Mayor Nutter signs ‘most extensive gay rights bill in US’ [LINKS]

Breaking: Philadelphia Mayor Signs Most Extensive Gay Rights Bill In US [New Civil Rights Movement] — The bill includes hiring and employee rights

Meet the Inventor of Trucker’s Friend: Gys Van Beek [Innovation Factory blog] Innovation Factory is owned by Marvin Weinberger, who cofounded local 90s-era tech company Infonautics with then-student Josh Kopelman. This is a post about the inventor of one of his products, Trucker’s Friend. “Using forged identity papers, Gys was instrumental in aiding refugees and enemies of the Nazi regime. He also helped numerous British, Canadian and American downed fighter pilots. One of these, P-51 pilot from Wisconsin Lieutenant Howard Moebius went on to maintain a lifelong friendship with his rescuer.”

Ahead of Broad Street Run, police show off new surveillance technology [Newsworks] “Philadelphia is testing a new tool for keeping major events safe. In advance of the Broad Street Run this Sunday, officials trotted out SENTRY. Joe Sullivan, chief inspector with the Philadelphia Police Department’s homeland security team, says the mobile surveillance unit kind of looks like a big generator mounted on a trailer.”

How SEPTA’s New Trains Drove a Recording Engineer Out of Town [Philadelphia City Paper] As seen on Reddit.

Why 4 Philly high schoolers turned a shipping container into a hydroponic garden [Newsworks] “The hydroponic system and its fledgling lettuce plants are the fruits of a $10,000 grant from FreshDirect. The online grocer is calling the initiative its Green Angel Fund Challenge.”

Inventing the Future: From Original Idea to Billions [Keystone Edge] “To date, companies that started [at the University City Science Center] have brought $9.4 billion in annual economic output and 40,000 high paying jobs to the region [Science Center’s 2012 Annual Review]. Flying Kite caught up with a few of these flourishing companies, hoping to see what they look like all grown up.” Profiling companies like Bentley Systems, SEI and Janssen Biotech.

Step Inside Philadelphia’s Gym for Innovators [Keystone Edge] Keystone Edge profiles companies inside NextFab Studio, including Love Park Robotics and LollyGig.