Yo, Philly in the News

• In the wake of last Friday's attack on a Germantown high school teacher by students over an iPod, the teacher's union is asking teachers to complete a school climate survey to see how safe their members feel on the job; they're claiming that many incidents of violence don't get reported due to fears that the school will be labeled "persistently dangerous."
• The mayoral debates should be interesting when they finally happen, because right now the candidates can't even agree on when to have the debates, or how many to have, or what format they should be in. There's even a kind of debate cold war going on. Nutter's spokeswoman said of Fattah's recent debate proposal: "If he wants four, we want eight." That's so petty and ridiculous that it's awesome. Meanwhile, the Inquirer discusses endorsements and how important they really are for the candidates.
• SugarHouse Casino is claiming that the petition drive put together to ban casinos from the waterfront was one of "widespread and pervasive fraud," and that fewer than 25% of the signatures can be validated. If true, that would leave them with far less than the number of signatures they need to get their casino banning question on the May 15th primary ballot.
• In honor of the El's hundredth birthday, it'll be free to ride this Sunday, from 12PM to 5PM. There'll even be a birthday party of sorts at SEPTA headquarters at 1234 Market St. from 2PM to 3:30PM. We don't know if there will be cake, but there will be vintage photographs and a sweet handmade replica of the first El train. More details, as well as a short history of the El, can be found in the Philly.com article.
• Well, Milt held his do-or-die rally yesterday afternoon, the one where he pledged that if he didn't get 5,000 people to attend, he'd drop out of the race. In fact, he only got about a hundredth of the kind of turnout he wanted, but luckily for Philly bloggers everywhere, it sounds like he plans to stay in the race anyway, man of his word that he is. Of course, he's not even in the race officially until he gets 1,000 valid signatures, and Nutter has already said he'll challenge each and every one of those signatures if and when Street gets them.
• A key piece of legislation that will finally authorise the start of construction on the new South Street bridge will soon be considered by the full City Council, which means a much less terrifying bridge is practically right around the corner! Although we will still have to wait through 18 months of the bridge being closed, during which time a $5 million plan to detour traffic through South Philly and Center City will be implemented. Good lord, is that going to suck.

Image Credit: Flickr user j.towbin