Rendell

The man who helped turn Philadelphia's $230 million deficit into a $70 million annual budget windfall has volunteered to help the next Baltimore mayor bring fiscal order to city government.David L. Cohen, former chief of staff for Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, has told Baltimore's two mayoral candidates that he is willing to serve on the next administration's transition team.Mayoral nominee Martin O'Malley jumped at the offer, meeting with the fellow Democrat Oct. 15 to discuss the offer.

WASHINGTON -- Philadelphia's Mayor Edward Rendell, taking office in the early '90s, was a kind of folk hero to believers in America's cities.Quickly, he moved to shore up finances and save America's founding city from bankruptcy. He scrubbed City Hall (literally down on his knees cleaning one washroom). He brought energy and "reinvented" government to a demoralized bureaucracy. He fought hard to retain private sector jobs and find new ones. People nodded approvingly when Vice President Gore dubbed Ed Rendell "America's Mayor."

"A Prayer for The City: The True Story of a Mayor and Five Heroes in a Race Against Time," by Buzz Bissinger. 402 pages. $24.95.The Philadelphia that Mayor Edward G. Rendell inherits in January 1992 is coming apart at the seams. Actually, there are no seams, only great gushing wounds. Mortal wounds, it is feared.The city has just enough money left in its piggybank to pay the bills for about a week and a half, and the budget deficit is headed toward an astounding $1.246 billion in five years if nothing is done.

PHILADELPHIA -- When a city licensing inspector died Friday after being shot in the head by an unidentified robber, Mayor Ed Rendell declared the killing a tragedy. But the mayor also labeled the shooting something else: potential evidence for a civil lawsuit.Rendell is considering whether to file, on behalf of the city of Philadelphia, a first-of-its-kind legal challenge to the nation's nearly four dozen gun manufacturers. Modeled on the states' legal attack against tobacco companies, the suit would argue that gunmakers have created a "public nuisance" by intentionally saturating urban areas with more handguns than they can reasonably expect to sell to law-abiding purchasers, according to legal drafts obtained by The Sun.No state or local government has ever pursued such a claim against gunmakers, but legal experts say -- and manufacturers worry -- that if Philadelphia decides to file its suit, it could touch off a wave of litigation across the country.

PHILADELPHIA -- It is 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, and Mayor Ed Rendell is holding forth at the K&A -- for cross-streets Kensington and Allegheny -- stop on the Market-Frankford el."Don't forget to vote Nov. 5," he urges commuters, some of whom tuck their lunch boxes under their arms and pause to shake hands. "We've got to help the president."Rendell is linebacker-big, with a voice to match, so he is hard to miss. And he has a aide with a bullhorn urging Philadelphians to "come shake hands with the mayor" and then to vote Election Day. "Boot the Newt," the bullhorn blares.

Thomas G. Davis, 67, formerly a top executive of SmithKline Beckman Corp., died Saturday of leukemia in Radnor, Pa. As vice president and medical director from 1977 to 1989, he saw the drug company's anti-ulcer medication Tagamet become thefirst drug with more than $1 billion in annual sales.Emma Sloat Rendell, 86, mother of Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell, died Tuesday of a lung infection. She taughtelementary school and later designed clothing.The Rev. WIlliam Francis Hogan, 64, procurator general of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a religious order, died March 15 at a hospital in Rome.

Following up a campaign pledge, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell has launched plans for a Spoleto-like international festival of the arts to be held annually in Philadelphia, but the details -- such as when, how long, how big, exactly what -- are still to be worked out."We're still in the planning stages -- intensive planning, but planning," Mr. Rendell says.Current planning aims at September-October 1995 as the date for the first festival, but Mr. Rendell cautions that the festival might have to be delayed until the following year, depending mostly on how much money is available.

PHILADELPHIA -- It was, simply, the most astounding baseball game you will ever see."I think it might go down in the annals as one of the all-time games," Phillies manager Jim Fregosi said.Twenty-nine runs, 31 hits, 254 minutes from the first pitch to the last.The highest-scoring game in the history of the World Series.There was a six-run inning, a five-run inning, two four-run innings, a three-run inning."Just about everything happened," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said.A bullpen phone didn't work.

PHILADELPHIA -- Ed Rendell, the mayor of Philadelphia, didn't show much respect for Todd Stottlemyre, who will pitch Game 4 of the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays here tonight.During a visit to Toronto, Rendell was critical of the Blue Jays' pitching staff, particularly Stottlemyre. "I could envision them [the Phillies] getting swept by a combination of the White Sox's pitching and the Blue Jays' hitting," said Rendell."But not this pitching staff. If Frank Thomas could hit a ball 430 feet off Stottlemyre, I could hit one 270. I'd like to bat against him."

Washington -- Public worker strikes in big American cities are no joke. With sanitation crews off the job, huge mounds of garbage bags accumulate along the sidewalks. Critical street repairs grind to a halt. Housing services break down. Tax collections and safety inspections stall.But Philadelphia seems poised to bear a strike this fall by two blue- and white-collar public worker unions representing its 16,000 non-uniformed employees.Bargaining is still under way between the unions and the administration of Edward Rendell, the ex-district attorney elected mayor last fall on a platform of Spartan, efficient government to rescue a city teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Two of Hillary Clinton's strongest Mid-Atlantic region supporters joined forces last night to rally Maryland Democratic activists for Barack Obama. The effort will probably result in Maryland volunteers heading to neighboring states. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said they are committed to Obama's election despite their early support for Clinton. The two governors, along with Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and the six Democratic members of the state congressional delegation, appeared at a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at the Iguana Cantina in Baltimore that raised $100,000 for the state Democratic Party's election-year efforts for president and Congress.

Bringing a fledgling privatization trend from the Midwest to Maryland's doorstep, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell is seeking offers for the sale or long-term lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike - a nearly 70-year-old icon of innovative American engineering. Rendell's objective is to raise billions of dollars for Pennsylvania transportation projects that otherwise might require increased taxes. His model: Indiana, where an Australian-Spanish conglomerate owns a toll road. The turnpike was the first major U.S. toll road of the automobile era and a prototype for the Interstate Highway System.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- And now for the definition-impaired, the meaning of the word naive: "deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment." There was plenty of that on display last week in Pittsburgh and Washington. At the annual National Conference of Editorial Writers Convention in Pittsburgh, Edward G. Rendell, Pennsylvania governor and former general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, addressed a group of pundits on the subject, "Will the Real Democratic Party Please Stand Up?"

THEY SAID IT "I'm still going to be playing hard, out of control, just wild like an animal. I need to be caged in and I will let the referees handle it." Ron Artest Indiana Pacers forward (above), on whether he plans on changing his game "I'm a broadcaster who wants to be governor, not a governor who wants to be a broadcaster." Lynn Swann ABC sideline reporter and former NFL star, who might challenge Ed Rendell as a gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania Good morning --Trent Dilfer--We'll completely understand it if you come in today screaming like a banshee.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Normally, I don't care much for politicians who inject themselves into sports any more than I like athletes or actors lecturing me on politics, but I'm making an exception for Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. The affable former Philadelphia mayor is a diehard Eagles fan and a true-blue Democrat, and I still can't help but like him, though I have to take issue with his prediction that Donovan McNabb and Co. will squeak out a victory tomorrow in the Super Bowl. Hey, he picked Smarty Jones to win the Belmont and he picked John Kerry to win the presidency, so if he says that the Eagles will win a 24-21 squeaker and finally ease the pain of their long-suffering fans, I say bet the Liberty Bell on the Patriots.

ED RENDELL, the governor of Pennsylvania, is a serious pro football fan - serious enough to take part in a weekly roundtable discussion that airs on a Philadelphia cable TV station after Eagles games. With both of his state's teams hosting playoff games last weekend, Rendell lived out a fan's dream and attended both. On Saturday, he watched the Pittsburgh Steelers barely survive the New York Jets in overtime. On Sunday, he watched the Eagles - his beloved hometown team - knock out the Minnesota Vikings.

YOU CAN tell who's losing the Pennsylvania-Delaware-New Jersey jobs war: the one yelling loudest for a truce. "One of the biggest problems we have is that we have competed against each other for jobs," Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell told his neighboring governors at an extraordinary, tri-state economic summit a few days ago, according to news accounts. Rendell, nudged by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, wants the three states to formally agree not to raid one another for companies by waving tax discounts and other bribes.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Mike Fisher arrived at the Rotary Club luncheon here the other day to find he was only the second of two speakers on the program. So he sat by for 15 or 20 minutes while a "golf property analyst" made a sales pitch for a new course. Fisher is the state attorney general and Republican candidate for governor. But in the priorities of these Rotarians, he was chopped liver. He took it all with equanimity, remarking as he drove away only that he thought it was "a little strange" to have two speakers.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The road map says it is 126 miles from Philadelphia to Scranton. But in terms of the culture of the Democratic Party, the distance may be immeasurable. The gulf between the socially conservative old-line regulars and the activist liberals is being demonstrated these days in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor that will be decided in a May 21 primary. On the one hand is state Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr. of the Scranton Caseys, son of the former governor who captured attention a decade ago by trying to move the Democratic Party to oppose abortion rights but failed to win even a speaking slot at the national convention.

In the first major showdown between Mayor Martin O'Malley and the city work force, it appeared as if the workers blinked first. But as union officials, workers and observers this week assessed the damage, some say O'Malley's first union scuffle was more a draw than a victory. The 5,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 44 settled this week for a 2.25 percent pay raise - far less than the 10 percent they had sought - and agreed to start paying more for their prescription drugs.