Yo, Philly in the News

• The Daily News has a profile of the new Recreation Department commissioner, Sue Slawson, and is also talking about what Slawson and the Department of Human Services, amongst other organizations, are trying to do to boost programs and security in order to halt violence at the city's rec centers and neighborhood parks.
• Every year when the University of Pennsylvania's students go home for the summer, they leave a shocking amount and variety of appliances, clothing, and other items behind. Until now, enterprising neighbors in West Philadelphia have simply picked through the goods and claimed what they wanted, with the rest ending up in landfills. But this year, for the first time, Penn officials are collecting and sorting the items, and starting tomorrow, they will begin distributing them to two dozen organizations for the needy, including homeless shelters, food banks and literacy centers.
• A petty feud between Michael Thomas, 26, and Lamar Johnson, 22, escalated into a gun battle Sunday night, outside the same apartment building in Germantown where a veteran PHA cop was shot in February while manning the lobby booth. Bobbi Booker, 27, Thomas' girlfriend, who was four months pregnant and already a mother of two, was struck by a stray bullet during the fight and died of her injuries Monday night. Thomas and Johnson were officially charged yesterday with Booker's murder and the murder of her unborn baby.
• "A woman who placed toxic chemicals on the vehicle and outside the home of her husband's paramour was sentenced yesterday to six years in federal prison."

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