Chicago Eyes Ramsey for a Homecoming
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. AP | Matt Rourke
Good morning Philadelphia. Here’s what you need to know today.
Chicago is looking for a new police chief. Charles Ramsey is on the list.
Philadelphia’s outgoing police commissioner served on the Chicago force for more than two decades, rising to the ranks of deputy commissioner there — and was Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first choice to head the department back in 2011. (Mayor Nutter gave Ramsey a $60,000 annual raise to stick around at that point, leading Ramsey to pass on what he called a “dream job.”) Now that Emanuel has fired the city’s chief in fallout from the Laquan McDonald shooting, Ramsey’s name has surfaced again. So far, at least, Ramsey is demurring — but not quite shutting the door to a return. “I know things are a little difficult right now in Chicago to say the least, but it’s way too soon to speculate about anything,” Ramsey told CBS Chicago. “My plans are to retire the first of the year and that hasn’t changed.”
The Sixers just broke the longest losing streak in professional sports.
“It had been 250 days since the Sixers last won a regular season basketball game,” Philly Mag’s Derek Bodner writes. “That prolonged drought finally came to an end Tuesday night when the the Sixers won their first game of the season, and first in their last 29, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 103-91 tonight in front of a sold out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center.” “I look at those young guys that navigated what we have been through, and they truly stayed together,” Sixers head coach Brett Brown said after the game. “I’m proud that they stayed together. That they truly do knock out good days, and we do believe that they will add up.”
Climate change forecast for Philadelphia: Hotter summers, wetter winters.
StateImpact Pennsylvania reports that with 200 nations meeting in Paris to negotiate climate change policies, City Hall has released its own climate change forecast. “So that’s really hard, I think, for people to wrap their minds around,” said Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia’s sustainability director. “Its generally going to get warmer but yet we’re going to have more severe winters, how can those two realities coexist?” In fact, the city has experienced its two hottest summers and two wettest winters on record in the last five years. StateImpact reports the city is trying to curtail future flooding by encouraging projects like rain gardens and green roofs that will absorb additional rains; the parks department is trying to plant heartier trees and vegetation. Gajewiski: “We’re really trying to figure out how to bring the best available climate science to practioners in Philadelphia to help them make the best informed, forward-looking decisions as they can.”
Pat Toomey has launched a website attacking his Democratic challengers.
The Morning Call reports: “The site – www.WhoIsWorse.com – dubs Joe Sestak as ‘Joe SaysTax’ and details what it describes as his ‘extreme liberal’ positions. As for Katie McGinty, the campaign accuses her of unethical decisions during herroles with the state Department of Environmental Protection and with energy firms.” One Democrat not mentioned on the website? Braddock Mayor John Fetterman.
Did a Penn professor co-author a study suggesting the “overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats?” Not exactly.
That’s the claim presidential candidate Ted Cruz made in a recent radio interview, PolitiFact reports. But the research, c0-authored by Marc Meredith of the University of Pennsylvania, doesn’t really address that question. the research does show that ex-felons who were allowed to vote, after completing their sentences, did often register as Democrats. But the research doesn’t show if or how the felons were registered at the time of their crimes; nor does it distinguish between “violent” and “non-violent” criminals; and it also doesn’t account for the many ex-offenders who are not registered to vote. “Cruz is misinterpreting our research,” the authors told PolitiFact. Given all those caveats, Politifact rated Cruz’s comment as “mostly false.”
Other Philadelphia headlines:
City still working to reach franchise deal with Comcast
Temple University sees big boost in applications
VIDEO: Violent carjacking at Philadelphia gas station
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