Francis McConnell is a field supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, but lately he is acting more like an undercover police officer.

Several hours a day, five days a week, he stakes out junkyards. Pretending to read a newspaper, Mr. McConnell sits near the entrances and writes down descriptions of passing pickup trucks and shirtless men pushing shopping carts.

His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100.

A Pennsylvania lobbyist and close friend of former Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon tossed her BlackBerry into an Arby’s trashcan and tried to get rid of subpoenaed documents to throw the FBI off her trail, according to federal prosecutors.

It didn’t work.

Cecelia Grimes was charged yesterday with destroying evidence in the influence-peddling investigation of Weldon that became public in October 2006, ending his 20-year reign as Delaware County’s congressman and crushing his dreams of becoming chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee.

A federal judge this week threw out a lawsuit filed by the electricians union, seeking to keep secret details of how it spent $2.4 million in last year’s elections.

A political action committee for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 98, claimed that state and local laws requiring the disclosure violated its constitutional rights.

Chief Judge Harvey Bartle III rejected that claim as “patently inconsistent” with previous federal rulings on requirements for political action committee reporting.

Local 98 is led by John Dougherty, a well-known player in city politics who failed in April in a bid to win the Democratic primary election for the First State Senatorial District seat being vacated by state Sen. Vince Fumo.  read more »

The United Way of southeastern Pennsylvania has launched a program to collect school supplies for homeless children in the region.

The Stuff the Bus program collects thousands of school supplies for homeless kids in Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, so that each child has a book bag to start school with in September. Joe DiVincenzo is vice president of marketing and communications with the United Way:

“The smiles on their faces, the excitement. It’s one less thing that they have to worry about when the school year starts. These kids have a tremendous handicap. When the day is over, they’re either going back out on the street or to a shelter.”  read more »

A Philadelphia ordinance banning the sale of cigars and single cigarettes used by illegal drug-takers was partly thrown out and partly upheld yesterday by a divided appeals court.

The Commonwealth Court majority invalidated a January 2007 ban on flavored tobacco products and on cigarettes sold individually or in pairs, making them likely to be used for drugs.  read more »

Our friends at KYW Newsradio 1060 bring us some news of a tasty treat that might not fly in Philly:

Philadelphia city council adjourns for the summer after Thursday’s session, and awaiting them when they return in the fall will be a potential hot potato — whether to ban the duck-liver delicacy foie gras.  read more »

It is a political rite of passage and every new mayor confronts it – negotiating contracts with Philadelphia’s four municipal unions just months after taking office.

Ed Rendell used chaos to his advantage in 1992. With the city’s finances collapsing, Rendell swung a deal that froze wages while cutting holidays, some starting salaries and contributions to union health-care plans.

John Street faced a stronger economy in 2000 and unions holding a serious bargaining chip – the Republican National Convention was due to start just after the contracts expired and a strike would draw national attention. The unions got increases in wages and health benefits.  read more »

The owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News has missed a June 1 interest payment on $85 million of loans and is in talks with lenders for relief, according to a report released Thursday by a debt ratings agency.

Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC did not maintain the necessary senior debt-to-cash flow ratio _ which can happen when cash flow shrinks _ required by its senior lenders, according to Standard and Poor’s Leveraged Commentary and Data unit.  read more »