General Election

The last day to register to vote for the Nov. 3 general election is Monday. To register, residents must be 18 years old on or before Nov. 4 - the day after the election- and a U.S. citizen for at least 30 days before the election. They must have lived in the election district for at least 30 days before the election. Registered voters who have not voted in two years or who have moved to another county must reregister to be eligible to vote. Residents can register by appearing at their county courthouse or by mailing in a completed registration form.

EXETER, N.H. - Eyeing the November election, Vice President Biden on Thursday called presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney "out of touch" and "out of step" with history and basic American values. Biden also opened a new line of attack, introducing the "Romney rule" and contrasting it with President Obama's push for the "Buffet rule" to force rich people to pay more of their income in taxes. The measure, named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, says the wealthy should not pay taxes at a lower rate than middle-class wage-earners.

Popular educator Arnold M. Webster last night easily defeated his two challengers for mayor of this once-bustling, now struggling city. With nearly all votes tallied, the school superintendent was leading Republican candidate Keith A. Walker by a ratio of more than 4-to-1. The vote for the third candidate in the race, write-in independent Troy Oglesby, will not be tallied until today. After he won more votes in the primary than all of his Democratic rivals combined, including outgoing mayor Aaron Thompson, the race never was expected to be close.

Democrat incumbents in the register of wills' and sheriff's offices are facing challenges in next Tuesday's primary, and a vacant city commissioner's seat has three Republicans scrambling to fill it. Otherwise, action in Philadelphia's inconspicuous row offices is dormant - at least until November. In one contested race, longtime Register of Wills Ronald R. Donatucci, running for a fifth term, is facing a challenge from a former employee, whom he fired, for the Democratic nomination.

The jobs may be on the verge of extinction, but that hasn't stopped 41 men and women from seeking election as judges of Philadelphia Traffic Court. That's how many candidates submitted signature petitions Tuesday to secure spots for the court on the May 21 primary ballot. The judgeships - if they continue - pay $91,000 a year for a six-year term. They don't require a law degree or even a high school diploma. "It's remarkable to see how many people are interested in running for a position that may not exist in a few months," said Erik Arneson, a spokesman for state Senate Republican leader Dominic Pileggi, sponsor of a bill to abolish Traffic Court.

TRENTON - State Sen. Barbara Buono's campaign fund-raising in her bid to be governor lags so badly that without a major push in the next four weeks, she risks not maximizing state matching money in her run against Gov. Christie. On Monday, Buono, a Democrat, reported having raised "just under" $1.9 million, including $1.1 million in matching funds. To be able to spend the maximum of $5.6 million on the June 4 primary, she must bring get close to $1.2 million more from donors.

The newly elected commissioners of Philadelphia's election machinery said Wednesday that they would end a practice allowing several hundred election-day workers to collect double pay by filling two different jobs at city polling places. "We will not be double-paying in the next election or any future elections," City Commissioners Chairwoman Stephanie Singer announced at a public meeting. The issue was raised by Joseph DeFelice, a state Republican Party organizer, who obtained payroll data from last November's general election and reported that 420 people appeared to have been paid twice - three of them three times - for work at the polls.

Lawyers on all sides of Pennsylvania's voter ID controversy want to postpone strict enforcement of the law until after the May 21 primary election, allowing time for the proposed photo-ID requirements to be considered again by the state's appellate courts. The attorneys, representing both the Corbett administration and various civil-rights groups opposed to the law, filed a stipulation Thursday asking Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. to extend a preliminary injunction he first issued in October.

FORMER PHILADELPHIA City Councilman, civic leader and piano player Ed Schwartz died Thursday morning at age 69. Schwartz had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2010 but had been feeling better and was frequently spotted attending Council's weekly Thursday sessions. He last attended two weeks ago, before the Thanksgiving break. The cause of death has not been determined. Jane Shull, Schwartz's wife, suspects that he died from a heart attack. "He had a pretty serious heart condition that could not be addressed anymore," Shull said.

It was good to see lawyers for and against the state's voter-ID law agree that the destructive statute should not be imposed for the May 21 primary. That means voters may be asked to produce a photo ID, but even if they don't have one, they will still be able to vote on a machine. Gov. Corbett signed the law pushed by Republican lawmakers last year to supposedly protect Pennsylvania from the scourge of voter impersonation. But when it had to prove the case in court, the state quickly stipulated it had no proof of hordes of voter imposters.

One of the most bitter and longest-running civil wars in Philadelphia politics came to an end this month, and almost nobody noticed. That's the price of irrelevance, which is perhaps the most charitable adjective one can use to describe the state of Philadelphia's Republican City Committee, a barely functioning party apparatus that often struggles to field credible candidates for offices big and small. For four years, the city's GOP has been riven into two blocs: an old guard, largely content to hold on to its share of the city's dwindling patronage jobs, and a cast of relative newcomers disgusted by the party's stagnation and insignificance.

TRENTON - State Sen. Barbara Buono's campaign fund-raising in her bid to be governor lags so badly that without a major push in the next four weeks, she risks not maximizing state matching money in her run against Gov. Christie. On Monday, Buono, a Democrat, reported having raised "just under" $1.9 million, including $1.1 million in matching funds. To be able to spend the maximum of $5.6 million on the June 4 primary, she must bring get close to $1.2 million more from donors.

The jobs may be on the verge of extinction, but that hasn't stopped 41 men and women from seeking election as judges of Philadelphia Traffic Court. That's how many candidates submitted signature petitions Tuesday to secure spots for the court on the May 21 primary ballot. The judgeships - if they continue - pay $91,000 a year for a six-year term. They don't require a law degree or even a high school diploma. "It's remarkable to see how many people are interested in running for a position that may not exist in a few months," said Erik Arneson, a spokesman for state Senate Republican leader Dominic Pileggi, sponsor of a bill to abolish Traffic Court.

It was good to see lawyers for and against the state's voter-ID law agree that the destructive statute should not be imposed for the May 21 primary. That means voters may be asked to produce a photo ID, but even if they don't have one, they will still be able to vote on a machine. Gov. Corbett signed the law pushed by Republican lawmakers last year to supposedly protect Pennsylvania from the scourge of voter impersonation. But when it had to prove the case in court, the state quickly stipulated it had no proof of hordes of voter imposters.

Lawyers on all sides of Pennsylvania's voter ID controversy want to postpone strict enforcement of the law until after the May 21 primary election, allowing time for the proposed photo-ID requirements to be considered again by the state's appellate courts. The attorneys, representing both the Corbett administration and various civil-rights groups opposed to the law, filed a stipulation Thursday asking Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. to extend a preliminary injunction he first issued in October.

That illusive struggle for fairness The friction and infighting on display at the University of Pennsylvania is a humorous and delicious irony for people like me, who are comfortably proud when grouped as Republican, conservative, libertarian, and/or tea-party "types" ("Penn faculty members, students debate Gutmann's diversity hiring record," Feb. 1). These individuals value and admire gate-crashers such as Marian Anderson, Jackie Robinson, Berry Gordy Jr., Clarence Thomas, and Barack Obama for breaking barriers against significant obstacles, real or imagined.

BRYAN, Ohio - Andre Cassagnes, 86, the inventor of the Etch A Sketch toy that generations of children drew on, shook up, and started over, has died in France, the toy's maker said. Mr. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in a Paris suburb at age 86, said the Ohio Art Co., based in Bryan in northwest Ohio. The cause was not disclosed Saturday. "Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that. His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time," said Larry Killgallon, president of Ohio Art. Then an electrical technician, Mr. Cassagnes came upon the Etch A Sketch idea in the late 1950s when he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face, the Toy Industry Association said.

THE CITY COMMISSION, which oversees elections in Philadelphia, is refusing to cooperate with a "fact-finding team" appointed by Mayor Nutter last month to examine problems in the Nov. 6 general election. Nutter's support in 2008 for eliminating "row offices" like the City Commission seems to have helped spark suspicions about his intentions now. The three elected commissioners sent Nutter a letter last week, citing "growing concerns about the integrity of the fact-finding process and the value of its eventual recommendations.

HARRISBURG - The state's attorney general-elect is putting her money where her mouth is. Following up on a promise she made on the campaign trail last fall, Kathleen Kane said Thursday that immediately upon taking office next week, she would appoint a special deputy to oversee a review of how the Attorney General's Office handled the Jerry Sandusky child sexual-abuse investigation. "We want to gather up the material and make sure the review is timely," Kane said in an interview.

7 feared dead in Japan tunnel TOKYO - At least seven people were feared dead after part of a highway tunnel collapsed Sunday in eastern Japan, trapping them in their vehicles and starting a fire that filled the tunnel with thick, black smoke. Three vehicles appear to have been crushed under concrete that fell from the ceiling of the three-mile Sasago Tunnel near the city of Otsuki in Yamanashi prefecture, about 50 miles west of Tokyo, the national government's disaster management agency said.