DAILY NEWS: Claiming that “the political landscape has changed” in the battle over casinos in Philadelphia, Gov. Rendell said yesterday that he will meet with operators of two proposed gaming houses about abandoning their Delaware River sites. Rendell spoke a day after two powerful Philadelphia legislators – State House Appropriations Committee chairman Dwight Evans and State Sen. Vince Fumo – threatened the operators with legislative recrimination if they didn’t agree to relocate the casinos. Rendell said in an interview that opposition to the sites by the lawmakers and by Mayor Nutter were reason enough for him to convene a meeting with them and the casino operators. “I’ll meet and make a good-faith effort to explore the potential benefits of re-siting,” Rendell said, “but nobody should get too excited. The only way these casinos can be legally re-sited is if the casinos voluntarily agree.” MORE
FAREWELL TO HARMS: Every man needs a little madness in life, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free. With those words, culled from the exuberant character
in the book-turned-movie Zorba the Greek, an emotional State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo bid farewell to his colleagues in the Senate yesterday, in what was likely his last speech from the floor he has commanded for almost three decades. The Democratic senator from Philadelphia said he was not resigning early – he will stick by his plan to serve out his term, which ends this year. But he said he wanted to give his goodbyes because he did not believe he would be back in Harrisburg in the fall, when lawmakers return from summer break. At that point, he will be fighting a raft of corruption charges awaiting him in federal court in Philadelphia. He is accused of using his position and staff to live lavishly at the expense of taxpayers – and of trying to block an FBI investigation into his conduct. His trial is scheduled to begin in early September. MORE