PhilaNet.com

Many days in the Philadelphia region are not good for breathing. On “Ozone Action Alert Days” you are advised to avoid activity outside. Children should not play outdoors. Avoid running and other fitness activities.

View the current air quality for Philadelphia.

More on children and the dangers of ozone.

Sample Air Quality Index

WHAT:      Mayor Nutter and City officials will celebrate the grand opening of the City’s new Innovation Lab, a technology-enabled, collaborative work space for city employees and external stakeholders to meet and create solutions to the City’s challenges.

The Lab dedication is part of a day-long, Youth Innovation event in the Lab, which will include tool building activities and a Vine video contest to promote and communicate City resources to youth.

WHERE:   Municipal Services Building, Innovation Lab, 16^th Floor, 1401 JFK Boulevard

The FBI arrested six Philadelphia Police officers for offenses that include drug dealing, kidnapping and robbery.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said in a press conference on Wednesday that in over 40 years as a police officer “this is one of the worst cases of corruption I’ve ever heard,” CBS Philly reported.

The City of Philadelphia announced plans to welcome back for a third year the “Budweiser Made in America” Festival, an exciting, two-day music festival during Labor Day weekend. The event will be locally produced by Live Nation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and will benefit local United Way organizations.

Shawn “Jay Z” Carter, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Budweiser and United Way announced that the City of Los Angeles will also host a “Budweiser Made in America” Festival during the 2014 Labor Day weekend. Live Nation will produce both the Philadelphia and Los Angeles music festivals, delivering must-see performances on both coasts. Details and lineups for both festival locations will be announced at a later date.

“For the third year in a row, Labor Day weekend in the City of Philadelphia will offer a unique combination of entertainment, culture and community, with the iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway as the backdrop for the ‘East Coast’ Budweiser Made in America Festival,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “There is something for everyone: Festival ticket-holders, cultural institution visitors and those with business on the Parkway are all welcome to take part in a relaxing weekend of holiday fun. With the success of the last two years in Philadelphia, the Budweiser Made in America Festival is expanding into a bi-coastal event which will bring the spirit of ‘Made in America’ to even more music fans across the country.”

“Budweiser Made In America” will be the first American festival to run simultaneously on both coasts. Performances from both “Budweiser Made In America” sites will be available for fans to view with live-streaming.

The Budweiser Made in America Festival in Philadelphia will benefit United Way organizations in Greater Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey and Lancaster County, PA. The Festival’s primary goal is to have a positive impact on the communities involved. Money invested into these communities will positively impact the education, income and health of the most vulnerable and needy citizens in these regions. As a result of last year’s Festival, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey is investing more than $300,000 into education and workforce development initiatives. The L.A. Festival will benefit the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

Access to the venue is limited to Festival ticket-holders only. Festival goers are urged to purchase tickets in advance throughTicketmaster.com and Livenation.com. Attendees are encouraged to visit www.MadeInAmericaFest.com for information on items that are (and are NOT) permitted in the venue, as well as information on concessions, accommodations, and directions.

WHEN:

Labor Day Weekend 2014: August 30 – 31

WHERE:

The Philadelphia “Budweiser Made In America” Festival will remain on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles “Budweiser Made In America” Festival will take place on Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.

TICKET PURCHASE:

2 Day Early Bird presale tickets are available now at www.livenation.com.

2 Day Early Bird tickets for Philadelphia are $99.50 and Los Angeles are $125.

Sat., July 26, 12:00pm, Demonstration to Stop the Drone War Command Center at the Horsham Air Guard Station. Route 611/Easton Road and County Line Road, in Horsham, PA.

Continues the last Saturday of the Month, Noon – 2p.m., after more than a year. Join the campaign! Bring umbrella in the event of rain, sunblock, and water bottle. Features large banners and signs, bell-tolling, music, reading names of drone strike victims. ‘DIE-IN’ symbolic witness demonstrating the consequence drone strikes. Large drone replica display

Philadelphia, June 20, 2014 – Mayor Michael A. Nutter and the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability released theGreenworks Philadelphia 2014 Progress Report, which highlights a range of successes, including tripling the number of greened acres that capture the first inch of rainwater before it enters the City’s sewer network in the last year, from 102 in 2012 to 323 in 2013.

“With the leadership and collaborative work of City staff, community partners and elected officials, Philadelphia has seen gains in all five of the Greenworks target areas,” said Mayor Nutter. “The pace and scale of implementation continues to grow, demonstrating that support for sustainability efforts is only getting stronger. Our Administration will continue to work to reach our goal of becoming the greenest city in America.”

The report outlines the status of work on 15 measureable targets in five topic areas: energy, environment, equity, economy, and engagement. Five years into the six-year implementation timeline, work on 160 of the 164 initiatives is either complete or underway. In 2013, Philadelphia surpassed its goal for improved air quality for the first time since Greenworks was released and showed an 8% decrease in citywide greenhouse gas emissions since 2006.

Other results include:

* More than 100 new food access sites, including farmers markets and businesses participating in the Healthy Corner Stores Network, have been established across the city. This exceeds the originalGreenworks goal of 86 new sites.
* For the second consecutive year, Philadelphia exceeded the Greenworks 70% waste diversion goal. Nearly all municipal solid waste is diverted from landfills through waste-to-energy and recycling programs.
* Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s TreePhilly program has planted 100,000 trees since 2009.

“Annual reporting is a core function of our office and allows us to regularly share sustainability-related information with the public,” said Katherine Gajewski, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. “One great benefit of tracking data on a yearly basis is that we are able to identify interesting and informative trends. We know and can document, for example, that weather patterns are a very influential driver of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and air quality. Having information like this helps us to target our work and make better decisions.”

Major initiatives planned for 2014-2015 include the launch of Philadelphia Bike Share program and the development of the City’s climate adaptation plan.

A Poe Protest at the Liberty Bell

PHILADELPHIA — Activist N. A. Poe scored a victory for common sense in the City Of Brotherly Love. Poe has been pressing for reasonable drug laws for years. While protesting at the Independence Mall Federal Park in the Old City section of Philadelphia, he was wrongfully arrested during a peaceful demonstration. Then, this Spring while still on probation, Poe ran for City Council. Although there was no victory, he did garner 5% of the vote.

Today, Poe’s legislation passed.

Moral of the story: if you can’t beat ‘em… try to join ‘em… if that fails… beat ‘em.

Philly NORML reports: “‘Breaking 6/19/2014: Today the full Philadelphia City Council approved a bill to reduce marijuana penalties and stop custodial arrests.

“This is nothing short of a historic day for civil rights in Philadelphia,” said PhillyNORML Co-Chair Chris Goldstein, “We can now stop the practice of having the harshest penalties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for having a small amount of marijuana.”

Sponsored by Councilman James Kenney the measure downgrades cannabis possession of 30 grams or less to a civil offense, making the fine $25.

Philadelphia currently arrests more than 4,000 people each year for small amounts of marijuana. City policy required every offender to be put into handcuffs and a holding cell; a practice that is not replicated anywhere else in Pennsylvania. The new policy should save the city more than $4 million dollars each year in the Public Safety Budget.’”

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, 222 N 20th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 — The Franklin Institute just got bigger!

Be among the first to explore the newest and largest core exhibit designed to help you understand more about the most complex and misunderstood vital organ in your body.

Scale the 18-foot-tall neural climb. With each step you take, watch the larger-than-life neural network burst with light, color, and sound, reflecting how your brain sends messages throughout your body.

Morph a life-size photograph of yourself into a homunculus—-a figure of crazy proportions that represents how your brain maps your body by the complexity of its movements.

How good is your memory? Find out when we challenge you to remember a short code to open a safe. Sounds simple, right? Perhaps at first, but it will be a real test of your mind as the code gets longer and longer with each try.

Walk through the street scene that at first glance appears normal, but is filled with optical illusions that conflict with what your brain is expecting to see. The mind tricks are sure to amuse and confuse your brain, as well as help to explain how your brain processes what it sees!

Don’t miss these 3 exhibits also included with admission to the museum:
* Circus! Science Under the Big Top
* 101 Inventions That Changed the World
* Ocean Soul, a National Geographic Photography Exhibit

Ozone action days happen when the ground level ozone becomes hazardous to your health. In essence, this means you should try not to breath. Certainly, do not suggest that your kids go outside and play. More people die from air pollution than guns… way more. Please do not pull the trigger.

Here is an example from June 17, 2014 issued by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection:

Ozone Action Warning:
Air Quality Index (AQI)
106
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
Health Message: Active children and adults, and people with lung disease, such as asthma, should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.
ACTION DAY

Forecast Discussion: Tuesday will be an Air Quality Action day for ozone for the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Full sun all afternoon, along with temperatures rising into the 90s °F, will promote ozone formation. An Appalachian lee trough will form east of I-95, which will be a focus for pollutant accumulation. Warm air arriving aloft will limit mixing. As a result of these factors, ozone will increase into the Code Orange range. Rising humidity and westerly transport aloft from the Ohio River Valley will increase particles into the mid-Moderate range. **Extended Forecast: Wednesday will be hotter and more humid, but stronger winds in the afternoon and the chance for convection in advance of a slowly moving cold front will limit ozone to the upper Moderate range. Particles will remain in the mid-Moderate range. The cold front will slowly move through the area on Thursday. Temperatures will decrease, although it will remain humid. Thunderstorms forming in the afternoon will limit both ozone and particles to the low Moderate range. -Huff/Catena/Ryan