Philadelphia Eagles Schedule Loaded With Prime-Time Features

Jeffrey Lurie, Philadelphia Eagles owner, after the Eagles' training camp, Aug. 3. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Let’s hope we actually have a reason to watch all this hoopla.  Winning needs to be the focus this season!   No more excuses, Andy!

Two Sunday night games, two Monday night games, a Thursday night telecast and a multitude of stars coming to Philadelphia highlight the Eagles‘ 2012 schedule, which was released Tuesday by the NFL.

They’ll open their season Sept. 9 at Cleveland and close it on Dec. 30 at MetLife Stadium against the New York Giants.

In between, they’ll host the Giants on a Sunday night (Sept. 30), visit New Orleans on a Monday night (Nov. 5), host Carolina on a Monday night (Nov. 26) and will host the Dallas Cowboys on a Sunday night (Dec. 2).

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/eagles/mc-philadelphia-eagles-nfl-schedule-20120417,0,4213630.story

Taking Refuge In The City – Urban Wildlife Refuges

Philadelphia is easily visible from the refuge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is cool, Philly gets a shout-out!

Denver’s Bluff Lake Nature Center may be situated beside an abandoned airfield, but the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge’s neighbor, Philadelphia International Airport, is very much in use today. Still, Tinicum Marsh, Pennsylvania’s largest remaining freshwater tidal wetland, provides essential habitat for more than 300 bird species, almost one-quarter of which nest here. Established in 1972, the refuge continues to grow and will eventually reach 1,200 acres. Paddlers can tour a 4.5-mile section of Darby Creek, a perfect vantage point for spying elusive least bitterns, the state-endangered red-bellied turtle and the rare coastal leopard frog. Bird and flower walks, family programs and even story times occur every weekend.

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Read the entire article: http://roysrants.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=post

 

New List: The Poorest County In Each State

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So of course, I sat and scrolled through 39 pages to get to PA!

In my head I was expecting Fayette County or Greene County to make PA’s poorest county.  Not so!

Philadelphia is a city and a county.  Philadelphia is the poorest county in Pennsylvania with nearly 400,000 people (26.4 %) living at or below the poverty level.

Another list, another day!

If you feel like looking at all 50 states, click here: http://money.msn.com/family-money/the-poorest-county-in-each-state-mainstreet

Newspaper Barons Resurface

The Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News Building in Philadelphia, PA. Taken from North Broad and Callowhill Streets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: If you have followed the sale of the Philadelphia newspapers, this article gives some perspective on what that might mean for Philadelphia from an out-of-town perspective.

Is there anything more forlorn than the American metropolitan newspaper? First readers began deserting in droves, then the advertisers followed. Family owners headed for the exits and then hedge funds and other financial players scooped up newspapers thinking they were buying at the bottom of the market. Greater fools came and went, each saying they could cut their way to former glory and renewed profitability. They got a haircut instead.

Many smaller community newspapers remain stable and newspapers with a large national footprint have generally done better. But quite a few of the midsize regional and metropolitan dailies that form the core of the industry have gone off a cliff: over all, the newspaper industry is half as big as it was seven years ago.

So if most newspapers are an uneconomical proposition incapable of sustaining profits, let alone pay off the debt so many buyers have larded on them, who is left to own them?

Rich guys.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/business/media/the-return-of-the-newspaper-barons.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=dayp

Related articles

• Political Figure Considers Bid For Philadelphia Newspapers (huffingtonpost.com)

Local Investors Buy Philly Newspapers For $55 Million

The Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News Building in Philadelphia, PA. Taken from North Broad and Callowhill Streets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILADELPHIA, PA —  A group of powerful local business leaders announced Monday that they have purchased Philadelphia‘s two largest newspapers from hedge funds for approximately $55 million, a fraction of what investors paid for them in 2006.

It is the fifth time in six years the newspapers are being sold.

The buyers, who include influential New Jersey Democrat George Norcross III, former New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz and cable TV mogul H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, said they plan to keep the newspapers’ tradition of strong journalism alive in the digital age.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-philadelphia-newspapers-sold-20120402,0,5831712.story

Amtrak Seeks Leisure Travelers

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A banner hanging in Lancaster‘s Amtrak station advertises a special promotion for travelers going to the current Philadelphia flower show.

The 15 percent reduction on tickets on Amtrak’s Keystone line is an effort to get more people to ride the rails rather than drive.

In the near future, there could be similar signs hanging in Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station or the Harrisburg train station advertising First Fridays in Lancaster.

Amtrak and the state Transportation Department — Amtrak’s partner in the Keystone line — hope to build more leisure travel on the 104-mile line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Toby Fauver, deputy secretary for local and area transportation, said.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/601295_Amtrak-seeks-leisure-travelers.html#ixzz1ojKUHhx7

Coroner: Cardinal Bevilacqua Died Of Natural Causes

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NORRISTOWN — A suburban Philadelphia coroner said Thursday that 88-year-old Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died of natural causes a day after he had been ruled competent to testify at the child-endangerment trial of a longtime aide.

Officials had said Bevilacqua, who served as archbishop from 1988 to 2003, was suffering from dementia and cancer. But last month, prosecutors asked the coroner to investigate because of the timing of his death.

Bevilacqua, spiritual leader of the archdiocese’s 1.5 million Roman Catholics from 1988 to 2003, died Jan. 31 at a seminary and was laid to rest without an autopsy. He was suffering from dementia and cancer, according to church officials and his lawyers, and his death was widely assumed to be from natural causes.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-cause-philadelphia-cardinal-death-20120308,0,7254939.story

Wilkes-Barre Times Leader Newspaper Sold

Impressions Media, owner of The Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, has been acquired by a Philadelphia private equity firm, The Times Leader announced on its website.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-times-leader-sold-20120306,0,6696191.story

 

Chester To Get First Supermarket In A Decade

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CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A southeastern Pennsylvania city will soon be getting its first supermarket in more than a decade, the project of a nonprofit organization best known for collecting and distributing emergency food aid, officials said.

Philabundance announced Friday that it had purchased a mostly vacant building in Chester that housed the city’s last supermarket before it closed in 2001.

In about a year, the organization says it hopes to open a new 13,000-square-foot “Fare and Square” grocery store. Bill Clark, the group’s president, says it is believed to be the first supermarket in the country operated by a food aid group as a nonprofit venture.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20120301/NEWS01/120309982/se-pa-city-to-get-first-supermarket-in-decade

Landlord Ire Over Philadelphia Gas Work’s Lien Policy

YOU’D ASSUME that Gail Newman is using hyperbole when she calls the Philadelphia Gas Works a “fascist” regime run by “devious gangsters” relying on “Mafia-like” tactics to shake her down for $15,000 worth of natural gas she never used.

Bit over the top, right? Turns out, Newman’s not the only one who feels that way.

“They know they can extort the money . . . ” she said. “I’m just a middle-class person trying to make a buck, and they’re taking their boot and squashing us. I’m so pissed!”

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120217_Landlord_ire_over_PGW_s_lien_policy.html

Philly Wine Bar Owner Bubbly Over Debut

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Trying to corner London Grill owner Terry Berch McNally on Thursday night at her new Paris Wine Bar was akin to nabbing a butterfly out in the field with a net.  She was just here.  No, she’s over there. But could you expect anything else on her first debut in a couple of decades?

Paris Wine Bar, on Fairmount Avenue up from the Philadelphia Art Museum, was packed much of Thursday night, if nothing else sending staff often scurrying to get more clean wine classes.  Its opening in Philly was significant for two reasons: It was selling PA wines only, and they were being poured “on draught.”

Winemakers from Allegro, Galen Glen, Manatawny Creek and Pinnacle Ridge dined and probably would have signed autographs if anyone knew them.

Read more: http://blog.pennlive.com/wine/2012/02/post_118.html

Sweeping Changes At Sunoco

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Upset but not surprised.  That’s how union leaders characterized their reactions to the news of Sunoco, Inc.’s sweeping changes to its business structure, including the departure of Chief Executive Officer Lynn Elsenhans.

“It’s not surprising that she is moving on. I was expecting it, anyway. She doesn’t run refineries, she just dismantles them and moves on,” said Dave Miller, president of United Steelworkers Local 10-901 representing the Marcus Hook Sunoco workers.

“I’m curious to see where she is going next. I’d be the first one to call them and give them a heads up: Better get your affairs in order.”

After arriving at Sunoco in 2008 and subsequently dismantling the company’s Marcus Hook refinery operations, Elsenhans announced during Thursday’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call that she is stepping down as the company’s chief executive officer and board chairman at the end of the month.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2012/02/04/news/doc4f2d4944180db147941261.txt

Fast Eddie Part Of Group Looking To Buy Philadelphia Inquirer

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Looks like Fast Eddie’s back in the saddle again!

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Former Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider are leading a “civic-minded” effort to buy Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers, Rendell said Friday.

The six-person group submitted a non-binding “letter of interest” Thursday in Philadelphia Media Network, which operates The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

News reports surfaced this week that two hedge funds with major stakes in the company want to sell. The firms, Alden Global Capital and Angelo Gordon, had led the creditors’ $139 million takeover of the company at a September 2010 bankruptcy auction.

Rendell could not confirm their intentions, but said a third party has been reaching out to potential investors in recent weeks. The media company would be bought outright, he said.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2012/02/04/news/doc4f2d48b30ba13550941899.txt

Retired Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua Dies Amid Abuse Testimony Controversy

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the retired Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia whose competence to testify in an upcoming church sex abuse trial was hotly debated in court, died in his sleep on Tuesday, the church said.

The cardinal, 88, led the Philadelphia archdiocese, the nation’s sixth largest, from 1988 to 2003. Church spokeswoman Donna Farrell said Bevilacqua died at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, the traditional home for the leaders of the Philadelphia archdiocese, where he had lived since retirement.

Whether Bevilacqua was well enough to testify had become a pivotal issue in the sex abuse trial of three priests, one now defrocked, and a former archdiocese school teacher. Another church official, Monsignor William Lynn, faces charges of child endangerment but is not accused of abuse.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/sns-rt-us-catholics-philadelphia-cardinaltre8100mt-20120201,0,5208721.story

Chester-Upland School District May Run Out Of Cash

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CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Nearly two decades after being declared financially distressed, the school system in this struggling Philadelphia suburb faces a new and even more daunting crisis: It may run out of cash.

Administrators in the Chester Upland School District, one of Pennsylvania’s poorest systems and once the center of a failed experiment in school privatization, say they won’t be able to make payroll Wednesday unless the state advances the district $18.7 million in expected funding. While teachers and staff have vowed to continue working, the situation has thrown the system into new turmoil and has parents scrambling for other options.

Hoping to avoid a shutdown, the school filed a lawsuit Thursday, declaring a “cash-flow crisis” and asking a judge to tell state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis that he must act to provide students in the district with a “thorough and efficient educational system.” Meanwhile, anxious parents are looking at other options for their children, such as sending them to private schools or having them live with relatives and go to other public schools.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120115/NEWS03/120119722

RIP Herb Clarke

Long-time WCAU (NBC 10) Weatherman Herb Clarke has died at age 84 from Alzheimer’s complications.  Clarke’s career spanned 39 years from 1958 to 1997.  During that time Clarke went from using a chalkboard to a computerized display.

Our condolences go out to this wife Barbara and the entire Clarke family.

Giant Food Stores To Acquire 16 Genuardi’s Family Markets In Philadelphia Area

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Giant Food Stores, LLC, is making a competitive push into the suburban Philadelphia market.

The Carlisle-based chain announced Thursday it has entered into an agreement to acquire 16 Genuardi’s Family Markets in the Philadelphia area for $106 million.

The transaction is expected to close over the next six months at which point the ownership will be transferred from Safeway Inc. and the stores converted into Giant Food Stores.

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/01/giant_food_stores_to_acquire_1.html

RELATED STORY

Royersford, Norristown and Exton Genuardi’s closing!

http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120105/NEWS01/120109752

Upper Darby’s Shopping District Losing More Than Sears

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The shopping district in Upper Darby, PA is losing more than their Sears store.  In addition, Marshall’s is closing January 14^th (but being replaced with Ross); the Turf Club has already closed and left a large empty building and Fashion Choice Jewelry is closing.  The vacant Sears store will leave two large empty buildings in the shopping district.

Sears has been a fixture and an anchor store in the Upper Darby shopping district for 30 years.  We here inPottstown can feel your pain.  Sears has been around Pottstown far longer.

The main reason for the closing is the economy (poor performance).  Since 2008 sales at Sears in Upper Darby have dropped 50 percent.  I would say the Pottstown Sears store is in the same boat.  Compared to Boscov’s and Kohl’s the Sears store is empty.  I could barely shop in Boscov’s last week because it was so crowded.

Sears employees losing their jobs can apply for positions in other stores, take severance, if they qualify, or be furloughed.

Kill-adelphia: City Tops List Of Homicide Rates

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Murders are up again this year in Philadelphia, and the city still has the highest homicide rate of the nation’s 10 most populous cities, according to stats provided by each city’s police department. At the same time, fewer murders are getting solved.

With a few days left in the year, the city’s homicide tally stood at 324 Wednesday, including the eight victims allegedly killed in previous years by West Philly abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Last year, 306 people were killed, and the year before, 302.

But despite the jump in homicides this year, city officials prefer to focus on the past. When they compare numbers, they go back to 2007, when murders in Philly were at the five-year high of 392. Looking at it that way, they get a 17 percent decrease in the murder rate from 2007 to 2011.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20111230_Kill-adelphia__Yet_again__city_tops_list_of_homicide_rates.html?cmpid=124488459

Pottstown And Upper Darby Sears Stores Closing

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Sears Holding Corporation just released their store closing list and two area Sears stores are on the chopping block.  The Coventry Mall and 69th Street Sears stores are closing.  No Kmart stores will be closed in Pennsylvania and no other Sears store in Pennsylvania will close, other than Pottstown and Upper Darby.

The Sears store at Coventry Mall predates the mall.  Originally Sears was in downtown Pottstown and moved across the river into North Coventry Township as a stand alone store.  When the mall was built in 1967, Sears was connected to the mall.  The Sears store is last surviving original anchor store at Coventry Mall. 

Sears retail stores have been in decline for several decades.  Sears was the nation’s largest retailer until the 1980′s but has declined considerably since then.  In 2005 Sears merged with Kmart.  Kmart purchased Sears and Kmart Holding Corporation changed its name to Sears Holding Corporation.

Sears built and owned what is still the tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower in Chicago.  In 1993, Sears sold their skyscraper and moved into an office park setting in Hoffman Estates, IL.