CITY HALL Nutter gets national role
Get ready to see a whole lot more of Mayor Nutter on CNN.
On Saturday Nutter will become president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, making him one of the nation's leading advocates for cities and urban policy. Nutter, who currently serves as the group's vice president, will take over the top job at their annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. The conference is a nonpartisan group of cities with populations of 30,000 and more.
Pricier parking tickets?
Today the Nutter Administration will weigh in on a proposal sponsored by City Councilman Mark Squilla that would add a $4 fee onto parking tickets.
Squilla wants the estimated $4 million that could be raised from the fee to be used for both the maintenance of recreation facilities and for operating costs of the Philadelphia Parking Authority Taxicab and Limousine Division.
FEDERAL COURT Water testing fraud
Trial is scheduled to begin Monday in the fraud case against a one-time Reading area environmental testing laboratory and its owner. Prosecutors say Michael J. McKenna and Blue Marsh Laboratories Inc. engaged in a scheme to bilk clients — including companies, federal agencies and local authorities — out of thousands of dollars by preparing and mailing phony environmental test reports between September 2005 and December 2007.
The alleged scheme related to tests of water and wastewater samples for the presence of pollutants and chemicals. Authorities say the defendants told customers proper EPA testing methods for analysis were being performed when they were not and the test results were false, inaccurate and unreliable.
McKenna and Blue March have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and related offenses.
Guilty in child porn
A New Jersey man, Jon Lockner, is scheduled to plead guilty Tuesday and be sentenced on charges that he produced and possessed child pornography related to conduct involving a 16-year-old girl in Turkey. Lockner was charged in the case in February 2011.
Prosecutors said they found numerous sexually explicit Internet chats beginning in 2006 between Lockner and the girl on one of his laptops. The government's plea and sentencing memo said one of the videos is about an hour long and the victim exposed herself and masturbated in response to Lockner's commands while they both used their webcams.
— Valerie Russ, Catherine Lucey, Jan Ransom and Michael Hinkelman
