Private Sector

Tim Chapman is chief operating officer of Heritage Action for America (heritageaction.com), a conservative grassroots advocacy group based in Washington Ford Motor Co. is on to something. This year, hundreds of taxis, powered by compressed natural gas, will pop up around the country: 120 Ford Transit Connects in the Los Angeles area, 70 in Connecticut. Las Vegas, St. Louis, and Philadelphia will also see their own fleet of Transit Connects soon. America's abundant supply of cheap, accessible natural gas and the stubbornly high cost of gasoline and diesel are making natural gas vehicles more attractive and economical.

In an impassioned speech, Jesse Jackson yesterday told National Urban League delegates that if blacks are to bridge the wealth gap, they must transcend racial issues and convince business people that it is beneficial to invest in all of the nation's poor as they have in those in foreign countries. "Until we engage the people with the power to change the structures that create the gaps, we will never be able to close the gaps," Jackson told the standing-room-only crowd. "And fundamentally those people are not elected officials, but rather business people in the private sector.

The Los Angeles riots, the chaos in Crown Heights and the urban turmoil of the past year have made it abundantly clear that America needs a new approach to its urban problems. Bill Clinton was elected largely because his campaign focused so resolutely on new solutions. But to deliver on his promise of change, Clinton must not play the "either-or" game. We can't spend four more years debating whether social services should be delivered by the public sector or the private sector.

When it comes to creating a more secure financial future, there's just no substitute for planning ahead. That's exactly what Pennsylvania aims to do through Gov. Corbett's initiative to ensure Pennsylvania Lottery-funded programs for older adults can keep up with the huge wave of baby boomers nearing eligibility age. To be better prepared to serve those citizens, we're exploring establishing a private management agreement for the lottery....

The 10, orange-clad prisoners showed up an hour early (not that they had much choice) for the groundbreaking for eight homes they are scheduled to build for a local nonprofit organization. They were obviously as excited about the gig as they were about the television cameras pointed at them yesterday, and the fact they were temporarily breathing the air outside the grounds of the Garden State Correctional Facility in Bordentown. The prisoners are part of a state Department of Corrections pilot project that officials hope will become a useful tool in the struggle to reduce the number of repeat offenders.

Mayor Goode is justifiably proud of the new center-city skyline. The twin towers of Liberty Place may not be outstanding architecture, but the new Bell Atlantic tower takes care of the esthetics. Other new buildings, like Mellon Bank and Logan Two, complete the skyline picture and add immeasurably to the new life on the streets. And since it all happened on Mayor Goode's watch, he deserves to bask in some of the glory. Meanwhile, of course, there are some gaping holes in the city.

To understand one of the nastiest and most complicated issues in Philadelphia's race for mayor, come explore the low-slung brick clubhouse at the Walnut Lane golf course. There, amid the tees, putters and other paraphernalia of the sport, old- timers sip coffee in the lounge and hot dogs roast on a spit while, outside, determined duffers brave the gusty March chill. Since 1985, Walnut Lane and Philadelphia's five other public links have been managed by a private company. In that time, use has increased, the courses and clubhouses have been spruced up, and the city has saved about $1 million a year.

By W. Wilson Goode Jr. This spring, the Street administration will spend countless hours presenting budget testimony to City Council. The city's Finance Department will suggest that the current estimated deficit of $225 million is the direct result of national economic conditions that are solely responsible for the city's flat revenue growth. The administration then will argue for extreme measures, such as charging a $35 application fee for a city job as an immediate revenue generator.

Most employers recognize but do not observe Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. In other words: no day off for employees. A recent Bloomberg BNA survey of employers' holiday practices found just three in 10 organizations would be closed for business. It's a level that has been largely unchanged in similar surveys since 2004. There were clues everywhere Monday that this was far from a normal day in Philadelphia in January. The lack of a morning rush hour. Schools were closed, as were U.S. financial markets.

Mayor Nutter in the coming weeks is slated to significantly expand an effort to recruit corporate and nonprofit employees as temporary city workers on loan to his administration. Though Nutter announced such an effort a year ago on the day after his election, to date it has drawn the participation of just six businesses from the city and region. Among them have been the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Clinton Foundation, the Star Group, and Select Greater Philadelphia, which is an affiliate of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Not donating to Komen Missy Stein stated that the reason fund-raising was down this year for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was because of the "Planned Parenthood debacle" ("Apologizing for Komen's errors," Friday). She is only partly correct. The reason that I and many of my friends have not donated to Komen this year is because of its support of Planned Parenthood. We wanted to show our opposition to how this was handled by the Komen organization. Our donations will go to other women's cancer charities that do not support the Planned Parenthood agenda.

When it comes to creating a more secure financial future, there's just no substitute for planning ahead. That's exactly what Pennsylvania aims to do through Gov. Corbett's initiative to ensure Pennsylvania Lottery-funded programs for older adults can keep up with the huge wave of baby boomers nearing eligibility age. To be better prepared to serve those citizens, we're exploring establishing a private management agreement for the lottery....

The New York Times has reported on the exploitive nature and dubious legality of unpaid internships. Yet the newspaper recently issued a call for its own unpaid social-media intern. By doing so when jobs are already scarce, isn't the Times helping to widen the class gap among young Americans? The Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project has found that 65 percent of Americans born into the bottom fifth of wage-earning families remain within the bottom two-fifths, while about a third of those born into the middle class drop into the lower classes.

HARRISBURG - The newest buzzword in the Capitol for the future of the much-maligned state Liquor Control Board: modernization. Gone is the sense of urgency that existed last year to auction off Pennsylvania's 620-plus wine and spirits stores - a time when the clarion call from several Republican quarters, not least among them Gov. Corbett's office, was "privatization. " These days, top Republicans in Harrisburg are softening their rhetoric. Though insisting privatization is the ultimate goal, they say that in the interim, the state should implement measures to spiff up the LCB - make it more efficient, consumer-friendly, and profitable.

COULD the Philadelphia Gas Works soon be for sale? In 2010, the city entered into a $200,000 contract with Lazard Freres & Co. LLC for a study of the possibility of selling the city-owned gas utility to a private entity, an idea that has been kicked around by previous mayoral administrations. Yesterday, at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's annual mayoral luncheon, Mayor Nutter said the analysis would be released next week but he disclosed no details. "We're very well-aware that municipalities are taking a hard look at the assets they have," said Barry O'Sullivan, director of corporate communication for PGW, adding that the utility was not taking sides in the discussion.

WASHINGTON - If President Obama wins reelection in November, Friday's jobs report may be remembered as the turning point when he shifted from slight underdog to favorite. "Where are the jobs?" has been the question at the heart of the Republican case against Obama. Mitt Romney's campaign turns on the assertion that his experience in the private sector taught him how to create jobs. Obama, by contrast, has "failed" in that endeavor, he repeatedly says. January's growth - a net of 243,000 jobs created, the most in nine months and almost double what most economists had forecast - undermines that argument, both Democratic and Republican strategists agreed.

  An "unambiguously good" jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor sent stocks soaring Friday morning and will likely boost President Obama's political prospects. The economy created 243,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent the previous month and from 9.1 percent a year ago. "There are no real caveats to those numbers," said Kurt Rankin, the economist with PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, who described the report's numbers as "unambiguously good.

Most employers recognize but do not observe Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. In other words: no day off for employees. A recent Bloomberg BNA survey of employers' holiday practices found just three in 10 organizations would be closed for business. It's a level that has been largely unchanged in similar surveys since 2004. There were clues everywhere Monday that this was far from a normal day in Philadelphia in January. The lack of a morning rush hour. Schools were closed, as were U.S. financial markets.

GREER, S.C. - Facing efforts by his Republican rivals to paint him as a heartless corporate raider who preyed on struggling companies while working in private equity, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney stepped up his defense of his tenure at Bain Capital on Thursday, arguing that his goal had been to make businesses successful over the long term. Supporters of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have promised a "strong and sustained" campaign in the Palmetto State attacking Romney's career at Bain.