The train wreck that is the casino debate continued this week, as workshops conducted by the group that Michael had commissioned to "evaluate" the mayor's waterfront development plan vis-à-vis the casinos indicated that (surprise) there are some major concerns about whether the proposed casino designs fit within the city's plan. (Can't we just build the casinos under water and be done with this argument?) FUD is no match for Michael. (No, not that fud, that......

We know the Dalai Lama's visit to the city wasn't this week, but the insert video to the right was only posted on YouTube a couple days ago, and we find it strangely amusing, so there you have it. It's now official: Michael's ethical quandaries are a complete and utter joke compared to those of former Mayor Street. This week's near-scandal for Michael was when Stephen Starr tried to pick up Michael's tab when the......

The City of Philadelphia still has police officers—at least temporarily—thanks to a deal struck this week. Michael referred to the deal as buying time to work out the details of a longer-term agreement. Maybe he's right, or maybe he's just postponing the inevitable. Only time will tell. Michael's slogan for Philadelphia's soon-to-be-effective law requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms within 24 hours: "If you lose your piece, call the police." Somewhere, Johnny......

Michael is all for revamping the Delaware River waterfront. Of course, the new riverfront will include casinos, which probably doesn't make him too happy. Michael was very pleased with the revenue and publicity generated by the Olympic gymnastics trials being held in the city. Universal healthcare? Michael's on that bandwagon. Michael joined the other mayors of major cities at a conference in Miami. We expect that other mayors are now cowering in shame because, well,......

Hello. I’m former Mayor of Philadelphia John F. Street for the new Apple 3G iPhone. The “3G” stands for “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!” Just a little joke. But there’s no joking about this incredible piece of technology. The new 3G iPhone has everything a former Mayor of Philadelphia needs. Take Push Email: now when my lawyer needs to reach me about a subpoena or schedule a hearing, I get his email instantly. And with Push Calendar,......

And the appointments keep on rolling in. This week's may have been the most interesting though, as Michael appointed himself(!), along with one of his aides, to the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. The Authority will be headed up by another Michael aide who was appointed this week. The moves were yet another dig at the Street administration, as Michael is joining the Authority more or less to clean up the mess of Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative.......

We haven't reported on Michael naming new officials in a while, so let's start with that. This week, Michael tapped attorney Rue Landau to be the next head of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations. Michael announced an $8 million spending plan to help Philadelphia's homeless population. Michael defended the city's decision to raise the rent on the Boy Scouts' headquarters due to the organization's policy against homosexuals. Michael is pushing for stricter gun laws......

Phillyist is thinking about running for mayor after hearing about all the swag Michael got during his campaign last year. Of course, Michael also had to give up his job and had no other source of income for the year, and we's gots bills to pay, so maybe running for a high office isn't a great idea for us. Michael opined that there was no connection between last Saturday's slaying of Philadelphia police sergeant Stephen......

Michael wished Philly rock radio mainstay WMMR a happy birthday. And we always figured he was more of a rap fan. Michael's crime-fighting plan entered a new phase, with the appointment of a number of commanders at the police department. Plus, over a hundred new officers will hit the streets this month, and another hundred will go into action in July. Speaking of crime-fighting, the mayor announced a partnership with the city's clergy that will......

You know what we're thinking about today? We're only 21 days away from The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...Beware the link, the signature music plays right away, and loudly, too. NEW PARADISE LABORATORIES PRESENTS: PROM! That's right. PROM. Sort of like prom, but capitalized. New Paradise Laboratories, with the help of some Drexel students, is bringing their unique and experiential theater experience to Philadelphia at the Mandell Theater on Drexel's campus. New Paradise themselves described......

Well, the Pennsylvania primary has (finally!) come and gone, and Michael's candidate, Hillary Clinton, carried the state, but not Philadelphia. But even though Barack Obama won the city, and even if Obama eventually wins the nomination, there probably won't be any egg on Michael's face. And the winner for pointless press conference of the week goes to...Michael's conference to encourage the city to support the Sixers and Flyers in their playoff runs. Oh, and the......

With all the news focus this week on the Presidential primary, there wasn't a whole lot to report in the world o' Nutter. But here's what we've got for you. The biggest Michael Nutter news of the week was, of course, his appearance on The Colbert Report, where Michael did a good job of holding his own against Colbert's needling. Of course, we would've liked to have seen the mayor play along and give a......

Michael was on Face the Nation this past weekend, where he reiterated his call for the candidates to discuss urban issues and opined that the race is, and should be, about more than race. While Editor Jill and this Phillyist were getting lunch at the Subway at 17th & the Parkway, the Greek Independence Day parade marched on by us, and we noticed Michael right at the front of the parade. We didn't know Michael......

Michael will be seeing a number of bills on his desk—the legislative kind, not the curse your credit card company and feel bitter about still not winning Powerball kind—in the next couple days, as the City Council passed several of measures yesterday. One of them would require tour guides to take a geography and history test. (Hopefully, James Lewis will do a better job with that test than he did with his American Idol audition.)......

We'd always wondered where the mayor gets his chow on. We'd figured he'd do his regular dinners at places like Fountain Restaurant and Lacroix. But no, not our mayor. You see, this Phillyist and Editor Jill both had crappy days on Wednesday and didn't feel like cooking dinner, so we decided to head to Mexican Post. About ten minutes after we sat down, who walks in but the mayor himself?! We were half-tempted to liveblog......

Firstly, we've got to congratulate Michael on the opening of his play. What's that? You didn't know Michael had a play? Well he does. Sort of. Michael is the honorary producer of the Arden Theatre's production of The Piano Lesson, which officially opened on Wednesday night. (Look for our review of the show next week.) Back in the more traditional political arena, Michael is becoming more active in the increasingly hostile Democratic primary. After an......

With Hillary Clinton's big primary wins in Texas and Ohio, it seems that the national eye has turned towards Pennsylvania and our primary on April 22. So much of the news about Michael this week was about his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. He says he's going to campaign hard for Clinton, who is no longer the presumptive nominee, as she was when Nutter gave his endorsement. Given that race may now be back in play......

Highway Patrol Officers were passing a house on Jefferson Street near 26th on Friday night when they spotted a man who matched the description of someone who had robbed and shot another man earlier that night. When they arrested him, they discovered that the house had a cache of drugs, money, and weapons, including seven loaded handguns, an AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun, two Kevlar vests, $3,000 in cash, and $25,000 worth of cocaine. In......

You know how Michael rolls – green. And not green like dollar bills with 19" wheels and reverse-spinning rims. Green like he's going to be reducing his carbon footprint. The new Mayoral wheels are a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid. And he even saved the city some coin, as he paid for the Tahoe with his leftover campaign funds rather than taxpayer money. Of course, we think that if Michael was really serious about helping save the......

Governor Rendell said that he would back the indicted Senator Fumo's reelection bid if Fumo just asked him. Ed says: "We would be lost in Harrisburg without him because of his skill. He has done great things, and we are lucky to have him." The Inquirer is getting excited about the Philadelphia Flower Show, which will have a preview opening for selected guests tomorrow, and then open to the general public on Sunday. Catherine......

Teamsters plan to rally outside the Four Seasons Hotel at 18th Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway at 1:30PM today because AmerisourceBergen Corp.'s annual shareholder meeting is being held there at that time, and the teamsters are accusing the company of unfair labor practices. Remember how Rick's Steaks was fighting to stay in the Reading Terminal Market? Well, the fight continues. A recent court ruling dismissed most of Olivieri's claims against Reading Terminal, but Olivieri's......

Nearly a year after the massacre at Virginia Tech, questions on gun control have emerged again in the wake of the February 14th shooting at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. A Google News search yields just as many op-ed pieces about the Illinois tragedy as news articles. Here’s a review of gun-related news in those states: Virginia seems unchanged by the tragedy as far as gun regulation is concerned. According to the Virginian Pilot,......

SEPTA will announce its "Go Green Go SEPTA" initiative this afternoon at Market East Station. (We've already seen the ads up there; they're posters with real moss or grass glued to them.) The idea is to increase ridership to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming, and they've timed it for the Philadelphia Flower Show, which runs March 2-9 at the Convention Center and is typically a time of increased ridership. General manager Joseph......

Two things with regard to this post. 1. Sorry the post didn't go up last week. The author was out of town on business and flaked out and didn't get someone to cover the post. 2. We're abandoning the day-by-day format that we'd adopted for our first several recaps of the goings-on in the Nutter Administration, and will be doing a more streamlined list of the previous week's highlights. The change is mainly because it......

The president and board chairman of the city-funded nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound testified yesterday that they were forced by Mayor Street and his senior aides to spend an extra $21 million that they knew did not exist in the city budget. It's those expenditures that have forced Safe and Sound to cancel dozens of programs in recent weeks. You can find copies of Safe and Sound's testimony online here and here. Insiders say......

Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of police shootings in the country. The Daily News takes a look at what's being done about it, and is pretty underwhelmed. Apparently "many of the officers involved in these shootings are back to their regular street beats, even though most incidents are still being investigated without a determination that the officers were justified in firing their weapons." Due to the fact that local schools had received recalled......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

The sweet scent of Friday is in the air, and as those without significant others recover from their hangovers and push their anti-couples bitterness back into the depths of their souls, let us all unite in giving thanks for another weekend. To whom shall we offer this thanks? Well, how about Mayor Michael "Here's My Budget" Nutter? A WALK INTO THE SEA: DANNY WILLIAMS & THE WARHOL FACTORY (2007) If you're an Andy Warhol......

The Inquirer takes a close look at Mayor Nutter's first budget proposal. The subtitle of the article is: "The $3.98 billion plan seeks bonds for pensions and a kitty for unions." Awww, that's nice! He's getting a kitty for the unions! We hope it's a cute kitty. David C. Sicoli, a Philadelphia priest with "a long history of abusive and manipulative relationships with adolescents," according to a grand jury report, has finally been defrocked by......

Sons of Ben and other Philly area soccer fans rejoice: the Inquirer says sources are telling them that "Major League Soccer is moving swiftly toward an agreement that will grant a long-sought expansion team to the Philadelphia region." Saint Joe's will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5PM today to officially open its new Hawks' Landing parking and retail facility at 54th and City Avenue. Hawks' Landing is a $19 million project that features a five-story,......