Q&A: Philly Guerrilla Artist Huggie on Mayor Nutter AVI Art
This spring, the city is expected to overhaul our property tax system. Instead of tax rates that are based on property assessments from 2004 and, in some cases, the 1980s, each city property has been re-assessed and likely taxed at around 1.25 percent (though the final number is still unknown). What that means, in layman’s terms: your taxes are probably...
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VP Biden Talks Gun Violence at Girard College
Commissioner Ramsey, Vice President Biden, Mayor Nutter (photo by Tara Murtha) Vice President Joe Biden was in town yesterday to meet with state and local leaders on the topic of gun violence. The working roundtable, hosted by Girard College, was private, but press was allowed statements at the end. “There is a sense of urgency in the United States of America,”...
Continue ReadingVirginia: the Latest State to Exploit Philadelphia’s Gosnell Abortion Tragedy
While Kermit Gosnell — if convicted, one of the nation’s only known serial baby-murderers — sits in a cell awaiting trial in March, his name has been everywhere. Ever since the grand jury presentment detailing his alleged crimes of infant murder, illegal late-term abortions, drug trafficking and associated offenses was published in January of 2011, anti-choice...
Continue Reading2013: It’s Time To Talk About Mummers in Blackface
From the outside looking in, you’d think every Philadelphian was a proud supporter of the glittered and feathered pageant known as the New Year’s Day Mummer’s Parade. But you’d be wrong. Mummers in blackface has a complicated history in a racially complicated city within a racially complicated country. That said, today’s parade...
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New Nutterism: The NRA’s ‘Dumbass Idea’
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter went on MSNBC yesterday to discuss the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting, as well as NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre’s bizarre statements to the press last Friday. During the cable news appearance, the Philadelphia mayor brought out a new ‘Nutterism’ (that is, a slightly-awkward profane attack on people with...
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DAILY GRINDER: More Red-Light Cameras Sprouting up in Philly
Red light cameras are sprouting up in three new locations: Academy/Grant; Woodhaven/Knights Road/Bustleton/Byberry. The red light camera at Roosevelt Blvd and Levick St. racked up 15,049 tickets in 2012. Read more about red light cameras on PhillyNow here. Mayor Nutter briefed Councilmembers behind closed doors yesterday on property values in Philadelphia. He...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: British Company Which Bid on PA Lottery Sets Up Shop in Delaware
The British company that put the single bid in Pennsylvania to run our lottery system has created a new company stateside—in Delaware. Sen. Christine Tartaglione of Philadelphia, who is in favor of closing what’s called the “Delaware loophole” for Pennsylvania businesses (which allows businesses to avoid Pennsylvania’s corporate net income tax by setting...
Continue ReadingNutter Participates in Fiscal Cliff Call with Other PA Mayors
Picking up where he left off on the Obama campaign trail, Mayor Michael Nutter joined Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, York Mayor Kim Bracey and Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer to show Keystone state solidarity on the so-called fiscal cliff, urging a bipartisan plan that eases cuts before the Budget Control Act of 2011 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The act would...
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DAILY GRINDER: Philly Smokers on the Decline
The city’s rate of people who smoke has dropped 15 percent since 2008. About 40,000 adults have stopped. It’s said to be on the decline because of things like the indoor smoking law (a brainchild of the then-Councilman Nutter); a smoking ban at rec centers and playgrounds; and the “Get Healthy Philly” initiative, which promotes exercise and avoidance...
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