Rendell: Nutter Mishandled Papal Visit

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Good morning, Philadelphia. Here is what you need to know today.

• Ed Rendell says Mayor Nutter mishandled the papal visit.

You knew Ed Rendell wouldn’t keep his opinions to himself for long. Tuesday, he threw Mayor Nutter under the proverbial bus for his administration’s handling of papal visit preparations, criticizing everything from poor restaurant sales to the lockdown security. Nutter had previously blamed the media for depressing turnout for the visit.

“They did things very, very well on the one hand. On the other hand, we’re starting to get tremendous blowback, and not just from reporters,” Rendell said of Nutter’s administration, talking to Rich Zeoli on WPHT. “The reporters just basically reported what the Secret Service and the Mayor and the Police Commissioner said. I don’t think they can be blamed in creating fear in people’s minds.”

• Philly’s mayoral candidates debated Tuesday night, and they threw Nutter under the bus, too.

Sensing a theme? Democrat Jim Kenney and Republican Melissa Murray Bailey met in the first debate of the general election season — joined onstage by independent candidates Jim Foster and Boris Kindij and socialist Osborne Hart.

Papal preparations were a topic. “Kenney and Bailey said the city had misled businesses into believing that it would be a boon to their bottom lines,” NewsWorks reports. “But Kenney gave ‘kudos’ to the Nutter administration for how it handled the event. Bailey said many visitors were confused by road closures and other security measures.”

• Pat Toomey wants to make it easier for cop killers to die.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is co-sponsoring the “Thin Blue Line Act” to make the death penalty more likely criminals who kill cops, PoliticsPA reports. “It is important we send the message that police lives also matter, and that if you target a police officer with violence, you will receive a harsh penalty,” said Toomey. “Every day, our law enforcement officers and first responders place themselves in harm’s way to protect the rest of us.”

• Gov. Tom Wolf vetoes a “stopgap” budget, but schools are paying the price for state stalemate.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday vetoed a “stopgap” budget that would provide temporary relief from the months-old budget stalemate with the Republican-led legislature in Harrisburg. “I have tried hard to compromise, and recently, I offered historic reforms to the liquor and pension systems, two areas Republicans say are priorities, and in return, I have received nothing on education, a severance tax or fixing the deficit,” Wolf said. Meanwhile, NewsWorks reports the standoff has cost Pennsylvania schools $11 million in interest costs to keep their doors open.

• A Penn study says Twitter usage can predict your income.

“Computer scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere have gone a step further, linking the online behavior of more than 5,000 Twitter users to their income bracket,” says a Penn press release.

The overall picture? “Lower-income users or those of a lower socioeconomic status use Twitter more as a communication means among themselves,” said Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro, a post-doc researcher on the project. “High-income people use it more to disseminate news, and they use it more professionally than personally.”