Sixteen men will receive fatherhood awards from the Father's Day Rally Committee at a reception in North Philadelphia tonight. In case you were wondering, no, SEPTA transit police did not strike yesterday. About an hour before the 2PM deadline, negotiations began at SEPTA headquarters in Center City, and continued until about 10 before ending for the night. Nothing has been resolved, but they were scheduled to meet again at 9 this morning, which means they'll......

We sure do love Pennsylvania politics. Someone started a fire at the Mount Carmel office of State Rep. Robert Belfanti Jr. Belfanti is unopposed in the primary and general elections, and had no idea why someone would try to burn his office down. Meanwhile, the South Philadelphia campaign office of Pennsylvania state House candidate Christian DiCicco, the son of City Councilman Frank DiCicco, was burglarized yesterday. There's a little disparity between the two Inquirer articles......

Highway Patrol Officers were passing a house on Jefferson Street near 26th on Friday night when they spotted a man who matched the description of someone who had robbed and shot another man earlier that night. When they arrested him, they discovered that the house had a cache of drugs, money, and weapons, including seven loaded handguns, an AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun, two Kevlar vests, $3,000 in cash, and $25,000 worth of cocaine. In......

PATCO and SEPTA are thinking about working together to extend PATCO's service along Columbus Boulevard and perhaps to City Hall. The project would involve "reopening the long-closed Franklin Square station beneath Sixth and Race Streets to serve as the hub of the expanded service." This new service, however, would cost at least $1 billion, would thus require financial help, and would take eight to ten years to complete. Another wrinkle in the federal investigation into......

Governor Rendell has proclaimed January 11, 2008 “Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day” in the State of Pennsylvania. There will be a benefit concert to honor the gospel music legend that night at the Keswick. (Via Bob) You can catch a film profile of Allen Iverson by rapper Nelly tonight at 10:30PM on IFC. The Inquirer has a short interview with A.I. about the project. "A federal judge refused yesterday to release on bail the five men......

A proposed set of rules now circulating among City Council members would restore the City Council President's authority to make decisions without the approval of Council's majority leader, an authority the president hasn't had for the last four years. "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will announce this afternoon how much Philadelphia and other cities will get in grants to help the homeless." The grants are awarded on a competitive basis,......

Two separate laws aimed at making most government records public by default are making their way through the state legislature. The House bill, which was approved by a committee yesterday, is stronger than the bill that was passed by the Senate yesterday, 48-1. Another day, another shooting in Philadelphia. Two officers responding to a call about a man causing a disturbance in West Philadelphia early yesterday morning chased the man into an alley, where he......

First, some updates on stories we linked to yesterday: the Inquirer has the unsettling details and about the shooting of a 5-year-old boy early yesterday morning, and how it connects with other recent incidents of violence in the city. As for the Turnpike shutdown, it lasted six hours, causing a ripple effect of traffic jams on adjacent roadways and stranding hundreds of motorists at the height of morning rush hour. The judge in the......

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has been closed in both directions between the Philadelphia and Willow Grove interchanges, and is likely to stay closed most of the morning, due to a fiery five-car accident earlier today involving a tractor trailer and a pickup truck. Thankfully, as of this writing, no fatalities have been reported. The Fort Dix suspects are asking to be moved Special Housing Unit at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia due to the fact......

The big news today is police shootings. The Inquirer and the Daily News both examine the alarming local and national trend. The Daily News also reveals some backstory on the gunman who shot four people, including a policeman, before jumping into the Schuylkill River Tuesday night (his body was found early yesterday morning). And finally there are two articles about yet another shooting that took place early yesterday morning when a man tried to......

Nutter's got an ad on TV again, this one designed to reintroduce himself to voters, and to hopefully increase what is threatening to be a very low voter turnout. Meanwhile, Delaware County Republicans have their own election problems, which include W., declining party registration, and the real chance that a Democrat might win a council seat for the first time in nearly 30 years. It's Fumo time! The good news for Fumo: his corruption trial......

Due to the fact that owners and players were not able to resolve a long-standing labor dispute, the 2008 National Lacrosse League season was canceled yesterday. A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Wings said its 5,000 season-ticket holders would receive full refunds and could expect a communication today. A Scranton woman has been cited for disorderly conduct for shouting profanities at her overflowing toilet. Apparently she was yelling near an open window, and her neighbor (an......

A story (via Jason) and video on New York's WCBS-TV alerted Exelon Corp. to the fact that security guards at its Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County, PA have been literally falling asleep on the job, and now Exelon is moving to terminate a contract with the company that provides security at the plant. This is a pretty clever idea: primary-care clinics in retail stores. They're called MinuteClinics, and four will be opening......

14,029 people participated in yesterday's Philadelphia Distance Run. The Inquirer article about the event focuses not on the winner, but on the amateurs and the regular folks involved. The still theoretical Philadelphia Major League Soccer franchise already has a fan club: the Sons of Ben, or SoBs. As part of a piece of 2002 legislation, the state of New Jersey took over many of the powers of Camden's local government and school board. Yesterday,......

Mayor Street and the man most likely to be our next mayor (Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter) are disagreeing over the location of a new Family Court. Street wants to move "the court from its current location on Vine Street near 18th to a site at 15th and Arch streets where a parking lot now stands," while Nutter wants "the new court building as close as possible to a new Youth Study Center. He......

Prosecutors in the Fort Dix Six case have requested that the jury be allowed to remain anonymous. The defense is still trying to decide how to respond, but the judge may consider the request today. U. Penn's Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital may have been the first to give a snake high-energy radiation therapy yesterday when they treated a 61/2-foot anaconda's tumor. The snake, btw, is Sir Mix-A-Lot from Wilmington's Brandywine Zoo. Three double......

We're kind of tired of the whole Mayor Street/iPhone debacle at this point, but the Daily News column Clout did have something vaguely interesting to add: a poll of the top ten local political figures (other than Street) asking if they have or are interested in having an iPhone. The answers were "no" and "no" for everybody. As Clout puts it, "Maybe our mayor is just way ahead of the curve." Neighbors of the Barnes......

A suspect wanted in the shooting of a New York commune leader more than a year ago was captured as she stepped off the Market-Frankford El in West Philly yesterday. The Inquirer's got the coverage of last night's presentation of the 86th annual Philadelphia Award to Leonore Annenberg. The lawyer for one of the group that we're apparently now calling the Fort Dix Six asked that the court reconsider its decision to hold him without......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Simon Schama's The Power of Art (Mon, 9PM-10PM, PBS [WHYY, WLVT]) - The guy in the title is a Columbia University art history professor, and in this new show he takes a look at famous artists: their masterworks, and crucial moments in their lives. In the debut, he's talking about Van Gogh and his painting Wheatfield with Crows (pictured here). Heartland (Mon, 10PM-11PM, TNT) - Another medical......

The New Philadelphia City Hall Tour Office and Visitor Center officially opened on Wednesday with a little ceremony and everything. But as it turns out, the tour of City Hall is so much cooler now, that it's also no longer free; adults pay $10 for the full two-hour tour of the building, and $5 to go up in the Observation Tower. (Via HughE) In vaguely similar news, the Silk City diner reopened last night.......

Restaurateur Susanna Foo has completed her six-month probation and 50-plus hours of community service, which she received for supposedly striking an officer of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, something she still claims she didn't do. About 1:30AM yesterday morning a woman died when she crashed her car into the back of a stationary PennDot dump truck in a construction zone on northbound I-95 near the Chichester Avenue exit. Northbound traffic was detoured until the lanes were......

Some depressing news: the first eagle's nest in Philadelphia in two centuries, which was located in the Navy Yard, has failed. Wildlife officials believe the eaglet or eaglets were eaten by predators soon after the eggs hatched. To cheer us up, how about some news of a hometown hero getting honored? "Rabbi Philip Warmflash, executive director of the Jewish Outreach Partnership in Philadelphia, is one of three Jewish educators nationwide selected to receive a......

Many things that had to wait while PA and NJ were in their impasse about dredging the Delaware can now move forward. One of those things is repainting the Ben Franklin Bridge. This holiday weekend, lots of folks were getting in as much fun as they could at the Jersey shore, despite the fact that, in Surf City at least, there was the possibility of blowing up. A beach replenishment project ended up digging up......

One of the suspects in the planned attack on Fort Dix applied to be a Philadelphia police officer in April, but luckily he didn't get very far in the procedure, as he was ineligible for various reasons. Remember that story about some of the Penn State football players getting into a fight? Well, the law hasn't sorted out what exact punishments they'll receive yet, but Joe Pa has. Good old Joe Pa. (Via Jill,......

A fire that killed the owner of the House of Bread in the Italian Market on Wednesday was caused by a cooking pot left on the stove. The man accused of supplying weapons to the Fort Dix terrorists has been denied bail. Runner-up mayoral candidate and professional rich guy Tom Knox wants more money! He plans to go into investment banking and make hundreds of millions of dollars. Then maybe run for office again. Mumia......

Negotiations are over, and the Delaware River will now indeed be dredged and the channel deepened, which means the Delaware River Port Authority board can finally meet again after 17 months (Rendell had refused to call a meeting of the board until the dispute was settled). Philadelphia corrections officer Christopher Davidson has been arrested after going on a crazy rampage on an ATV in East Germantown on Tuesday evening. He drove all over a......

PMA Director and CEO Anne d'Harnoncourt is apparently not getting paid what she's worth, at least according to some local arts bloggers, and The Art Newspaper. (Via F. Lennox Campello.) 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.......

Can't get enough of those Butterscotch Krimpets? Lucky you: Tastykake is building a new facility at the Navy Yard! In less pleasant news, Philly's death count since January 1 is now 140. That. Is. Terrifying. Planning on taking a fun vacation this summer? If you book before May 31, Southwest wants to make sure you do it cheaper. They're celebrating three years in Philly, and we need an excuse to travel. In case you......

Here's a very horrifying and surreal story for you: Tuesday night a 10-year-old boy was playing outside near his home on Lindley Avenue near 5th Street in Olney when a 25-year-old man walked up, grabbed the boy, and sliced his throat with a knife. The man was held by the family until police arrived, but he offered no resistance and didn't try to get away. Why he did it is still a mystery. The......

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......