Yo, Philly in the News

• Well, it's official, folks: we're going to have a citywide wi-fi hotspot! (Phillyist gets a tingle just typing that.) The deal between internet service provider EarthLink and non-profit Wireless Philadelphia (created by Mayor Street to oversee the plan) has been signed, and we are go. Now EarthLink just needs to install about 4,000 transmitters on various lightpoles. Don't worry, there will be no cost to city taxpayers...although we're not sure how that's going to work. Eh, we're sure it'll be okay. It's not like the city government has ever done anything corrupt or immoral! (Btw, that picture up there is actually from the original announcement of the wireless initiative, and not from the most recent announcement. Also, doesn't that guy on the right look really pissed?)
• Twitch has the inside track on the lineup of films for the 2006 Philadelphia Film Festival's Danger After Dark series, traditionally Phillyist's favorite program at the festival. They got it in an email from the programmer himself, Mr. Travis Crawford. Sigh. We remember when Travis used to send us the line-up ahead of time. What happened this year, Travis? Were we bad? Anyway, as usual the schedule is littered with East Coast and North American premiers, and all kinds of crazy-sounding foreign films we can't wait to see. You can follow the link for the full list, but two of the highlights are The Descent (acclaimed British horror film "about young women fighting monsters in a cave" from the maker of Dog Soldiers) and Lady Vengeance (the final entry in Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy; you could have caught the first two entries at the film festival in previous years). Phillyist can't wait. (Via)
• A 7-year-old-girl brought 12 bags of crack cocaine into her 2nd grade class at John M. Patterson Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia on Monday. Then she started passing them around. When the teacher realized what was going on, the bags were confiscated, but not before one of the children put some of the drugs in her mouth. That child was eventually taken to Children's Hospital, treated, and released, after she told her mother what had happened. It's still not clear how the drugs got into the 7-year-old's bag; she says she just found them there. Hmm. Maybe a drug deal gone way, way wrong? Anyway, the Philadelphia Daily News reminds us that this kind of thing has happened before in Philly, multiple times.

Image Credit: News.com