Yo, Philly in the News

• "Police last night charged a Yellow Cab Co. driver with vehicular homicide in an early-morning hit-and-run in Logan that left a young mother clinging to life and her 5-year-old son dead."
• A couple of unrelated incidents involving firearms took place early yesterday morning in Philadelphia. In the first incident, a retired Philly cop working as a pizza delivery man was accosted by three teenagers, one of whom pointed a gun at him while the other two went through his pockets. But the retired cop was able to reach into his pocket and pull out a semiautomatic Glock, which he had a permit to carry. He shot the boy with the gun once in the chest, killing him. The other two would-be robbers ran off. The deliveryman will most likely not be charged in the incident. A few hours later, officers approaching a group of robbery suspects thought they saw a gun in one of the suspects' waistbands and told him to freeze. He reached for the weapon and one of the officers fired his gun into the sidewalk, causing bullet fragments to strike the 17-year-old suspect. He's in stable condition, and a 14-year-old was also apprehended, but the third suspect ran off.
• Those two Philadelphia-area men who were arrested in Beijing for documenting protests in China were among a group released yesterday and put on planes to Los Angeles. They were scheduled to arrive in New York this morning.
• Pricier parking meters and higher ticket fines may soon be coming to Center City. Apparently it's part of a general plan to jack up fees "to the point where many drivers would rather bike, walk, take mass transit, or pay for garage parking. In theory, that would ensure enough on-street vacancies for drivers looking to run a quick errand."
• The state Department of Public Welfare is banning youth treatment centers from using the "prone restraint," a technique that involves the child being held face down and immobilized, and which has been blamed for the deaths of more than 70 children across the country since 1993.
• Police said on Friday that Dorrell Shaw would be charged with four of the six sexual assaults in Frankford this summer, citing a 'definitive DNA link' in one of the attacks and 'other corroboration' in the three others.
• After pleading guilty to a felony charge of hacking into the e-mail accounts of his onetime colleague Alycia Lane, former CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte made some interesting comments at a 5PM news conference. He said he'd had a "flirtatious, unprofessional and improper relationship" with Lane which turned into a personal feud after his wife confronted him about Lane on New Year's Day 2005 and he told her the truth. He also apologized to his wife, to viewers, and to Lane.
• On Friday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the SugarHouse Casino could be built on the city's waterfront in Fishtown, and that the city could not revoke the license, issued by Mayor John Street, giving them authority to do so.

Image Credit: Flickr user jasonesbain