MARTIN SCORSESE FIRST met Robbie Robertson in the mid-Seventies when the Band contacted the director to film their final concert, which would become the moving celebration known as The Last Waltz. They remained close, working together on project after project, until Robertson’s death on Wednesday at age 80. In a tribute, Scorsese called Robertson one of his “closest friends” and “a constant” in his life and work. “I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor,” Scorsese wrote. “I tried to be the same for him.”

After The Last Waltz, the star-studded concert that Scorsese filmed on Thanksgiving Day 1976 in San Francisco, Scorsese asked Robertson to serve as a music producer and composer on several of his films. Their shared credits include The King of Comedy (1982), The Color of Money (1986), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Irishman (2019), among others. Scorsese also served as executive producer and participated in the making of Once Were Brothers, a 2019 documentary about Robertson and the Band.

“Long before we ever met, [Robertson’s] music played a central role in my life — me and millions and millions of other people all over this world,” Scorsese said. “The Band’s music, and Robbie’s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys. “It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting,” he continued.

The pair worked together in recent years, too. Robertson composed the music for Scorsese’s highly anticipated upcoming picture, Killers of the Flower Moon. “There’s never enough time with anyone you love,” Scorsese wrote. “And I loved Robbie.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro says his administration will cut ties with an organization that funds “crisis pregnancy centers” when its multimillion dollar state contract expires at the end of the year.

Real Alternatives, a Harrisburg nonprofit, for decades has received millions in funding from the state legislature earmarked for programs that offer alternatives to abortion. State lawmakers have also sent Real Alternatives about $1 million per year in federal funding from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, which is intended to provide cash assistance to women and children in poverty.

In Pennsylvania, Real Alternatives funds 27 facilities that dissuade clients from obtaining abortions and instead offer pregnancy and parenting support. Advocates for reproductive rights have for years criticized these centers, saying they distribute misleading information to vulnerable patients seeking help with an unplanned pregnancy.

“For decades, taxpayer dollars have gone to fund Real Alternatives. My administration will not continue that pattern – we will ensure women in this commonwealth receive the reproductive health care they deserve,” Shapiro said in the statement. Shapiro’s administration said the state Department of Human Services will instead ask for applications from women’s health providers across the state to fund women’s health programs.

Pennsylvania State Police officials announced a new body camera pilot program for select state troopers ahead of a planned statewide rollout.

The pilot program, which began two weeks ago, applies to patrol troopers in Troop H, Carlisle, who will wear the cameras while on duty. Eighteen cameras will be shared between 43 troopers as a way to reduce costs, according to the State Police.

The pilot program will help guide how the State Police rolls out body cameras to the rest of its 87 patrol stations, said State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris. “We will take what we've learned, we will look at our policy and we will again start building it out across the other 87 installations across the commonwealth,” Paris said.

Paris said the cameras will serve as an “objective means” of documenting interactions between police and citizens, and that the cameras will also benefit troopers, as they will gather additional evidence that can be used during criminal proceedings. He added that the body cameras will also protect both troopers and residents from false claims of abuse or misconduct.

with each passing day, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan gets another opportunity to wedge her shoe just a bit further up Donald Trump’s ass.

the judge had given the DOJ and Trump’s ace team of parking garage lawyers until Friday to meet with her to discuss that protective order against compulsive blabbermouth Donny. find a time that’s good for both of you, she said.

Jack Smith was all any fuckin’ time you want, Judge, snap your fingers and we’ll be there. we have all the time in the world for this shit.

Trump’s team tried to pull their usual delay tactic bullshit. uhhhh, yeah, about that … we’re kinda busy this week, y’know, we have a lot of stuff going on, can we maybe have next week? or maybe the week after that? because, y’know, reasons.

Judge Chutkan was having none of it, and her reply was basically nice try, fuckos, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I’ll see you in my office Friday at 10am sharp. be there or face a blizzard of shit.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris made a return trip to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, announcing steps to boost pay for 1 million construction workers and perhaps also bolstering President Joe Biden’s chances next year in the nation’s most populous battleground state.

Ms. Harris made her second visit to Philadelphia in three months — sandwiched around a trip by Mr. Biden — as she said the administration would revise the federal law that sets a minimum wage for construction workers on federally funded projects,

“We strongly believe every worker deserves fair wages for their work,” Ms. Harris said at the Finishing Trades Institute, which houses apprentice programs for workers to get certified in trades such as installing drywall and painting. “We are updating this law and giving workers across the nation a raise.” Besides Ms. Harris’ two visits, Mr. Biden has stopped in Philadelphia six times so far in 2023.

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Following her speech Tuesday, Ms. Harris traveled to view some construction along Interstate 95, the East Coast’s major interstate highway, near where the highway reopened within two weeks after a tractor-trailer carrying gasoline flipped on an exit ramp and caught fire on June 11. The blaze caused a bridge to collapse, severing the expressway. The driver was killed in the crash.

SAG-AFTRA MEMBERS HAVE pressed pause on film and TV production for the past three weeks, aside from some green-lit indie projects, in an effort to get Hollywood studios and streamers, or the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), to offer them a fair deal. Last week, the Writers Guild of America received a request from the AMPTP to reconvene negotiations after a more than three-month strike, and SAG-AFTRA members are hoping to be next. While calls for fair compensation, AI protections, revenue sharing, and updates to healthcare benefits are at the top of their list, there’s been a lot of discussion about residuals. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have transformed traditional pay scales, and residuals that once helped actors stay afloat between projects have often diminished to pennies.

For starters, residuals are payments performers receive for TV and film projects after initial compensation. An actor can expect a residual check once a show or movie re-airs on cable or a streaming service, or sells via DVD or VOD. For streamers like Max and Disney+, initial compensation covers the first 90 days a show or film is aired. Residuals are calculated using a formula based on year, time spent on set, production type, and where it will air. Residuals contain an interplay between how much a performer should get paid and the value of the production.

Barry Gordon, a former SAG president and retired California State University media law professor, says that as streaming gained more prominence, factors like ratings and subscriber counts made it more difficult to determine how revenue should be distributed. “It’s never going to be equivalent to what it was, right, just because it’s so diverse,” Gordon, who served as SAG president from 1988 to 1995, explains. “When it was three networks, it was pretty easy to know where that show was playing anytime it was playing.”

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With the shift to streaming, Bradley says residuals have largely evaporated. Sylvia Batey Alcalá, a SAG member since 2008, has received meager residuals for streaming services, like Amazon Freevee, as well. It’s frustrating, she says, because the industry isn’t transparent when it comes to its metrics for determining success. As Oscar-winning filmmaker and TV creator Steven Soderbergh recently told Rolling Stone, “It’s impossible to figure out what’s fair if you don’t know what’s real… They will not open the books, so how do you figure out what’s fair if you don’t know what’s going on?”

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State is facing at least one allegation of wage discrimination, while salary data show the university’s gender pay gap is among the worst in the Big Ten.

A Penn State Abington professor who was born in Iran is suing the university for wage, race, and gender discrimination. In a lawsuit filed last month, Faranak Pahlevani argued she earns less than an American-born male colleague despite the two doing equal work. According to the lawsuit, Pahlevani raised her concerns internally, but the university did not take action. The university said in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation.

Across Penn State’s statewide system, female instructional staff earn on average about 80% of what their male colleagues make, according to the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Penn State combines data from all of its campuses when reporting to IPEDS.

The size of the wage gap varies depending on academic rank. According to adjusted IPEDS salary data from the 2021-22 school year, female professors made 88% of their male colleagues’ average salaries while female associate professors earned 87% of their male counterparts’. For female assistant professors, the figure was 90%; while female instructors, lecturers, and instructional staff without an academic rank earned 98%, 86%, and 72% of their male colleagues’ average salaries.