Operation Warm Hearts!

The article noted below was found online and I thought that you might be interested in it.

".........WHY? Its going to be a long, cold winter...where will you be? Think of how many folks living on the streets of Philadelphia who may not be as fortunate...

Operation Warm Hearts has teamed up with Opportunities PA to do a Blanket Drive.

With the economy as it is, joblessness at an all time high, and many not for profit and community based organizations are downsizing. There is a CRISES. Shelters, which cater more to families, are running at capacity with 20 percent more beds than five years ago, city statistics show.

Philadelphia's homeless system cannot keep up with the magnitude of today's problem. There are going to be some crowded city streets, back alleys and some back yards. "Efforts to find new emergency shelters and longer-term assisted-living units have been blocked for more than two years by a lack of resources and crippling neighborhood opposition. Even if all the homeless in Philadelphia wanted to come in off the streets, the city would have no place to put them, said Dainette M. Mintz, who has run the city's homeless housing program since 2006"."

The Blanket Drive Began: October 1, 2010

Last Day for Blanket Donations: March 31, 2011

What is needed:

Covers, Comforters, Duvets, & Quilts will be appreciated and accepted. All items must be CLEAN and new or gently used.

FOR INFORMATION ON VOLUNTEERING, DROP OFF LOCATIONS and PICK UPS CALL: 267-243-1468.

Sponsored by

Operation Warm Hearts

OPPORTUNITIES-PA

OPPORTUNITIES is a nonprofit organization that Educates, Equips, Empowers, and Encourages homeless and other at risk youth and young adults to achieve their academic potential and professional goals by offering them supportive services and stable housing.




"In any given year, there are approximately 500,000 children in foster care throughout the United States. Of these, about 20,000 age out* each year and are at risk for a variety of problems, including homelessness, un or under employment, criminal activity, and a lack of education."



CREATING OPPORTUNITIES:

OPPORTUNITIES was established in April 2008, to bridge the gap homeless youth experience transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Ms Justina Shaw and Nijah Famous states that a lack of local organizations providing supportive services to homeless adolescents ages 16 to 25 motivated them to create a solution. In November 2009, Ms. Justina Shaw became the Chief Executive Officer and a board of 12 members was formed. This team is the driving force for OPPORTUNITIES success.



OPPORTUNITIES provides mentoring, life coaching, educational assistance, career counseling and housing to homeless and at-risk youth ages 18 to 25. Through mentorship, goal setting, and financial literacy training, OPPORTUNITIES residents will be equipped with the skills necessary to become self sufficient adults.

Win A Free Laptop!

I have just entered a contest to win a free laptop!  It is a Dell Inspiron 14R personal laptop and the contest is being sponsored by KYW 1060 newsradio! 

I really do hope that I win 'cause I could sure use a free laptop!

To enter this contest you have to go to KYW1060.com and register to become an insider where they will ask for your name, address, email and phone number.

Once you register and enter the contest then you will have to listen to the station at 7:48 am and 3:18 pm to hear if they call your name and if they do you will have 30 minutes to call them to claim your prize!

Again - I hope I win!!!!!

Update!

The contest ended Friday, October 22nd and alas, I didn't win!

A Blog Tax??????????

I know that the city of Philadelphia is having financial problems but this really takes the cake!

It seems that if you have a blog or website that is making money then you have to pay for what is called a business license. According to an online article:

"All bloggers earning a profit have to pay $300 a year to be licensed in Philadelphia"

If your blog earns you more than $50 per year then you have to pay for the business license!

One way that people earn money with their blogs is with the Google Adsense program. (You can find out more about the Adsense program by visiting The Adsense Consultant's Blog.) The Adsense program lets you earn money from home by placing ads on your website or blog.

You see when you make over a certain amount with the adsense program you receive a tax statement at the end of the year showing how much you earned and I'm assuming that somewhere the city of Philadelphia finds that information - meaning that they will contact you asking for your payment for the business license.

What really seems to be unfair is that bloggers will have to pay for the $300 lifetime ($50 per year) license even if they don't even make enough money to pay for the license itself!

You can read the article by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer Is On Twitter!

Actually I really shouldn't be surprised that the Philadelphia Inquirer is on Twitter but when I got an email that said that they were following me I was quite surprised!

You see since I work from home I do a lot of my work online so I am online quite a lot of the time!

If you don't know what Twitter is it is sort of like a social networking site. People sign up (it's free) and they post messages so that the whole world can see them. You can visit my own Twitter site by clicking here.

As far as the Philadelphia Inquirer goes they post the latest news headlines from their paper and if you want to know more you can click on the links in the Twitter posts and that will take you to the full story(s). That way you will know what the latest news in Philadelphia is.

If you're interested in following the Philadelphia Inquirer on Twitter you can visit their site:

http://twitter.com/PhillyInquirer

KYW Radio Has A Twitter Site!

I listen to KYW Radio all the time! I listen to it mostly for the weather but I also want to hear the latest news going on in Philly! However today I found out that KYW Radio has a Twitter site as well!




If you have a Twitter site like I do then you already know that Twitter is like a social-networking site that is all the rage right now.

If you decided to "follow" KYW Radio's Twitter site then you will be updated on the latest news happening here in Philly.

KYW News Radio's Twitter Site!

Officials Warn of Scams That Steal Homes from Elderly « KYW Newsradio 1060

Officials Warn of Scams That Steal Homes from Elderly « KYW Newsradio 1060

What Happens If You Don't Pay Your Real Estate Taxes (in Philly)?

What Happens If You Don't Pay Your Real Estate Taxes In Philly?

The city of Philadelphia uses a law firm to collect delinquent real estate taxes. If your real estate taxes go unpaid then civil tax actions can be filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia to enforce the collection of delinquent real estate taxes.

Unfortunately this means that your property can be sold at a Sheriff's sales if your real estate taxes are not paid. Also interest and other fees will be added to the amount that you owe!

In order to prevent a civil tax action from being filed against your property you must send your payment to the city of Philadelphia.

If you reside in the property and are unable to pay the amount due in a lump sum then you should contact the law firm to discuss the possibility of entering a payment agreement to pay the amount due in installments. (Proof of a financial hardship may be necessary to enter into such an agreement.)

Also see if you can obtain a copy of the "Philadelphia Taxpayer Assistance Brochure". For help or assistance in arranging a payment plan, you can call any of the Housing Counseling Agencies listed on page 5 of this brochure.

Did you know that there are millions of dollars owed to the city of Philadelphia. According to the mayor of Philadelphia these taxes are needed to support police and fire fighters plus the money also supports new schools, senior centers, recreation centers and playgrounds.

Real Estate taxes are due once a year, on March 31st of the tax year. If the taxes are not paid by March 31st of the tax year, a penalty charge will accrue on the principal amount of the tax, up to a maximum charge of 15% of the principal amount due. If the taxes remain unpaid after December 31st of the tax year, the 15% addition is added into the principal, and tax liens are filed against the property. Penalties and interest, as well as attorney fees continue to accrue until the tax is paid.

You may be able to postpone a Sheriff's sale of your home one time for 60 days.

You can petition the Philadelphia Tax Review Board to try to reduce the amount that you owe.

Philadelphia Magazine

I have a copy of "Philadelphia Magazine that I purchased some time ago. Usually I don't buy this magazine because it is just too expensive for me but I decided to buy a copy this time.

In this issue:

• an article about philadelphia-native Kevin Bacon
  
  
• Philadelphia Facts and Trivia:
  
  
  • "Tons of trash removed from Fairmount Park in an eight month period? 3,608 tons!
    
    
  • Total number of hockey pucks used in a Flyers season - 75,000 hockey pucks!
    
    
  • Coldest day on record in Philadelphia was -11 degrees Fahrenheit on February 11, 1943
  
  
  
• a small article about a feud between WMMR and WYSP
  
  
• I didn't know that Philadelphia has a charity circuit?
  
  
• "Why are New Yorkers coming to Philadelphia for plastic surgery?
  
  
• according to one of the articles "Why Philly is still America's best college basketball town?
  
  
• I do have to say that Philly surely does have a lot of nice-looking stores and restuarants that I would love to investigate!
  
  
• I was looking at the classified and advertisement section near the back of the magazine and I noticed that Philly seems to have quite an S & M and "fantasy" market!
  
  
• it was quite interesting reading the personals section just to see what people are interested in.

I see that the magazine has a lot of advertisements in it so hopefully that means that the magazine is well funded. I don't knw how many people subscribe to "Philadelphia Magazine but it would be interesting to know.

All in all I can't say that the Philadelphia Magazine is such a bad magazine. It just seems to be targeted to a higher-income/class of people.

I do have to say that I enjoy looking at the pictures - especially the pictures of the products that some of the "higher-end" stores are selling!

We must have some very rich people here in Philadelphia!

Job Openings For Lifeguards!

If you are looking for a job then you may be interested in applying to become a lifeguard for the Philadelphia department of Parks and Recreation. Some of the requirements and qualifications include:

• Must be certified in Lifeguard Training, First Aid & CPR
  
  
• Must be 16 years of age or older
  
  
• Must pass a drug screening, criminal record, child abuse and FBI clearance check
  

Minimum salary is $12.33 per hour

Maximum salary is $14.60 per hour with experience

Members of the NAACP Philly Youth Council have the opportunity to obtain much more info, and direct contact information for more opportunities. Visit the NAACP Philly Office at 1619 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, or attend one of the 2nd/4th Saturday meetings, or any of the community service activities to join our group now!

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William Penn High School?

I actually attended and graduated from this school way back in the late seventies!

However I was recently updating one of my site profiles and one of the questions that it asked was about the schools I attended. I wanted to list William Penn High School as the school that I graduated from but it wasn't in the listings. I thought that was happening because the school was supposed to be closing. I was able to list that I also attended Strawberry Mansion Junior High School.

So I went online to try and find a picture of the school and I actually could not find one! I'm going to have to take a picture of this school so that I can post it here because this school brings back a lot of memories for me!



Here is a recent update about the school closing:

"State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas, D-Phila., announced today that School District of Philadelphia
Superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman formally withdrew her proposal to close William Penn High School at a School Reform Commission meeting yesterday. "

You can read more of this news update by clicking here.

Hopefully this is true and this is very good news to hear! Although I work at home now all the education that I received from this school is still within my memories and I do think about it from time to time!

However you would think that with all the free money programs and government grants around that there would be a way to figure out how to save this historic philadelphia school which has quite an extensive and historical background!

I'm hoping for the best!

Philly Got Socked With A LOT Of Snow!

Yes Philadelphia got a lot of snow over the weekend! I have seen accounts online where Philly got over 2 feet of snow this weekend! I'm definitely glad that I work from home because that meant that I didn't have to go out during the snow storm if I didn't want to!

I am an Adsense Consultant and I do other online consulting as well! This means that I am able to work from home and not be too dependent on the weather!

I did shovel some snow today because thankfully its the weekend and the temperature was in the low 30's and the sun was shining so that made the snow more softer and easier to shovel! I saw a lot of my neighbors also shoveling snow today and its interesting because there is one house in my block that didn't shovel their snow yet.

Well KYW has announced that all Philadelphia public schools will be closed tomorrow (Monday) because of the snow.

The news is calling it the 2nd most worst snowstorm that Philadelphia has EVER had! Even Septa stopped running Saturday - but they are supposed to be up and running today.

I have been reading the Twitter posts from others in Philly and it's very interesting what they are posting about. For me I'm just content to be able to work from home - something which I am very grateful for!

In case you haven't heard the weather forecast is calling for maybe more snow Tuesday night into Wednesday!

For right now I'm just glad to be inside!