PSoTD

There's not getting it ... and then there's Philly Mayor John Street.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mayor John F. Street abruptly ended his wait in line for an iPhone Friday after a passer-by asked him about the city's murder rate.

Street, who showed up outside an AT&T store at 3:30 a.m., left shortly after a 22-year-old sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?" The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site.

Street told the man: "I'm doing my job," the newspaper said.

Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for Apple Inc.'s iPhone to go on sale at 6 p.m. When he left at 11:30 a.m., Street said he planned to return to his spot.

The mayor said he wants the new device because he loves trying out the latest technology. Apple's new handheld would allow him to work some of the day outside the office, he said.

"We don't have to be sitting in City Hall to be conducting city business," he said.

Supply your own punchline.

Anyone in Pennsylvania with growing kids has to be interested in that.

Clearly, I don't check out the Pennsylvania General Assembly web site much anymore, but it is good to see that you can now get the Daily Session Update sent via email now.

Check out this site focusing the discussion on Open Records reform in Pennsylvania.

A Representative in the Pennsylvania House wants to get rid of metal bats from organized baseball in the state:

Many 21st-century baseball players see a new pitch to ban metal bats from their youth leagues as a threat to the game they know.

"I prefer metal bats," said Colton Kirkpatrick, 14, a Middlesex Twp. resident and baseball player as he took in a recent Cumberland Valley High School playoff game. "With metal it goes farther, just on contact. It's not as thrilling when you hit with wood."

Rep. Mike Carroll, a Democrat from Luzerne County who coaches in his son's Little League, plans to introduce a bill this week to ban nonwood bats from organized age-group and high school baseball in Pennsylvania.

There's a lot of churn on this around the country, but having such a law in Pennsylvania could have much wider implications nationally and internationally, because the Little League World Series is played here. Teams and players would not want to play and practice under one equipment rule just to have to change if they succeed.

Of course, the alternative if such a law would be passed, if Little Leagues around the world didn't want to quit using metal bats, would be to move the Little League World Series. Not a good thing for Pennsylvania.

So... this isn't likely to go anywhere.