Yo, Philly in the News

• "Federal highway officials have declined to approve the state's application to make I-80 a toll road," which will obviously make it harder for the state to collect the money from said tolls with which it planned to fund statewide highway and bridge repairs.
• The New Jersey state legislature gave final approval to a bill today that would abolish the state's death penalty; now all that's needed is for Governor Corzine to sign it, which he's already said he will do.
• Remember way back eighteen months ago when a chemical spill killed all those fish and caused all that trouble in Wissahickon Creek? Well, Merck & Co. Inc. has finally agreed to pay more than $20 million to make it right.
• And here's an update on another old story: remember the case of the 14-year-old boy whose parents had been buying him weapons? Turns out the mother had been worried about the kid's obsession and behavior more than a year before those purchases.
• The Inquirer has the details on that press conference we mentioned the other day, wherein a group of black elected officials demanded a report on a racist incident at the Comcast construction site, and called for more African Americans in the city's Building Trades unions.
• "A former dean of students at Mastery Charter School's Thomas campus in South Philadelphia is facing multiple charges alleging that he stole nearly $6,000 cash and student SEPTA tokens and TransPasses from the school over the weekend." SEPTA tokens? Really? That's just kind of pathetic.

Image Credit: Flickr user HGruber