Yo, Philly in the News

• The Phillies did not offer Jamie Moyer or Pat Burrell arbitration before last night’s midnight deadline. As a result, if either player signs with another team the Phillies will not be compensated with two draft picks. If the players were offered arbitration, both would have certainly received raises to their salaries; however, the Phillies would not know what the new salaries would be until February.
• Mayor Nutter defended his budget cuts to an angry crowd again last night. He explained: With tax revenue plummeting and the city’s pension fund taking a beating in the stock market, he has to cut $108 million in city spending over the next seven months and $1 billion over the next five years. Not budging from his original plan, he will freeze planned tax cuts, close 11 libraries, eliminate 800 government positions, and disband seven fire companies, among other significant measures.
• Construction began yesterday on Chester’s pro soccer stadium. With the turning of a few shovels of earth the Major League Soccer era has started. Philadelphia will become the league’s 16th team in 2010. The stadium will stand on the riverfront just south of the Commodore Barry Bridge and will be the anchor of a $500 million development that backers say will help revive downtown Chester. “I have to pinch myself,” said Mayor Wendell Butler Jr. “Chester is on the way back.”
• The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and five Lower Providence residents brought suit against Lower Providence Township concerning the zoning for the American Revolution Center. The suit claims that the zoning ordinance allowing development of the center is invalid because it interferes with the National Park Service’s ability to protect the park and its historic treasures. The group is not against a museum at Valley Forge, just the proposed location, said Joy Oakes, the senior director of the NPCA. It suggests a site near the visitor center.
• Here, in our city of love, President-elect Barack Obama will meet with a majority of the nation’s governors this morning. The governors are expected to push him for a share of the multibillion-dollar economic stimulus legislation his advisers and Democratic congressional leaders are drafting. The governors say they will argue that states are not just victims of the recession but also effective engines of economic recovery, capable of quickly delivering increased federal spending on infrastructure projects and social programs. Organizers expect that 45 governors will attend.

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