Advocacy Group

Calling him "the education candidate," a public-school advocacy group endorsed Democrat Dan Onorato for governor Wednesday afternoon. Education Voters of Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group based in Philadelphia, said it preferred Onorato over Republican Tom Corbett because of his support for gradually raising state funding for most school districts according to a formula first approved by the legislature in 2008. Corbett has said he does not support increased funding because of budget crises that the state faces in the next few years.

Although the trash-to-steam plant in Plymouth Township has been test- burning garbage for more than one month, a citizen's group is not giving up its fight to monitor the facility's operations. T.R.A.S.H. Ltd. (The Residents Against Solid Waste Hazards) has appealed the temporary operating permit, issued by the state Department of Environmental Resources, that allows the $186 million facility to burn refuse. Members of the group say the permit does not include the testing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

A Latino advocacy group filed suit Thursday to prevent Pennsylvania state district maps drawn in 2001 from being used in the next election. "The 2001 legislative district lines do not reflect the demographic changes that have occurred in the last 10 years," said Juan Cartagena, president and general counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which filed the lawsuit. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court voted, 4-3, last week to reject proposed district lines approved by a bipartisan legislative commission.

Pregnant women with drug addictions are being denied admission to some rehabilitation centers in the city, a women's advocacy group claims. The Women's Law Project has filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, charging the centers with sex discrimination. The commission is expected to announce today that it will investigate the allegations, said Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women's Law Project. Human Relations Commissioner Kevin Vaughan said he would not comment about the allegations until a formal press conference today at his office.

A LINE OF action figures based on the characters from "Django Unchained" have recently gone on sale ($34.99 retail), but Najee Ali wants them taken off the market. Ali, director of the advocacy group Project Islamic Hope, in conjunction with other Los Angeles black community leaders, called for the removal of the toys and said they're "a slap in the face of our ancestors" that "trivializes the horrors of slavery. " But do they really? More than the film itself? Did the action figures made for Quentin Tarantino 's last film, "Inglourious Basterds," trivialize the horrors of the Nazis?

While Philadelphia's housing shortage grows more acute, the city is sitting on millions of dollars of federal money that could ease the problem, according to a housing-advocacy group. Edward A. Schwartz, director of Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development, yesterday confirmed the data presented by the Housing Asociation of the Delaware Valley but said the group's conclusions were misleading. Schwartz said that the unspent money had been committed to various projects either in the planning stages or about to get under construction.

Late in the afternoon of May 13, after two days of self-analysis that was often insightful but sometimes self-serving, a group of artists and arts administrators took a first step toward forming an arts advocacy organization for Philadelphia. Fired up by a feeling of comradeship and common purpose, the group formed a steering committee to organize a general meeting in the near future at which such an organization could be formally constituted. As a spontaneous gesture of their enthusiasm, the conferees even ponied up a total of $450 for start-up expenses.

A prisoners' advocacy group has sued the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, saying the agency is trying to block access to public records by charging thousands of dollars in copying fees. At issue in the case are records requested by Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy Inc., a nonprofit agency designated by federal law to investigate abuse and neglect of Pennsylvanians with disabilities. As many as 20 percent of Pennsylvania inmates have diagnosed mental illnesses, an attorney for the effort said.

A Philadelphia parent advocacy group is preparing schoolwork for students that will be made available if a teacher strike is called. "We will be offering strike packets for parents at each grade level, using the school district curriculum," said Veronica Joyner, president and founder of Parents United for Better Schools Inc. "We also will be providing textbooks to parents. " The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has not decided to strike, although members voted yesterday to give union president Ted Kirsch the authority to do so. The union is required to give 48 hours' notice.

Activist Cynthia Brown, 60, one of the guiding forces at the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch, died last Sunday in Manhattan after fighting cancer. Ms. Brown started with Human Rights Watch as a researcher in 1982, focusing on the Americas. In 1990, she went to Chile for two years for the organization. In 1993, she became its first program director, overseeing every report it published. Executive Director Kenneth Roth said Thursday that Ms. Brown "played a central role in establishing the high standards that have come to define Human Rights Watch.

The New Jersey Education Law Center has gone to court to try to reverse state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf's decision to approve the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy Renaissance school in Camden. In a filing in Superior Court on behalf of some city residents and regional organizations, the law center, which represents students in failing school districts, says the KIPP application does not follow the law with regard to three of its five proposed schools. In March, Cerf signed off on an agreement between the Camden Board of Education and the nonprofit to build five partly private, partly public schools in the city.

Children who eat breakfast in school do better in math and miss fewer class days than those who don't, according to a new national study released Wednesday. "The simple act of feeding kids a healthy school breakfast can have a dramatic impact on their academic, health, and economic futures," the study concluded. The report was created for Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger in America through its No Kid Hungry campaign. The study, called "Ending Childhood Hunger: A Social Impact Analysis," was done pro bono by Deloitte, an accounting consulting firm that also performs community-service work.

Children who eat breakfast in school do better in math and miss fewer class days, according to a new national study released Wednesday. "The simple act of feeding kids a healthy school breakfast can have a dramatic impact on their academic, health, and economic futures," the study concluded. The report was created for Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger in America through its No Kid Hungry campaign. The study, called "Ending Childhood Hunger: A Social Impact Analysis," was done pro bono by Deloitte, an accounting consulting firm that also performs community-service work.

IT WAS 1985, Ernie Schiff had just gotten a new heart - his was the fifth such transplant in Philadelphia - and his wife wanted to know what was next. "The coordinator handed me a big book," said Anne Schiff, now 82. "I didn't understand anything about the book. I said, 'You know, I think we should start a group.' And I said, 'Let's call it Second Chance.' Because that's exactly what it was. " Twenty-eight years and nearly 2,500 heart transplants later, Second Chance quietly continues its same dual mission: support for patients who want to know what will happen to them and fundraising to help them afford it. It has expanded from Temple University Hospital, then the local pioneer, to the three other general hospitals in Philly that now do heart transplants - Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University Hospital.

ADVOCACY GROUPS charged Monday that the Philadelphia School District's proposal to close 37 schools in June disproportionately affects minorities and disabled students and speaks to a widening gap between the city's economically disenfranchised youth and their more fortunate counterparts. Action United and the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools (PCAPS) announced Monday that the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights intends to investigate a complaint that the groups filed.

State Senator Lloyd Smucker (R-West Lampeter), has introduced a bill that would allow undocumented immigrant youth who complete high school in Pennsylvania to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges. "This has the potential to expand the pool of skilled workers and prospective job creators," said Smucker, who modeled his legislation on Maryland's Dream Act, which offers subsidized tuition to undocumented youth who were brought to the United States as young children.

A LINE OF action figures based on the characters from "Django Unchained" have recently gone on sale ($34.99 retail), but Najee Ali wants them taken off the market. Ali, director of the advocacy group Project Islamic Hope, in conjunction with other Los Angeles black community leaders, called for the removal of the toys and said they're "a slap in the face of our ancestors" that "trivializes the horrors of slavery. " But do they really? More than the film itself? Did the action figures made for Quentin Tarantino 's last film, "Inglourious Basterds," trivialize the horrors of the Nazis?

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - The sharp tang of varnish hangs in the air as a dozen women and a few men cut and scrape logs into bowls destined for U.S. department stores. In other Haitian workshops, vases sparkle with sequins of pink, green and blue, and dragonflies leap from picture frames cut from recycled steel drums. Three years after a devastating earthquake, there's still not much economic traction in this long impoverished Caribbean country, but one small niche has taken off: arts and crafts.

Leanne Krueger-Braneky, the first executive director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, is resigning effective Feb. 1 after eight years leading the advocacy group for locally-owned businesses committed to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profits. She will be joining the Washington-based BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) as director of fellowship and alumni, working from her Philadelphia home. SBN's board of directors is conducting an open search for Krueger-Braneky's replacement.