According to his public schedule, Mayor Nutter “will give welcoming remarks at the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s second annual conference in Philadelphia” at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. (By the time you’re reading this, he’s probably done.) Yesterday, several hundred anti-fracking activists marched against the conference, because that’s what happens. This is our G8, bitches! Nutter did not speak at the convention last year, and was thanked for it by anti-fracking activists. Rendell, however, did speak last year, and gave all the Mother (Earth) Fuckers a swift talking to. After that, they stopped fracking, forever.

Got this in my email. It sounds like a good thing: “Kensington Community Food Co-op (KCFC) has received the exciting news that it has won a grant of $25,000 from The Reinvestment Fund (TRF). The grant award will help cover some of the critical expenses of establishing a member-owned grocery store in the Kensington area. The funding is part of a TRF initiative to extend access to healthy food choices for Pennsylvanians.”

Manufacturing in Philadelphia shrank for the fifth straight month.

Some members of City Council went out of their way to slam Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his ’47 percent’ remarks. Councilwoman Marian Tasco was all, “Mitt Romney was born with a silver foot in his mouth. He has no idea about what’s happening in this country.” We heard Romney responded: ‘What? Who?’

Lots of screaming and shouting in the City Commissioners’ office over ‘personal matters.’ In light of this, Ellen Kaplan of the Committee of Seventy noted she has “very serious and genuine concerns about these elections, based on the obvious hostility and rancor in this room between the commissioners and some staff members.”

And speaking of which, Pat Toomey says Mitt Romney is going to take Pennsylvania. Karl Rove’s super-PAC (and almost all other super-PACs, and the Romney campaign) seem to think the opposite is true. WHO IS RIGHT?

Try not to laugh, but the same internal GOP poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research that said Romney is down by one point to Obama found Senate candidate Tom Smith down only three points to Senator Bob Casey. Many other polls, not conducted for specific political parties, have found those candidates down by double-digits. Smith’s campaign director noted of the bullshit findings: “It’s no surprise this race has continued to tighten as voters are beginning to better understand the differences between Bob Casey, an ineffective career politician and Tom Smith, a self-made job creator.”

A 15-year-old kid is being held for questioning in the Broad Street Line shooting earlier this week.

[UPDATE]

Below are Mayor Nutter’s remarks at the Shale conference, in full:

“Thank you, Kathryn Klaber, for the introduction.

Let me also thank Shari Williams for all of her hard work and assistance today.

Welcome to Philadelphia! I appreciate you choosing Philadelphia as the site of your important conference.

I hope you have been taking advantage of everything that Philadelphia has to offer, including respecting our great right of free speech. We have world famous museums, fantastic restaurants and beautiful parks. I encourage you to explore this city. It is expected to generate $5.5 million for the city.

This conference’s title is “Shale Insight,” so I’d like to offer a little insight on where Philadelphia and much of Southeastern Pennsylvania stands on Marcellus Shale and a variety of issues that it raises.

We recognize that there may be some short- and medium-term economic opportunities created for the region by the natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale.

President Obama is pursuing an “all of the above” energy strategy that includes the safe and responsible development of natural gas resources, which will mean more jobs in Pennsylvania.

But many of us are deeply concerned about natural gas drilling that could compromise river water quality in the Delaware River Watershed.

The watershed provides drinking water to tens of millions of people from New York to Delaware, including millions of people in Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania.

And so let me state my core and concern value on this issue: there is no economic opportunity for which jeopardizing our water quality is acceptable.

I have yet to see progress from industry on the most important measures to build public confidence in your practices. Here’s what I’d like to see:

• That industry will fully fund its participation in the Delaware River Watershed Early Warning System to make notifications of accidents or other incidents.

• That industry will adequately and fully fund a forest restoration bond to ensure that decades from now when drilling ends, our forests can and will be restored to better than their current condition.

• And, if industry wants to earn the public’s trust, it will fully fund upstream environmental monitoring enhancements to demonstrate that shale activities are not—and will not—have impacts on the Delaware River Watershed.

Last, all the stakeholders need a process or framework so that the shale gas industry, environmental regulators and concerned stakeholders can discuss, monitor and evaluate the shale gas activities as they occur in the Delaware River Basin.

I believe that while a moratorium on drilling in the Delaware River Basin is in place, we all have a unique opportunity to establish the foundation of a strong framework to protect the environment and the drinking water of millions people in the Southeastern region of Pennsylvania.

Elected leaders and the public across the area are ready to engage with industry, but our trust must be earned.  As every business knows, actions speak louder than words.  I look forward to your “confidence building” actions.

Enjoy Philadelphia. Thank you.”