Septa Fares

Well it looks as though the Septa fares have increased. I just found out today that Septa will be phasing out tokens - which is what I usually used when I ride the bus. Transpasses will be $91 a month and the basic fare has already increased to $2.25.

If you would like to read more about the Septa fare hikes just click here.

It Is A SCORCHER Today!

It is definitely a scorcher today!

Even though I work at home I had to go outside in it - and to make it worse I had to go out during the middle of the day when it is the hottest!

The rest of the week doesn't get any better - in fact its supposed to get much more worse where they are expecting that it might hit 100 degrees on Thursday or Friday - or maybe even on both days!

All I can say is that I hope that everyone will be careful during this heat wave that we are having.

Take your time, get plenty of rest and drink lots of water!

Winter Heating Assistance Available Through LIHEAP

Winter Heating Assistance Now Available through LIHEAP

I know that right now that we are definitely in the heat of the summer but it's never too early to prepare for the winter especially if you have been having high heating bills and want or need some financial help to help with your heating bill.

this is just another great example of the various forms of free money that is out there and available for those who are eligible!

Assistance is now available to help low-income households pay for a variety of home heating fuel sources and furnace repairs this winter.

Thousands of Pennsylvanians are eligible to receive heating assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Grants are based on income, family size, regional cost of living and heating fuel types.

Income eligibilty limits for LIHEAP are based on the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, with a family of four's annual household income not exceeding $17,655.

Funding for these programs is limited, and the programs are open only a short time.

To apply for assistance, eligible individuals should write or visit the:

Montgomery County Department of Public Welfare

1950 Calamia Drive

Norristown, PA 19401-3191

or call 610-270-3500

For further details, call the State Department of Public Welfare at 1-800-692-7462.

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!

source

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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!

Boy Did We Get A LOT Of Snow!

It stared snowing during the earlier part of Saturday and it snowed ALL day and into the night!

Now this isn't the first snowfall that has happened here in Philadelphia this season but it is the first snowfall of the season (and I don't think that it is officially winter yet!) that has left a lot of snow accumulation!

You can probably find the official snow numbers by going to KYW News radio or by going to one of the online sites that has information about Philadelphia's weather.

All I know is that we got a LOT of snow Saturday. Thankfully I work from home so I really didn't have to go out in this kind of weather. But I was listening to the radio and as you can imagine there were car accidents and delays at the Philadelphia airport and Septa was having major delays!

You should also know that all public and parochial schools will be closed on Monday!

The temperatures are not expected to go out of the 30's for the next few days! This is going to make shoveling snow more harder! It's also a few days away from Christmas and I'm sure that there are a lot of people that still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do!

I was listening to the weather report on the radio and did you know that there is a chance that we actually get snow on Christmas Eve!

Is Septa Going To Go On Strike?

Is Septa going to go on strike? Well that seems to be the popular question today! People in Philadelphia and the surrounding area are wondering if Septa is going to go on strike. They have a good reason to be worried about it though because a lot of people use Septa! In fact I was at the supermarket today and it was packed apparently because people were trying to get their shopping done before the 6pm deadline that was set for the Septa workers to go on strike.

Apparently the major bone of contention is about salaries and benefits and the last word that I heard from KYW news radio was that both the union and Septa are still negotiating and that they might possible have a meeting tomorrow - Sunday - which is highly unusual but both sides feel that the sooner they solve this thing the better.

So as of right now, both sides are still negotiating and the Septa buses and trolleys are still running! Whew!




Update!

November 3, 2009

I was shocked when I heard on the news that Septa has actually gone on strike! It seems that they made the decision to go on strike early in the morning and there were many commuters who had not heard the news of the strike and so they were caught off guard when they were trying to get to work!

I heard them interviewing them on the news and the people were saying that they wished that they had known that Septa had decided to go on strike so that they could make other plans on how they were going to get to work.

It seems that hospitals in the Philadelphia area have made contingency plans to help their workers get to work. I heard on the radio that one Philadelphia-area hospital would be opening more spaces for parking and charging $5 for their workers to park in those spaces.

Others commuters are taking cabs.

There's no telling how long this strike is going to last!

Woman Accused Of Selling Body For World Series Tickets?

In case you haven't heard it yet the Phillies are playing in the World Series for 2009! Since they won the world series in 2008, winning again would just be great!

Of course the whole city of Philadelphia is in high spirits hoping that the Phillies will win the World Series again this year as well!

As you can imagine Phillies fans are eager to get their hands on the World Series tickets so that they can attend the games. I know that the Philadelphia sports fans are eager and quite loyal but it did surprise me when I saw online that a woman is being accused of selling her body for World Series tickets!

This was reported by CBS and you can read the story by clicking here.

Michael Vick? - I Guess I Should "Weigh" In!

Michael Vick was all over the news today and since I'm from Philadelphia I guess I should "weigh" in and offer my own opinion as well.

First a little background information for those of you that don't know what this is all about.

Michael Vick, a professional football player was convicted in a dogfighting ring crime. He spent 2 years in prison and now the Philadelphia Eagles are hiring him back saying that everyone deserves a second chance - which I really can't argue with.

Fans and regular people have been interviewed and it looks as though the opinions are half and half. Half feel that he does deserve a second chance and the other half think that the Philadelphia Eagles should have not signed him back with the Eagles.

Here is my own personal opinion:

I am an animal lover myself and I think that what he did was just awful and horrible! However I can't argue with the fact that people deserve a second chance. So we are just going to have to see how he lives the rest of his life.

It Was The Hottest Day Of The Year Today Here In Philly!

It was definitely a hot day today! I was constantly listening to the news on KYW AM and I also kept watching our local news on ABC channel 6 - which is my favorite local news channel to watch on TV. As I understand it we reached 97 degrees today but it felt as though it was over 100 degrees! Even with my air conditioning on (it was set to low - conserving those PECO bills you know - LOL!) it still felt kind of warm and I was still sweating!

I am soooo glad (and grateful) that I work from home so that I didn't have to be out in that kind of weather unless I wanted to! I did sweep off my back porch though some time during the early afternoon and it didn't feel so bad but I'm guessing that that is because I have a tree that shades my home.


With this kind of hot and humid weather there have been all kinds of weather alerts on TV. Since the weather is so hot and humid people are reminded to take care of themselves. During hot and humid weather like this your supposed to drink lots of water - even if you don't feel thirsty. Keep checking your pets and the elderly and make sure that they are alright.

There are also heat-related emergency phone numbers that you can call to help you with problems that you are having related to the heat. There are supposed to be a lot of good links at 6ABC.com to help people deal with the heat.

For me, I'm just taking it easy and staying inside with the air conditioner on!

Septa Bus Driver Injured!

I just heard about this on the news! I don't have all the details but from what I heard the bus driver was nice enough to let the assailants ride the bus without having to pay the extra fare but at the end of the bus's run they still went and beat up the bus driver!

Now I do know a little bit about this "fare" business in that when you go out of the city limits you have to pay an additional zone fare because you're entering another location outside the city of Philadelphia. Add to that - if you have already gotten a bus transfer you still have to pay the addition zone fare if you go out of the city limits.

I know that its upsetting and a hassle to have to pay so much in bus fares but in this particular case, the bus driver was nice enough to let them ride the bus because the bus driver said that he didn't want them to be stranded. Which was a very nice thing to do and look at what happens!

The news reports said that the Septa bus driver is going to be OK and you can read more about this story by clicking here.