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......

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 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......

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......

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......