Philadelphia Daily Record

3ol. II No. 162 (322)

Keeping You Posted With The Politics Of Philadelphia

October 17, 2011

Philadelphia Daily Record

Biden Time

VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN shared some thoughts with Public Record Contributing Editor Bonnie Squires after he finished advocating for the President’s Jobs Bill in rally at Penn’s Houston Hall.

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Oct. 20Fundraiser for State Rep. Rosita Youngblood at Finnigan’s Wake, 3rd & Spring Garden Sts., 7:009:30 p.m. Dinner & open bar.

Tickets $75. For info (215) 7454306.

Oct. 20HAVE A BEER WITH SCHMIDT AT SCHMITZ! Donation - $100. Includes authentic German food and beer (wine, soda) Please make checks payable to: “Friends of Al Schmidt”. Checks can be mailed to: P.O. Box 18538, Philadelphia, PA 19129 Or contribute online at www.SchmidtforPhilly.com For more info, call: 215-624-1930 Oct. 20— Fundraiser for Al Taubenberger for City Council at-large at Gary B. Freedman Law Offices, 7909 Bustleton Ave., 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Guest: Former City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel. Call 267-5074282.

Oct. 20Elwyn Education Services’ 10th Annual Student Art Exhibit and Auction benefitting students with special needs at White Manor Country Club in Malvern. 5:30 to 8:30 pm Folr tickets and info call Susan Kroungold at 6100-8917624.

Oct. 21Fundraiser for Council candidate Bill Rubin at Stevenson’s Tavern, 4300 Comly ZSt., 6-8 p.m. Copntribution $35.

Oct. 2126th Ward GOP Fabulous Fall Festival at Waterfall Rm., 2015 S. Water St., 7 p.m. For info (215) 468-2300.

Oct. 2119th Ward Democrats host Meet the Candidates Beef & Beer fundraiser THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

at New Palladium, 229 W. Allegheny Ave., 7 p.m.-12 a.m. Sponsors $100, community businesses $25. For info Leslie Lopez (484) 988-2422.

Oct. 22Philly Cares Day targets S. Phila. HS at Broad & Snyder Ave., 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. For info or to volunteer call Matthew Mumber (215) 564-4544.

Oct. 22State Sen. LeAnna Washington hosts Walk To End Domestic Violence at W. River Dr. & Ben Franklin Blvd., 9 a.m. registration, Walk starts 10:30 a.m. Pre-register at http://conta.cc/Walktoenddomesticviolence or call (215) 545-4715.

Oct. 23Men’s Club of Congregations of Shaare Shamayim, host Candidates Brunch at Karff Auditorium, 9768 Verree Rd., 9 a.m. Free brunch. For info and reservations Harris Popolow (215) 676-7486.

Oct. 23Wine and Cheese fundraiser hosted

by Louis S. Schwartz for Lewis Harris, Jr., GOP candidate for Traffic Court Judge. $50 donation. For info, call 215-651-4757. 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 7112 N. Broad St. Oct. 24State Rep. Michelle Brownlee hosts Older & Wiser workshop for seniors on retirement benefits at University Sq., 3901 Market St., 10 a.m.-12 p.m. For info (215) 6843738 Oct. 25Fundraiser for judicial candidate Angelo Foglietta at offices of Stephen A. Sheller, 1528 Walnut St., 3rd fl, 5-8 p.m. Supporter $150, Friend $250, Patron $500. For info Thomas P. Muldoon, Esq. (215) 545-1776, ext. 3.

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Committee Avoids Tartaglione Minimum Wage Amendment State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione said today she will continue to push for an update to Pennsylvania’s minimum-wage law, after a Senate committee voted to avoid a decision yesterday.

The Senate Labor & Industry Committee tabled a Tartaglione amendment that would have tied Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to the consumer price index, ensuring thousands of working families would forever get off a seesaw of poverty.

in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area for the most recent 12-month period. The bill is stuck in the Labor & Industry Committee as majority Republicans hope to avoid a vote.

Ten states have applied COLAs to their minimum wages, with half of them doing it through overwhelming support in ballot initiatives.

“There is no issue that more clearly defines the line between the 99% and the 1%,” Tartaglione said. “Vast majorities of the public have supported inflation protections in the minimum wage despite heavy lobbying and spending by big business. It’s profit vs. poverty.

It’s that simple.”

“The typical gloom-and-doom predictions about the minimum wage have all been debunked and voters are tired of hearing the business lobby say it can’t pay living wages,” Tartaglione said. “A properly adjusted minimum wage will keep working families from falling into poverty and dependence on government support. This is a move toward economic justice and smaller government.”

Tartaglione is the prime sponsor of SB 235, which would apply an annual cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage, calculated by applying the percentage change

With the bill stalled in committee, Tartaglione attempted to implement its language through an amendment to another bill poised to move from the committee. The

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amendment was “tabled,” meaning it did not receive an up-or-down vote.

“I think this is not the time to tell working families that you’re siding with the CEOs,” Tartaglione said. “I think they felt a changing wind and they ducked.”

Pennsylvania last adjusted its minimum wage in steps through 2006 and 2007. Since then, even moderate inflation has pushed a single worker with a child, lifted above the federal poverty line by the 2007 increase, back below the poverty line in 2011.

Tartaglione said she will continue to push for the bill or the amendment after the number of Pennsylvanians earning the minimum wage has jumped by 50% in the past year and the state’s poverty rate has hit a 20-year high.

“Working families are starting to understand what they’re up against,” Tartaglione said. “And they’re starting to fight back.”

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Safe Circle Club Offers Mammograms

STATE REP. W. CURTIS THOMAS and volunteers from Linda Creed Foundation open Joanna Brown Safe Circle Club at St. Phillip’s Baptist Church. club is the first of five Thomas is opening in North Phila. From left are Joanna Brown (black t-shirt); Sally Harris, 27-year survivor (pink sweater); and, far right. Jean Chavis, Temple Cancer Center.

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by Marilyn Kai Jewett Need a mammogram, but don’t have insurance? Or maybe you found a lump in your breast and don’t know what to do. Thanks to the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation and State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas (D-N. Phila.), African American women in North Philadelphia now have somewhere to seek help with the recent to opening of the foundation’s “Safe Circle Club” at St. Phillip’s Baptist Church, 1220 N. 6th Street.

The Safe Circle Club at St. Phillip’s, the first of five opening in North Philadelphia, will serve as a clearinghouse for information, resources and support for African American women dealing with breast cancer.

According to the Pennsylvania

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Dept. of Health, in 2008 there were over 1,500 cases of breast cancer in the Commonwealth, with over 50% of those cases being women of color – most African American. Founded 18 years ago with a grant from the Avon Foundation, Safe Circle is a special outreach program that is culturally relevant to the African American community. Through church and community-based organizations, educational facilities, work sites and small groups, Safe Circle provides breast health information, screenings and support services.

that they don’t have to die from breast cancer or other cancer if we can catch it early,” said Chavis, who has a passion for getting information out to African American women.

“There is an explosion of breast cancer cases among African American women,” explained Thomas, who became involved by helping constituents with the disease access resources. “Lack of information, treatment and support results in death for many of our women.

African-American women are often diagnosed with more advanced breast cancer and are more likely to die from the disease than any other group of women. I am glad to be joining the mission to provide outreach and resources to these women.”

“They don’t have to be afraid anymore,” she explained. “We really need to step out on faith and let God lead and direct us so we can get the services we need. Now, we’re working with Curtis Thomas to see if he can help us raise money and get the information out to more African American women.

God gave him the vision to start these clubs at these churches so women will have a safe place to get information, encouragement and a hug.”

The club at St. Phillip’s was opened with a celebratory breakfast. Volunteers from the Linda Creed Foundation gave testimony on their journey to wellness and gave information to the women in attendance. The volunteer group was led by Jean Chavis, manager of patient care services at Temple Cancer Center, who was part of the planning committee that established the Safe Circle Program for the foundation.

“We want to help Black women know there is life after cancer and 19 OCTOBER, 2011

She explained that there are four stages of breast cancer. In her work at Temple, she noticed that most African American women were coming in at the 3rd and 4th stages. They were dying more than other women because they didn’t get mammograms at the early stages.

In addition to St. Phillip’s, Thomas and the foundation are establishing Safe Circle clubs at Mt. Tabor AME Church, The House of Prayer on 12th Street, Mother African Soar United Methodist Church and Child’s Memorial Church. Each club is charged with raising $2,500 to defer the costs of disseminating information.

The club at St. Phillips is named after Joanna Brown, a member of the church who is a 19-year survivor of breast cancer. Brown was just 27 years old when she found a lump in her breast during self-examination. “The doctor said I was THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

too young to get a mammogram,” explained Brown who had no history of breast cancer in her family.

“But I kept researching for information and found I could get an ultrasound. I was diagnosed in 1994.”

Brown received a radical mastectomy, went through six months of chemotherapy and has been in remission for 19 years. She is now an advocate, reaching out to other women. “I am honored and excited about the Safe Circle Club being named after me and helping and supporting other women. Early detection is the key. They need to know that it’s a journey. It’s a fight. You have to fight for your life.”

A special room at St. Phillip’s will be renovated for the Joanna Brown Safe Circle Club that will establish a 24-hour hotline. Feb. 14, 2012 will also be designated Safe Circle Sunday at St. Phillip’s.

Sally Harris is a constituent of Thomas’ that volunteers with the Safe Circle Program. She distributed pink bags with information and coupons for free mammograms to the women attending the St. Phillips Breakfast. “A lot of women are hiding it in the closet,” said the vibrant 82 year-old known as Sexy Sally throughout the community. “I enjoy teaching women how to examine their breasts. I’m a 27-year survivor. They need to know it’s not a death sentence.”

Dedicated to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer with the goal of reducing unnecessary suffering and death associated with this disease, the Linda Creed Foundation was founded in 1987 |

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by friends and family of Linda Creed Epstein, a Philadelphia songwriter who died at the age of 37 after waging a 10-year battle with breast cancer. The founda-

tion, which receives no government funding, was the first freestanding breast cancer organization in Pennsylvania and is the first local organization to ad-

dress breast cancer as a serious and widespread disease threatening the lives of women living in the Delaware Valley.

Pew Report Cautions On School Closings With the School District of Philadelphia preparing to unveil its plans to close numerous schools, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research Initiative released a new report, Closing Public Schools in Philadelphia: Lessons from Six Urban Districts, which looks at the results of similar efforts in those other major cities.

depend largely on sales of closed buildings.

In the districts studied, the task of putting the closed buildings to productive use, either through sale or lease, often has proved extremely difficult. At least 200 school buildings stand vacant in the six cities, including 92 in Detroit alone.

To put what awaits Philadelphia in perspective, the study examines the experiences of Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., each of which has shuttered more than 20 schools in the last several years. It highlights the aspects of those experiences that have led to increased public acceptance for school closings.

While there is limited research on the effects of large-school closings on students, academic studies that have been conducted show the negative impact on student performance is minimal. Student achievement often falls during the final months of a closing school’s existence but recovers within a year. And some students wind up going to higher-performing schools and doing better there.

The report finds that the operational savings achieved by multiple school closings, at least in the short run, tend to be relatively small in the context of a big-city school budget, well under $1 million per school. In Philadelphia, district officials have downplayed talk of a substantial financial impact, saying that the amount will

“It’s reassuring to know that students don’t seem to suffer academically from school closings,” said Larry Eichel, project director of the Philadelphia Research Initiative. “But for the families involved, as well as the school district and the entire community, our report shows there is nothing easy about closing large numbers

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of schools.”

The report also finds political fallout of closing schools has varied among the cities. In Washington, public discontent over the process contributed to the ouster of a mayor and a schools chancellor. In Chicago, it led to enactment of a state law governing all future closings in the city. But in Kansas City, there was little public discontent evident even after the district closed half of the city’s public schools in two years.

Faced with 70,000 empty seats, one-third of its entire capacity, the Philadelphia school district plans to close multiple buildings over the next two years — with the hope the surviving schools will be strengthened as a result. A list of proposed closings is expected to be announced this fall with a final vote by the School Reform Commission slated for early in 2012.

The primary drivers behind the closures in Philadelphia and the other cities studied include falling enrollment, deteriorating or outdated facilities and tight budgets.

The enrollment declines are due to 19 OCTOBER, 2011

two basic elements: drops in the number of school-age children and the increased availability and popularity of alternatives to district schools, including charter schools.

school officials:

The report analyzes the approaches to closings taken in the six other cities. It finds that the likelihood of public acceptance, though not necessarily enthusiasm, went up when

• hired outside experts to help guide the process;

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• presented the case for downsizing as early in the process as possible;

• established clear, quantifiable criteria for deciding which schools to close;

THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY RECORD

• showed a willingness to make some adjustments in the announced list of targeted schools when faced with compelling arguments; and • made the decision on the entire plan with a single vote rather than separate votes on each school.

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