March 27: DiCicco could run Zoning Board | PA casino tax | El end to end

Mayor Kenney is considering former First District Councilman Frank DiCicco to head the Zoning Board. Inga Saffron looks into civic leaders’ responses to the potential choice, considering DiCicco’s long history with the city’s zoning code, his “balance between being pro-neighborhood and pro-developer,” and his lobbying role following his retirement from council. 

Can Democratic candidate Rebecca Rhynhart reform City Controller’s office? The Philadelphia Citizen’s Larry Platt argues that the election alone would force the city to discuss how local government can advance real change and that the office under incumbent Alan Butkovitz marked success by relying on “low-hanging, albeit rotten, fruit…focusing on exposing the scandals that present little or no political risk.”

The Inquirer’s Jason Nark rides the entirely of the El for the first time. Nark covers the sights, smells, and vibrations of his journey alongside fellow Philadelphian SEPTA riders.

Last year the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a provision of the state’s gaming law is unconstitutional, requiring state lawmakers to amend the local share tax, under which casinos have been required to pay host communities either $10 million or 2 percent of their slots revenue. Keystone Crossroads’ Lindsay Lazarkski explores the gaming industry’s local impact and possible solutions with township supervisors, state senators, and attorneys and executives representing communities that host casinos across the state. State lawmakers have until Memorial Day to fix that section of the gaming law before the Supreme Court’s ruling goes into effect. 

The partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island nuclear generating plant in Londonderry Township happened thirty-eight years ago today, PennLive reports. Reporter Deb Kiner goes over the timeline of the significant events of what became the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history.

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