Here's an interesting history lesson on mayoral battles with City Council.

Mayor Nutter seems to have headed off a threat from Harrisburg to revoke gaming taxes being used to expand the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Meritorious pay for school teachers gets some attention.  Other ideas on how to improve schools are also being circulated.

And a joint state-local plan to keep guns out of the hands of juveniles gets rolling.

Mayor Nutter and Phillies officials, including a very red Phillies Phanatic, kicked off "Paint the town red" week with a City Hall ceremony to honor nine local people for their work in the community.  The Phillies season starts on Sunday with a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves.  Nutter used the kick-off to praise volunteer work.  "It is the way to make Philadelphia the city you want it to be," he said.

After the jump, you can read the city's press release:

»  Read the press release

Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker expand on their investigative series of articles on some narcotics officers from the Philadelphia Police Department.  You can catch up on the rest of the series here.

John Baer chats with would-be gubernatorial candidate Tom Knox about electricity rates.

Who is coming and going on the School Reform Commission?  Here's a wrap-up.

And you might not like a soggy weekend but the toads of Roxborough?  They are loving it.

SugarHouse just received a foundation permit to build a casino at this Fishtown riverfront lot.

SugarHouse, a casino proposed for the banks of the Delaware River in Fishtown, picked up its foundation permit from the Department of Licenses & Inspections today, the first step in getting construction moving.  The state Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed a "special master" to mediate disputes after SugarHouse complained in January that Mayor Nutter's administration, which doesn't favor their state-approved location, had been purposely stalling the project.  One of the issues cited in the request for the special master was the foundation permit.  You can read the SugarHouse press release about the permit here.

Mayor Nutter, under growing political pressure from Gov. Rendell and the General Assembly to get casino construction under way in the city, has been saying that his administration would not stand in the way.  He told a lunch crowd at the Union League today that the city's five-year financial plan counts on $23 million in local gaming taxes in the fiscal year that starts in July 2011.

Terry Gillen, Nutter's chief adviser on casino issues, told PhillyClout the special master played no role in the issuance of the foundation permit since both sides haven't even met with him yet. The permit was available in January, she said.  "I don’t know why they have been sitting on this for two months," Gillen said. "We had urged them several times to move along and get their foundation permit."

Mayor Nutter just had a little gathering in City Hall to welcome Penn Capital Management Company, a financial firm that is relocating from Cherry Hill in July to offices in the former Philadelphia Naval Yard.  "Even in these current economic conditions, firms are still interested in what Philadelphia has to offer," Nutter said.

The firm, which counts the city's pension fund as one of its clients, will bring 60 employees to Philadelphia.

Speaking of the pension fund, PhillyClout asked company officials what they think about the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Program [DROP], which has caused quite a dust-up in City Council this week.

"Don't even think about responding to that," Nutter told the firm's leaders with a chuckle.

City Council is not enjoying its time in the DROP-light.  Council Majority Leader Marian Tasco lashed out at the media -- mostly the Daily News -- for its depiction of the Deferred Retirement Option Program. 

Have the feds turned their attention to yet another pal of convicted former state Sen. Vince Fumo?

A city teacher visits the White House to speak with President Obama.

And the plan to convert Northeastern Hospital into an outpatient center has neighbors angry.

Skip Wiener, Urban Tree Connection founder, in 2008. [File Photo]

PhillyClout would like to salute Skip Wiener, founder and executive director of The Urban Tree Connection, who cares so much about open space in the city that he made a stand while suffering an apparent heart attack in City Council's chambers yesterday afternoon.  Wiener's main concern once he was revived in Council?  Making sure his written testimony as an applicant for the new Commission on Parks and Recreation was entered into the record.

Wiener is one of the nearly 200 applicants for nine seats on the new commission, which will advise the department that grew out of a merger of the Department of Recreation and the Fairmount Park Commission.  He collapsed in Council's chamber before his chance to testify in a hearing.  Councilman Frank DiCicco and a police officer rushed to help.  "He didn't look too good there for a few minutes," said DiCicco.  Wiener was pale but revived and immediately started asking for his testimony to be admitted. "This guy is really concerned about the parks system," DiCicco said. "He's laying there. He looks like he's half dead."

Misako Scott, the office manager at The Urban Tree Connection, said Wiener had a heart attack. Doctors at Hahnemann University Hospital found a blockage in one of the arteries of Wiener's heart and were preparing to use a catheter to clear it, she added.  Scott didn't sound at all surprised that Wiener was adamant about his testimony.  The Urban Tree Connection gets children involved in cleaning up vacant lots in their neighborhoods and then teaches them about the environment, gardening and farming.

The Committee of 70 wants Mayor Nutter's City Solicitor to reverse the opinion of the last person to hold that job, who said it was legal for City Council members enrolled in the controversial DROP program to run for re-election, retire for one day, collect a six-figure pension payout and then go back to work the next day.  You can read the letter here.

Zack Stalbeg, the Committee of 70's president and CEO, wrote to Smith that her "prompt attention is critical."  Nutter's new budget calls for a ban on future elected officials from participating in the DROP program but does not address current elected officials already enrolled.  Six Council members are now enrolled -- Anna Verna, Marian Tasco, Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Frank Rizzo and Jack Kelly.  A story in today's Daily News about the program prompted a tirade this morning by Tasco.

Nutter seemed cool to Stalberg's proposal when PhillyClout caught up to him this afternoon.  "That’s a legal opinion," he said of the 2006 opinion crafted by then-City Solicitor Romulo Diaz. "That’s an analysis of the law. It’s not like somebody’s opinion just walking down the street."

But Nutter said he was sure his Solicitor, Shelley Smith, would review the matter.  "We’ll see what the result is," Nutter added. "But I don’t tell the solicitor what opinion to have."