Inspections

When Fire Commissioner Roger Ulshafer asserted last week that the city Department of Licenses and Inspections was too corrupt to be trusted with high-rise fire-safety inspections, he had history on his side. Since its inception in 1951, L&I has had an almost uninterrupted record of bribery, exortion, favoritism and petty graft. Philadelphia's first L&I commissioner, Walter Pytko, warned in February 1952 that "any inspector who takes a bribe or accepts money not only will be dismissed but also will be prosecuted.

The mayor and his top aides said yesterday they knew nothing about a plan to inspect MOVE headquarters that was aborted after a crowd gathered in front of the Southwest Philadelphia house yesterday morning. The morning inspection was canceled after the Daily News reported yesterday that the city Department of Licenses and Inspections was coming to call. Managing Director James S. White and other city officials decided to call off the scheduled inspection during a two-hour meeting in White's office yesterday, said Capt.

US Airways Group Inc. found problems on seven of its Boeing 757 aircraft during inspections prompted by the loss of a wing component from another company plane during a March 22 flight from Orlando to Philadelphia. US Airways spokesman Phil Gee says the carrier inspected 17 Boeing 757s with wing specifications similar to the damaged jetliner. Last week, a small part of a 757's wing dislodged and hit a passenger window. Nobody was injured, and the plane landed safely at Philadelphia International Airport.

Need a favor in Bensalem? Maybe picking up the tab for a motel room will help. Some motel owners say that's what helped them defeat a proposed ordinance requiring annual township inspections of motel rooms and apartments. At least one Bensalem supervisor says so, too. "In my opinion it was politics. I think it was a good ordinance," said Supervisor Joseph Francano Jr. Bensalem supervisors voted, 4-1, Monday night to reject the ordinance. Before the vote, Supervisor David Costello, who voted with the majority, said the township owed the motel owners a debt for giving free rooms to visiting township job applicants and letting township police use a motel gym for free.

In a case testing the limits of the Fourth Amendment, the United States District Court has ruled that Glenolden Borough can continue its inspections of rental properties despite the objection of tenants. Judge Stewart Dalzell rejected the claim of Mary D. Smith, a resident of Glen Manor Apartments. Her suit alleged that Glenolden Borough's search of her apartment for its compliance with building and fire codes violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against "unreasonable search and seizures.

The Pennsauken Township Committee has given a cool reception to a proposal that the township conduct indoor house inspections as a method of preventing accidents such as one that killed a Willingboro woman and her three children on Sunday. Art Johnson, township code enforcement officer, proposed at the committee's work session last night that the township conduct interior inspections of homes and require buyers to obtain certificates of approval before closing home purchases. Johnson talked about the recent Willingboro deaths, which were attributed to carbon-monoxide poisoning from a faulty furnace pipe in a newly purchased home.

Safety inspections on SEPTA subway cars came under scrutiny yesterday during a hearing into the March 7 fatal derailment near 30th Street Station. But an inquiry panel from the National Transportation Safety Board heard conflicting accounts on who actually inspects the cars and how inspections should be carried out. Four people were killed and at least 165 injured when a traction motor on Car 817 fell off its support housing under the floor of the car, causing the derailment of the westbound Market-Frankford train near 30th Street during morning rush hour.

In the aftermath of the deadly collapse of Pier 34, Philadelphia officials have been repeating a mantra: It is not the city's responsibility to make sure the structure supporting the pier was sound. "The structure of that property is the owner's responsibility," said Ed McLaughlin, commissioner of the city Department of Licenses and Inspections. "If an owner found problems . . . it would be the owner's responsibility to take corrective action. " In that, however, Philadelphia differs from a number of its counterparts around the country.

In case you were one of those unfortunate folks stuck in what one top highway official called an "unbearable backup" on the Schuylkill Expressway yesterday morning, PennDOT wants you to know it's sorry and it'll try to prevent it from happening again. "We directed our contractor to stop work and cease all weekday inspections on I-76 because of the unbearable backups that resulted this morning from closing one of two eastbound lanes by City Avenue," PennDOT district administrator Andrew L. Warren said yesterday.

Carmen DiGaetano inspected the motor that triggered the deadliest accident in SEPTA history five days before it dropped from a subway train, but didn't look to see whether motor supports were loose or worn. He said he wasn't supposed to. Gino Roman inspected the motor a month before the accident and said he looked for signs the primary motor support had failed - but only because he took it upon himself to do so. He said it wasn't officially part of his job. In the first of two days of hearings by the National Transportation Safety Board about the derailment March 7 on the Market-Frankford line, SEPTA employees testified yesterday to practices that raised questions about the quality of inspection programs and the extent of analysis and communication that went on prior to the accident when a problem was discovered.

THE FEDERAL Occupational Health & Safety Administration has launched an inspection into working conditions at Philadelphia International Airport in response to a series of complaints filed last week on behalf of subcontracted baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants. The inspection, which can take up to six months, is a standard response to work-condition complaints, OSHA spokeswoman Leni Fortson said. The complaints allege that some airport workers employed by the subcontractor PrimeFlight Aviation Services, which does business in Philly with US Airways, United and Southwest, do not receive training on how to help handicapped passengers, are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids without protection and are forced to use faulty equipment.

ANOTHER WEEK, another significant smackdown from NASCAR's justice department. Matt Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota Sprint Cup team was the latest to hear a "guilty" verdict from NASCAR. Officials determined that the engine in Kenseth's winning car at Kansas Speedway on Sunday failed inspection. Kenseth was penalized 50 points yesterday, sending him spiraling from eighth place to a tie with Jeff Gordon for 14th place. Kenseth keeps the Kansas win, but he loses the three bonus points. While he keeps the victory in the record books, he cannot use it toward claiming a wild-card spot in the Chase.

WASHINGTON - Fewer food-safety inspections and an increased risk to consumers will result from the lack of a new 2013 budget from Congress and the impending across-the-board spending cuts, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Thursday. The cuts were to take effect Friday unless the White House and Congress could come to a budget agreement. The reduced inspections and budget cuts could delay a new food safety law that requires the agency to boost inspections and directs farms and food facilities to ensure their food is safe.

For more than a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said Sandy did not cause significant problems at any of the 247 Superfund toxic waste sites it monitors in New Jersey and New York state. But in many cases, no actual tests of soil or water are being conducted, just visual inspections. The EPA conducted a handful of tests right after the storm, but could not provide details or locations of any recent follow-ups when asked last week. New Jersey officials point out that federally designated Superfund sites are EPA's responsibility.

About a year and a half before a fire at a clothing factory in Bangladesh killed 112 people in November, executives from Wal-Mart, Gap and other big retailers met nearby to discuss ways to prevent the unsafe working conditions that have made such tragedies common. Representatives from a dozen of the world's largest retailers and fashion labels gathered with labor groups and local officials in April 2011 at the three-day meeting held in the 15-story, glass-walled headquarters of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka, the capital.

Authorities evacuated about 100 more homes in Paulsboro on Tuesday in response to elevated levels of vinyl chloride in the area surrounding Friday's train derailment, which already had sent about 400 residents to seek shelter elsewhere. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), whose district includes Paulsboro, called for a reform of regulations involving inspections of privately owned rail bridges such as the one over the Mantua Creek that failed. Andrews also expressed frustration at the pace of the cleanup.

U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D., N.J.) called today for stronger federal safety regulation of rail bridges, following the derailment and chemical spill in Paulsboro that has forced the evacuation of about 400 residents. The inspection of privately owned rail bridges should not be left to their owners, said Andrews, whose district includes Paulsboro. He will seek to change the law to require independent inspections by a federal authority, such as the Federal Railroad Administration, he said.

HARRISBURG - The Department of Agriculture imposed a virtual moratorium on kennel enforcement during the past 15 months by failing to properly inspect most commercial kennels, allowing oversized or poor-performing operations to skirt stringent regulations and issuing no citations for breaking the law, according to a blistering new report by members of the state's Dog Law Advisory Board. The nearly 100-page report, produced by a subcommittee of the board charged with advising the governor on dog issues, came to what it called "the disturbing conclusion" that the Dog Law Enforcement office has failed to enforce critical components of the dog law and the companion canine health regulations leaving close to 500,000 dogs in 2,000 kennels at risk.

Summertime, when the living is easy …   But not for pedestrians in happening parts of town. We are enjoying the annual blooming of picturesque sidewalk cafés, which enrich some environments, but can illegally spread like kudzu to strangle sidewalks. Too many restaurants ignore the law with near-impunity. The "law" is the Philadelphia Code, enforced by the Streets Department, but "enforced" is an overstatement. The code says sidewalks with a width of 13 feet or less require "five feet of clear sidewalk space.

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of the U.N. nuclear agency pushed Monday for a breakthrough pact with Iran to resume inspections into suspected secret atomic weapons work and possibly set in motion further deal making when envoys from Tehran and world powers gather later this week in Baghdad. The mission by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano raised speculation about greater flexibility by Iranian officials as they struggle to balance the blows from Western sanctions and their insistence never to abandon the country's nuclear program.