DAILY GRINDER: Councilman Kenney Touts Same-Sex Benefits
Councilman Jim Kenney is getting really, really liberal. And openly so. He recently announced that he plans to introduce a bill that would provide a tax credit to businesses that offer benefits to same-sex partners of employees. “It’s good business to create a good working environment for your employees, regardless of their status,” he said of his...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: Councilmen Want Hearings on Potential City Casino
Councilmen Kenyatta Johnson and Jim Kenney want to hold hearings on the potential city-linked casinos. “In a letter sent Wednesday to Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger, Johnson and Kenney said that while they had not endorsed any application for a casino license, they think the Penn National idea should be explored. Greenberger has questioned the legality of such...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: Nutter Heading to China
On Thursday, Mayor Nutter is going to China with an 11-person delegation that includes representatives with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Drexel University, the airport and others. Though the large Asian country has become much-maligned during Election Seasons of recent past, that’s all over (for now), and the mayor will talk mutual...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: British, Keno, Online Games May Help Gov. Corbett Privatize Lottery
Gov. Tom Corbett wants to privatize the lottery—and what could possibly go wrong? Especially when a British Firm, called Camelot Global Services, wants in, and the governor seems ready to outsource in the name of killing union jobs. That company is guaranteeing nearly $34 billion to the state over the next 20 years if we allow them to invade Pennsylvania (as...
Continue ReadingWill Wal-Mart Workers Strike in South Philly on Black Friday?
Over the past six months, Wal-Mart workers nationwide have begun strikes and picket lines—most recently in Washington, D.C.—asking their company for higher wages and more hours. On Black Friday, organizers with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 1776 and other community groups will bring the fight to the South Philadelphia Wal-Mart...
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DAILY GRINDER: Anti-Prison Protesters Arrested in MontCo
Image: DecarceratePA.info Members of Decarcerate PA—an anti-prison coalition with roots in Philadelphia—began protesting early this morning at SCI Graterford, in Skippack, Montgomery County, where two new prisons are being built. According to the group’s Live Feed and a statement, at least seven members were arrested after they sat at the prison’s...
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New Documentary, ‘Broken on All Sides,’ Calls Mass Incarceration of Blacks the ‘New Jim Crow’
Thirty years into the so-called War on Drugs, there are neighborhoods in Philadelphia where more people graduate from the prison system than from high school. According to theories put forth in Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, it’s not a coincidence that most of these prisoners are black males. Alexander proposes that by using the drug war...
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Paid Sick Days Fight Beginning Between Organizing, Business Groups
Image: ROC United Two weeks after a scathing report about the Philadelphia restaurant industry was released showing local food service employees are getting the shaft, we were able to get in touch with the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association. The PRLA is a group of restaurant owners and other business interests whose goal, claimed by their website,...
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DAILY GRINDER: Anti-“Sexting” Legislation Passes PA Legislature
Last week, the state House voted 188-3 to approve a bill the Senate had already OK’d that’d ban “sexting” by the young. Which means (pending Gov. Corbett’s signature), if you’re between the ages of 13 and 17 and you send naked pictures of yourself to a friend via text message, you could be “subject to anything from a summary offense, which involves...
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Week After Philly Restaurant Report, Fight Begins in City Hall
Just a week after the Philadelphia Restaurant Opportunity Center released its “Behind the Kitchen Door” report, which details the wages and conditions under which restaurant employees work in Philadelphia, the fight for new workplace standards is on. But advocates have their work ahead of them. Community organizing group Fight for Philly joined restaurant...
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