Yo, Philly in the News

• Thomas FitzSimmons High School in North Philadelphia will graduate their first class of all boys this Thursday. The school went all-boys two years ago, and is the only all-boys public school in the state.
• Meanwhile, the Ada H. Lewis Middle School in East Germantown might be voted closed on June 20th by the School Reform Commission, due to declining enrollment and a $38 million repair estimate. But parents and teachers are fighting to keep the school open, especially since it sounds pretty clear that $38 million is a ridiculously inflated number.
• A sewer line running parallel to Poquessing Creek gets overwhelmed during heavy storms and spits sewage directly into the stream. To solve this problem, the Philadelphia Water Department wants to divert the flow to an underground tank during heavy downpours. The problem is, the tank would be buried under land near residences, and the City Council doesn't like that idea, so they're expected to vote on a bill tomorrow that would prohibit sewer-overflow tanks within 1,500 feet of homes.
• The Philadelphia Museum of Art is getting a $31 million restoration to help seal up its outsides and prevent leaks and other problems from damaging the artwork.
• The Chinatown Town Watch, formed last August by 15 volunteers, is growing and getting more official. They'll be making formal patrols in uniform jackets, with security devices such as two-way radios. "The town watch won a citywide award June 4 from the police for its 'hard work and dedication,'" and the award seems well deserved as "the number of violent crimes in Chinatown this year had decreased by 6 percent."
• The Inquirer won a 2007 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for their expose last year on the failures of Philadelphia's Department of Human Services, and they're not afraid to toot their own horn.

Image Credit: Flickr user Angelrays