'Finally, some respect 'round these parts.'

Mayor Michael Nutter will become the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Saturday at the group’s annual meeting in Orlando. Executive director of the conference Thomas Cochran noted of Nutter: “He has moved up rapidly because of the respect he has from his peers.” And if you can believe this, Nutter’s appointment will likely mean even MORE appearances on cable news channels as, the linked Philly.com article notes, journalists “seek opinions about what an Obama or Romney presidency will mean for urban America.” Based on past appearances, we already know what Nutter thinks a Romney presidency would mean for urbania (hint: nuclear holocaust).

There’s a Philadelphia magazine post up all about how the AVI property tax overhaul will negatively affect Philadelphia, and so forth. The headline reads, “Imagine Philadelphia Without Stephen Starr Restaurants.” (I just did, and surprisingly, in my head, things could have been worse than a Barclay Prime-less Rittenhouse Square.) Weird thing is, the article doesn’t once mention Stephen Starr as the headline suggests. It’s not even about restaurants. Restaurants are never mentioned. It’s about homeowners and schools. The headline doesn’t make any sense. The best I can come up with is, it might be a Phillymag meta headline or something, (‘OMG, we went an entire four posts without mentioning Stephen Starr!’) but then again, it’s probably better to just leave it be.

A zoning bill that’d allow for a $102 million apartment complex in the Eastwick section of the city has been ‘tabled’ by Councilman Kenyatta Johnson for more community input.

Here’s a Time Magazine article about Philadelphia’s bedbug problem. And the problem with bedbugs in general (Problem #1: They’re in your God damn bed.)

32BJ, the union that represents blue collar Philadelphia school workers, is set to pack City Council chambers today, urging lawmakers to “keep their promise to hold up the district’s funding until a deal is cut.” The union says they’ve offered $20 million in concessions.

A survey of 100 Major League Baseball players says Philadelphia has the most obnoxious fans.

Republican Senatorial candidate Tom Smith hates that Bob Casey and Barack Obama (Casey-Obama!) are killing the Pennsylvania coal industry with those EPA regulations. “As the owner of several coal-mining companies, I was on the receiving end of the President’s and Bob Casey’s costly, job-killing regulations,” Smith said during a press conference this week. “I had to wade through a sea of red tape just to run my business, and was forever fearful for the employees and families that depended on our success.”