The ghost of Joey Vento called. He’s doing good. Oh, he asked that if the state House could get around to it, could they make English the official language of Pennsylvania? (Because, why not? America, right?) If only, he said, there were two wingnut lawmakers out in Harrisburg who would write bills requiring all state documents—including all tourism docs—to be printed in English. After all, if tourists stay here long enough, they become illegal immigrants, too! Then and only then can they get lambasted on commercials during the Dom Giordano program.

Council is looking poised to do some things no one is going to like! That includes overriding Mayor Michael Nutter’s veto of their DROP “change” bill and not garnering enough votes to pass paid sick leave.

Speaking of which, given the United States has the weakest labor protections in the developed world (and is the only developed country that doesn’t require employers to do what a paid sick leave bill would do), it was only a matter of time before a local worker underwent a medical operation and was then fired from her job. That Philadelphia worker is Claudia Rendon, who gave her kidney to her son, saved his life, and then was fired from her job when she returned. After a media uproar, the employer agreed to pay her until another position opens up, at which time she will be able to apply again, though she says she’s scared to go back.

Some parents of kids at Lansdale Catholic High School have started a Facebook page that calls for a tuition halt to the Greater Philadelphia Catholic Schools so long as their kids aren’t book learnin’ during the teacher’s strike.

With nothing left to do, Marge Tartaglione is headed to Disney World. She deserves it.

An audit by Jack Wagner found that the state welfare department’s Electronic Benefits Transfer Cards were used out-of-state and for cash withdrawals in May 2010—totaling $5.8 million in illegal use. Wagner’s been critical of the state welfare department for some time and last year found cards being used in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

What sucks is that another SEPTA driver got shot; this time in the West Oak Lane section of the city. What sucks less is that Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is continuing his “we live in a city of numb skulls” routine he’s been bringing out lately. “You got a lot of idiots out here that use fire-arms indiscriminately,” he said of the incident. “They don’t care if they’re shooting at a bus driver, kids playing down the street, they don’t care.  They’ll shoot into a crowd and hit five people.” Ramsey has been in Washington fighting a pro-gun bill being pushed by various Tea Partiers who are for state/local government rights until it comes to one of their wedge issues.

There’s already Republican opposition to the “change the Pennsylvania electoral college” bill that went ‘net crazy yesterday.

Steve Kornacki at Salon explains why the bill is doomed and incredibly short-sighted. “If the economy remains in the pits through November 2012, the state should be very much in reach for the GOP presidential nominee — meaning that a district-based scheme could actually end up costing Republicans electoral votes.” A similar situation happened in Colorado in 2004, in which Democrats tried to pass such a bill. They’re glad they didn’t now, as Colorado was key to Obama’s landslide victory in ’08.

And some dude at the Delco Times (…jokingly…) thinks that Crispin Glover, er, Joe Sestak, should run for president. Hasn’t he done enough running for a while? Now if only there were a name for the literary device used in this joke-column…