Yo, Philly in the News

• Paul Vallas, former chief executive of the Philadelphia School District, is lucky. His contract states that he has to get his final $180,000 paycheck within 30 days, so he will. But a backlog in the auditing process that determines how much each person is owed means that other former employees of the school district will have to wait months for their money.
• Yet more information is coming out about that shooting in South Philly (a story which has now been appearing on national cable news stations). It turns out the victim, Steven "Butter" Miller, was high on marijuana laced with embalming fluid ("wet") and that he called his brother shortly before the incident to tell him "I can't take it anymore." A series of stresses in the man's personal life apparently led to him snapping. Which still doesn't explain why the cops fired so very many bullets, more than 20 of which struck Miller.
• Tuesday DHS got its license downgraded to a provisional one, which means it's out of compliance with state regulations and will be inspected twice a year.
• The Inquirer has a strange little article about the fact that Rendell is pissed at some comments made by Harrisburg activist Eric Epstein, which were then printed by the paper in a recent article. Rendell explained to the Inquirer that "Eric Epstein is about as mentally stable as that guy who ate all those people." Hee hee. Awesome.
• Famous Philadelphia criminal-defense lawyer Robert F. Simone "died Tuesday night at Hahnemann University Hospital after a long illness." He was 73.
• The Inquirer has an interesting little article about the heat limit for Philadelphia's horse-drawn carriage trade. Apparently if the temperatures go over 92 degrees, the horses get the day off. Lucky bastards...

Image Credit: Flickr user pianoforte