Mayor Nutter has cut taxpayer-funded nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound's funding by $21 million, and City Council's majority leader said she would call today for hearings to look into how Safe and Sound conducts its business. The funding cuts will result in the closing of ten school-based community centers; the termination of a parent-truancy program; and the elimination of many after-school programs. As the head of one after-school program put it, "It's a fiasco."......

Lawrence Richette, 48, the son of veteran Common Pleas Judge Lisa A. Richette, was arrested Tuesday for beating his 79-year-old mother at her Center City home. "He was released on his own recognizance yesterday - his birthday - pending a preliminary hearing Oct. 29." He was also ordered to stay away from his mother, for obvious reasons. But the story gets worse (better?). When NBC10 reporters knocked on his door for a comment, he......

If you're wondering what all those cops are doing hanging around near the Gallery this morning, it's not because somebody stole a rhinestone "You look better on MySpace" T-shirt; it's because W is coming to town! Yes, the President himself is coming to Philadelphia to speak at the American Legislative Exchange Council's Thomas Jefferson Freedom Breakfast at ALEC's 34th Annual Meeting at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown at 1201 Market Street. Plenty of other big-name political......

What with all the stuff going on recently with their staff and students, including a former professor pleading guilty to charges of producing child pornography abroad, Penn is understandably thinking of being a bit more strict about who they let in. Some changes they're considering are performing criminal background checks on prospective faculty, and requiring students to divulge criminal convictions on their applications. Mayoral candidate Dwight Evans has decided to embrace wholeheartedly a demographic the......