John Chrin Archives - Scranton Citizen
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City Confidential / 09.11.2018

Political types can be forgiven for sleeping through most of this week.  The Blue Wave has come and gone.  With several Senate seats still up for grabs, it looks as if the Democratic Party successfully harnessed backlash against President Donald Trump to take control of the House of Representatives. Incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey defeated Republican Congressman Lou Barletta.  The scale of his victory was predicted by the polls.  For those of us who were around during his first 2006 Senate race against Rick Santorum, it is remarkable to think how far the underdog from the Electric City has come. Governor Tom Wolfe was easily re-elected...

City Confidential / 03.11.2018

There was no want of talent Thursday as the Scranton School Board selected from a pool of twelve (TWELVE!) candidates vying to fill the seat left vacant by the passing of Carol Oleski.  We're too lazy to type all of the names but the school directors had their work cut out when it came to conducting interviews.  In terms of standards, we know from his comments two weeks ago that Bob Lesh was not looking for another Einstein like Harvard grad Page Gebhardt Cognetti.  In the end, both Paige and BL agreed on Greg Popil for the spot.  Popil previously...

City Confidential / 27.10.2018

John Chrin is feeling the love this week.  The Monroe County Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic Congressman Matt Cartwright received back to back visits from Vice President Mike Pence and first son Eric Trump.  Thursday he landed the endorsement from President Donald Trump.  All the good feeling aside, one observer tells us the physical absence of POTUS may be evidence of lagging poll numbers.  See: Lou Barletta Mayor Bill Courtright still hasn't answered City Council about Pat Hinton's sweetheart deal at Nay Aug Park.  Maybe ol' Billy wanted to pray about it?  He presided over a packed house Tuesday for the 55th annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.  Andrea Mulrine of...

City Confidential / 12.10.2018

Scranton School District Superintendent Alexis Kirijan made the news this week and she was not happy.  The Scranton Times-Tribune reports that in June Kirijan's attorney notified the School Board that his client had been sexually harassed by an unnamed school director.  The superintendent is not happy about this public disclosure and wants to know who leaked the information.  We usually take a tongue in cheek approach to the foibles of our friends at SSD, but in the age of #MeToo, there's no place for the kind of behavior Kirijan alleges.  Our hope is someone gets to the bottom of it. Was President Donald...

City Confidential / 05.10.2018

Monday was the Case of Alexis and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day.  Poor Alexis Kirijan.  Even though School Board President Barbara Dixon called a last minute cancellation of the regular meeting (no, BL, we mean Bob Lesh's basement did not flood again), that did not stop Directors Paul Duffy, Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Mark McAndrew, and Tom Schuster from continuing with their Labor Relations Committee meeting.  The four want Jeff Brazil's head on a platter.  Who can blame them?  Word around town is Brazil was asleep at the wheel while Daniel Sansky funnelled fraudulent bills to Gregg Sunday.  Kirijan took the brunt...