Vilsack Confident Farm Programs will Help Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Meeting with regional anti-poverty strategists at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank in Duquesne, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack shrugged off mounting Congressional criticism of his farm programs while applauding local efforts to feed tens of thousands of hungry Pennsylvanians.

Flanked by his wife, Christie, Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, also told the planners that the federal government was prepared to spend heavily to prop up the price of milk but declined to say how much he thinks a Congress reeling from budget deficits should buy. With Pennsylvania dairy farmers now getting less than $1.25 for a gallon of milk — below the cost of producing it — producers predict more family firms will go bust without federal help.

Agreeing that it was a "stressful time" for dairy farmers, Vilsack, 59, who grew up in Squirrel Hill, said prices might have stabilized had producers not increased the size of their herds, flooding the market with milk. He wants to forge a national dairy policy to level out the peaks and valleys of milk pricing and hopes to receive "sometime in 2010" a list of recommendations from a special advisory committee holding ongoing meetings.

Vilsack continues to spar with mostly GOP congressmen in farm states over the direction of federal agriculture policy. Last week, House Agriculture Committee Republican leader Frank Lucas of Oklahoma blasted Vilsack's emphasis on nontraditional farm issues such as regional food systems, organic vegetable cultivation, community gardens and other initiatives as threats to turn rural America into "bedroom communities."

GOP U.S. Senators John McCain of Arizona, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Pat Roberts of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Agriculture Committee, wrote Vilsack last week accusing his "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program of helping "small, hobbyist and organic producers whose customers generally consist of affluent patrons at urban farmers markets" instead of traditional producers who grow most of America's food.

"Well, it's really an unfortunate circumstance," Vilsack told the Trib. "These senators have not taken the time to understand and appreciate our 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food' program."

Calling their letter "inappropriate" because they "didn't take the time to find out" key parts of the program such as trimming the distance traditional livestock ranchers need to drive their herds to slaughter, Vilsack said he would continue to promote community gardens, farmers markets and other initiatives as a means to find new markets for all producers.

Read more »

Pa. Newspapers' Layoff Notice Called 'Procedural'

Associated Press

 

PHILADELPHIA — Employees of Philadelphia's two major newspapers have been sent a letter warning of possible layoffs, but the lenders who won the newspapers at a bankruptcy auction last month say the notice is "procedural" and no such action is planned.

The letters, sent Friday on letterhead of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, say the new owners "will continue as the employer of all employees" but also note that the letter would serve as notice under a federal law that requires employers to give 60 days' notice in the event of mass layoffs.

"The letter is a procedural letter. It was agreed they would send it out up at the auction in New York," said Robert Hall, named chief operating officer by the new owners. "The old company goes out of business that day and we start anew."

"Our intention is still exactly the same as it was before," Hall said. "There will be no massive layoffs when we take over the company."

Creditors last month won a frenzied bankruptcy auction for the two newspapers and their website over a local group's bid. Greg Osberg, who has been named publisher and chief executive officer, has said he expects the sale to close in late May and hopes to complete contracts with the newspapers' unions by the end of June.

In a note accompanying the letters, outgoing publisher Brian Tierney said he was sending them "with a heavy heart, but at the direction of the prospective owners."

"Issuing this kind of ... notice does not happen in every sale," Tierney said. Such notices weren't issued when the previous owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, bought the newspapers nearly four years ago, he said.

Dan Gross, a Daily News columnist and president of the union that represents newsroom and advertising employees, said he had been assured that no job cuts are planned at the newspapers, which have about 4,500 full-time and part-time workers.

"They reiterated their commitment to offering employment to all current employees," Gross said.

Gov. Ed Rendell said a company lawyer had given him similar assurances and told him the letters were required because of "an entity change."

Rendell said he would have no problem if there were no layoffs or unilateral reductions in wages and benefits, but "if they unilaterally offer ... wages at 75 percent or 50 percent benefit cuts, that would be absolutely wrong and a betrayal of the process."

Read more »

Philadelphia Hosts Nation's Finest Young Legal Eagles

Philadelphia Inquirer

After the witnesses had been grilled, the evidence entered, and the defendant himself had taken the stand in a dramatic, if theatrical, bid to win acquittal, it all came down to closing arguments.

Prosecutors contended a web of circumstantial evidence led inescapably to the conclusion the defendant had committed aggravated assault when a flash mob gathered on Independence Mall. The defense attorney countered that the charges against high school student Maddox Hale were more guesswork than police work.

"It is the prosecutor's task to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt - what you saw today was only doubt," said Matt Caponigro, of South Bend, Ind., who led the defense team.

In the end, though, the jurors kept the verdict to themselves - at least for a little while.

That's because the case was fictional, part of a national mock-trial competition playing out in Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday, with the Pennsylvania Bar Association as its host. The winners were to be named only at the end of the competition Saturday evening.

The mock trials were conducted in City Hall courtrooms and the Criminal Justice Center, which hummed with students, family members, and lawyers.

About 750 students from 41 states, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and South Korea competed in 89 mock trials to see who thought fastest on their feet, made the most powerful arguments, and had the most unshakable command of the legal issues.

Each of the teams had finished first in state competitions. Lawyers from around the country volunteered to judge, write case materials, or to help out in other ways. Among the jurors in the final round was Judge Marjorie Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Representing Pennsylvania was Scranton Preparatory School. Mendham High School in north Jersey represented New Jersey.

The pressures of the last few weeks have been intense.

"The teams are spending 20 hours a week preparing for this; it really is a journey for the teams that make it," said one of the organizers, Jane Meyer, a lawyer and clerk for Dauphin County Judge Jeannine Turgeon.

The case centered on the fictional high school senior, a rabble-rouser with a revolutionary bent who made it his mission to undermine the authoritarian principal of John Peter Zenger High School, a troubled inner-city school near Independence Hall.

The case draws much of its inspiration from the Revolutionary War era. For added measure, Meyer and others who wrote the case material, including Paul Kaufman, an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, crafted a tortuous fact pattern open to multiple interpretations.

The facts, as outlined in the case materials, were these:

School principal Carter Braxton took over in 2007 promising to restore order after a period of violence and gang activity. He banned gangs, greatly increased the number of security guards, installed security cameras, and sharply restricted movement of students in the building.

The students chafed under the new discipline, none more so than Maddox Hale, who, during debate club meetings, fulminated against the principal.

As part of his campaign of agitation, Hale organized a student rally across the street from the school on Feb. 27, 2009.

Days before the rally, an anonymous message was posted on a social-networking Web site called Jitter urging students to join the rally and begin pelting security guards with rock-filled snowballs when Hale, in a speech, uttered the legendary words of John Paul Jones, "I have not yet begun to fight."

Hale and another student were arrested when the event played out as advertised.

To some expert outside legal observers, the thin skein of facts tying Hale to the snowball throwing or urging others to act violently made the prosecution case a bit of a stretch.

"My first instinct would be that in Philadelphia, of all places, where the Constitution enshrined the right of free speech, this is a perfect example of someone exercising that right," said Robert C. Heim, chairman of the litigation department at Dechert L.L.P. "He can't be held responsible for the wayward acts of some unnamed person."

Hale, according to the case material, took his revolutionary role so seriously that he adopted Revolutionary-era speech.

In the first round, David Kern of the South Bend High School team, played the role of Maddox Hale with exaggerated theatricality, fulminating about his constitutional rights in a convincing, colonial-era accent, and explaining that he had wanted to peacefully pursue his dispute with the principal by running for student body president.

"I decided to follow in the footsteps of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln," he testified in a booming voice.

It was a passionate performance, for sure. But under the terms of the competition, he would have to wait until the awards dinner Saturday night to find out whether he had been acquitted.

Read more »