal at Traffic Court

What a shock.  It seems there is politics involved in Traffic Court. If you are politically connected you get treated one way; if you are not shut up and pay your fine. Did money change hands as part of the... (Comments)

Pension Strangulation

The fundamental problem with Philadelphia's pension fund for city employees is that it doesn't have enough money to pay pensions to all today and in the future who will collect them. The fund has $4.9 billion on hand, not... (Comments)

This Kitty Will Live

  School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman really screwed the pooch this week by finding the $55 million needed to fund full-day kindergarten.  One of the last people to know about it was none other that Mayor Nutter, who had been counting... (Comments)

The Last Generation

By Mike Mallowe» This aging generation of nuns may be among the greatest, but it is also among the last. The same demographic implosion that is facing male clerics in the Catholic Church in America is facing women of faith as well. There are fewer and fewer women taking their vows as members of religious orders. What looked like a pyramid 30 years ago, with most nuns working in the field and a relative handful retired, now resembles an inverted pyramid and the point -- comprised of young nuns -- keeps narrowing. Mike Mallowe discussed the realities of this trend in Part Two of our Cover Story in nuns in Philadelphia (Comments)