CinePhillyist Reviews... The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Playlist Rewind: Shonen Knife at Johnny Brenda's
Where Have All Our T-Shirts Gone?
Phillyist Playlist: 311 at the Borgata Event Center
I Have a Baby and Ten Dollars...Now What?
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Police were investigating two homicides and at least two shootings in the city over the weekend.
For reasons we do not understand, the state House rejected a measure yesterday that would have made it mandatory to report lost and stolen handguns. The only Philadelphia law-maker to vote against the amendment, House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, said the bill was flawed and could have had unintended consequences for legitimate crime victims. But, he admitted, "It's a difficult vote to explain why you're not for it." Indeed.
Late yesterday morning, a tanker truck overturned and spilled a bunch of home heating oil onto I-95, closing the southbound lanes in Delaware County for over four hours. I-95 was finally mostly clear of tie-ups by 4:30PM.
We'd like to take a moment to say goodbye to J. Welles Henderson, the founder of the Independence Seaport Museum. Phillyist re-visited the museum recently, and it really is a testament to his vision. We encourage all of you to visit in his honor.
While we're on the subject, check out the Inquirer's run-down of a recent mayoral forum. And guess who else is going after Tom Knox now? Mayoral candidates who are not Tom Knox have signed a pledge to support public financing of future Philadelphia campaigns.
All kinds of ugly little details are still coming out about NJ Governor Corzine's car crash a couple weeks ago. Now it sounds like the trooper driving the car may have been distracted by an email he received on his mobile phone confronting him about a two-year affair he'd been having with another police officer's wife.
It's coming out now that the widening of the PA Turnpike's Northeast Extension will require more private property than previously announced, affecting "property owners in the Montgomery County communities of Plymouth, Whitpain, Worcester, Upper Gwynedd and Towamencin Townships."
Also pleading guilty was a man who stole 165 Civil War documents from the National Archives Philadelphia office. He sold between 70 and 80 of them on eBay - which is actually what got him caught. Now he could spend as many as 10 years in jail.
It sounds like the challenge to Bob Brady's candidacy will be handled from a judge outside of Philadelphia, which makes sense. Meanwhile, the two lesser known mayoral candidates (Jesus White and Queena Bass) will be facing challenges of their own, as will 30 other candidates trying to get on the May 15 ballot, including five City Council members and everybody's favorite Council at-large candidate, Milton Street.
In yet more local school news, the faculty and staff at the Community College of Philadelphia went on strike yesterday morning, as threatened, when an agreement could not be reached on their new contract.
Sunday was Philly's annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which is the second oldest of its kind in the country, right behind New York's (we'll beat you some day on something, New York!!). Luckily the weather was perfect for a parade and thousands turned out to watch.
Rosie O'Donnell's gay-friendly travel company, R Family Vacations, had a trip to Philly this past weekend, and, although it was kept secret until near the end, O'Donnell came along, too. There was a bit of difficulty due to some nasty Philadelphia traffic, but otherwise everyone seems to have had a good time.
In case you haven't heard enough about the violence in our town, the Daily News points out that "Philadelphia is the most murder-plagued big city in the country," and they even throw up some numbers to prove it.
What with the current increase in violence, this would seem like a particularly bad time to have fewer police on the streets; unfortunately, that seems to be exactly what we have. The number of Philly police listed as injured on duty (IOD) and unable to work has gone up from 64 at the beginning of January in 2005 to 245 as of yesterday. Some are blaming the increase on a change in the law that has changed how injuries are treated. Officials at the Fraternal Order of Police say the brass is overstating the impact, and it's the city's fault if the new law is being implemented poorly.
If you can't wait to see the result of the legal proceedings against Senator Vince Fumo... well, get used to disappointment, because the trial isn't likely to start until early 2008, and it'll probably go on three to four months.
As we suspected, lots of people are not too hot on Fattah's "congestion charge" idea.
A couple of crazy bastards parachuted down off the Comcast Center Sunday morning. Of course, as is requisite these days when you do something stupid and dangerous, a video was taken and promptly posted on YouTube (although sadly, it has since been taken down). Police are looking for the guys, whom they plan to charge with "criminal trespassing, reckless endangerment and risking a catastrophe."
Meanwhile, other things went on that actually had nothing to do with Fumo's indictment! For instance, the Atlantic City Council approved a partial smoking ban for casinos in the city; 75% of the casino floor area will have to be smoke free. This half-measure seems to be annoying both the pro-smokers and the anti-smokers, however.
Are we heading toward tougher gun control laws in Philly? The Police Commissioner and various gun control advocates are calling for them, after the release of a report that highlights two dozen cases around the country, and nine in Pennsylvania, where criminals got their guns by way of legitimate dealers. And Mayor Street, along with the other members of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, went to Washington to push for new, tougher gun control laws.
Low-income families in the region are being offered cheap oil for the second year in a row, thanks to Rep. Chaka Fattah, Citgo, and Venezuela. To apply, call Citizens Energy Corp. at 1-877-JOE-4-OIL.
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We're sure you've heard by now, but as we haven't had a chance to mention it here yet: on Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that "City Council's longstanding failure to vote on SugarHouse's zoning and land-use requests" constituted "deliberate inaction" and therefore "cleared the way for construction to begin on the $550 million SugarHouse casino in Fishtown and Northern Liberties." SugarHouse officials say they expect to start construction in a matter of weeks. The...
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Let's get all the holiday news out of the way first: the Inquirer has coverage of the 88th annual Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade, which mainly focuses on the great weather. They greet Black Friday by reminding us of the many toy recalls, and by pointing out that there could be lots of great deals to be had out there due to a yearlong sales slump and tons of extra inventory. Now that the Mayoral...
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Pretty much all the news today is about the six arrests made yesterday in an alleged plot to attack Fort Dix. ABCNEWS.com reveals to us that the terrorist attack was to involve Super Mario's pizza. No lie! The father of one of the attackers owns Super Mario's Restaurant near the base, which often makes deliveries there, and consequently has a map of the place "used by pizza delivery men to find their way around the base." The attackers would have pretended to be delivery men. Although the man who owns the restaurant says he loves this country and can't believe his son is involved, the chef at the restaurant has quit because he doesn't want to be associated with terrorists. More on the restaurant part of the story can be found here.
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We're sad to report that Milton Street is no longer running for mayor, but happy to report that he is running for City Council-at-large—against his own nephew! Which means a lot of relatives of mayors and former mayors will be on the May 15 ballot (May 15 being, as the Daily News helpfully points out, the day after Milton is scheduled to stand trial on federal corruption charges). Besides Milton and his nephew Sharif, there'll be W. Wilson Goode, the son of former Mayor Wilson Goode, and Bill Green, the son of former Mayor William Green.
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Image credit: Flickr user JasonJT
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