Nutter Supports Jobs Bill, But What About DROP?
Mayor Nutter joined the country’s other mayors yesterday in Washington in support of a bill that would save jobs. The report, released by the the U.S. Conference of Mayors (which includes a picture of Nutter on its homepage, how exciting!), concludes that local governments will slash approximately a half-million local jobs in the next 18 months all across...
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Committee of Seventy Explains Family Court Debacle
There are so many stories about the awful, awful things our state government does with our tax dollars that PhillyNow just can’t cover them all to the extent that we would like. Luckily, the Committee of Seventy is helping to pick up the slack with its handy guide to the utter disgrace unfolding over plans to replace the city’s undersized and outdated...
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Fire Department ‘Rolling Brownouts’: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The rolling firehouse brownouts are happening. Last night Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison and Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers gave a press conference explaining that next Monday (August 2), in the interest of reducing overtime costs (and cutting $3.8 million), certain companies would close every so often, its members peppered to other companies throughout the city....
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SEPTA: Goodbye R-Lines, Hello Sexy Blue Tape
From the Daily News: SEPTA is dropping its color-coded, R-labeled system [Sunday] and renaming its Regional Rail lines by their current end-destinations. It’s all in an effort “to make it less confusing for out-of-town visitors and people who do not frequent SEPTA…this change won’t really affect our normal commuter,” Jerri Williams,...
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Pa. Legislators Getting Overtime for Reworking the Crappy Budget They Passed
(Photo by Matt Petrillo) Last week, we wrote that Pa.’s state budget might need revamping if Congress doesn’t award it, or 29 other states, with $850 million in grants from the Federal Medicaid Assistance Program (FMAP). You see, our awesome state legislators centered the state’s budget around money that doesn’t really exist. Donald Schwarz,...
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Poop Hitting Fan at Port Authority
Michael Joyce makes $180,000 a year. The Delaware River Port Authority public safety director also has a $9,000 car allowance and gets 100 free trips across the bridges spanning the Delaware every year. Apparently, that wasn’t enough. While most of us have to shell out $4 for a trip to New Jersey, Joyce was getting his family across for free, Fox 29 reports: Joyce...
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Former Library President Says He Did Everything Right
We reported yesterday that Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz released a report that reveals “some kind of [inside] deal,” he said in a press conference, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal bonuses collected by the Free Library of Philadelphia’s former president. We tried calling him yesterday to no avail, but ABC...
Continue ReadingFormer Top Librarian Took Illegal Bonuses, Butkovitz Says
City Controller Alan Butkovitz continued his rampage through the city agencies today, finding shady dealings where they’re least expected: Within the Free Library of Philadelphia. According to the controller, former library head Elliot Shelkrot received $236,535 in illegal bonuses from 2001 to 2008. Apparently, the library’s board of trustees tried...
Continue ReadingPennDOT Considers Ad Space On Signs
Money talks, and Mayor Nutter knows it and showed it when he embraced a check to pay for city-managed pools. SEPTA officials know it, too, after accepting AT&T’s offer to rename Pattison Station. And the next time you drive down I-95, you may notice that an electronic construction sign reading “Road Work Ahead” might also read, “Enjoy...
Continue ReadingPhilly’s Trash War Gets Dirtier
City Controller Alan Butkovitz is getting down and dirty. Acting on a tip from city residents, workers from Butkovitz’s office went out to find an enormous pile of garbage bags next to a BigBelly compactor at 2nd and Bainbridge streets. They created the above video, which shows the compactor surrounded on both sides by garbage and detritus. In the...
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