Yo, Philly in the News

• Yesterday American Idol competitions were held at the Wachovia Center, and the Daily News was there. Update: We are informed that the Inquirer was there, too, and even shot some video.
• From Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon, technical problems made it impossible for anyone to buy Amtrak tickets either online or at station kiosks. The reservation system has since been completely restored.
• Apparently Philadelphia is losing some of its college graduates and young professionals to careers in farming.
• Early yesterday morning a Lexus traveling north in the inner lane of Roosevelt Boulevard near Hornig Road, north of Woodhaven Road, crossed over the median and crashed head-on into a Honda Civic. The 20-year-old driving the Civic and his 16-year-old passenger were pronounced dead at the scene. The 27-year-old driver of the Lexus and his 30-year-old passenger were taken to the hospital with various injuries, but are in stable condition. The driver of the Lexus may be facing criminal charges depending on what drug tests and further investigation reveals.
• A father was arrested Friday night for chaining his 13-year-old son to a bed to keep him out of trouble - and then the son was arrested Saturday afternoon, along with an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old, for vandalizing cars. We think that's irony, but we'll have to check with Alanis Morissette.
• On August 6th, Philadelphia's prison population hit an all-time high of 9,123. That's "more than double the average of 4,000 inmates held in the late 1980s" and, even worse, it "exceeds by about 1,600 the number of inmates the city's six detention centers were designed to hold."

Image Credit: Flickr user soundfromwayout