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Evan M. Lopez
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The next time you walk into a PNC Bank, you might think you've accidentally stumbled upon a new Whole Foods venture.
In a marketing campaign that stretches from pnc.com all the way to the Philadelphia International Flower Show, PNC declares that it's "the greenest bank in the business." It's earned this self-given title because it has more newly constructed "green"-certified buildings than any other company worldwide, apparently, and thus enjoys better indoor air quality, happier employees and the respect of institutions like the Green Building Alliance. Natch, PNC spells out these honors online in a green font, alongside tranquil photos of the great outdoors.
But, to Philly's Earth Quaker Action Team, simply building green doesn't cut it. Throughout last week, the group's members protested outside of the Flower Show, which PNC sponsored, because the bank does business with coal companies responsible for mountaintop removal. (Mountaintop removal is a truly hideous form of surface mining that turns entire mountain ranges into valleys.) PNC, of course, does not itself practice mountaintop removal, but it has issued millions of dollars in bonds and loans to companies that do so and that was more than enough to piss off the Earth Quaker Action Team.
"If the coal companies were in my backyard, I would protest them. But PNC is in my backyard," says activist Ingrid Lakey. "Plus, we're in a new place now. It's no longer enough to say, 'I build green and don't do mountaintop removal directly.' PNC is greenwashing."
The protesters handed out pamphlets...
News :: Philadelphia City Paper @ March 10, 2010
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0 The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board raids three popular bars, alleging that they had not registered all the names of their specific beers with the Board. The offenders are slapped with a Major Party Foul citation and a You Been Holding Out On Us Bro fine.
0 Starting May 1, all New Jersey drivers under the age of 21 must display license plate decals signifying their age. It's a Ke$ha bumper sticker.
0 A Citizens Bank Park janitor pleads guilty to charges of stealing a diamond-studded, $10,500 Phillies World Series ring that was left in the bathroom. Raúl Ibáñez will steal $11.5 million this year and no one will say a thing.
+ 2 After being accused of running a needlessly expensive and poorly managed office, Clerk of Quarter Sessions Vivian Miller steps down halfway through her term. "Oh wait, what? I thought I was in charge of Quarters sessions," she says, stumbling then leaning over. "Somebody hold my hair."
+ 1 Philadelphia police attribute the city's lower crime rates to increased foot patrols. And sock puppets.
0 A Manayunk church attributes its recent growth to Web savvy. And dollar Coors and 25-cent wings.
- 1 Forme...
News :: Philadelphia City Paper @ March 10, 2010
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"This is a tax that has two purposes. No. 1 is revenue generation for the city," was the first thing city Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz told me about the mayor's proposed "soda tax." No. 2, as you've no doubt heard, was the "opportunity to make a difference in obesity." And that just about says it. The proposal, which would tax retailers 2 cents for every ounce of "sugar-sweetened beverage" that they sell — soda, Gatorade, frappa-mocha-chinos, and (I checked) tonic water, among others — may be multipurpose, but it's not equa-purpose. Nor is it equa-burdensome.
It won't, for example, make much of a difference to me. I drink coffee: black, thanks.
And I'm not alone in not drinking soda. There are lots of people who look an awful lot like my educated, middle-income self that don't, either, according to one 2008 study conducted in New York, which found that soda drinkers were more likely to be lower income, less educated and non-white. Those statistics suggest that I and my demographic kin will pay less of this tax than less well-off, less educated or less white Philadelphians. It's a little awkward, frankly. It seems to me that if we are going to start drafting up clever new taxes, we'd first better make sure they're fair. I'm not sure this one is. But, then again, I'm not entirely sure it isn't. Big Sugar's like Big Oil, in a lot of ways: We subsidize its production, subsidize its low costs and then guzzle it like there's no tomorrow, to our own (expensive) detriment. We're already paying more for sugar — to doctors.
So does this tax change that equation? Schwarz will testify before City Council that increasing the price of sugary drinks will help deter people from drinking so many of them, and will raise money that can be used (in part, mind you) to combat Philadelphia's obesity epidemic. He thinks that will happen, but he also concedes a point being made by critics: Retailers could distribute the extra cost among all their merchandise and sell soda at only slightly more than before. So far, the only...
News :: Philadelphia City Paper @ March 10, 2010
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The snow has melted in Philadelphia and baseballs are in the Florida air, two facts that mean one thing: The fantasy baseball draft is upon us. For those of us who live and die with the varied success of our clever fantasy team names — bye-bye Spliff Lees, hello The Halladay Inn — that means the time is nigh to sucker our friends into overrating Mets and finding the new breakout stars. Hell. Yes.
To get you ready for your upcoming draft, we've prepared a helpful guide breaking down what to expect from your hometown team's players.
Infield
The days of the Phillies' infield producing three first-round picks may be gone, but there is still value to be found around the NL Champs' diamond.
Star: Chase Utley.
Utley is money at a position lacking liquid assets. If you have the option to draft him fourth or lower, do so, and consider shelling out big bucks if you're in an auction format.
Sleeper: Ryan Howard.
It sounds odd to call a consensus second-round draft pick a sleeper, but thanks to his two glaring flaws — an inability to hit lefties and breaking balls — that is what the former MVP has become. Fortunately for you, those flaws don't change the fact that Howard has the best pure power in the game and sits in the middle of the best lineup in the National League.
Bust: Jimmy Rollins.
We'll give this to the new Mr. Johari Smith — his head is in the right place for fantasy: Jimmy listed his goals for the year as stealing 50 bases, scoring 150 runs and batting .300. Fifty would be nearly 20 more bags than Jimmy stole last year, when his batting average dropped to .250 and his on-base percentage dipped below .300 for the first time in his career. Also: No one has gone for 50, 150 and .300 since Sliding Billy Hamilton pulled off the feat for the Boston Beaneaters in 1897. Seriously.
Outfield
Thanks to some hometown selecting from Charlie Manuel, all three Phillies outf...
News :: Philadelphia City Paper @ March 10, 2010
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The bill sucks.
Pass the bill.
No, it's not single-payer. It doesn't have a public option. It doesn't expand Medicare. It doesn't even have a co-op. It will force millions of people into the outstretched arms of that soulless bastion of greed and guile, the American health insurance industry.
Doesn't matter. Pass the bill.
The sausage-making spectacle of the past year has produced a convoluted, forest-killing mess. The process was infuriating: the foot-dragging, the futile hand-holding of Republican "moderates," the ego-stroking, the backroom deals, the summer of Tea Parties, the winter of Scott Brown. The White House's arrangement with Pharma was offensive. The Senate bill's abortion restrictions are insane (unless you're U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, in which case they're not insane enough). The excise tax is unfairly targeted. The promised fixes may not materialize. You have every right to worry.
Screw it. It's game time. Pass the bill.
Ultimately, the importance of the health-care legislation isn't so much what it does, but what it represents. And that's why we should pass the bill, no matter its shortcomings. But I'll get to that in a second.
First, let's dispatch with the politics. If House Democrats don't muster the collective gumption to act, this is, as U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint so famously put it, President Obama's Waterloo: Failure dooms any and all legislative proposals, big or small, for the rest of the year, and guarantees almost certain catastrophe in November. Climate change, Supreme Court appointments, banking reform, jobs bills — they all hang in the balance. Failure would embolden the right, demoralize the left and lead to a Republican tsunami this fall. Bank on that: Democrats, even the weak-kneed, wet-finger-in-the-air types, vote against this at their peril.
More importantly...
News :: Philadelphia City Paper @ March 10, 2010
Fayette County News
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Faculty, staff and students at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus on Wednesday mourned the sudden death of Chancellor Emmanuel I. Osagie, a man described as a visionary.
Daily Courier @ March 10, 2010
Somerset County News
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A $250,000 debt may draw a curtain on the 71st season of the Mountain Playhouse.
News/local from www.dailyamerican.com @ March 10, 2010
Somerset County News
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BOSWELL — A Boswell man apologized as he was led away in handcuffs Wednesday after being arraigned on charges he struck two people while driving under the influence.
News/local from www.dailyamerican.com @ March 10, 2010
Somerset County News
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Only working 25-hours a week, it was by chance officer Donald Lepley was working when the accident occurred.
News/local from www.dailyamerican.com @ March 10, 2010
Dauphin County News
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Harrisburg City Council’s Public Safety Committee will meet Thursday in the City Government Center to review two parking-related ordinances, including one that would extend a permit parking zone for some midtown residents. City officials said the ordinance was drafted...
CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News @ March 10, 2010
