Joseph N DiStefano

This Harvard-trained, ex-Uber lawyer is the boss at one of Philly’s biggest builders Mike Lloyd is building apartments and labs, but he's still "bullish on offices."

How did Louisiana native Mike Lloyd, a Saints fan, end up owning + running IMC, one of the mid-Atlantic's biggest general construction contractors? He had Ivy League, Big Law, Wall Street cred. Also, he married the boss's daughter. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/imc...

Pa. plant that helps make smartphones and bullets finds new suppliers in China trade war Global Tungsten & Powders is looking to Korea and Rwanda to provide tungsten, a metal that's also essential to helicopters and medical devices.

Metal politics: Pa. plant world's largest preps tungsten for missiles, aircraft, smartphones. Cheap China mines controlled supply. USA limits pushed price to record. So plant's Euro owner, w USA aid, now buys from reopened mines in Korea, Rwanda. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/glo...

Shareholders approve merger of American Water and Essential Utilities, which serve Pa. and N.J. American Water's combination with smaller Essential Utilities will create the first private water and sewer utility that's roughly as big as a major power company.

Big Water: AmWater $AWK takeover of Essential / Aqua $WTRG for-profit water, sewer, gas utilities wins big shareholder vote, tho a few balk at millions for departing CEO. Will state PUCs approve, too? My latest: www.inquirer.com/business/ame...

For Gopuff, Super Monday is the national holiday Limes and Italy's Ferrero chocolates were big winners from this year's NFL home fan spending.

Delivery service Gopuff tracks SuperBowl XL snacks: Ferrero's Nerds Gummy Clusters and KinderBueno ads quadrupled traffic; but limes🇲🇽beat everything - with zero ads. My latest: www.inquirer.com/business/gop...

These outsourced Vanguard workers are getting their jobs back Hundreds of Infosys workers are returning to Malvern-based Vanguard Group, which sent them to the contractor in 2020.

At @Vanguard_Group , an outsourcing reversal; and, some bosses are H-1b immigrants. My latest: www.inquirer.com/business/van...

Philly native Mike Petrakis built PowerPay, a fintech company for people who think banks are too slow This loan salesman began by funding home improvement companies and wants to sell more insurance.

He's not a banker or a software engineer. How did Mike Petrakis use hotel capital, credit unions and bank deals to turn PowerPay into a $5 billion, 225-worker, PA-based fintech lender? www.inquirer.com/business/pow...

Oh man. Which side are the good guys

old Ukrainian and Polish ladies across Pennsylvania are staring at you verrry soberly

It's true, there's now so much free information and propaganda, that many consumers no longer recognize real reporting, if they ever did

Exhibit of this ecosystem: Many local news pieces on ICE detention centers are referencing stories broken by the Post and Bloomberg.

They're cooking and serving the concession food, cleaning the seats and doing all the other real work.

And fewer cars. But higher incomes. There's more than one explanation

Sorry to see. It's as if the company can dish it out, but can't take it

Reminder that the Parker admin chose to allow this tax hike for small businesses rather than trying to defend against a lawsuit challenging the BIRT exemption. But the people most to blame for rising taxes for Philly small businesses are the PA Republicans who refuse to change the uniformity clause.

Gov. Josh Shapiro says he’ll prevent data center developers from ‘saddling’ Pennsylvanians with higher energy costs Pennsylvania and New Jersey lawmakers have other ideas on how to keep residents from subsidizing power-hungry data centers, proposed across the region from East Vincent Township to Vineland.

Problem: Surge in data center construction is driving up electric power costs, writes
Inquirer's Frank Kummer
inquirer.com/business/tec...
Gov Shapiro: We'll speed up PA data center approvals - if you add your own power plants, per Erin McCarthy www.inquirer.com/politics/pen...

From inquirer.com

There are several parties to blame for high and expanding taxes. Pennsylvania and Philadelphia keep falling behind and losing clout because they are seen as unfriendly to private employers.

I started my 2025 filing today and, yeah, this BIRT change is a HUGE local tax hike on Schedule Cs in Philly.

I owe double what I paid last year, after making less money. Plus, it ends up being even more than that substantively because you have to pre-pay all of 2026.

How Philly helicopter makers cope with uncertainty at today’s Pentagon "Incredibly destabilizing" changes in payments keep the manufacturer on edge, while managers scramble to prevent worker layoffs.

'Destabilizing and difficult': How a Pa. helicopter factory is coping with shifting payments from the U.S. military. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/leo...

Welp, if those smaller modular reactors exist and can be swapped on and off existing reactor sites without having to take the whole site down as advertised, we need em, and the current process takes decades, so maybe it's time to speed it up

How Philly helicopter makers cope with uncertainty at today’s Pentagon "Incredibly destabilizing" changes in payments keep the manufacturer on edge, while managers scramble to prevent worker layoffs.

'Destabilizing and difficult': How a Pa. helicopter factory is coping with shifting payments from the U.S. military. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/leo...

Wilmington Airport authority to consider lease with new company linked to ICE The government authority that oversees the Wilmington Airport may lease space at the Delaware facility to a little-known company, called Daedalus Aviation Corp., that reportedly struck a contract rece...

As Daedalus, founded by ex-Trump officials who transport immigration deportees, seeks lease at Wilmington DE airport @FlyILG, activists push NJ and DE governors to say No; DRBA authority fears losing U.S. funding, writes Brianna Hill @Spotlight302: spotlightdelaware.org/2026/01/27/w...

Why this big water-and-sewer merger doesn’t impress investors, so far American Water and Aqua have had a tough time privatizing water and sewer systems. Now they plan to merge. The vote is Feb. 10.

Analyst: This planned private water/sewer merger is good for buyer @AWK - but target @WTRG shareholders should vote NO on Feb. 10. Deal would end a 100+ year rivalry between two Phila area companies. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/ame...

Citizens Bank CEO talks about record business profits, data centers, and Phillies’ prospects Citizens Bank has boosted profits by targeting more-affluent Americans and their businesses, while shutting some branches.

Record business profits, workers cutting costs: an update on middle America, q&a w/ @CitizensBank ceo Bruce Van Saun www.inquirer.com/business/cit...

Fallcatcher scammer has been sentenced to 5+ years Henry Ford, also known as Cleothus “Lefty” Jackson, fooled 60 investors into paying $5 million for an anti-addiction system called Fallcatcher that he didn't build.

Fallcatcher: Fugitive recovery fraudster Henry Ford, who spent 5 years on the run in Asia, Africa, Latin America, sentenced for fooling Pa. investors, SEC. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/hen...

What’s a billion-dollar loan really worth? For private credit funds, it depends on who’s counting Private credit funds lend to businesses but aren’t bound by rules that govern banks. They've raised trillions, but valuations are opaque.

'Everyone has shifted to private credit,' which just makes stuff up. For example: www.inquirer.com/business/pri...

Probably one of the worst decisions made by this administration to date. And a huge chunk of the revenue will just go to enforce the BIRT onto microscopically small businesses. If you're not going to even try to fight uniformity clause then you don't care about the economic future of the city

This Plain businessman started a computer service for the Amish. Does it do too much, or not enough? For 21 years, Allen Hoover has offered text-based business technology out of Lancaster County for Plain believers. "It has not made me a popular person."

Will smartphones split the Amish? For both sides, 'I am the bad boy,' says a Plain computer network maker. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/all...

Philly small businesses face a big tax headache as an exemption ends Even with extensive city guidance, “it becomes a logistical nightmare” for small taxpayers, who may have to hire professionals to figure out what they owe and exemptions that can reduce the total.

How Philly small businesses are coping with a 'tax cut' that is forcing tens of thousands to pay the city's unusual revenue and income taxes for the first time www.inquirer.com/business/bir...

This $8M federal college grant will train Hanwha shipyard workers The program will quadruple its apprenticeship training programs from around 120 workers a year to around 500. Apprentices could earn around $30 a hour.

U.S. funds will train @PhillyShipyard workers. My story: www.inquirer.com/business/shi...

This $8M federal college grant will train Hanwha shipyard workers The program will quadruple its apprenticeship training programs from around 120 workers a year to around 500. Apprentices could earn around $30 a hour.

www.inquirer.com/business/shi...