Paperwork

CUBA LIBRE chef-partner Guillermo Pernot isn't content with bringing Cuban chefs to Philadelphia and Washington for his "Pop-Up Paladares" series. He also wants Cuban-food devotees to experience the tastes of the island firsthand. To that end, he is hosting a five-day culinary expedition to Cuba, April 20-24. "We're going to go to Havana just to eat - lunch and dinner and everything in between - and smoke cigars and drink coffee," Pernot promised. "We are not gonna [visit] any state paladares.

Since August, the Corbett administration has cut off more than 150,000 people - including 43,000 children - from medical assistance in a drive to save costs. That purge far exceeds what any other state has tried, health policy experts say, and officials may be walking a fine line between rooting out waste and erecting barriers to care for the poor and disabled. When most states were experiencing flat or rising Medicaid enrollment from the economic downturn, stepped-up eligibility reviews in Pennsylvania began producing a decline over the summer.

TEMPLE JUNIOR running back Bernard Pierce, as anticipated, has submitted his paperwork with the NFL to apply for early entry into the draft, according to sources close to the situation. The 6-foot, 220-pound junior from the Glen Mills Schools has rushed for 1,381 yards this season (tied for 11th in FBS) and scored 22 touchdowns (tied for fifth), despite missing a game with a head injury. He played in two others with a tender hamstring. In a list that was last updated on Oct. 21, waltercamp.com projected Pierce as the 10th-best prospect at his position and a third- or fourth-round pick.

Last month, 31,741 Pennsylvanians were cut from Medical Assistance, the insurance that covers people who are disabled, poor, or gravely ill. Almost 18,000 children lost their benefits. The reduction is a point of pride for state Department of Public Welfare officials, who are trying to cut the budget by clearing out ineligible recipients whose paperwork was not complete. But workers and advocates say that in many cases, the fault doesn't lie with the recipients but with the Welfare Department.

Unfinished background reports caused the delay Tuesday of sentencing for three people found guilty in the 2006 death of Danieal Kelly, the disabled teen who starved in her mother's squalid West Philadelphia apartment. Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart told lawyers that incomplete presentencing investigations made it necessary to postpone until Oct. 20 the sentencing of Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly, 40, and two others. "Just like in this case, bureaucracy seems to get in the way constantly," said Minehart, referring to personnel problems and policies in the Department of Human Services that caused neglect reports to go uninvestigated until after Danieal Kelly died on Aug. 4, 2006.

Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith will conduct NFL labor talks later this week after letting the lawyers handle paperwork for 2 days. Attorneys for the NFL and the players' association are sorting out contract language and details that could speed the process in reaching a new collective bargaining agreement. "The owners will not open the doors without a signed document in place," a person with knowledge of the talks told the Associated Press yesterday. "So this paperwork is important to get done" yesterday and today.

Patience is a virtue, we are told, and waiting brings rewards. Sometimes that's true, as when the coo of an anticipated child at long last makes a home sing. Other times, the pursuit ends involuntarily as life overtakes longing. In June 2010, a Style & Soul article profiled six stories of waiting: an unemployed urbanite; a 1-year-old who was on the verge of walking; a couple who yearned to be parents; a grandmother on a lung-transplant list; an aspiring student trapped in a paperwork problem; and firefighters on call.

I'll warn you first that what you are about to read comes from Demos, a liberal think tank based in New York City. I neither endorse nor oppose Demos' opinions. I just found some of them interesting in light of an e-mail I received from a lawyer who donates time to borrowers at Philadelphia's mortgage-foreclosure diversion court. In my May 29 column, I wrote that the government didn't have much of a track record solving housing's problems, citing the Home Affordable Modification Program's results as an example.

Ramone Moore just wants to receive NBA evaluations. That's why the Temple redshirt junior plans to file paperwork Saturday to enter the NBA draft. "I'm basically just testing the water just to see what the scouts think," said the 6-foot-4 shooting guard, who added that he will not hire an agent. "I'm trying to get in some workouts. "I'm looking forward to coming back to school next year. This is just a good opportunity to show where I stand for next year. " Moore has until Sunday to file paperwork with the NBA. If he doesn't hire an agent, the Southern High product can withdraw his name any time before May 8 without losing his NCAA eligibility.