Yo, Philly in the News

• The Liberty Bell Forever stamp was released, complete with a speech next to the actual Liberty Bell, yesterday morning. A North Jersey business immediately bought 24,000 of them for a direct-mail program.
• Two state Senators held their third hearing Wednesday on the possibility of convening a constitutional convention for the reform of state government, and they did it at U. Penn Law School. There were three speakers: "an area lawyer and author, a Rutgers University law school professor, and the president of the local League of Women Voters."
• Philadelphia is the ninth healthiest city in the country! In your face, other cities! Make fun of us and our cheesesteak-eating, will you...
• For a huge bookkeeping mistake that he made after his 2004 reelection, PA Rep. Jim Gerlach has been ordered to pay $120,000 - "the largest penalty ever imposed on a Pennsylvania member of Congress for violation of federal campaign-finance laws."
• The construction workers caught in the October 2003 parking-garage collapse at the Tropicana Casino Resort will be getting $101 million, "the largest personal-injury settlement in the region and the largest construction-accident settlement in the nation."

Image Credit: Flickr user acaben