Kane Unveils New “Porngate” Emails
Good morning, Philadelphia. Here’s what you need to know today.
• The more trouble Kathleen Kane has, the more “Porngate” emails she releases.
The same day she was hit with a second perjury charge in her grand jury secrecy case, Kathleen Kane’s office turned over 1,500 previously unreleased “Porngate” emails to the Judicial Conduct Board — these emails associated with an account belonging to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin.
Kane said the email account contained “racial, misogynistic pornography” and told the Associated Press: “That means that your system, your criminal justice system that you think you have and you think you deserve is not working properly.” The scandal may not end for a long time, yet; there are still a reported 6,000 emails that her office has not yet released.
• Hurricane Joaquin may not be such a threat to the Philadelphia region, after all.
Philly Mag’s Dan McQuade writes: The good news: The National Hurricane Center‘s “cone of uncertainty” has moved to the east. The chance for a destructive, costly storm — Hurricane Joaquin is a Category 4 hurricane with sustained max winds of 130 miles per hour — have dropped. The bad news: Phillywx (a must-follow at times like these) writes, “That does not mean the next few days won’t suck, especially at the Shore, due to onshore flow and heavy rain.” They’ll be coastal flooding at high tide down the shore. It will be rainy in Philadelphia until Saturday afternoon.
• Councilman David Oh keeps getting in hot water over campaign finance ethics.
Barely more than a month after Philly Mag’s Holly Otterbein wrote that campaign finance violations have Councilman David Oh fighting for his political life, the Republican faces new allegations. This time, it’s over allegations that a website for Oh’s campaign promised contributors “a chance to meet Councilman David Oh and his staff as they prepare for an exciting day in the Council’s chambers.”
“I did not write that,” Oh told the Inquirer’s Chris Brennan. “Nobody on my campaign wrote that. That is unauthorized and illegal.” He blamed a campaign vendor, and said he had reported the problem to the Board of Ethics and Council President Darrell Clarke. Oh is on the ballot in next month’s City Council election.
• The people who run Penn’s endowment are really smart at investing money.
Bloomberg reports that Penn’s endowment posted a 7.4 percent annual rate of return in the year ended June 30 — doubling the 3.6 percent median rate of return for endowments, and growing the university’s overall pile of cash by 5 percent, to $10.1 billion. Amazingly, this was kind of an off-year for Penn: It’s 10-year annualized return is 7.9 percent. And there’s still some catch-up to do: Yale led the Ivy League with an 11.5 percent return.
• Comcast isn’t just a cable company. It’s also a really big theme park operator.
And it’s getting bigger: The Philly-based company just announced it is spending $1.5 billion to take a 51 percent ownership stake in Universal Studios Japan, which Motley Fool says is Comcast’s “ largest investment outside the United States to date.” That’s because theme parks are the fastest-growing segment of Comcast’s business — the company’s park revenue grew 29 percent annually during the first half of 2015, to $1.42 billion. If you’re curious: Disney still generates five times as much revenue from its theme parks around the world.
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