Yo, Philly in the News

• The closure of I-95 has taken a toll on some, but the road did indeed reopen this morning around 6:30AM, and it's expected to remain open during the more permanent repair of the cracked column that will soon follow, and which should take about a month. After that comes the really major work: "Replacing the whole elevated stretch of I-95 between Spring Garden Street and Cottman Avenue."
• A split three-member panel of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations dismissed a discrimination complaint against Geno's Steaks yesterday, ruling that the speak-English sign at the steak shop "did not convey a message that service would be refused to non-English speakers."
• The Daily News has even more exciting details about the twin gay porn star burglars that we all love so very much.
• A poll conducted before Obama's recent popular speech here in Philly showed Clinton leading by 16 points over Obama in Pennsylvania. And a more informal and much smaller poll taken after the speech by the Daily News seems to suggest that while most liked it, few were swayed by it.
• The Washington-based environmental group Environmental Integrity Project released a report the other day that had some bad news for the country as a whole and Pennsylvania in particular. Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from power plants increased by 2.9 percent last year, the most in nine years, and Pennsylvania recorded the fifth-highest state increase in those emissions.
• And here's yet more disappointing news about PA: a same-sex marriage ban is closer to being a reality, thanks to a 10-4 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier in the week. Next the bill goes to the Appropriations Committee, and after that it'll be considered by the full Senate. After that, it would still have to be passed by the General Assembly in two consecutive sessions, and then approved by voters in a referendum. So it's still got a long way to go. But still—disappointing.

Image Credit: Flickr user teofilo