Yo, Philly in the News

• Oh no! Fumo's attorney, Richard Sprague, just played the old "the charges are politically motivated" card. Meanwhile, the loose accounting and auditing practices that allegedly led to Fumo being able to allegedly get away with what he allegedly got away with (you know, allegedly) are going to be tightened up, according to the President Pro Tempore of the state Senate.
• Holy crud! The bill banning trans fats in Philly eateries (pre-packaged foods are excepted, so our beloved Tastykakes are safe, thank God) has already passed! Of course, it doesn't begin to take even partial effect until September 1st of this year, and only finally goes into full effect a year after that. But still, that was fast!
• The Inquirer has another disturbingly detailed article about tigers having sex (we learned a lot - like, did you know tiger penises have lots of tiny barbs on them?!). The upshot is, although the cats have been doing it a lot, there are no cubs on the way for the Zoo just yet.
• The Montgomery County District Attorney is trying to turn the Reid cases over to the State Attorney General due to a conflict of interest. Garrett has yet to be charged, but the DA has passed on some possible charges to the Attorney General.
• Five world famous designers and landscape architects, assisted by local architects and planners, will be participating in a three-day brainstorming event in early March to try to generate ideas about how to redesign the Delaware riverfront. The public will be encouraged to listen in. And speaking of city development, a big development project on North Broad, centered on the rehabilitation of the Divine Lorraine Hotel, has just been given the green light.
• Wow, a suburban couple paying big bucks to keep their kids in a Philly school. Crazy! The school district may end up depending on money from the suburbs, though, because they're apparently not going to be making it from selling paintings. But meanwhile, they are looking into giving stuff away for no money at all, via a pretty cool-sounding free school lunch program (wherein they'd offer free lunches to all students at a school if 65% of them were eligible, so as not to advertise which recipients are the poor ones).
• We're kind of sad that the alleged Screwdriver Bandit has fired the alleged Perv Lawyer. They would have made a great duo.

Image Credit: Flickr user chrisinphilly5448