Winners and losers for the week ending June 9

Anyone else notice how many people were working from home yesterday? While calling James Comey’s testimony the “Washington’s Super Bowl” was probably a little too hyperbolic – although anytime Washington’s pro football owner gets shaded is just fine by me – there’s no doubt that the number of bars open early to show the proceedings and serving Covfefes and Orange Russians left no doubt that President Donald Trump was indeed improving the foodservice economy. Productivity might show a drop on the monthly chart but, sometimes, civic engagement, like charity, begins at home.

Charity is one of the reasons why President Trump’s son, Eric, had a terrible, no-good, horrible, very bad week. A brutally thorough report by Forbes – one that has already led to the New York attorney general opening an investigation – tracked how Eric Trump’s charitable foundation, which donates money from golf tournaments held at Trump courses, has spent more and more money on expenses that included self-dealing. And that was in addition to his dismissing Democrats as “not even people” – a statement some might find, um, deplorable.

Not to be outdone, Donald Trump, Jr. showed that he can be as tone-deaf as his younger sibling, telling TV personality Sean Hannity that yesterday’s intraday record hit by the Dow indicated that regardless of the groundwork laid for obstruction of justice against the president, the stock market had exonerated his father. That must be of some comfort to the barely 50 percent of Americans who profess to own stock.

On the bright side: Seeing what happened to her brothers must have helped Ivanka Trump put the tweetstorm unleashed against her company’s Father’s Day gift guide in perspective.

WINNERS

Bob Casey: The state’s senior US senator benefitted again from machinations on the other side. This week, it was news that yet another GOP candidate, former energy executive Paul Addis, has jumped into the field looking to unseat Casey. Another candidate, Paul Bartos, made the somewhat unusual demand – one that didn’t make him look at all desperate for ink – that Casey renounce Philly DA candidate Larry Krasner for drawing support from billionaire George Soros.

John Dougherty: the politically connected leader of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 was reelected as the head of the powerful Philadelphia Building Trades Council.

Scott Wagner: Sure, he was ridiculed by John Oliver for his sui generis take on potential causes of global warming, but the state senator and gubernatorial candidate wasn’t too far off the mark when he thanked Oliver for providing him with all of that free publicity.

LOSERS

Renee Tartaglione: Already on trial for fraud related to a Juniata health clinic, Max Marin reported that Tartaglione also engaged in similar practices through purchasing and leasing a building as a halfway house.

Philadelphia streets and the people who use them: An explosion of home delivery services competing for space with more traditional business delivery companies – making for a combined result of some 18,000 stops a day in the city – is causing gridlock.

Philadelphia taxpayers: The news that the Philadelphia Police Department will move its headquarters into the former home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News – and not into the old Provident Mutual Life complex in West Philly, which has already been rehabbed to the tune of $50 million for that purpose – is a gut punch to anyone who can visualize where that money could have been better spent.