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Tax Day will test Philly’s new online filing system

U.S. residents have until midnight tonight to file their taxes. If you haven’t done it yet, this IRS page has options for filing or requesting an extension online.

  • In Philly, four tax filings are due today: business income and receipts tax, net profits tax, school income tax, and earnings tax.

The new Philadelphia Tax Center has a few quirks — you need a mailed letter to use it if you’ve filed in the city before — but you can also pay without logging in. As of last week, about 42,000 people had figured it out, Lizzy McLellan Ravitch reports.

Philly’s newest sports mascot is named Blob (really)

The Philadelphia Stars kicked off their season yesterday, dropping the game 17-23 to the New Orleans Breakers on the USFL’s debut weekend.

  • When the Stars were Philly’s short-lived spring football franchise in the 1980s, mascots were a collection of orange creatures named North Star, Movie Star, Shooting Star, Star Dipper, and Pegasus.

This time around, the Stars let local sports fans choose the mascot name — so the amorphous, twerking red alien now proudly goes by “Blob.”

RECAP: What else happened?

$ = paywalled 

  • Philly’s mask mandate takes effect again today. A group of businesses and residents filed suit on Saturday to overturn it, but as of yet there’s been no emergency injunction. [Billy Penn]
  • The PPA started moving workers into a new facility on the Delaware waterfront last year, but the building had sewage problems and lacked proper permits. The agency pulled out and sued the developer, but will lose about $1.1 million in the settlement. [Inquirer$]
  • A nuclear gauge went missing from a car stolen in Philadelphia. If you find it, call the Pa. Dept. of Environmental Protection, which said, “As long as the device is not tampered with or damaged, it presents no hazard to public safety.” [NBC10/@PennsylvaniaDEP]
  • The head of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund is stepping down this summer, but not before she tries to reverse Kenney’s proposal to cut its budget from $3.5 to $2.5 million. [WHYY]
  • A sixth Starbucks in Philadelphia is joining the union movement. City Council recently passed a resolution supporting workers at the coffee giant. [Al Día]
  • To concentrate on its online presence, Philly Weekly is ending print publication, leaving the city without a classic alt-weekly paper for the first time since the Welcomat was founded in 1971.
  • A major Henri Matisse exhibition opens at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall. It’s been in the works for 5 years and is a collab with two museums in France. [Hypebeast]

MAYOR WATCH

No updates over the holiday weekend to let us know if Mayor Kenney has anything on his public schedule today. This week brings another set of Council hearings on Kenney’s proposed budget, including the City Commissioners, PHL Airport, the Commerce Dept., Human Resources, and the Office of Innovation and Technology.

ON THE CALENDAR

? Billy Penn Philly Quizzo with Newbold Exchange: Our monthly trivia night heads to South Philadelphia this month — and there’s free beer for everyone who registers. Test your local knowledge and win prizes while hanging out at a new coworking space in a former silent motion picture house. Free with RSVP. (6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28)

? There’s a grand opening for the new Love City Gardens, a beer garden in the greenery-surrounded lot at 10th and Hamilton across from Love City Brewing. (4 p.m. Tuesday, April 19)

? Students and teachers join Chalkbeat and Resolve Philly’s panel discussion about how schools can help kids deal with overwhelming levels of city violence. Free with RSVP. (5 tp 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 20)