Could Football Boost Temple Enrollment?

Good morning, Philadelphia, and happy 240th birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps. Here’s what you need to know today:

Temple’s success on the football field this season could lead to increased enrollment.

Applications to Temple University are up 12 percent this year, and admissions officials attribute it to the performance of the 8-1 football team, KYW reports. More than 6,000 prospective students visited campus for an open house last weekend. Officials say the football team may be the lure, but the university itself will seal the deal. “It’s the campus that’s going to be able to sell students,” one official said, “what’s been happening in terms of new improvements, like our new library that’s being built right, it’s our faculty, it’s our academic programs.

Pennsylvania is closer to getting a budget — one that raises education funding and sales taxes, while also reducing property taxes.

Officials in the Wolf Administration said Monday they’d reached agreement to grow education funding by $400 million — $350 million for public schools, $50 million for special ed — while the tax structure would be reworked. PennLive reports that sales taxes would be raised from 6 to 7.25 percent to help lower property taxes in local districts across the state, that casino revenues which now go to lower property taxes will instead be used to shore up state pension funding, leaving money in the general fund budget for the ed funding increase. There will be no Marcellus Shale tax this year. “This is the first time I think we have seen a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Jeff Sheridan, Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesman. The budget deal is not complete yet, however.

Prosecutors tell Senate panel that Attorney General Kathleen Kane can’t do her job without a law license.

“I would be totally ineffective and, basically, I would be on a permanent vacation if I didn’t have a law license,” Berks County District Attorney John Adams said on Monday to a committee considering whether Kane should be ousted. “My golf game might get better, but that’s about it. I’m not going to be able to do my job.” Kane’s law license was suspended after she was charged with leaking grand jury information for political gain. NewsWorks reports: “Kane … has said she doesn’t need an active license to do the vast majority of her official tasks.

Frank Rizzo’s son-in-law has died in prison.

Joseph Mastronardo Jr., 65, was known as a “gentleman gambler” — he was in prison for a 20-month stint after being convicted of masterminding an international sports betting ring, making so much money illegally that buried $1.1 million in cash his back yard, the Inquirer reports. His attorney said:”He was the kind of guy who, if you could not pay a gambling debt, he would forgive the debt. The only repercussion was, he’d say ‘You can’t bet with me anymore.’ You could never get that deal from a casino.”

A couple of Philly cops are under investigation for sleeping on the job after a picture of their nap went viral.

“Officials say they’ve identified the officers and internal affairs is investigating,” Fox 29 reports. “I mean we’re lucky that we’re not burying two officers,” said Philadelphia Police Lt. John Stanford. “I know that may sound a little dramatic but the reality of it is if someone was able to get close enough to take a photograph of these officers the same thing could have been done in terms of these officers being either hurt or killed.”

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