News: June 2009 Archives

As we mentioned last week, the Philadelphia Zoo's elephants will soon be moving to a new conservation center in Western Pennsylvania. Good for the elephants, who will have more space in their new home, but bad for Philadelphians who are awed by them, like the kid in this video:

• Gary Kao, the radiation oncologist responsible for nearly 100 prostate cancer patients at the VA Hospital receiving excessive or insuufficient doses of radiation, has taken leave from Penn's med school.
• A man was charged today in the June 14th shooting of a city police officer.
• Fox News Philadelphia aired a disgusting segment on an army of cockroaches overtaking a block in Camden.

• Philadelphia's elected officials are up for a five-percent cost-of-living-adjustment raise. Mayor Nutter and 19 cabinet members and commissioners will give back their raises.
• Tony Blair spoke at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday. Blair's speech focused on faith and its ability to bring people together and humanize them.
• Four people remain in the hospital after suffering injuries as a result of a taxicab jumping a curb Wednesday night on Broad Street. The cab was trying to avoid hitting a car that was trying to merge onto Broad Street near Spruce Street.

Free is wonderful.

• Arlene Ackerman laid out changes that must come to Philadelphia schools. Ackerman said that the school day must lengthen and the method for filling teaching vacancies and paying teachers must also change.
• The Pennsylvania Legislature is mulling over details of the state's annual budget. The fiscal year ends in less than a week. Here are some reasons why they should pass the budget on time.
• The tough times of the economy have reached Metrocorp, publisher of Philadelphia Magazine. An advertising employee was laid off and all employees must take a mandatory one-week, unpaid furlough.

This segment is common sense and a little out-of-date, but rest assured: signing up to comment on Phillyist will not result in spam messages to all your friends. Cross our hearts.

• Ed McMahon, a native of the Philadelphia area, died this morning. McMahon, as a teenager, sold vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and was an announcer at carnivals and bingos.
• Friends Hospital has replaced its CEO amid accusations of inadequate oversight of patients. According to Gary Brown, a spokesman for the city's Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services, "we support the decision. There are long-standing concerns with quality of care that were not addressed."
• Democratic leaders in the Pennsylvania House and Senate support Governer Ed Rendell's proposal to increase the state's income tax. Rendell's proposal calls for an increase in income tax from 3.07 percent to 3.57 percent for three years to help close a budget gap projected to reach $3.2 billion.

Hello, readers, and happy Saturday!

• Antwione Hough was arrested and charged with various felonies for apprehending and beating a man who raped his 14-year-old niece. All said and done he spent more than $10,000 on bail and court fees. In the case of Jose Carrasquillo and the mob that beat him, two men split a reward of $11,500 and faced no charges.
• There have been six stickups in the neighborhoods around 51st and Market Streets in the past three nights. The Police are on a manhunt for the bandit, who carries an Uzi to threaten his prey. In three of the robberies he has had an accomplice who carries a 9mm handgun.
• Philadelphia lost two of its proposed gun controls in a state appeals court. The Court ruled that only the legislature has the right to enact gun laws such as the ones proposed to ban assault weapons and "straw purchases" of handguns.

• A proposed ban on plastic bags was defeated by City Council today.
• An early Rasmussen poll has Arlen Specter defeating Joe Sestak in the 2010 Democratic primaries for the US Senate.
• A series of armed robberies continue in West Philly. The most recent was at the liquor store at 49th and Baltimore.

• SEPTA officials are speaking out against the satirical "Notice to the Public" signs posted on the El.
• A Germantown man was killed today in a dispute over a bag of charcoal.
• A five-foot pet alligator has been removed from a South Philly home.

• Another story of sexual assault by a police officer has come to light. On the night of October 16, 2008, during a drug raid, Thomas Tolstoy allegedly lowered an unidentified woman's underwear and violated her.
• Vincent Fumo will find out just how long he has to spend in the hoosegow on July 14. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter denied the Fumo team's request to delay the hearing without an explanation.
• Mayor Nutter has until Monday to submit a 2010 budget plan and five-year spending plan for review by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority. The catch is that the city is waiting for some decisions from Harrisburg which it may not have when it has to submit its budget on Monday.

Twitter is in the news recently, as we mentioned in today's Whiz, playing a part on the international stage. Meanwhile, we're keeping it local, trying to find interesting users and their tweets.

• One-day Eagles tickets will be available tomorrow morning at 10am. Good luck!
• The Capogiro at 13th and Sansom is now closed due to a fire that occurred this morning.
• The latest local stimulus check recipient is the Philadelphia International Airport, which is getting $26 million to improve bagage screening.

• "The Franklin" is no longer the re-vamped name for the Franklin Institute. The fresh name was cited as being too confusing.
• According to the federal sentencing guidelines, Vincent Fumo could face up to 27 years in prison for his corruption conviction. Sentencing in the case is set for July 14th. Fumo's defense lawyers are seeking to delay the sentencing.
• A South Jersey man wanted in a series of bank robberies in Bensalem plunged to his death off of the Platt Memorial Bridge yesterday. Michael Dixon jumped after four hours of negotiations with Philadelphia Police.

This week we salute the rampant stupidity of 18 year old Donta Cradock and 20 year old Ivan Rodriguez, two young men who obviously got their guidebooks on how to be an asshole at an early age. No strangers to law enforcement, Cradock and Rodriguez's combined 13 prior arrests stretch back to the tender age of 12. Wednesday night this lousy duo decided it would be a grand plan to steal a motorcyle at gunpoint. That fantastically idiodic idea ultimately cost 4 people in Feltonville their lives.

Even though Joey Sweeney's dissed us once or twice, we've remained relatively mum on Philebrity, and plan to remain so. Except for the fact that we run a weekly feature here called "Proofreading Philly," and, well, we can't ignore poorly-edited content, now can we?

• During yesterday's morning thunderstorm, two kayakers were caught off-guard. One man drowned and another remains missing somewhere in Brandywine Creek in East Bradford Township.
• An eight-year deal was reached that will keep the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. The game has been played in Philadelphia over 80 times since 1899.
• Tremayne Peak, son of Nikina Lazenby, was reunited with her son who was missing since Monday. His kidnapper, Vanessa Perez, remains at large.

• This morning's crazy storm is expected to return later in the day... just in time for rush hour!
• Police have caught the 59-year-old man suspected of robbing a Center City bank yesterday.
• A man was shot 25 times in South Philly last night.

• Parking Wars is not doing the city any good. Tourism is suffering as a result of the A&E series that follows the workdays of Philadelphia Parking Authority employees. "With the advent of Parking Wars," Meryl Levitz of the GPTMC said, "we have a whole other set of emotions to deal with, which is, how are visitors going to be treated by the people of Philadelphia?"
• Lynne Abraham will charge 18 people who schemed to defraud the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare out of a half-million dollars. There will be a news conference at 11 a.m. today announcing the recommended charges.
• Philadelphia aims to fix 110 miles of roadway across the city this year. The project will cost $30 million - $12.7 of which will come from federal economic stimulus money.

Phillyist Ross sent us the screencap above, from an article published the same day Brian Tierney announced that Philly.com would soon begin charging for content. Although the article has since been corrected, we'd like to suggest that Mr. Tierney gives his proofreaders a raise with the money he hopes to raise on Philly.com. They're obviously a little undercompensated.

Folks, take it from these guys: smuggling a gun onto an airplane is just going to land you in federal custody.

• Vice President Joe Biden has announced the first payouts of stimulus money for passenger rail expansion will be coming at the end of the summer.
• As Twittering teen gangs seem to be taking over South Street on the weekends, residents and police officers are strategizing how to end the violence.
• Yesterday, Reading High School withheld diplomas from all seniors after learning that some students had hacked into the school's computers and changed their grades.

• A local Evangelist filed a suit against the city today for violating his right to free speech at several gay-pride events.
• A building partially collapsed at 16th and Walnut this morning.
• A Hidden City exhibit is being moved from its original location in the Inquirer building due to staff complaints about its content.

• Fees to access Philly.com are coming soon.
• In other news-related news, CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte is no longer under house arrest.
• A dogfighting ring was uncovered in Overbrook, and the bust revealed stashes of drugs and weapons.

We agree that this is a cool tour for tourism—but for locals, will it just lead to laziness?