Yo, Philly in the News

• The 12th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service is coming up on January 15th. Don't know how you can help? We should have more info for you as the day approaches.
• A Northeast Philadelphia boy imitating a stunt from the latest Jackass movie threw himself out a second-story window and landed on his head. He was in critical condition as of Wednesday.
• In the wake of police union president Robert Eddis' call for the removal of Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, supporters of Johnson have held multiple rallies for him, including one Wednesday which also became a kind of impromptu rally for mayoral candidate Tom Knox. Regardless of who the next mayor is, though, Johnson has said he'll be gone come next January, so the Daily News is already wondering who the next commissioner will be, and pointed out that city police would prefer a local get the job.
• Of course, who gets picked as the next commissioner will definitely be at least partially dependent on who gets picked as the next mayor, and the Daily News is talking about that race, too - specifically, how are the candidates responding to the detailed ethics agenda released Tuesday by the Committee of Seventy (which we mentioned yesterday)? As one might expect, they are all effusive in their support of ethics reform in general, but only a couple were willing to committ to upholding the entire agenda.
• Philly's getting ranked again. We got middling grades from the Department of Homeland Security on our area's level of readiness for a disaster, mainly because of the city's long-standing police and fire communications woes. Our other ranking was better news: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was named the best pediatric hospital in the US for the fourth year straight.
• Chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, John Newman, resigned on Wednesday, citing his public argument with Rendell over the appointment of chief executive officer to the board to run its day-to-day operations. Within three hours, Rendell had replaced him with board member P.J. Stapleton.
• Prince Charles and his wife will be coming to Philly on January 27th. It's rumored he'll be checking out the Mural Arts Program, the Heavenly Hall church in West Philly, and the 150th Anniversary Ball of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, amongst other things.

Image Credit: Flickr user L e n o r a