Julia Harte with your morning fix.

Over 40 elephants have died in Kenya over the past two months in what the government originally thought might be an anthrax attack, but was instead found to be malnutrition: a result of the worst drought the country has faced in a decade.

In a sharp departure from his predecessor’s energy policy, Japan’s incoming premier pledged that by 2020 the country will emit 25 percent less carbon than it did in 1990.

President Obama’s “green jobs czar” Van Jones resigned amid furor over a petition he signed in 2004 calling for an investigation into whether the government allowed the 9-11 attacks. A new “auto czar,” who will oversee manufacturing policy, was appointed in his stead.

Conservatives feared that a virulent partisan agenda was embedded in Obama’s first-day-of-school speech to students, which urged kids to stay in school so they’d be able to perform meaningful jobs.

Out of the 5,000 workplace fatalities in 2008, workers in finance and insurance had the highest survival rate and fishermen had the lowest, an annual Department of Labor Report revealed.

Philadelphia union members, angry about a budget proposal that would stall payments into the municipal pension plan, booed Mayor Michael Nutter as he spoke at the Sheet Metal Workers union hall before the annual Labor Day parade.

A species of rat weighing 3.3 lbs and measuring 82 centimeters from snout to tail was discovered in the crater of an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea by researchers from the BBC Natural History Unit.

An hour ago, Mayor Nutter held a press conference to announce that – due to the state Senate’s delay in voting on Philadelphia’s proposed sales tax hike – the city has already lost out on about $20 million dollars that the tax hike should have raised by now.

And so, about $20 has been cut from the budget. In an emailed statement, the Mayor’s Office outlined the following cuts:

The cadet class for the Police Department, scheduled to begin this fall, will be delayed, saving the $3.2 million this fiscal year.

The Mayor’s Office will eliminate six full-time positions, saving $500,000 annually.

Starting August 29th, the 3-1-1 call center will change its hours of operation from 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to 8am-8pm on weekdays, 9am-5pm on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays, saving $230,000 annually.

The Office of Fleet Management will stop purchase on all City vehicles other than replacement police cars.  This ban includes snow removal equipment, sanitation vehicles and road repair equipment, saving $4.8 million in FY10.

The Department of Finance will eliminate six full-time positions and reduce supplies, equipment and contracts, saving $1.3 million annually.

The Commerce Department will eliminate three full-time positions, saving $233,000 annually.

The Planning Commission will eliminate six full-time positions, saving $341,000 annually.

The Law department will reduce contract spending for outside legal counsel, saving $1.3 million annually.

The Department of Public Property will reduce maintenance contracts, saving $2.5 million annually.

The Department of Licenses and Inspections will reduce contracts and supplies, saving $140,000 annually.

The City Representative will eliminate three vacant positions and reduce contracts, saving $287,000 annually.

The Streets Department will reduce garbage disposal contracts, saving $3 million annually, and will curtail street tree trimming and maintenance contracts, saving $1 million annually.

The City will eliminate its final $1.5 million payment to the Housing Trust Fund.

Two sources yesterday told CP that the Streets Department, which oversees the city’s recycling program, had given notice on Friday to four of the six workers who run the city’s recycling program.

This morning, Luke Butler of the Mayor’s Press office confirmed this after speaking with Deputy Commissioner Carlton Williams.

“This doesn’t affect the operational side of recycling,” Butler said over the phone. “These individuals are largely responsible for the education component.” Which is now, he said, being transferred to the city’s Streets and Walkways Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEP).

However, one knowledgeable source within the Streets Department’s Sanitation division, which houses recycling, expressed concern to CP that SWEEP employees lack the training and experience in recycling that the four employees who have been given notice possess.

This news is something of a surprise — Mayor Nutter has been making much lately of his commitment to greening the city, most notably in his Greenworks Philadelphia plan. While this news may not impact that plan, it does come the same week that the city loses another employee with green experience. This week, the Office of Sustainability’s Mark Alan Hughes has decided to leave his post.

We’ll have more as we learn more.

UPDATE:

In an email, spokesman Luke Butler gave the following response to the concern, mentioned above, that SWEEP officers will lack the necessary experience to make up for the positions being lost:

SWEEP Officers already provide information to community groups and nonprofit organizations that teach the importance of recycling.  SWEEP officers are thoroughly familiar with the rules and regulations regarding recycling and are well positioned in the community to educate citizens and community based organizations. To the extent that there may be specialized areas that the SWEEP Officers will need to enhance their knowledge, such as composting materials, this training can be done within the Department to continuously educate our citizens on the importance of recycling.

PA DEP

I think we can all agree that cameras tucked secretly away behind stoplights are just plain, total evil. But a hidden camera placed near a lot that people routinely litter at — not so bad, right? According to ABC’s Action News, Mayor Nutter has already ordered that dozens of the anti-litterbug cameras be placed throughout the city, with more to come in future months.

The cameras have allegedly already caught teens spray painting and adults tossing out tires, so let this be your warning: If you want to throw out that couch of yours, don’t take it to an abandoned lot. Just put it outside your house, for chrissakes. Last time I did that, when I was moving out of Fishtown, two guys picked it up in less than an hour — and kindly thanked me for it.

Interesting little piece in the DN today about a recent increase in enrollments in the controversial DROP program. Reports Catherine Lucey:

Applications to enter the city’s controversial retirement plan doubled in March compared with February, fueled in part by worker concerns that the perk may be eliminated.

Records show that 302 city employees applied to enter the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) in March. That’s up from 158 in February.

There are no plans to get rid of DROP, but Mayor Nutter has recently raised questions about it.

This is the controversial program that allows city workers to set a date for their retirement, and then collect their pension in a big lump sum payment.

Most of the controversy, however, has to do with Council members who enroll in the program — a loophole allows a Councilperson to “retire” for a few days, collect their payment (as much as half a million dollars in some cases) and then run again for office.

The issue blew up recently as Council and Mayor Nutter duked it out over the budget. To learn more about the issue, you can listen to the most recent episode of Philly From Scratch: The Podcast, in which we interview Committee of Seventy’s Zach Stalberg and Councilman Frank Rizzo about the program.

I’m not advocating for it, just pointing it out – but if everything’s on the table . . .

There’s been much talk, in the face of Mayor Nutter’s proposal to raise sales and — much more significantly — property taxes, of raising the wage tax instead. Here’s one interesting possibility: tax the suburbs. More, that is.

Residents and non-residents of Philadelphia pay slightly different rates on the wage tax. Residents are taxed about 3.955% of their income; non-residents, however, pay 3.5196% of theirs.

The argument, of course, is that non-residents don’t receive the services that residents do, services paid largely by the wage tax.

On the other hand, they do make their money in (and therefore from) Philly; and who are we talking about here? In general, we’re talking about a small population — only about 15,000 people, according to a source in City Hall — who live in the suburbs and work in the city. They tend to be well-off: lawyers, doctors, etc.

If the city were to bring those rates into parity - make them equal, that is - by raising the suburban wage tax by about four-tenths of a percent, the city would raise about $70 million dollars annually.

Are there valid arguments against doing it? Sure - just as there are valid arguments for such a raise.

More likely, however, arguments won’t win the day: clout will. And when it comes to clout, those 15,000 suburban residents are almost sure to fight a raise in their taxes to the bitter end.

badluckcity.files.wordpress.com

In November, Mayor Michael Nutter said that he’d shut down 68 out of the city’s 81 swimming pools. But then the people spoke, and Nutter listened (whether that’s for the best or not, we have yet to see). Last Thursday, he said that he’d be keeping 46 pools open — a big difference from the original 13. This obviously means all sorts of great things: recreational departments like Mander Playground (33rd and Susquehanna) will be able to keep their summer camps robust, community members without AC will have access to a cooling alternative, and crime will likely be reduced because of the ‘ol routine activities theory — keep people busy, and they won’t get into trouble as often.

Or will they?

Caterina Roman, a criminal justice professor at Temple University, has an interesting theory about what may happen as a result of closing some pools and keeping others open. In 2003, she published a study on the effects of shutting down schools and displacing students to education centers in other neighborhoods. “We found that there was an increase in assaults, as a result of placing rival gangs together or just plain rival communities together.” While she hasn’t completed a study on displacing students or adults as a result of pools, she predicts that it may have the same effect. She emphasized that this was merely conjecture, but still thinks police should take it into consideration once pools open.

She also thinks officials should have thought about this while deciding which pools to close. When I spoke with Alan Joinville, public affairs coordinator for the rec department, a few days ago, he gave me a list of criteria that they used to determine which pools would stay and which would go — the pool’s attendance, size, age, condition, access and location. He didn’t say anything about gangs.

People may hate you for taking away their civil services, Nutter, but they can never take away your recycling program.

phila.gov

Today, Mayor Nutter officially announces that recycling throughout the city will start off on a weekly, rather than bi-weekly, schedule. Center City and Mount Airy have been on the weekly plan for some time but this  now the rest of the city gets to benefit.

As the Inquirer reports, the weekly program, which went into effect Monday, was put in place to increase Philly’s dismal recycling rate. It already improved with the implementation of single stream recycling. So the city’s “just stick it in a bucket” policy seems to be working.

What’s this mean? No more running down your stairs in your pajamas with your recycling bin, only to see the truck turn the corner, leaving you wait another two weeks as your apartment fills up with Diet Coke and beer cans. Seriously, it was getting dangerous.

The Coalition to Save the Libraries will hold a people’s indictment of Mayor Nutter over the library closures, this Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Northeast corner of City Hall. They’ll be reading a list of 11 indictments against Nutter, including increasing joblessness and eliminating safe havens for children.

Here’s the info from the Coalition site:

Tuesday, Dec. 30th, 9:30 am: People’s Indictment of Mayor Nutter at the northeast corner of City Hall. The Coalition to Save the Libraries will formally indict Mayor Nutter on the crimes he has committed against the City of Philadelphia. Bring signs!

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 10 am: Hearings at City Hall in Room 426 to hear the cases of the class-action law suit being brought by Irv Ackelsberg and the lawsuit being brought by Councilpersons Green, Blackwell, and Kelly. Bring signs! (We’ll leave them outside of the courtroom.) We’ll hear the City’s arguments today.

Get acquainted with the ins and outs of the library closings by reading staff writer Isaiah Thompson’s coverage and by visiting the Friends of the Free Library site.

In the midst of a budget crisis, we’ve come to see many faces of Mayor Michael Nutter. Doron Taussig’s cover story analyzes the different versions.

Bruce Schimmel says to spend your green on something green this holiday season. Screw shirts and pants — give herbs and plants.

As for news, I offer this equation: Libraries - Money = Closures.

We’re loaded with Web-exclusive content this week. Check out Jimmy Viola’s preview of Killers of Comedy; an extended interview with the director/writers of Cherry Bomb; and a photo gallery going along with Robin Rice’s story on Visual Art. And a dance review. And that’s it.  

Thinking about catching a flick this weekend? We recommend Frost/Nixon and Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains. You can also check out other movie reviews here.

Arts: EDIBLE CITIES MADE OUT OF JELLO!

Agenda: Christmas shopping in Kensington.

Music: From blankets to music. 

Food: Rustic fare at Mémé.

Yesterday, I wrote a post noting Mayor Nutter’s proposed “town hall meetings” (can someone at the FCC just dub that phrase obscene already?), opining that Nutter seems to be replacing real government transparency with closed-door decisions followed by symbolic meetings.

In an e-mail I received today, a reader took issue with part of my post. With that reader’s permission, I’m reprinting the message here:

Hi Isaiah,

In your article yesterday you wrote:

Nutter signed legislation that brings the city one step closer to having at least one casino in Market East, despite massive protest from the abutting Chinatown community and other activists who oppose casinos in Philadelphia.

There are three things I would like to correct:

1. This is mostly a Chinatown issue.

The press has been portraying it this way, but it is far from the truth. There is outrage about this location outside of Chinatown as well.

2. Those who oppose this new location are “activists.”

Go to this link at Hallwatch and read the letters to Mayor Nutter. Many of the letter writers used the “canned letter,” but some wrote their own, and you can tell — the majority of the letter writers are ordinary citizens and have not been activists on this issue heretofore.

3. Those against the Market Street site oppose casinos in Philadelphia.

Again, read the letters at Hallwatch. The theme is that a 5,000 machine slot parlor does not belong in the heart of Philadelphia. Some of us have been working for almost two years to move the casinos away from neighborhoods and to more remote locations in Philadelphia. Although we may prefer no casinos in Philadelphia, we have compromised, because of the power of Act 71, which demands two in Philadelphia, by saying that there are less harmful locations (in Philadelphia) to put them. We were not thinking that the heart of the city was one of those less harmful locations.

I think the author of those comments has a good point. Three, in fact. Thanks for the input, and keep it coming.

This is the only pic of Nutter I could find where he looks kinda sad.

It was an honorable thing Mayor Nutter was trying to do when he appointed an ex-con to run his Office for the Re-entry of ex-Offenders. But it hasn’t panned out spectacularly. Tell us about it, Marcia Gelbart:

Six months after appointing an ex-inmate and former drug addict with a record for aggravated assault to lead a city office devoted to finding jobs for other ex-offenders, Nutter quietly demoted him.

During his brief tenure as director of the Mayor’s Office for the Reentry of Ex-offenders, Ronald L. Cuie nearly doubled his staff and overspent his budget to the point where the city has had to cancel a contract with a firm hired to find jobs for ex-inmates.

What exactly happened here — whether there were honest misunderstandings, a lack of qualifications or pure wrongdoing — is not entirely clear, though Gelbart’s story tries to suss it out. Nutter didn’t much want to talk about it:

“Needs and strategies change and evolve over time, and you utilize your personnel as best you see fit,” he said.