• "The jury in the second murder trial of Wilfredo Santiago in the execution-style slaying of Police Officer Thomas Trench in 1985 will resume deliberations today."
• "Pennsylvania is taking steps to make gifted education available to more students, but that has done little to quell long-standing tension between parents and school districts over how the state's brightest are educated."
• Some more road closures for you poor motorists: the left lane on southbound I-95 approaching Bartram Avenue (Exit 14) will be closed today through Saturday from 9AM to 3PM, and the right lane on the Vine Street Expressway ramp to the westbound Schuylkill Expressway will be closed today through Thursday from 11PM to 5AM.
• Crime is down across the city, thanks to increased police presence on the streets, and to innovative programs like a monthly session concentrating on straightening out first-time offenders before they end up caught in a cycle of violence and crime.
• It's been three years since Pennsylvania was told by the U.S. Supreme Court to make it legal for citizens of the state to receive direct shipments from out-of-state wineries, but lawmakers have failed to act on the order, which means for now most out-of-state wineries refuse to ship directly to Pennsylvania homes.
• In Northeast Philadelphia on Sunday night, an off-duty police officer named Raymond Esqulin was summoned by his neighbor, who said his neighbor, Bryan Finney, was behaving in a frightening way and had tried to crawl into the bushes in front of his home on Lardner Street about 8PM. When Esqulin approached, Finney tried to attack him and chased him around a car, so the officer shot him. Finney was in critical but stable condition yesterday at Albert Einstein Medical Center. He was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, making terroristic threats and resisting arrest.

Image Credit: Flickr user saeru