Commonwealth

"We must liberate the electoral process from the tyranny of the campaign dollar. " ". . . We must close the loopholes that allow special interests to throw their money around. " ". . . We must select our judges on the basis of what they know instead of who they know. " There was lots of fife-and-drum, good-government stuff yesterday in Gov. Casey's State of the Commonwealth address. The question is, were his declarations worthy of a brass plaque, or were they merely boilerplate?

Applebrook's Catherine Elliott used a tournament-best 74 to capture the Women's Golf Association of Philadelphia's 104th Stroke Play Championship on Thursday at Manufacturers Golf and Country Club. Elliott, tied for sixth place after the first day of the 36-hole competition, overtook 18-hole leaders Marji Goldman and Kerry Rutan of the Philadelphia Cricket Club to post a two-day total of 155. Elliott won by a stroke and claimed the Mary Thayer Farnum Cup. Elliott, who helped Penn win the Ivy League title this spring, also claimed the WGAP's Silver Cross, which is awarded to the player with the lowest combined scores from the Farnum Cup and the qualifying round of the Amateur Championship.

THE BEREAN Institute has been evicted from its landmark building in North Philadelphia. The historic school, founded in 1899 to provide job training to African-Americans, has been ordered to "quit, vacate and remove all belongings" from the state-owned building at 19th Street and Girard Avenue by Friday, according to a letter dated Thursday from the state Office of the General Counsel. The letter was addressed to Dr. Lorraine Poole-Naranjo, president of the Berean Institute, who said Monday afternoon that the school will move to a new location.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk angrily warned yesterday that the Commonwealth of Independent States was "doomed" unless Russia stopped trying to dominate the fledgling organization. Speaking at the end of the third summit of commonwealth leaders, Kravchuk sarcastically criticized Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and accused Russia of wanting to be the sole successor to the former Soviet Union. Throughout the day, Kravchuk and other Ukrainian officials indicated that Ukraine, with a population of about 52 million, might soon pull out of the commonwealth, a move that would seriously weaken or kill the alliance that replaced the U.S.S.

Eastern Metal Recycling Terminal L.L.C., with a heap of crushed scrap at the foot of the Platt Memorial Bridge in South Philadelphia, has received a setback in its move to Eddystone. The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, on behalf of the administration of Gov. Corbett, rescinded $31.1 million promised by Gov. Rendell to develop a pier on the Delaware River. The scrap recycler, formerly Camden Iron & Metal Inc., will spend $60 million to transform the vacant Foamex Industrial Inc. property in Eddystone, with seven buildings, into a modern scrap-metal shredding operation.

The leaders of the powerful Slavic republics of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus officially declared the Soviet Union dead yesterday and signed a historic agreement creating a commonwealth of their three independent states. "We, the republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, as the founding states of the U.S.S.R., state that the U.S.S.R. as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist," said the agreement signed by the presidents and prime ministers of the three republics.

I agree 100 percent with Harold J. Weigand's column of Jan. 4, "Go easy on that center," relative to the city's plans for a convention center. The City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should not use our tax dollars for a project of questionable necessity; and the proposed location is ludicrous. L.W. Born Jr. Philadelphia.

Golf Association of Phila. SENIOR FOUR-BALL STROKE PLAY At Heidelberg; par 70. Gross Division Mark Leaman, Honeybrook; Marlin Detweiler, Lancaster. . . 65 Tom Borsello, White Clay Creek; Mike Domenick, Phoenixville. . . 67 Mark Walker; Kenneth Zimmer; Laurel Creek. . . 67 Don Donatoni, White Manor; Michael Rose, Talamore. . . 67 Carl Everett, Merion; Neil McDermott, Llanerch. . . 69 Richard Lownes; James Muller, Manufacturers.

Pennsylvania calls itself a commonwealth. But often it acts as if that title is a cynical joke - never more so than when it gets to squabbling over what it owes its schoolchildren. As you may have heard, the latest installment of "cry wolf" by the city schools has ended, as usual, not with the threatened padlocking of empty-pocketed schools. No, it ended with some typical fiscal abracadabra by state and city officials that delays the day of reckoning for another year. (The money woes are real; it's just the threats that aren't.

AFTER SEVEN YEARS of Tom Ridge and one of Mark Schweiker - and the Republican philosophy of the less government the better - where does the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stand? Right near the bottom in chart after chart comparing the commonwealth to other big states in the vital areas of jobs, population growth and education. Come the general election in November, Pennsylvania needs at least one gubernatorial candidate who will provide bold, visionary leadership. Someone who sees Pennsylvania not only for what it is, but for what it can be. In the Democratic primary for governor, only one candidate fills the bill: Ed Rendell.

There are apparently more than enough Marcellus Shale pipelines in the pipeline, for now at least. The Commonwealth Pipeline, a $1 billion trunk-line project proposed last year by three companies to transport Marcellus natural gas from Williamsport to Washington, has officially been suspended, according to the venture's website. There was insufficient demand for the 200-mile, 30-inch pipeline that could carry 800 million cubic feet of gas a day. The project's suspension was attributed to low gas prices, a slow economy, and the expansion of existing pipelines, said Simon Bowman, a spokesman for UGI Corp., the Valley Forge energy firm that is one of the project's three partners.

It's always more advantageous for St. Joseph's to play a transition game and to capitalize on the open court skills of not only the guards, but players like center C.J. Aiken and Ronald Roberts. Both the 6-foot-9 Aiken and 6-8 Roberts run the court extremely well. Yet if the 10th-seeded Hawks want to earn the upset over No. 2 VCU in Friday's 6:30 p.m. Atlantic Ten tournament quarterfinal at the Barclays Center, they likely will have to play at a slower pace. St. Joseph's was effective playing VCU's style during the regular season before losing a 92-86 overtime decision on the road.

One of Philadelphia's largest commercial landlords may be facing a battle over control. CommonWealth REIT , the Newton, Mass.-based owner of the 54-story BNY Mellon Center and 24-story One Franklin Plaza, had released its 2012 financial results Monday and disclosed plans to raise $450 million by issuing more shares. On Tuesday, two of the company's largest shareholders blasted that plan in a regulatory filing and urged CommonWealth to change its management structure, buy back stock, and deleverage its balance sheet.

By Grant Rawdin Recent reports in The Inquirer have mischaracterized the Urban Affairs Coalition's handling of state grants and discounted the valuable work we do in the interests of more than 150,000 low-income Philadelphians every year. The articles were based on a confidential report, commissioned by commonwealth officials and leaked to the newspaper, that calls into question a small fraction of the grants the coalition managed for the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

THE BEREAN Institute has been evicted from its landmark building in North Philadelphia. The historic school, founded in 1899 to provide job training to African-Americans, has been ordered to "quit, vacate and remove all belongings" from the state-owned building at 19th Street and Girard Avenue by Friday, according to a letter dated Thursday from the state Office of the General Counsel. The letter was addressed to Dr. Lorraine Poole-Naranjo, president of the Berean Institute, who said Monday afternoon that the school will move to a new location.

HARRISBURG - Lawyers for the state and Pennsylvania's debt-strapped capital squared off in court Thursday over whether a judge can force a city to raise taxes. Commonwealth Court Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter did not rule immediately after listening to six hours of arguments on whether to order Harrisburg's City Council to double the rate of the city's 1 percent earned-income tax, as sought by appointees of Gov. Corbett. But, she said, if she did order the tax increase, she would restrict the money to paying for crucial city services amid a looming cash shortfall and insist that none of it go toward payments on the massive and controversial debt tied to the municipal trash incinerator.

IN DECIDING not to grant an injunction to block implementation of Pennsylvania's unfair voter-ID law, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. gave "substantial deference to the judgment of the Legislature" to regulate elections, even if some had partisan political motives in enacting the law. As to the heavy burden that the law places on individuals trying to exercise their fundamental right to vote? That doesn't matter as much. It is an interpretation of the law that is reasonable but wrong.

Even if he can't run for Congress as an "independent," Jim Foster's name still can appear on the November election ballot, Commonwealth Court ruled late Tuesday. The court said he could be listed as the "Philadelphia Party" candidate and might yet be designated the "Independent" nominee. Foster wants to run against incumbent Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), but when he filed his 125-page petition on Friday in Harrisburg as an "independent," state election officials rejected his signatures on the ground that another member of his party already had filed.

Convicting Jerry Sandusky would be the easy part of sorting out and bringing to justice those who took part in the alleged rape of children, either actively or by looking the other way. Any untainted jury, confronted with the preponderance of evidence in this case and the absence of a credible defense, would convict Sandusky on a majority of the 48 counts he faces. The jury that heard the weeklong case is now in deliberation and, barring a procedural issue, is expected to return its verdict within days.