Yo, Philly in the News

• In a disturbing article, the Philadelphia Inquirer points out that there are still serious problems inside the city's Department of Human Services, despite a big policy overhaul a few years ago.
• In case you were not aware, the Flower Show started this weekend. We'll be posting more about this later, but for now, enjoy the Inquirer's preview, which includes a short history of the show, and an explanation of its theme ("Legends of Ireland"). The Flower Show runs now through next Sunday (March 11th) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 12th and Arch.
• After a number of recent attacks on teachers, including one last Thursday wherein an eighth grader at Julia de Borgos School on Fourth and Lehigh struck a substitute teacher with a dictionary and then choked him (!), the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is asking for more money to hire hallway supervisors, and for school administrators to report incidents of violence. Supposedly many go unreported because officials fear their school will be labeled as dangerous.
• If you'll remember, the Academy of Natural Sciences sold a large part of their mineral collection near the end of last year; well, now they're asking for permission to sell even more of it: namely, a collection left to them over a century ago by William S. Vaux - who asked only that it never be sold. Many people, including a descendant of Vaux, are pretty pissed, but the Academy claims they're strapped for cash and have no other choice.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer launched a new occasional series on what's going down in Harrisburg with this article, which claims that real reform is actually taking place there as members of both the House and Senate try to make their spending practices more accountable and transparent (or at least try to make it look like they're trying to make their spending practices more accountable and transparent).
• A new poll about what Philadelphians want from their government and how they think it's doing has just been released by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. You can check out a summary of the major findings, or look at all the results (both links are to .pdf files). Or, of course, you could read the Inquirer article about it. Regardless of how you look at them, they're not terribly surprising; Philadelphians generally like their city, but they'd like there to be fewer murders, more of a focus on education, and they think the government is pretty corrupt. They don't know much or have much of an opinion about the mayoral candidates, with the exception of Milton Street; he's the best known, and the least liked!

Photo of a display from last year's Flower Show by Flickr user pianoforte