Yo, Philly in the News

• Six people were killed in Philadelphia yesterday, on the first day of summer. Three young men were gunned down in North Philly in the morning, two were killed and a third critically injured in Kensington in the afternoon, and the sixth person was shot to death in Kingsessing at around 10:30PM. That's 195 for the year now, if you're counting.
• Do any walking on the 1300 block of South Street? Then you probably already know about the concrete platform that's being built there that's taking up six feet of sidewalk. Turns out it's the owner of a condo building that's putting it up, and he's doing it despite the fact that he does not have permission from the Streets Department.
• The Inquirer has an interesting article examining why so few women run for at-large Council positions in Philadelphia, and why fewer still are actually elected.
• July 4th is almost here, which means the Sunoco Welcome America festival is even closer. The Inquirer has a bit of a preview of what we can expect from the celebration this year. There's even an international strongman competition! We hope some dudes juggle refrigerators or something.
• Daniel Rubin at the Inquirer has an interesting piece about the struggle going on over a dragon mural at 12th and Washington. Some people believe the piece of art is causing bad luck for local residents, and want it destroyed.
• Governor Rendell is trying to drum up support for his Energy Independence Strategy, a multi-pronged proposal contained in four bills that "would put the state in the forefront of the clean energy movement." Neat! Good old Rendell.
• We're glad to hear that "a top aide to State Sen. Lisa M. Boscola will keep his job despite making profanity-laced remarks on a blog about a congressman and his potential Democratic challenger." Because, you know, we write for a blog, and sometimes we make profanity-laced remarks on it, and we'd like to keep our job, too!

Image Credit: Flickr user pwbaker