Yo, Philly in the News

• A new transportation package being considered in the state Senate would add $150 million to SEPTA's operating funds for the coming fiscal year, thus eliminating the need for the threatened fare hikes and service cuts. Even better, the measure would set up a Public Transportation Trust Fund that would hopefully mean the end of SEPTA's annual budget crises.
• A man who was convicted in 1993 in a 1991 Nicetown rape and murder case is hoping to get DNA testing that he says will exonerate him; if the state Superior Court does rule in his favor and allow the testing, it may open the door to many more PA convicts getting DNA tests.
• City Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller say they will "sue the state today for Philadelphia's right to enforce its own, stricter firearms laws." It's a bit of a legal longshot, but the PA legislature has been stonewalling on this issue.
• So just how did the deal get brokered that ended the budget deadlock and opened the state back up for business? Apparently, it was Fumo to the rescue again!
• Remember that weird story back in 2003 about the pizza delivery man who walked into an Erie, PA bank with a bomb attached to his neck, saying he was being forced by a stranger to rob the bank? ABC News has learned that federal prosecutors will announce today that the pizza guy (who later died when the bomb exploded) wasn't as innocent as he claimed in the plot. Also, two criminals, both already in prison on unrelated charges, are being charged in connection with the case with "bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and felony use of a firearm in connection with a crime."
• Sadly, the recent heat wave has claimed its first victim: a 71-year-old man was found unresponsive in his car late Monday in North Philadelphia and was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital.
• We mentioned a while back that local director and actress Jacqueline Kay Knox had been killed in a car crash. Now her friend, who was driving the car, has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter. (Via Jill)

Image Credit: Flickr user pianoforte