Results tagged “charlesramsey”

Yo, Philly in the News

  • Did you think that the summer was mild thus far? Well, it's about to heat up. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90s for the brunt of this week.
  • Yo, Philly in the News

  • Police Chief Ramsey issued an apology to State Representative Jewell Williams yesterday. Williams was handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a patrol car when he asked officers a question at a police car stop involving two other men.
  • Yesterday, a judge dealt a crushing blow to Mayor Nutter's plan to balance the city budget, ordering him to immediately halt plans to close 11 library branches at the close of business today. Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox ruled in favor of seven library patrons and three City Council members who sued Nutter last week, citing a 20-year-old ordinance requiring Council to approval to close city buildings. Nutter's administration vowed an appeal to the state Commonwealth Court. Nutter called Fox's ruling a "complete violation of the fundamental tenets" of the city's Home Rule Charter.
  • "Police are looking for the driver of a gray Ford pickup who may have been involved in or witnessed the wounding of a Glendora man in a road-rage shooting Sunday night near the Walt Whitman Bridge."
  • Could you imagine if the Joker was around while this was happening? Yikes!

  • Perhaps not surprisingly, the DRPA got an earful from angry commuters yesterday at the first of two hearings on proposed toll hikes and PATCO train fare increases.
  • A 50-year-old Phoenixville man tried to break into a Chester Township general-contracting company off I-95 over the weekend, possibly to steal scrap metal. We know this because he was found yesterday morning hanging by his neck from the garage window. He had apparently stood on a sawhorse and poked his head through the window looking for a latch when he slipped and snapped his neck.
  • Newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that Philadelphia lost more residents between 2000 and 2007 than any U.S. city except New Orleans. Ouch.
  • Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey will hold six town hall meetings in July. Each public meeting will focus on particular neighborhoods, and residents will be asked about local problems and suggestions on making the areas safer.
  • Phillyist reader Christopher followed up on last week's Asshole of the Week by pointing out something very strange: while Commissioner Ramsey's name was spelled correctly in the Inqy article we linked to, that same article published a day later in the Daily News features a misspelling of the name in the headline and in the URL, even though it's spelled correctly in the body of the article. Almost a week has gone by, and nobody at philly.com seems to have noticed yet.

  • A bunch of insane people actually had a bike race in Manayunk this past weekend, and other insane people actually went outside to watch it. Uh, whatever. We were inside keeping cool.
  • It was an amazingly asshole-free week in Philadelphia news. For a little while there, it was looking like we weren't even going to be able to find an Asshole of the Week. Fortunately, when all else seemed lost, a couple dumb criminals saved the day for us. Not that these two women were dumber than your average petty criminal, but the circumstances around their arrest are just too glorious to resist calling them out.

  • "Students from four Philadelphia-area high schools are meeting at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia today, with other students videoconferencing from as far away as Louisiana, to discuss issues in the presidential election and create a student agenda for the candidates."
  • The three men whose arrest and beating was captured on video by a news helicopter have their preliminary hearing scheduled for this morning. They're accused of taking part in a May 5 shooting that wounded three people in Feltonville. Meanwhile, police officials have changed their account of the shooting that they say led to the trio's arrest.
  • In its typically overblown and melodramatic fashion, the Daily News takes a closer look at the phenomenon of cop-killers, in the wake of the murder of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. The Daily News also covered a memorial gathering yesterday in remembrance of Liczbinski, and took a closer look at the Flag Code and the slight controversy over Nutter's request that flags in the city be lowered to half-mast. Meanwhile, some local businesses are raising money to aid Liczbinski's family, and Philadelphia police are pushing hard to find the last suspect in Liczbinski's murder.
  • "City officials yesterday embraced the concept of bicycle sharing as a way to reduce traffic and pollution, but said many questions must be answered before Philadelphia becomes the first U.S. city to institute public pedaling on a large scale."
  • "The 14-year-old accused of stabbing his older brother to death during a fight over a video game last July is back in court today for a hearing to decide if he will be tried as an adult."
  • Senator Barack Obama will be at the National Constitution Center this morning to give "a major address on race, politics and unifying our country." However, even though the speech is about unifying, the event will not be open to the public. Luckily for us, Inquirer reporter Larry Eichel will be blogging from the event. The speech is apparently an attempt to work some emergency repairs in the wake of some controversial statements by Obama's pastor. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton will have an appearance in Philly today, too, also not open to the public. The event will be at City Hall and is described as "leading voices for bringing our troops home."
  • Saint Joe's will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5PM today to officially open its new Hawks' Landing parking and retail facility at 54th and City Avenue. Hawks' Landing is a $19 million project that features a five-story, 460-space garage, a new and expanded University Bookstore, and a Cosi restaurant underneath.
  • Next up in Milton Street's fraud trial: testimony today from a Vietnamese business owner that Milton supposedly cheated out of $80,000 for a share of a nonexistent airport subcontract.
  • Last Friday & the weekend: Michael defended his decision to cut $21 million in funding to Philadelphia Safe and Sound, the program that, as we mentioned last week, John Street had shifted money to in the waning days of his administration. And he announced that the Department of Public Welfare would be auditing Safe and Sound's finances for the last couple years. Michael also ignited Governor Rendell's fury with his revocation of SugarHouse's casino license, as Rendell is all for the casinos.

    It was the week where Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey unveiled his plan to tackle Philadelphia's crime problem. It should have been a week of optimism and feeling like we're gonna get things headed in the right direction. But alas. We were reminded of the city's problems by the fact that, on the day that Ramsey announced his plan, he was in the process of investigating four homicides that occurred in a 16-hour span. The most gut-wrenching of these was the shotgun murder of a 28-week pregnant woman. (The fetus is in critical but stable condition as of this writing.) So it's without a touch of humor that we declare anyone and everyone contributing to the city's crime problem—and particularly with regard to gun violence—our asshole of the week.

    Last Friday & the weekend: Michael's search for a new CEO of the Philadelphia School District got down to two contenders—apparently—after Temple College of Education dean Kent McGuire withdrew his name from consideration for the position.

  • Area artists, lingerie designers, the burlesque troupe Bawdy Girls, and avant-gardistes will gather tonight in Northern Liberties to begin a month-long online auction of eighteen "corsets for a cure," with proceeds going to Philadelphia's Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation. A raffle and prizes donated by area merchants will benefit Andrea Collins Smith of Fishtown, whose blog about her battle with cancer is widely read.
  • A woman 28 weeks pregnant was killed with a single shotgun blast to the back shortly after 1AM this morning on the 4600 block of Griscomb Street. She was found by police in a parked car. Her baby girl, who remains in critical condition, was expected to survive after an emergency delivery at Temple.
  • Last Friday & the weekend: Michael probably doesn't know it, but he got a shout-out from Hot Hot Heat frontman Michael Bays at last week's FREEZEtival before the band played "Bandages." What the connection between the song and our mayor is, we have no idea. And in real news, Michael named his appointees to the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority board.

  • Also in the Daily News this morning is an article providing more details on the case of the three North Philadelphia teenagers killed in a car accident on Saturday.
  • Three teens were killed and three others critically injured Saturday night when the car they were riding in on American Street at Cecil B. Moore Avenue was rammed by another car coming in the opposite direction. The driver of the other car, 27-year-old Presley Hanif, jumped out of the car and ran, but was arrested yesterday afternoon.
  • A high-profile area World War II veteran who has served as a frequent speaker, museum advisory board member, and reunion organizer has a preliminary hearing scheduled today on charges that he used $84,102.48 of unauthorized funds from fellow soldiers for such purchases as a $28,000 Mini Cooper for his girlfriend.
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