Loophole

A City Council committee yesterday moved to slam shut a legal loophole that has granted hefty real-estate tax breaks to buyers of new luxury condominiums. Council's Finance Committee yesterday approved an amendment that would take away real estate tax abatements granted to three condominium developers under a 1988 ordinance intended solely for the Rittenhouse, the 33-story condominium and office development on Rittenhouse Square. It would also prevent the abatement from being granted to a fourth developer who has a pending application.

West Chester University is considering disciplinary action against 23 students, including the editor of the student newspaper and two other newspaper staffers, for using a loophole in the university's computerized registration system to sign up for courses ahead of time. The editor-in-chief of the Quad, Aaron W. Benson, said the newspaper was only checking on the glitch. But he and his colleagues face harsh punishment and possibly suspension. If that happens, Benson said yesterday, "we may appeal.

You may recall the Pentagon's $640 toilet seats. But do you remember "Mr. Fursten"? The ultimate symbol of a defense industry run amok, "Mr. Fursten" rose to notoriety after General Dynamics billed taxpayers $155 to send him somewhere called "Silver Maple Farm. " During a 1985 congressional inquiry into defense overcharges, Rep. John D. Dingell (D., Mich.) asked who Fursten was. General Dynamics' chairman said he'd never heard of the guy. "Mr. Fursten," it turned out, was a General Dynamics executive's dog. Each year, hundreds of thousands of federal dollars slip through an obscure loophole that entitles government contractors to charge taxpayers for any activity that arguably improves "employee morale" - such as boarding Fursten at a St. Louis kennel.

You sidle up to the bar at Maui on Delaware Avenue hoping you haven't missed last call. Your watch reads 1:55 a.m. But the bartender assures you they're serving for another hour and it's only 12:55 as far as she's concerned. Have you stepped into a time warp? Nope. The Twilight Zone? No. Had too much to drink? Get real. Maui, Egypt, and lots of other clubs on the waterfront are still operating on Eastern Standard Time. Makes sense - what does a nightclub need with an extra hour of daylight?

The days when a Pennsylvania resident can legally carry a concealed firearm using a Florida permit appear to be coming to an end. "The Florida loophole is officially closed in the state of Pennsylvania," Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Friday as she stood beside Mayor Nutter and other city leaders in North Philadelphia. Her words drew cheers from the crowd but were received less warmly among Republicans in Harrisburg. Since September 2001, Pennsylvania and Florida have had a reciprocity agreement that required Pennsylvania to recognize all of Florida's concealed-carry permits.

DAN ONORATO and Tom Corbett are still fighting about Florida - specifically the loophole that allows Pennsylvania residents to apply to the Sunshine State for permits to carry concealed weapons. Onorato, the Democratic nominee for governor, calls the Florida loophole an "out-of- control situation" that Corbett could fix in his current job as state attorney general. Corbett, the Republican nominee, won't touch the issue. His campaign dismisses the loophole as a "solution in search of a problem," claiming critics can't point to a "single incident of serious crime" with a Florida permit.

For more than two decades, Marie Tully and Joan DeLorenzo lugged snow fences across the sand that separates their summer homes from the Atlantic Ocean, slowly, laboriously shaping and reshaping the dunes that protect their dwellings from punishing storms. This spring, a bulldozer shoved its snout into their handiwork, plunging through the carefully crafted dunes to make room for a sizable house that stretches toward the sea on the vacant lot between their homes. "I am very upset.

Here is the case: A county commissioner votes to fire the county solicitor, despite his unblemished record, and hire a new one. Only one candidate is interviewed, and he is hired; he is the commissioner's son. Such a maneuver might seem improper. It did to four members of the state Ethics Commission. But the seven-member panel ruled that the actions did not violate the state Ethics Act. The reason is a small clause in the definitions section of the act that serves as a loophole for those who would get government jobs for their relatives.

Jaclyn Reed couldn't believe what she was reading. It was a letter from Philadelphia's Night Court saying she'd been found guilty in absentia of drinking alcohol in public from an open container. She was at work when the crime was committed. She'd never been to the location where the arrest was made. Reed soon learned she was the victim of a legal loophole. The person who really was boozing in public gave Reed's name to the cops and got away scot-free. That's because in Pennsylvania, people charged with summary offenses, which include almost all so-called quality-of-life crimes, can't be detained if they don't have identification.

City Council voted unanimously yesterday to close a loophole in the city's police pension law that allowed civilian workers to collect generous police pensions even though they never worked a day in uniform. The vote came after the second reading of legislation sponsored by Councilman James F. Kenney, son of a retired firefighter. Kenney introduced the bill in October after an article in The Inquirer detailed how some nonuniformed city employees had exploited a loophole in pension rules to retire on police pensions as early as age 45, after serving as police recruits for only a few days or weeks.