Yo, Philly in the News

• Oh boy, just look at all the articles about the Larry Mendte case. Apparently Mendte hacked into the email of Alycia Lane 537 times in 146 days, and did so wherever he was around the clock, from home, his desk at work, his Shore home in Ocean City, and even the Union League. He then passed on the information he obtained to a Philadelphia Daily News gossip columnist, in order to undermine Lane's ongoing legal cases.
• A 50-year-old Phoenixville man tried to break into a Chester Township general-contracting company off I-95 over the weekend, possibly to steal scrap metal. We know this because he was found yesterday morning hanging by his neck from the garage window. He had apparently stood on a sawhorse and poked his head through the window looking for a latch when he slipped and snapped his neck.
• Public meetings will be held tonight in Camden and tomorrow in Philadelphia where commuters can express their views on planned bridge toll increases and PATCO fare hikes.
• Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has gotten the Philadelphia Police Foundation ("a nonprofit charity started in 1999 by Commissioner John F. Timoney as a way for business to provide tax-deductible support for law enforcement") to agree to raise about $80,000 for the purchase of 10 new Segways for the department.
• The Inquirer notes that Mayor Nutter's plan for reducing homelessness is moving along pretty slowly.
• An examination of the phenomenon known as the reverse tax-appeal. School districts and towns have a right to dispute what they consider an underassessment on anyone's property, which could mean as much as $1 billion in tax revenues for Pennsylvania school districts in the next decade.
• Nearly 150 Chinese millionaires want to invest in the expansion of the Convention Center as a legal way to expedite their becoming permanent U.S. residents, but the center's board has said no.
• A convicted murderer started a shoot-out yesterday afternoon in Southwest Philadelphia when police tried to question him about a new case. Ultimately the shooter was wounded in the arm and pelvis by police gunfire and taken into custody.
• In the first-ever court ruling on the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction case, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia yesterday tossed out a $550,000 indecency fine imposed by the FCC against CBS.

Image Credit: Flickr user njt4148