Yo, Philly in the News

• The Daily News takes a look at the high rate of shootings by Philadelphia cops in connection with the recent shooting of 15-year-old Ronald Timbers. The police version of that incident is told in detail here, while in this article the Inquirer talks about the investigation into which version of the story is true.
• In a vaguely related story, an American Bar Association report released yesterday says that the Pennsylvania death penalty system is deeply flawed and the state is at risk of executing an innocent person.
• The missing Mayor of Atlantic City has returned home to rest some more after apparently spending a week or two in a clinic in Somerset County that specializes in psychiatric and addictive illnesses.
• A 42-year-old woman was arrested in Upper Darby on Monday for using her 4-year-old granddaughter as an accomplice in shoplifting $359 worth of merchandise from the Sears on 69th Street. The entire performance was caught by surveillance cameras inside the store. The Upper Darby Police Superintendent said, "This goes way beyond Take Your Child to Work Day."
• The Inquirer has an interesting article about the lobbyists "for everyone from small-town Pennsylvania farmers to multibillion-dollar oil companies" swarming all over the state capital looking for a piece of the $850 million Governor Rendell plans to spend on clean energy projects.
• A Downingtown man was so pissed about his crappy two-year-old vehicle that he went to the car dealership he got it from at 3 in the morning, smashed the window in with a bowling ball, and set a fire on the sales manager's desk. He later checked himself into a medical facility and told the staff he regretted his actions. He's been ordered to pay $76,000 in restitution and will spend 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail.
• Two Philadelphia judges are currently under investigation by the state Judicial Conduct Board for questionable actions as landlords. One has allegedly been renting run-down apartments out of his courthouse office, and the other has allegedly been operating illegal rooming houses.

Mostly unrelated picture of the Downingtown River by Flickr user jbd28