Dan DeLuca: Forbes Under 30 Fest A Big Sign Philly Is World-Class Cool

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

Way back in the 1990s, I started going to the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Every March, I’d go back to find not only that the festival had gotten bigger and bigger – too big, it became clear this year, when four people were killed by a runaway drunken driver – but also that the city was mushrooming along with it.

In Austin, the livability factor is high – warm temperatures, live music, BBQ – and the stream of transplants so steady it doesn’t take long for new residents to start moaning about how everything was better before people who arrived after them came to town.

Which brings me to the latest indicator that everybody has figured out Philadelphia is a cool place to live. It’s the modeled-after-SXSW Forbes Under 30 Summit, the money magazine’s inaugural gathering of boldface billionaires and tech titans (and upstart entrepreneurs who wish to emulate them) that will take place in its planned-to-be permanent home from today until Wednesday.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20141019_Dan_DeLuca__Forbes_Under_30_fest_a_big_sign_Philly_is_world-class_cool.html#L2smIJJ3RURuueoT.99

Forbes Magazine Ranks Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 8th Best Place To Raise A Family

Locator map of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Statistical Area in the northeastern part of the of . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Diamond City Partnership Executive Director Larry Newman said Friday he wishes he could be more enthusiastic about the Forbes Magazine ranking that put the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metropolitan area as the eighth best place in the U.S. to raise a family.

“It’s difficult to get enthusiastic about these types of rankings because they come out a lot,” Newman said. “And they’re becoming increasingly more frequent. But don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that we’re being recognized in a positive way.”

The Forbes list had this to say about the region:

“One of the lowest median family incomes ($42,000) among U.S. metro areas, but crime is low, commutes are short and housing is affordable (87 percent of area homes are affordable at the median income level).

Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/1337182/Region-gets-high-praise-from-Forbes

Swiss Apologize For Encounter Oprah Calls Racist

English: Oprah Winfrey at the White House for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  I guess in addition to not getting the Oprah Winfrey Show in Switzerland they don’t follow the Forbes listings of wealthy people.  Oprah is on numerous lists, including being #1 on the Celebrity 100 List and #13 on the list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. Maybe it would be a good idea learn who these people are so when they pop into your shop and want to look a handbag that costs the equivalent of a beginning teacher’s salary, you might have a clue.  #customerservice

GENEVA (AP) – Switzerland is a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, filled with glitterati from princes to movie stars. It’s also a land with a sometimes uneasy relationship with foreigners – especially when they aren’t white.

Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a $38,000 handbag, telling one of the world’s richest women that she wouldn’t be able to afford it.  Winfrey earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.

“She said: ‘No, no, no, you don’t want to see that one.  You want to see this one.  Because that one will cost too much; you will not be able to afford that,'” Winfrey, appearing on the U.S. television program “Entertainment Tonight,” quoted the clerk as saying.  “And I said, ‘Well, I did really want to see that one.’  And she refused to get it.”

She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the U.S. She was asked to open up about her own experiences with discrimination.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/celebrities/20130809_ap_dc0748727bf040c780d8d9610a4a7749.html#Heyzqs5U21ELC7lZ.99

Who Are The Richest People In The Philadelphia Region?

Image via Wikipedia

According to the 2011 Forbes 400 Richest Americans List, there are only two billionaires in the Philadelphia region.  They are:

Campbell Soup heiress, Mary Alice Dorrance Malone is 188th on the list with a fortune of $2.2 billion.  The 61-year-old lives in Coatesville.  Malone is divorced with two children.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Arizona.  Mary Ann sits on the board of Campbell Soup, along with her brother.  Campbell’s is the largest soup company in the world.  Ms. Malone is a horse breeder and owns a farm, in addition to her duties at Campbell Soup.

Jeffrey Lurie, a self-made millionaire who owns the Philadelphia Eagles.  The 60-year-old Lurie lives on the Philadelphia Main Line in Wynnewood.  He is married and has two children.  Lurie has a doctorate from Brandeis University.  His fortunate is listed at $1.1 billion and he is number 375 on the list.