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Since Jan. 1, the city of Philadelphia has implemented a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on soda and other sweetened beverages, causing businesses to incur losses and lay off workers, the New York Post reported. PepsiCo announced last week that it saw a 43 percent drop in business because of the new tax and would lay off 80 to 100 employees over the next few months. Canada Dry also has eliminated positions due to declining business.

Pepsi says slumping sales from Philadelphia’s new sweetened-beverage tax are prompting layoffs of 80 to 100 workers at three distribution plants that serve the city. The company sent out notices Wednesday saying layoffs will occur at plants in north and south Philadelphia and in Wilmington, Delaware, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Dave DeCecco, spokesman for the Purchase, New York-based company that employs 423 people in the city, said the tax has cut sales by 40 percent there. …

The Democratic mayor of Philadelphia is touting the success of the city’s beverage tax and lashing out at the “greed” of retailers as sales crater by as much as 50 percent. City officials say the unpopular soda tax is already exceeding expectations, raking in $5.7 million in revenue in January. The revenue is more than double what officials estimated, which goes towards early childhood education programs in the city. Despite the supposed success of the policy, sales among retailers are getting crushed. Stores are reporting beverage sales down 30 to 50 percent and are planning layoffs to cope with the...

Some Philadelphia supermarkets and beverage distributors say they’re gearing up for layoffs because the city’s new soda tax has cut beverage sales by 30 percent to 50 percent, worse than the city predicted. An owner of six supermarkets tells The Philadelphia Inquirer he expects to cut 300 jobs, and a soft drink distributor predicts a 20 percent workforce reduction. City officials expect business to rebound once customers get over sticker shock. …

When Philadelphia became the first US city to pass a soda tax last summer, city officials were eagerly looking forward to the surplus-tax funded windfall to plug gaping budget deficits (and, since this is Philadelphia, the occasional embezzlement scheme). Then, one month ago, after the tax went into effect on January 1st we showed the tax applied in practice: a receipt for a 10 pack of flavored water carried a 51% beverage tax. And since  PA has a sales tax of 6% and Philly already charges another 2%, the total sales tax was 8%. In other words, a purchase...

President Donald Trump’s rise to the White House has been accompanied by increasingly harsh rhetoric about immigration. In response, local immigrant rights activists have decided to give Philly a taste of what the world would be like if proponents of mass deportations had their way. They've planned a “Day without Immigrants” (Un Dia Sin Immigrante) protest on Thursday. “What if a good chunk of Philadelphia society was gone in one day? This is what we’re talking about,” said Miguel Andrade, an organizer with Juntos, an immigrants' activist group that is coordinating the protest. Immigrants will be “closing shops, not sending...

Federal authorities have identified a Philadelphia journalist as the woman who infiltrated and might have secretly recorded a closed-door discussion of congressional Republicans at their Center City retreat last week, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the matter. After a probe involving multiple agencies, they said Emily Guendelsberger is unlikely to face federal charges in Philadelphia, despite getting past security and into a room in the Loews hotel where Vice President Pence met privately with senators and representatives.

WHEN I COVERED the protests of President Trump and the Republicans on retreat in Philadelphia last week, I was struck by the sheer number of signs that were carried by protesters. Many were straightforward about stopping the repeal of Obamacare. Many beat to death the meme of Trump as Hitler. Some were very crude, and others were really clever. Signs like "We want a leader not a creepy tweeter" were interesting. As a Sixers fan, I think "Trust the protest" was probably my favorite. They mostly reflected anger and desperation. However, I noticed two signs hanging from a construction site...

WASHINGTON — A woman impersonated the wife of a GOP lawmaker and snuck into the congressional Republican retreat in Philadelphia Thursday, the same day President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appeared, retreat organizers told lawmakers late Saturday. The revelation came as the nonprofit Congressional Institute that organizes the retreat investigates how audio of the gathering leaked. In an email to GOP lawmakers, institute president Mark Strand did not directly say that the impersonator was the same person who leaked the audio, but that was the implication. “The Congressional Institute is continuing to investigate this breach in order to...

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Theresa May will say that Britain and America can “rediscover our confidence” and “lead together again” in the wake of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. The Prime Minister will address the annual congressional Republican Retreat in Philadelphia and say that the UK and USA will “renew the Special Relationship” now that President Trump is in the White House. Her address will come just hours before she becomes the first foreign leader to meet Mr Trump on Friday. Mrs May will present Mr Trump with an engraved Quaich - an ancient Scottish artefact – and give his wife, Melania,...

Philadelphia may be turning into the new San Francisco under Mayor Jim Kenny, complete with all of the bizarre laws we’re used to seeing crop up on the west coast. Just last night we were talking about his plans for certain bars in the “Gayborhood” and the sketchy legal grounds for those proposals. Now there’s another new initiative rolling out which is going to put the screws to every employer in the city. The City of Brotherly love will now bar employers from asking job applicants about their salary history during the hiring process. Despite a threat from cable...

Women, minorities and transgender people have felt unwelcome and unsafe in Philadelphia's gay neighborhood for decades, according to a city report issued Monday. To address the issue, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations recommended that Gayborhood bars and nonprofits undergo training for racial bias and hire more diverse staff. The agency has issued an action plan for the next three months and said organizations that do not cooperate could be punished or face legal action.

A Philadelphia-area college is offering a religion class to its students titled “Is God a White Supremacist?” According to Swarthmore College’s course catalog, the course “will focus on representations of race in religious discourses and social practice.” […] Tariq al-Jamil, the head of the school’s religion department, will be teaching the course. …

Despite backing what became one of the nation’s first successful soda taxes, Mayor Jim Kenney is now blaming businesses for the resulting spike in the cost of sugary beverages. “They’re gouging their own customers,” he said of retailers who have been passing along some of the costs associated with the new tax.

Mayor Jim Kenney, who lead the charge for the passage of his city’s “soda tax,” is lashing out at the business community over higher prices, even accusing retailers of attempting to stir up resentment for the tax in the community . . . The 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sugary drinks is implemented at the distribution level, meaning that retailers must choose how much of the cost to pass onto consumers at the shelves. . . . “From Jan. 1, it’s been completely dead,” Mohammad Alqtaishat, owner at Roxborough’s M&M Market, told Billy Penn. “I’m not making money at...

A Pennsylvania lottery player who kept buying losing scratch-off tickets called her string of losses a conspiracy and threatened to kill employees at state lottery headquarters, authorities said. Towanda A. Shields is wanted on 53 charges, including harassment, stalking and terroristic threats, for phone calls and voice-mail messages that police said started as a “nuisance” last year and escalated into a “relentless” stream of hostile, sexually explicit and threatening statements to Pennsylvania Lottery officials in Lower Swatara Township. Police there issued a warrant for her arrest Tuesday and are working with authorities in Philadelphia, where Shields lives, to bring her...

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - A soldier’s mom is speaking out after a brutal attack on her son. The serviceman became a target for a violent group after the Mummers parade. He is now in the hospital with a long recovery ahead of him. "He's such a good kid. He did not deserve this." Lori Freni was supposed to see her 19-year-old Army serviceman son Austin head back to base after the holidays....

The contentious soda tax secured passage in June but consumers in Philadelphia are still flabbergasted by the price increases the tax is sparking. In some cases, shoppers found that they were paying more for the soda tax than the actual product they were purchasing. The 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sugary drinks is implemented at the distribution level, meaning retailers must choose how much of the cost to pass onto consumers at the shelves. A 12-pack of Lipton Diet Green Tea at a Save-A-Lot in the city is now priced at $8.03, instead the $4.99 it costed in December,...

A soldier who was gifted with a plane ticket to see his widowed mother on Christmas saw his holiday turn to horror when he was left with severe facial injuries by a gang in Philadelphia, his family said. . . . Freni, his mom and girlfriend were strolling through Philadelphia after the parade when they the large group of young men walked by them and made 'derogatory' comments about Freni's jacket, she said. She says that one of those men then hit Freni, and the others leaped in to attack him as well.