Yo, Philly in the News

• A Center City jeweler was sentenced to eight months of probation yesterday after pleading no contest to charges that he videotaped six women using bathrooms at his home and his store. Benjamin Sorkin, owner of Ben Sorkin jewelers located at 705 Sansom Street, allegedly used hidden video equipment in his store to record three of his female employees using the bathroom. The same hidden equipment was also used to tape three women at his home in Northeast Philadelphia.




• Chase Utley needs hip surgery. Chase. Utley. Needs. Hip. [Expletive]. Surgery!! He is expected to be out four to six months. So, best case scenario he’s back in time for spring training with the worst case scenario he’s not back until early June.
• The Fugitive Safe Surrender program drew a larger-than-expected crowd in Camden for a second day in a row. Authorities started turning people away by 1 p.m., asking them to return today. Tomorrow is the last day where those with outstanding arrest warrants may turn themselves over to the authorities. The program, which has been held across the country, is a way for people who have unresolved nonviolent arrest warrants to reenter the legal system in a nonthreatening setting.
• City council did next to nothing at its regular meeting yesterday. However, during a pre-meeting caucus, Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. proposed a six-month moratorium on Mayor Nutter’s proposed library closings. It was later withdrawn after Council President Anna C. Verna asked him to come up with an alternative way to save $3.3 million. Council has no say in Nutter’s budget cuts, but he does need its approval for other aspects of his budget strategy, which calls for a freeze on tax cuts and increases in fees and fines.
• Municipal Court Senior Judge Francis P. Cosgrove dismissed the cases against Officers Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III yesterday. The officers are accused of beating up David Vernitsky after they caught him spray-painting a congratulatory message to a newlywed couple on the wall of a business near 4th Street and Wyoming Avenue on August 26, 2007. Police Chief Ramsey fired the officers. Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police has already begun the process of getting Hill and Fitzgerald reinstated into the police force.

Image Credit: Flickr user TimWilson