On May 18, voters will choose their parties’ nominees for seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, county Common Pleas Courts, and Philadelphia Municipal Court. | From: WHYY (Read more.)
Philibros installed its first community-based library last week at Taquitos de Puebla Restaurant in the Ninth Street Market. Still coming are more than 15 wooden libraries on track for arrival to various Mexican-owned business locations throughout South Philly. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
The city plans to prioritize four specific groups within 1C for vaccines: sanitation workers, maintenance and janitorial staff, utility workers, and postal and package delivery workers. The Philadelphia Health Department has asked providers to help these groups set up appointments first. | From: WHYY (Read more.)
Under a proposal before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the southeastern Pennsylvania utility provider would increase the monthly bill for a residential customer by about 9.65% — an increase of $9.68 for a typical residential account. Small business customers would see an increase of about 5.49%. The change would bring in an additional $246 million per year. | From: WHYY (Read more.)
Wolf is calling for a $1.35 billion increase to the state’s main pot of K-12 education funding. The increase would allow him to redistribute the entire basic education subsidy through a formula based on school and student needs without negatively affecting any school district in the state. Currently, only 11% of Pennsylvania’s $6.8 billion basic education subsidy is distributed via that formula. | From: WHYY (Read more.)
Tuesday’s online sale was the first of its kind in Philadelphia, owing to Sheriff Rochelle Bilal’s decision to permanently shift distressed real estate auctions to a virtual clearinghouse known as Bid4Assets. The final list of 17 foreclosed properties put up for sale Tuesday was winnowed down from 78 properties, with dozens stayed or otherwise postponed. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
The U.S. overall spends only about two-thirds as much as it should on school maintenance and upgrades, or about $46 billion less per year than is needed, according to a 2016 report by the 21st Century School Fund, a Washington D.C. nonprofit. In Philadelphia, the backlog was $4.5 billion for repairs and $3.3 billion for capital projects as of 2015, and continued underinvestment since then has pushed those figures even higher.
Washington managed to accomplish a task that has long stymied Philadelphia and many other school districts, and that over the past 13 months has exploded into public view as parents, teachers, and school administrators battled over how to safely reopen schools in the midst of a pandemic. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
Our experience reveals that getting people vaccinated — doing the education and outreach necessary to even get people signed up— requires a lot of time and labor, especially in communities of color.
But in Philadelphia, the individuals and organizations doing the work are doing it for free without any funding from the city for outreach. The data on who’s and where’s getting the vaccine the fastest reveals a public cost to this ad-hoc strategy: a chasm that affects communities of color across the city and region. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
State Rep. Amen Brown, who represents the 190th District in West Philly, issued a memo Wednesday seeking co-sponsors for a bill to suspend the auctions “until after the COVID-19 Emergency Declaration has been lifted.” | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
Mount Airy Groceries has grown into a storefront operation from a couple that used to provide groceries to just their neighbors and friends. | From: AL DÍA (Read more.)
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