How much has President Joe Biden’s 20 visits to the Philly region cost city taxpayers?

Number of times Joe Biden has visited the Philadelphia region as president: 20.

Number of stops this year: 3.

Cost: Not priceless.

With Biden due back in the area Friday and Air Force One such a frequent flier into Philadelphia International Airport, we wondered what kind of tab Biden has racked up in police overtime costs.

Since Biden took office in 2021, the Philadelphia Police Department estimates it’s spent $640,834 on overtime costs associated with presidential and vice presidential visits.

If you add in 2020, when then-President Donald J. Trump and Biden (who received Secret Service detail protection as a high-profile candidate) were campaigning around the city, the total climbs to $952,210 in the last four years.

Nearly $1 million over four years is a drop in the bucket of the $6.2 billion city budget.

City spokesman Joe Grace said the city doesn’t ask the White House for reimbursements — and didn’t during Trump’s administration, either.

“The power of these relationships is invaluable to Philadelphia,” Grace said. “We’ll welcome the President and Vice President to Philadelphia every time they can come here.”

The city wouldn’t provide a more detailed breakdown than by year due to “tactical and security concerns.”

Grace said the city gets plenty in return for its law enforcement support, including tens of millions in grant dollars that have funded water and sewer treatment upgrades, SEPTA, workforce development and, fittingly enough, renovations at Philadelphia International Airport.

Ballot challenges — the hardball tactics that candidates use to prevent their opponents from qualifying for an election — are a longtime fascination for Clout. And we may have witnessed two new records this week: the most ballot challenges survived by one politician, and the most times a candidate has pleaded the Fifth while trying to stay on the ballot.

Let’s start with State Rep. Amen Brown (D., Philadelphia), who was almost knocked off the ballot while running for reelection in 2022 and again while unsuccessfully running for mayor last year. Court of Common Pleas President Judge Idee Fox scolded Brown last year for some paperwork deficiencies. She allowed him to stay on the ballot but noted it was his “second bite of the apple.”

“There won’t be a third one,” she said.

Fox was wrong.

Brown is facing two primary challengers this year: Cass Green and Sajda “Purple” Blackwell.

This week, he survived a new challenge that pointed out he was late in filing a campaign finance report. Brown ended up filing the report after the ballot challenge emerged. But it was still outstanding in early February when he signed an affidavit to get on the ballot, in which he swore he understood election law and wouldn’t break it.

The petitioners argued that he really should know by now. After all, he has been fined by the state for late reports at least five times. Brown blamed the late filing on his treasurer.

“He may not be the brightest bulb in the world, but the people get to pick him, not us,” Brown’s own lawyer, Charles Gibbs, said about him at a hearing Monday.

Thanks, counsel.

Meanwhile, Jon Hankins, a Democratic candidate for a state House seat in North Philly, was kicked off the ballot following a hearing in which he invoked the Fifth Amendment — his constitutional right to not answer questions that may lead him to incriminate himself — more than a half-dozen times.

To say that’s an unusual tactic would be an understatement. Ballot challenges are not criminal cases.

“No one in the courtroom had ever experienced a case in which a candidate for office was recommended to start invoking his Fifth Amendment rights,” election lawyer Adam Bonin said.

Hankins was one of three Democrats hoping to unseat Bonin’s client, State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia), who is simultaneously running for auditor general and reelection to the House.

Hankins was removed because he couldn’t prove he lived in the district. He also waded into legally dicey territory while discussing other matters, such as how and when he was paid by a separate campaign last year.

His attorney, Adam Rodgers, periodically waved five fingers in the air to instruct Hankins to plead the Fifth, attendees said. At one point, Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler told him he should probably stop confessing to crimes while under oath.

Ceisler wrote in her ruling that Hankins’ testimony was “contradictory, confusing, devoid of any physical evidence of residency, and wholly lacking in credibility.”

As last week’s City Council session ended, someone in the audience shouted, “What happened to the cease-fire resolution?”

That piqued Clout’s interest, and it turns out the voice from the peanut gallery had good sources. City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. had indeed drafted a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza — but it never saw the light of day.

Resolutions are symbolic statements of Council’s position on a matter, and they have no practical effect. But some cause a stir, including one last fall from Council President Kenyatta Johnson that condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

There was heated public comment from both sides of the issue, and some pro-Palestine protesters were removed after disrupting Council.

Clout hears many members weren’t excited to relive that ordeal and urged Jones to drop the matter. Asked if his colleagues’ concerns factored into his decision to pull the resolution, Jones said, ”No comment.”

He added: “It was difficult, but I try not to put them in a precarious position for my beliefs.”

Jones, who is one of two Muslim members of Council, said that “during the month of Ramadan, with the upcoming Passover, with Lent, now is a good time to start talking about peace.”

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.