Michael Anthony "Mike" Nutter (born June 29, 1957) is the Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is Philadelphia's third African American mayor, and Philadelphia is currently the largest city in the United States with an African American mayor. Elected on November 6, 2007, he was sworn in on January 7, 2008. Nutter is a former councilman of the city's 4th Council District, which includes the neighborhoods of Wynnefield, Overbrook, Roxborough, Manayunk, East Falls and parts of North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and West Mount Airy. He has served as the 52nd Ward Democratic Leader since 1990.

He and former mayor John F. Street clashed over policy and reform. On June 27, 2006, Nutter resigned from the council to run for mayor.^[1] Mayor Nutter endorsed Hillary Clinton for president during the 2008 Democratic primary, and often campaigned with the Senator. After Clinton's withdrawal Nutter became a vocal supporter of Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

LOVE Park is the brainchild of former Philadelphia City Planner Edmund Bacon and architect Vincent Kling. The park is across from City Hall and was designed as a terminus for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The park, which was designed by Vincent Kling, was built in 1965 and covers an underground parking garage. The main features of the plaza are curved granite steps and a single spout fountain which was added in 1969. What was once the city visitor center was closed down for five years, but opened up in May 2006 as The Fairmount Park Welcome Center. The park was dedicated in 1967 as John F. Kennedy Plaza after President John F. Kennedy.

The now famous LOVE sculpture, designed by Robert Indiana, was first placed in the plaza in 1976 as part of the United States' Bicentennial celebration. It was removed in 1978, but the sculpture was missed and the chairman of Philadelphia Art Commission, F. Eugene Dixon, Jr., bought the sculpture and permanently placed it in the plaza, in 1978.

Rasheed Abdul Wallace (born September 17, 1974) is an American professional basketball player who is currently a member of the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association (NBA). At 6 ft 11 in (212 cm) and 230 lb (104 kg), Wallace is a power forward/center. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he played college basketball at the University of North Carolina before joining the NBA.

Originally selected by the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) as the fourth pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, Wallace was named to the All-Rookie second team following his first season. He was then traded to the Portland Trail Blazers after the season. With Portland he was a key member of the Blazers team that made it to the Western Conference Finals in 1999 and 2000, and was an NBA All-Star in 2000 and 2001. Wallace had a career best 19.4 points per game in 2002 for the Blazers.

During the 2003–04 season Portland traded him to the Atlanta Hawks where he played one game before he was traded to the Detroit Pistons. With the Pistons he won the NBA Championship in 2004 and lost in the NBA Final the following season, and individually he was an All-Star in 2006 and 2008. After the 2008–09 season he left Detroit as a free agent and signed with Boston.

Overbrook, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Involvement with the Black Panthers

In his own writings, Abu-Jamal describes his adolescent experience of being "kicked ... into the Black Panther Party" after suffering a beating from white racists and a policeman for his efforts to disrupt a George Wallace for President rally in 1968.^[17] The following year, at the age of 15, he helped form the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party,^[18] taking appointment, in his own words, as the chapter's "Lieutenant of Information", exercising a responsibility for authoring propaganda and news communications. In one of the interviews he gave at the time he quoted Mao Zedong, saying that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".^[19] That same year, he dropped out of Benjamin Franklin High School and took up residence in the branch's headquarters.^[18] He spent late 1969 in New York City and early 1970 in Oakland, living and working with BPP colleagues in those cities.^[20] He was a party member from May 1969 until October 1970 and was subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation COINTELPRO surveillance from then until about 1974.^[21]