A political action committee supported primarily by Gov. Rendell stands accused of circumventing city campaign-finance rules and failing to disclose contributions to, among others, three of five Democratic candidates in the 2007 Philadelphia mayor's race.

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics went to court Tuesday to compel the PAC - Pennsylvanians for Better Leadership - to pay $30,000 in fines and amend its campaign-finance reports to show the missing information.

"You have a politically connected and well-funded PAC that has been operating outside of the law by failing to make the required disclosures," said Shane Creamer, executive director of the ethics board. As a result, he said, "The public hasn't had an opportunity to understand what this PAC has been doing."

The lawsuit, which the ethics board filed in Common Pleas Court, alleges 20 violations committed in 2007. The board did not allege any wrongdoing by Rendell, a Democrat, who donated $160,000 to the PAC in 2007.

Specifically, the suit cited 13 instances in which the PAC did not reveal $49,000 worth of donations it made to city, state, and federal candidates. Among them were U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (who received $5,000 on March 1, 2007); U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah ($2,000 on March 9, 2007); and state Rep. Dwight Evans ($10,000 on March 1, 2007). All were candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary.

The former chief of staff to Councilman Jack Kelly, his ex-campaign treasurer, and one of Kelly's chief campaign contributors were convicted by a federal jury yesterday of a conspiracy to buy influence in City Hall.

But the jurors rejected most of the bribery, mail-fraud, and wire-fraud charges against former Council aide Christopher Wright, ex-campaign treasurer Andrew Teitelman, and developer Ravinder "Ravi" Chawla. A fourth defendant, Hardeep Chawla, Ravi's brother, was acquitted.

Wright, 45, was found guilty on three of 13 counts that accused him of selling his services as Kelly's top aide to the Chawlas and Teitelman, the developer-brothers' company attorney.

Ravi Chawla was convicted on four of 12 counts, Teitelman on three of nine counts. Jurors came back with a verdict at 11 a.m., in their sixth day of deliberations. The trial began Jan. 27.

The three remained free on bail and face sentencing in May, with each facing approximately four to six years in prison, though the sentences could vary on either end.

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo was assailed yesterday by a federal prosecutor as a glutton, a liar, and a thief with a "royalty complex" who obliterated the line between public service and his own enrichment.

"The corruption in this case, ladies and gentlemen, is as astonishing as it was pervasive," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer told the U.S. District Court jury in his closing argument in Fumo's fraud and obstruction-of-justice trial.

He told jurors that the trial had provided them with a unique view of "Fumo World."

"The most important work in Fumo World was taking care of Mr. Fumo," said Zauzmer, who called it "a place of its own - far away from the ordinary reality, and apart from the ordinary laws."

Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, publisher of the Daily News and the Inquirer, and owner of philly.com, announced today that it is voluntarily restructuring its debt under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The case was filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, by attorney Lawrence G. McMichael, of Dilworth Paxson LLP.

The company emphasized that it would continue normal operations of its newspapers, magazines and online businesses without interruption during the debt-restructuring process.

"Philadelphia Newspapers' goal is to bring its debt in line with the realities of the current economic and business conditions," said Brian Tierney, chief executive officer.

"Over the last two years, we have made significant progress in improving the quality of our journalism, building a relationship based on mutual trust and respect with our unions, making our operations among the most efficient in the industry and innovatively serving our readers and advertisers.

"This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations. Our operations are sound and profitable. We are the medium of choice in this region for advertisers and readers.

A lawyer who told then-state Sen. Vince Fumo he could continue the "normal course of district office business" after a nonprofit organization that he founded was served with a grand-jury subpoena in April 2004 said under cross-examination yesterday that did not mean Fumo could delete e-mails.

The advice was in a February 2006 letter the lawyer, Robert Scandone, gave to Fumo's then-defense lawyer, Richard A. Sprague, who was preparing Fumo's defense.

Nonprofit organizations fear a proposed amendment to Philadelphia's tax regulations will allow the city to tax an array of activities that they have always assumed were exempt.

The city revenue commissioner said yesterday that proposed changes to the business-privilege tax regulations were being "misconstrued" and were not designed to generate new revenue.

Still, nonprofit experts said the proposed changes were broad enough to permit the city to tax universities for dorm fees, performing-arts theaters for concession-stand sales, and small community groups for fund-raising dinners.

The amendments, in practice, would require nonprofit groups to undertake bookkeeping and administrative changes that could be more costly than the taxes.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman yesterday presented a sweeping, controversial vision for the Philadelphia School District's future that includes shutting down failing schools and potentially reopening them as charter schools, reducing class sizes, and overhauling teacher hiring.

Dubbed "Imagine 2014," the draft plan would cost $50 million over five years, officials estimate. After getting community input, the School Reform Commission must vote on a final version in April.

The plan represents the first major policy push for Ackerman, who has led the 167,000-student district for eight months and who later yesterday got into her first public dust up with the commission on an unrelated resolution. Despite the hefty price, her plan would give city students, half of whom do not finish high school, the bare minimum, she said.

THE ECONOMIC gloom that's settled over the city is concealing the opportunities right in front of our eyes.

As Philadelphia's economic outlook worsens, the city has focused on cutting programs, services and personnel. Fiscal prudence and tough funding choices are required to prevent a monumental financial collapse.

But lost in the extensive coverage of the city budget crisis are two major economic development opportunities that haven't been capitalized on - our casinos. In the worsening national economy, the time is now to place our bets on two projects that will create hundreds of family-sustaining jobs and reinvigorate our local economy.

It's been more than two years since the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos were picked by the Gaming Control Board, yet neither has begun construction.

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo yesterday admitted that he stepped up his computer security after news broke that the FBI was investigating him - and that his staff continued to destroy e-mails even after prosecutors blanketed his allies and his network of nonprofits with subpoenas.

Enduring a fifth day on the stand in his federal corruption trial, Fumo insisted that he believed that deleting documents was lawful because no subpoena had been served on him directly.

Fumo leveled an accusation of his own yesterday, telling jurors that he had been targeted by the U.S. Justice Department under a Republican president because "I was the most prominent Democrat in Pennsylvania."

Wonder what Governor Rendell thinks of that...

With the reputation of his young administration on the line, Mayor Nutter is shelving what critics view as a go-it-alone governing style for a more transparent approach that harks back to his promise of "a new day, a new way."

At least that is the image his administration is trying to convey after complaints in the fall about how Nutter handled Philadelphia's first $1 billion deficit, and as he tries to claw out of a second budget hole of the same magnitude.

A handful of his advisers had sat for 30 consecutive days in a 14th-floor conference room of the Municipal Services Building, making decisions, before announcing plans in November to close library branches, swimming pools, and fire companies.

The public backlash was fierce.