>> i'm monica malpass on "inside story." is lynne abraham's fainting spell enough to effectively end her run for philadelphia mayor? we'll discuss that. we'll also talk to freshman congressman brendan boyle on "inside story." good morning again. welcome to "inside story." we want to welcome freshman congressman brendan boyle from the 13th congressional district. thank you so much for being here. big transition year for you. you were elected a year ago, down in d.c. working on the big issues. and among them are a couple that are very serious to americans, like paycheck fairness. i know you've been a big supporter of that. tell me about that. >> well, so, i'm a co-sponsor of a bill, along with longtime congresswoman rosa delauro. this is one of these issues that always gets talked about and yet never gets resolved. it is a disgrace right now that, in the united states of america, in the year 2015, women could be

working in the same exact position, same exact job, same qualifications, making 72 cents on the dollar for what a man makes in the same position. so paycheck fairness, i think we actually have a real chance to pass this year, despite the fact, on the democratic side we're in the minority. i think there has been movement, some, on the republican side of the aisle. it's absolutely needed. and there's some who say, "well, you know, of course that's wrong, but legislation isn't really needed. the market will fix itself." well, it hasn't. and the market hasn't fixed itself for 50 years. and we've clearly had instance after instance come out in the courts that show women are discriminated against at places, in the workplace. so having that paycheck fairness is incredibly important. it's both -- it's a women's issue, but it's also a broader economic issue. >> and do you have bipartisan support on it? >> we have some. i would like to get more. but we're continuing to reach out, and i am confident -- if it were called for a vote tomorrow, there are absolutely the votes to pass it.

the question is getting republican leadership to actually call it. >> and that's the trick right now, because the congress is very much at loggerheads, as it has been for a long time. i know that's gonna be the tricky part with keeping the affordable care act in place. republicans have that in their vision, of course, as one of their top three things to tumble in washington. they want to cut medicaid, as well. they also want to shrink the pell grants. so, how hard is it to try to put forth some legislation knowing you have such a hard roadblock ahead of you? >> it's always difficult, but i faced the same thing as a state legislator in harrisburg. especially at a time of divided government, when you have the legislature in the hands of one party and the executive -- whether it's the governor's mansion in pennsylvania or the white house in d.c., when it's in the hands of another party, you're gonna have that friction. hopefully it doesn't prevent everything from happening. that people can actually come together -- newt gingrich and bill clinton in the 1990s were a great example of two very partisan folks who actually came together and produced some

landmark pieces of legislation and compromise. my concern right now is that unfortunately, particularly on the republican side, you have about 30, 35 so-called tea party members who absolutely refuse to allow speaker boehner to call up any sort of compromise legislation that would pass overwhelmingly. >> so, they won't even budge an inch, it doesn't sound like. >> the funding of homeland security passed three to one. about half of the house republicans voted for it. every single democrat voted for it. that was the bill that he wouldn't bring up for four months because of feeling that he was held hostage by the extreme voices in his caucus. we have to break away from allowing the extreme voices to dictate to the other 70%, 80% of us. >> mm, that's the hard part. and i know you support the social security 2100 act, which would extend social security and balance it, if you will, on an actuarial basis, but it would make it solvent for another 75 years. otherwise, it will be only another 10 or 11.

it seems like that would be a win for everyone on paper, but there could be some pushback there, too. >> there certainly has been pushback. you know, on one of the -- this is part ideological. i mean, there are those who are attempting to push the point of view that social security is running out of money and needs to dramatically be changed. i always point out the fact that in the 80 years of its existence, social security has always run a surplus. it's always actually brought in more revenue than it's paid out. you had, during that entire period of time, that surplus being spent on other government priorities. now, you do have a situation where, beginning in the early 2030s, because of a demographic shift, you won't have enough money coming in, for the first time ever, to pay all the expenditures going out. but there are little fixes we can do to the system now that don't include benefit cuts. >> mm-hmm. >> we just make these fixes now, we could actually extend the program to 2100. i'm very concerned that, as a country, we're getting away from these sort of retirement-security programs and privatizing everything. there is absolutely a role for

the private sector and for vigorous business expansion, but there is also a role for government, too. social security has been a tremendous success. we have to do everything to save it and preserve the integrity of it. >> and, quickly, student-loan refinancing. that would seem, again, like something that people could get behind from both sides of the aisle, but not always. >> no. well, this is a personal issue to me, as i'm one of the few members of congress who himself has tens of thousands of dollars of student-loan debt, being on the younger side. >> mm-hmm. >> this is an enormous problem not just for an entire generation and a future generation coming up, but it is actually an economic problem for the whole country. student-loan debt is now the largest source of debt in the united states. >> wow. >> it's over $1 trillion. >> so it bears looking at. >> it has gone up fivefold just in the last decade. so, that is actually having a drag on our overall economy. and that's not just me saying it. it's actually wall street banks that have pointed that out. so, making sure that we can refinance this existing debt at a lower interest rate, making it

easier for people to repay -- actually, not forgiving any of the debt, but just simply refinancing it, that would put more money in their pockets that they can, in turn, spend in the economy. >> all right. congressman boyle, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> we'll have our "inside story" panel coming up next to discuss the issues. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge.

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>> welcome back to "inside story." time to meet our panelists this week. and they are sharmain matlock-turner -- thank you for being here -- a nonprofit executive. val digiorgio, attorney. welcome back. terry madonna with the f&m poll. good morning, terry. and christine flowers, attorney and journalist. welcome to all of you. let's dive right into the philadelphia mayor's race, because we had a second big debate last week. a major incident within the first several minutes. lynne abraham, one of the candidates, fainted on stage. a doctor was called. she was told not to finish the debate. she was back out on the campaign trail the next day and appears to be back up to speed. but some people say this really goes to the heart of one of her challenges, which was questions about her age and whether she would have the stamina to have such a rigorous job. other people say this is recoverable and a no-big-deal situation. she's a strong candidate. what's your reaction? >> well, i think -- i agree with the latter statement. i don't think this is a serious problem in the campaign. the problem, it seems, that all

of them had -- who has the money, who has the organizational support? it's kenney and williams. and, you know, i'm not gonna articulate that this is a two-person race, but i think everybody else is playing catch-up. when you have money, when you have the organization -- and let's be candid about it, this is also about television. it's about ads. it's about who works in the wards. those two candidates seemingly have the network, and i would call them, regardless of the "party polls," the "candidate polls" -- it's a pollster which i don't pay any attention to -- would indicate, i think, you know, it's gonna be tough for other candidates to break into that two-person block with kenney picking up momentum particularly in the last two weeks. >> but there's no doubt now there will be a legitimate call for her to release her medical records and discuss the age issue. she's 74. that wasn't that old for ronald reagan, but maybe in this case -- some people say it might be in this case. >> well, i don't know that -- despite what the polls have been showing, i don't know that she

was really a factor, too. i think it is -- and i am willing to say, i think it has been a two-person race and will be a two-person race. williams and kenney racking up the endorsements, racking up the party support and the money. the money's gonna be the difference here. tony's gonna be able to show that he has -- this race, i think, will boil down to education at the end of the day. that's what the polls show. anthony's got a message on education. it's gonna make him formidable at the end of the day. kenney is racking up the endorsements. i think it's between the two of them. and at the end of the day, i think it's messaging that's gonna win the race. >> and there's no doubt in philadelphia, it has historically come down sometimes, to a matter of race being one of the major factors. perhaps again in this race perhaps not. what's your take on that? because if you want to call the racial card, jim kenney's a white candidate, anthony hardy williams african-american. jim kenney just got some key endorsements from other african-americans he's served with longtime on city council and in other ways -- dwight evans, marian tasco -- and some african-american leaders in town were not as happy as they wanted to be with that decision. >> well, it seems, at the

surface level, to be very surprising that there would be some established african-american leaders in the community throwing their lot behind jim kenney, who is extremely progressive, but who is not an african-american. however, i think if you look at it from a different perspective, there are people who are very disenchanted with anthony williams because of his stand on charter schools because of other -- because of a certain moderation, actually in his views. and so i think it actually tactically make sense for those who opposed him to throw their lot in to support an opposing candidate of those two candidates. but i just want to go back very quickly to something about lynne abraham. i had interviewed lynne abraham for an article about three days before that last mayoral debate. she was extremely energetic, extremely vital. i think, you know, you're coming up against the edges of ageism when you start saying that this momentary faint is going to

completely deep-six and color her campaign. and i think ageism is just as bad as sexism is just as bad as racism, and i think we should take a look at what we're doing when we try and make that a very big deal, which i think she can recover from it. >> yeah. and i just want to follow up on christine's point as well. i mean, i was there when it happened, and we were certainly all just aghast. and, you know, thank goodness she was okay. and she was up and out talking to the press by the end of the debate. so, she wasn't sort of, like incapacitated for a long period of time. and i do believe that, you know, this issue is not gonna be the overriding issue for her. she's got to decide whether or not she is going to use sex in a way that really helps her. and that is, is she gonna try to appeal to women voters as the only woman candidate who's in this race who has a real opportunity to win it when she initially started out on top. so, i think there's still a lot of time to go. we know that anthony hardy williams had his

own list of city council members and people from the african-american community stand up with him this week, as well. it's gonna get down to, now, i think, that all the endorsements are out, where are the voters really gonna be, and what's gonna be the best way to reach them? everybody keeps saying to me this one thing -- tv. >> mm. of course. that's the bottom line. for williams, he did have to pay an $8,000 fine because of some campaign donations that went over the limits. there are differences in the state requirements, the national requirements, the local requirements. it can get a little confusing. was it an accounting error, or do you think it was simply that they really have so much money going that they -- >> in philadelphia, this isn't even a drop in the bucket. i mean, this is relatively minor. it's not gonna matter. i think there's a rational explanation when you transfer money from a state campaign committee. remember, in state politics, you run for a state office, you can give any amount of money at any time, and the candidates can virtually use it for -- and incumbents -- for anything they

want. and you bump into the limits that, you know, exist in the city of philadelphia, and i don't think that's a big deal. >> back to the racial question real quickly. if -- in the end, if one candidate were to pull out, if lynne abraham or doug oliver or any of the others who didn't have as strong of a showing in the most recent poll, which did show williams and... >> and kenney. >> ...kenney at loggerheads, really, 25% to 26%, almost at a dead heat, that would throw a huge change into the numbers themselves. do you believe that race will come down to the deciding factor in this race? >> i think race will be a deciding factor. messaging is gonna be important. you know, we talk about endorsements, we talk about money, but it's messaging, too. you know, you got a third of the children in the philadelphia school district -- as many as a third -- in charter schools, and that's a lot of parents, that's a lot of votes. and tony's talking about charter schools. and i think the race is shaping up between sort of the old line, "support the union" line support the teacher's union, versus, let's have a message

that appeals to parents who care about the way their children are being educated. and i think that's the dichotomy here between kenney and tony and we're gonna see whether philadelphia voters really care about having the tried and true teachers' union come out and support our candidate versus somebody who's thinking outside the box on education like tony. >> but i think people are also thinking about the economy, too, and are trying to figure out what is going to happen as it relates to jobs and opportunity. you know, is this going to be a place that people can ultimately grow and see their families grow, and that there are gonna really be some jobs? so, that's why i think you see the push-pull between the two candidates. >> sure. >> they both care, i think about education. they both care about the city. one has a vision about, maybe, what the future looks like. the other one is very much concerned about what's happening with working families. i want to see the debate. i'm glad that we're having a robust debate in our community about these issues. we need it. >> and there was a tricky quote last week. doug oliver stirred up the pot a little bit when he made a comment about african-american men and law enforcement. we have the quote that we want

to show you. was it taken out of context? we'll discuss it very quickly. his quote was... what part you didn't see, when i read the entire context of it, was he also said, "and black men have good reason to be afraid of police" because of profiling because of many other issues where there have been -- cases all over the nation, obviously where there's been unjust violence against african-american men who weren't even armed. so, on the one hand, we just see the one part of the quote. others said, though, that he really was taken out of context in this. and what do you guys think? >> that's a complete oversimplification of the issue, to say that police, who are professionals, who go to training, who are paid to do a job, would take a whole group of people and say, "i'm afraid of that whole group." i think it was clearly a mistake. i saw him earlier in the week. and i think he admitted, during the debate, that it was a mistake. it just didn't make any sense. >> but i also think it is unfair and it's a mistake to say that black men, as a group, fear

the police. because we just came through the death of officer robert wilson -- >> an african-american police officer who died, right. >> you can't -- i agree with you, sharmain. you can't distill it down to these simplistic terms. you know -- >> all of this and all of that. >> all of this and all of that. and i think the problem was, with doug oliver, he's in a sound-bite society, where people are -- they don't have the patience to listen to the context of a comment. it is true to say, "you can't be afraid of the police," or "you can't be afraid of, you know youth in the black community." >> did it harm him, terry? >> oh, i think so. but here's the bigger point. look, we've got to come to a realization, just as, you know the president did when he formed the task force to deal with it that there's a serious community -- there's a serious community problem in the minority community and with the police, and we've got to address it collectively. one side of it can't address it. we can't all go back into our bunkers and say, "well, you're

the problem." the other side says, "no, you're the problem." we need to sit down, get the police involved in the community. look, being a cop is a tough job. i don't know that i would ever want to do that. your life is in danger every time you get on the street. but on the other hand, we're not looking at it systemically. we're not dealing with it in partnership. and i prefer to look forward, to find ways and solutions rather than go back and keep revisiting the past. >> and media and pundits don't help if they constantly play the "gotcha" game, and they're waiting on their haunches for somebody to say something that they can then take and use for their particular, you know agenda. >> well, let's talk about -- take the south carolina case that happened last week. very sad situation. and a white police office was released from the force in north charleston for using deadly force on an unarmed man who was running away from a traffic stop, as it turns out. so, again, this turned out to be national focus on an incident where a person died at the hands of a police officer. this is the former police officer here. and now -- he happens to be from

the north part of new jersey, so he has local ties. but the real talker here is that we're seeing incident after incident all around the country. is it that police are under too much stress? is it that they have so much on their plate that they're not getting time to have an ability to detox, if you will, from the stress and the tension? >> well, it's because, you know, everybody has one of these, and that's why you're seeing a lot more. you're seeing a lot more of it. >> that's exactly right. >> so, you think it was always there? >> i think this was always there, yes. now, put it in context. there's 40 million interactions between police and american citizens every year. a small -- less than a fraction of 1% have any allegations of abuse attached to them. >> yeah, but over 1,000 people are killed by the police every year. >> i was just gonna say that. and body cameras would go a long way. if there hadn't been a camera in this instance, we wouldn't know the truth. and now we are much closer to the truth, here, of what went on, and the murder charge seems to have been appropriately filed. i think you put body cameras on all police. we talked about training the last time i was on the show here. you have to constantly train police. there is an element of fear out

there, you know, when you're in the inner city, not just the african-american community. police need to be trained and constantly trained and constantly updated in their training, and that would go a long way. >> and i was gonna say, you need to have diversity, you need to have training. i mean, i just took a look at some of the fbi numbers. people would certainly not consider newark one of the safest places in america. not one police shooting in the city of newark in 2014. >> mm-hmm. >> back to what terry said, when we figure out that this is really important as to how we do correct policing in communities, where we don't profile people and we don't look at everybody as scary, then we can figure out ways to do really effective, good policing without overreacting. it's gonna be a lot about training, and it's gonna be a lot about being honest about how we profile and view other people that we think who maybe aren't as deserving. >> all right. let's talk about the governor's budget in pennsylvania. governor wolf has put out a budget. he predicts it won't make the finish line, if you will, in time for july 1. that's the start of the new

fiscal year. republicans who control the legislature in pennsylvania say they think that's sort of starting a war, if you will. he started out on the nice foot, and now they think he's -- >> starting one? [ laughter ] >> they think he might be trying to stir the pot and make it harder than it had to be. was it already hard, terry? >> oh, sure. i mean, look, from the moment he made his speech to the legislature on the budget, i mean, it was -- they're at polar ends. here's the point -- the republicans are likely to pass a budget by june 30. it is not a budget that governor wolf is likely to sign. >> [ laughs ] >> and so the question is -- >> two worlds apart. >> yeah, two worlds apart. does he veto all of it? does he veto part of it? and unless he's willing to deal with the republicans on pensions -- their version of pensions, which is not the wolf version of pensions -- he's not gonna get the new revenue. senator corman, the majority leader, has made it very clear over and over and over again. none of us expect that we won't be talking about this in july and august. >> [ laughs ]

they'll all be there through the summer. no breaks in harrisburg this year. all right. so, quickly, your reaction to, revel was finally sold to glenn straub. he's a billionaire who's trying to sort of buy up properties that are defunct in atlantic city and change everything around. although, then they shut the power off. he wasn't able to work out a deal with the electric company right away. might throw some generators in there to keep things going. are you positive and hopeful about changes coming to atlantic city? >> no. [ laughter ] >> tell us how you really feel. >> in a word, no. i mean, i think, you know, revel -- at the beginning, revel was this wonderful -- this dream rising up from the ocean. and i think it was a big mistake. i don't feel that -- i think that they're investing money in an enterprise that simply is not going to have a return. so, no, i don't see this as being beneficial to atlantic city. >> all right. we'll leave it at that. inside stories coming your way next. stick around.

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>> "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge. >> time for inside stories of the week. and let's start with val. >> well, senate democrat leaders know what we in the republican party have known, which is pat toomey's gonna be tough to beat next year, and that joe sestak can't beat him. so they're looking to recruit other candidates -- josh shapiro, montgomery county commissioner, who's also being wooed to run for attorney general. at the end of the day, josh is gonna make the decision based on family as much as anything. he's the father of four children. he wants to stay close to home. but that's good news for pat toomey and maybe for josh shapiro. >> all right. sharmain. >> it's the time of year to start thinking about teens, and one of the first things we want to think about is making sure they have a summer job. but there's another new program that's active in several other states but not in pennsylvania

and that's called the p-tech program, which is a six-year high school. you get your high-school diploma, you get a college degree, get a paid summer internship, and you also get an opportunity to work for ibm. ibm started this program. we want to get it in pennsylvania. we hope the wolf administration will adopt it. >> terrific. christine. >> monica, mumia abu-jamal a.k.a. wesley cook, a.k.a convicted murderer of officer danny faulkner, was taken to the hospital last week because of complications from diabetes. many philadelphians wish he didn't have to have been taken to the hospital, that he was -- you know, he wasn't alive any longer. however, a lot of third-graders in orange, new jersey, were asked by their teacher to write get-well notes to mumia abu-jamal. i have no words. >> mm. terry. >> well, medical cannabis, otherwise known as medical marijuana, is poised for a vote in the state senate. it passed the state senate last session. big bipartisan vote this time, a little different. senate sponsors are reaching out and trying to accommodate what concerns exist in the house,

especially dealing with who can prescribe it and under what circumstances. i think the chances for the passage of medical marijuana are up. not likely, but up. we will see. >> all right. thank you so much. thanks to our insiders for being here, for your time and your thoughts. thank you so much for watching. hope you have a great week ahead. we'll see you right back here next sunday morning. >> i'm nydia han along with eva pilgrim. coming up next, the woman accused of leave her son alone in the woods for days is under aarp. >> terror at the cleveland zoo a 2-year-old false into the cheat -- falls into the cheetah exhibit. it's a perfect day to get out there and enjoy the sunshine. source has the exclusive

accuweather seven-day forecast those stories and next on "action news."

good afternoon, it is sunday april 12 i'm nydia han along with eva pilgrim. >> here's some of the stories we're following on "action news." a woman is found beaten and stabbed in a chester alley. the search is on for suspects.

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