Ramsey: “Sick and Tired of Cop-Bashing”

Matt Rourke/AP

Good morning, Philadelphia, and happy National Breadstick Day. Here’s what you need to know today.

Outgoing Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is “sick and tired” of complaints about police:

“I get a little sick and tired of all this cop-bashing,” Ramsey said Thursday during a panel on how churches can help restore trust between police and the community. “I haven’t heard anybody talk about the criminal element that’s … causing all the harm out here. When you go and put a burglar alarm on your house and you apply to get a permit to carry, is it to protect yourself from the cops or from T-Bone and Boo Boo down the street?” NewsWorks reports that other participants pushed back. “When you have a bad quarterback, you lose a football game,” said the Rev. Luis Cortes, founder and CEO of Esperanza. “When you have a bad police officer, lives are lost. Innocents are incarcerated. People pay a price.”

Kathleen Kane’s scandal management is giving Jerry Sandusky a glimpse of hope he’ll get out of prison.

This is complicated, but we’ll try to make it simple: A few years ago, Judge Barry Feudale supervised the grand jury that investigated Sandusky. This week, Feudale accused Kane’s office of improperly obtaining his emails from that era and sharing them with reporters. (Kane is already charged with leaking grand jury info from another case for political gain.) Kane, in turn, says the emails show a “reckless breach” of secrecy by Feudale — his messages were to Inquirer reporters — and said they have been shared with the state’s Judicial Conduct Board.

As it happens, Sandusky is appealing his child molestation convictions, saying information from his grand jury was illegally leaked to the press long before charges were brought against him. Now, PennLive reports, a judge in the appeal has “issued a rare bench order Thursday forcing Kane to present to him any information she has that Feudale or the prosecutors in the Sandusky case ‘orchestrated,facilitated, cooperated in or arranged for disclosure of otherwise secret grand jury material.’” Kane’s staff said she will comply; her deadline is next Wednesday.

Market Street traffic is going to be a mess of not-quite-papal proportions on Saturday, thanks to ESPN GameDay.

ESPN’s folks are shutting down Market between Fifth and Sixth so they can use Independence Hall as a backdrop for their Saturday broadcast promoting the (sold-out!) Temple-versus-Notre Dame at the Linc. Even more complicated? The Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon is scheduled the same day and “will cause rolling traffic closures to portions of the Parkway, Market and Spring Garden Streets, and numbered cross streets from 15th to 22d,” the Inquirer reports. Quipped one official: “”It’s not going to be a pretty transportation weekend, but it’s a good weekend to take SEPTA.” The transit agency will run extra trains on the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines to accommodate the expected crowds.

Comcast is going to create more jobs and offer more services to the poor in order to renew its franchise agreements with City Hall.

“Cities typically have precious little leverage over giant telecom companies like Comcast,” Philly Mag’s Holly Otterbein reports. “But when franchise deals expire and new ones must be negotiated, cities get a rare chance to extract some concessions from cable providers because they can theoretically tell the Comcasts of the world to pound sand.”

Here’s some of what Comcast is offering, to secure a 15-year franchise deal: The creation of a 200-person call center in Philadelphia; the expansion of the “Internet Essentials” program that offers discounted internet to the poor; the offering of wireless network access at 200 locations throughout the city; and a $500,000 grant to create a “Digital Inclusion Alliance Fund” to address digital inequality. The agreement is five pages long; when fleshed out with details, Otterbein says, it will run hundreds of pages.

Pat Sajak and Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune are in town this week.

The show “has been in the area shooting segments for the upcoming Philly Week – which will shine a big spotlight on the City of Brotherly Love,” 6ABC reports. The hosts have shot segments at the Italian Market, Headhouse Square, and Reading Terminal Market. “They squire us around to all of the hot spots and restaurants and tourist attractions,” Sajak said. “It’s a great way to expose the whole country to the great things in Philadelphia.” The Philly shows will air later this season.

Follow @JoelMMathis on Twitter. Get morning headlines in your inbox: Sign up here.