News: August 2009 Archives

Today's featured Twitter user is @krisis. His real name is Peter, and today he is celebrating the 9th birthday of his blog, Crushing Krisis, "the longest running blog in Philadelphia." That's quite a feat in a blog-crazy city like Philadelphia. He is counting down his top 9 posts from his 9th year here and mentioning each one over at his Twitter account. Congratulations Peter, and keep those posts coming!

Today's featured Twitter user is @southphillykids. They have only been around for about a week, but they seem active and have great intentions. As their name suggests, they plan to keep South Philly and Passyunk Square families in the know about great opportunities for their kids to have some homegrown fun. They're serious, too—they even have a Facebook group about it.

What's that? You started your weekend a little early and you're a bit hungover this morning? Well then, Meterologist Jim Kosek should probably wake you up.

Hey Friday! How are you? Oh, you're going to hit 90 again today? And then rain some more, thanks to Hurricane Bill? How delightful. We love August. No really. And now, headlines:
• The police released a sketch of the suspect who shot a young African man on Monday in Elmwood Park.
• A school bus collided with a pickup truck this morning in New Castle County. 9 were minorly injured, including 8 students. Route 9 has been closed due to clean up.
• Updates from yesterday: More power to the 100 year old man who has been able to sustain his injuries, including some blood on his brain, after he got robbed by a man maybe 70 years his junior. Naturally, neighbors are pissed.

Good mid-morning, Philadelphia. It's getting hot in here and we're not sure we can take the heat much longer.

What is it with our off-hours posts being about our beloved Birds? Last time it was Jim Johnson, and now it's that ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Eagles have signed Michael Vick to a two-year deal. Obviously, given our love of dogs—especially Pit Bulls—and our loathing of people who would harm them, we've got very, very mixed feelings about this one. By all accounts, Vick has used the time since he's been out of prison to do some positive work with the Humane Society of the United States, but this still makes us really uncomfortable.

Today's featured Twitter user is @philaTA. The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. They were on hand yesterday at a rally in Media, PA regarding the budget woes that have led Pennsylvania lawmakers to cut all state funding for arts and culture. Follow them to stay current on the ongoing push to restore funding to PA's arts communities.

We take no credit whatsoever for this post. The video comes via The Fightins and the title comes via Robert Frost.

Today's featured Twitter user is @JUVLAW75, the Juvenile Law Center. According to their web site, the Juvenile Law Center advocates for the "rights and well-being of children in jeopardy." Based in Center City, they use their Twitter account to keep their followers posted on both local and national legal developments relevant to the rights and safety of children.

Today's featured Twitter user is @VisitPhilly, a production of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. Their goal? Bring people to Philadelphia. By now, you have probably seen their unique With Love ad campaign, featuring hand-written notes about all the many reasons one may have for visiting Philly. We're still waiting for something like "Dear Lovers of Local Color: You'll love the local news and culture coverage on Phillyist.com" to show up on a bus shelter or a billboard, but we're hopeful.