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The Philadelphia Inquirer
181st Year, No. 291 8 City & Suburbs

Thursday, March 18, 2010 ★ Locally Owned & Independent Since 2006 ★ 75 cents

$1 in some locations outside the metro area

Top city schools’ criteria in flux?
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Trash, soda, and taxes

Admissions rules should widen geographic and income diversity, a draft report says.
By Susan Snyder

Health overhaul gains ground
A key liberal and an abortion foe will vote for it. Still, backers are short of the
216 votes needed.
McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Concerned that its top academic schools are not racially and economically diverse
enough, Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman is proposing major changes
in how students are admitted to them. The plan would take admissions decisions away
from principals and their committees, and select students for magnet and citywide-admissions
schools centrally, using a computerized system, according to a “draft” obtained
by The Inquirer. District officials suggested a 1,000-point system, 600 points of
which would be based on test scores and grades, according to the draft that was distributed
to high school principals. Other factors would include behavior and attendance, and,
for the first time, 200 points for “diversity” as measured by a student’s neighborhood
or zip code and income level. The proposal could upend a decades-old selection system
for the magnet schools, long an educational refuge for the city’s midSee SCHOOLS
on A16

By David Lightman

Francis Haasz (center) holds up a sign protesting the proposed 2-cents-an-ounce tax
on sugar-sweetened
beverages. Haasz works in production at the Coke-bottling plant on East Erie Avenue.

TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

At City Council, talk of a property-tax hike
By Miriam Hill and Elisa Lala
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

INSIDE

Should the city raise property taxes despite widespread agreement that the assessment
system is broken? During a daylong hearing on the city’s $3.87 billion budget that
was packed with protesters, several City Council members suggested higher property
taxes as a better solution to the city’s financial woes than Mayor Nutter’s proposed
levies on garbage collection and sugared beverages. Next week, Councilman Frank

DiCicco said, he plans to introduce legislation that would temporarily raise the
property tax by 12 percent, the first such increase in at least a decade. Councilman
W. Wilson Goode Jr. asked Budget Director Steve Agostini whether a 10 percent property-tax
increase would be more fair than the $300 trash-collection fee Nutter was backing.
Agostini answered that a higher property tax could raise the $107 million the city
was projecting to get from the garbage fee. But he said he believed the in-

crease would have to be 12 percent or 13 percent. The Nutter administration also
is worried that a property-tax hike could be a tough sell because of widely acknowledged
problems at the Board of Revision of Taxes, which oversees assessments. Those problems
led Nutter in January to declare a moratorium on new property assessments until the
city believed the data were reliable. “While the administration will move to fix
the assessment sysSee TAX on A12

WASHINGTON — Democrats picked up support yesterday for their health-care overhaul
from some important quarters — a House member who had previously opposed the legislation,
an influential antiabortion lawmaker, and a coalition of Catholic nuns. But they
still appeared to be short of the number needed to pass the bill in the House of
Representatives. House Democratic leaders were buoyed by the backing of Rep. Dennis
J. Jobs Bill Kucinich (D., Ohio), Obama is w h o h a d v o t e d expected to sign
against the bill in No- into law today vember, and of Rep. a $17.6 billion Dale E.
Kildee (D., package. A4. Mich.), who said, “I am a staunch pro-life member of Congress,
both for the born and the unborn.” The nuns’ group sent a letter saying, “We
urge you to vote ‘yes’ for life by voting yes for health care reform.” House
Democratic leaders hope their chamber will vote on the legislation by the weekend,
but they have been scrambling to douse a series of political brushfires, including
continuing controversies over cost, abortion, and political risk. Party leaders delayed
the planned release of formal legislation at least until today. See HEALTH on A4

PHILADELPHIA

Managing director leaving
Camille Cates Barnett cited grief over husband’s death. B1.

REGION

Terror confession reported
Sources say “JihadJane” admitted her role in plot. B1.

NRC fines Phila. VA over care
The $227,500 penalty, for “a total breakdown” in its prostate program, is the
agency’s second largest.
By Josh Goldstein The Philadelphia VA Medical Center was hit with a $227,500 fine
by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday for poor care in a prostate cancer
program that resulted in 97 veterans getting incorrect doses of radiation. The fine
levied against the Department of Veterans Affairs was the second largest ever by
the NRC against a medical facility. The VA has 30 days to contest the fine. “The
VA Philadelphia had a total breakdown in management oversight, a total breakdown
in the program, and a total breakdown in safety culture that resulted in these egregious
failures,” said Steve Reynolds, director of the division of nuclear material safety
for NRC Region III, which oversees the Veterans Health Administration. The largest
NRC fine was $280,000 in 1996 against the owners of hospitals in Indiana, Pa., and
Marlton. That case involved See VA on A14
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

An Asian’s anguish at S. Phila.
Beaten at school, Hao Luu, 17, said the district mishandled his case.
By Jeff Gammage and Kristen A. Graham
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

WEATHER

High 67, Low 44

As cute as a trio of monkeys — which is just what they are — the zoo’s golden
lion tamarins are part of a global success story.

SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL / Staff Photographer

Sunny and warm the next three days. Air quality: Good to moderate. Exclusive NBC10
EarthWatch forecast, B13.

INDEX

Comics………D6 Editorials A18 Lotteries …E12 Marketplace …G1

Movies ………D4 Obituaries …B11 Rally ………E10 SideShow ……D2 Television
……D5

Phila. Zoo energizes a rain-forest rescue
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

By Sandy Bauers

Coming Sunday

A special section highlighting the most employee-friendly companies in the region.

The tiny primates — their old-man faces framed by manes of golden hair — scampered
to the window to investigate the woman gazing at them. If only they knew what she
had done on their behalf. The woman, Denise Rambaldi, heads a program in Brazil that
has rejuvenated the golden lion tamarin, a It’ll approve a squirrel-size primate
that lives along $500,000 fund the Atlantic Coast near Rio de Janeiro. Experts say
the effort provides a blue- to help save print for how to rescue a species. the tamarins.
Rambaldi and international colleagues attacked the problem from every angle. They
introduced captive-born animals into the wild. They used new technology to trace
their movements and bring them aid when they needed it. And they planted corridors
of forest and worked with ranchers to protect vital habitat. The upshot is that the
golden lion tamarin is the first priSee TAMARINS on A16

Hao Luu’s troubles began Dec. 2 when, Asian activists say, he was accosted in the
hall of South Philadelphia High by a student who yanked the earphones out of his
ears. After school that day, Luu was followed by 10 to 15 students and beaten so
badly that he vomited. What followed over the next two months outraged Asian advocates:
Luu was ordered transferred from the school, despite having won his case at a disciplinary
hearing. He was accused of being in a gang, an allegation strongly denied by his
family. At one point, officials accused Luu of taking part in a fight in 2008 —
a time when he was living in Virginia, according to his family and supporters. The
case of Luu, a 17-year-old immigrant student from Vietnam, shines light on how the
school district is handling students accused of playing a role in the violence that
enveloped the school Dec. 3. Yesterday, Luu’s grandmother Suong Nguyen testified
to the School Reform Commission, seemingly stunned by how her grandson’s life has
unfolded since Dec. 2. She was one of 19 to address the commission on the attacks
on students at South Philadelphia High. “Please, ladies and gentlemen,” she said
tearfully, speaking through a translator, “reveal Hao’s case and help him clear
from the wrongful accusations. … We See VIOLENCE on A20

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