"Police last night charged a Yellow Cab Co. driver with vehicular homicide in an early-morning hit-and-run in Logan that left a young mother clinging to life and her 5-year-old son dead." A couple of unrelated incidents involving firearms took place early yesterday morning in Philadelphia. In the first incident, a retired Philly cop working as a pizza delivery man was accosted by three teenagers, one of whom pointed a gun at him while the......

Drama Queen alerts us that Mayor Michael Nutter announced the opening of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, a "Frankenversion of the old Office of Arts and Culture (OAC)." You may recall that the OAC had been closed by former Mayor John Street four years ago, leaving the city as an embarrassing example of a major American city without a cultural affairs office.......

Former Rep. Mike Veon, the No. 2 Democrat in the state House, 10 former and current legislative aides, and one sitting lawmaker were all charged, in varying degrees, with theft and conflict of interest for running a massive political campaign machine out of government offices. According to prosecutors, they were paying staffers, with taxpayers' dollars, to work on political campaigns while on the government clock. More charges are expected. In one particular case, Michael......

Hello. I’m former Mayor of Philadelphia John F. Street for the new Apple 3G iPhone. The “3G” stands for “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!” Just a little joke. But there’s no joking about this incredible piece of technology. The new 3G iPhone has everything a former Mayor of Philadelphia needs. Take Push Email: now when my lawyer needs to reach me about a subpoena or schedule a hearing, I get his email instantly. And with Push Calendar,......

Philadelphia public and parochial schools plan to maintain regular hours today, but some schools in the surrounding area are closing or having early dismissals due to the excessive heat. Click through for the full list. 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. The Inquirer discusses Mayor Street's already fading legacy.......

And the appointments keep on rolling in. This week's may have been the most interesting though, as Michael appointed himself(!), along with one of his aides, to the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. The Authority will be headed up by another Michael aide who was appointed this week. The moves were yet another dig at the Street administration, as Michael is joining the Authority more or less to clean up the mess of Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative.......

Well, Jocelyn Kirsch isn't going to jail, but she has been placed under house arrest, where she's to be under the custody of her parents or grandmother at all times. She'll also continue to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, and her bond has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000. Click through for some of the strange and goofy details of her various crimes in California. Two women were sitting in a van parked......

Beginning at 10AM today at City Hall, Philadelphia School District officials will present their proposed $2.28 billion budget to City Council. You can already see the budget and prepared testimony on the district's website. Members of the public will offer testimony on the budget tomorrow. The Inquirer investigates the lasting effects of the shooting death of 33-year-old Moroccan-born Ouadii Souliman. He was gunned down at the door Al Aqsa Mosque on the border between Northern......

Well, the Pennsylvania primary has (finally!) come and gone, and Michael's candidate, Hillary Clinton, carried the state, but not Philadelphia. But even though Barack Obama won the city, and even if Obama eventually wins the nomination, there probably won't be any egg on Michael's face. And the winner for pointless press conference of the week goes to...Michael's conference to encourage the city to support the Sixers and Flyers in their playoff runs. Oh, and the......

Phillyist's favorite news item this morning is this one: twin 25-year-old internet hardcore gay porn stars Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney (apparently known as Keyon and Teyon in the biz), of New Jersey, have been arrested for a series of robberies in Philadelphia and New Jersey wherein they gained entry to businesses by cutting holes in the roofs using a handsaw and ax. In Nether Providence, they broke into Wawas, and Chief Richard Slifer of......

The president and board chairman of the city-funded nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound testified yesterday that they were forced by Mayor Street and his senior aides to spend an extra $21 million that they knew did not exist in the city budget. It's those expenditures that have forced Safe and Sound to cancel dozens of programs in recent weeks. You can find copies of Safe and Sound's testimony online here and here. Insiders say......

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,......

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."......

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. Monday: Michael's choice for city commerce director, Germantown-born Andrew Altman, was sworn in, as was Managing Director Camille Bates Barnett. And the worst-kept secret of Michael's early administration appointments became official, as he named Lori Shorr his chief education......

Lots of changes in local political leadership today. The judges in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas will vote to elect a new president judge. In Montgomery County they'll be swearing in the winners of the November elections. And the same will be happening in Philadelphia today as Nutter comes in and Street goes out. The body of 50-year-old Cynthia Cometz of Woodstown was found inside a BMW that had been submerged in......

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......

Rev. Joseph F. Sica of Scranton, a Catholic priest and longtime confidant of casino owner Louis A. DeNaples, was charged yesterday with lying to a grand jury about his relationship with a mob boss. At least one of those New Year's arrests that we posted about yesterday was a complete disaster. Not only was it police gunfire that injured a 9-year-old boy at the scene, the cops arrested the wrong man and let the......

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2008 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know! 5. After kidnapping her two children, Britney Spears goes on the lam before being finally caught in Old City, Philadelphia, attempting to stuff her sons into the Liberty Bell. Seems she thought it......

I will admit that I am a faster walker than most. This fact can probably be attributed to two reasons: 1) the faithful consumption of four cans of Dr. Pepper per day and 2) a clear aversion to doing anything on my lunch break other than surfing the Internet and staining my khakis horrifically from my work desk. So maybe I am more inclined to see some Philadelphians’ funeral dirge-ian way of moving through the......

Oh, man. Did you see that Rick Santorum is writing an opinion column for the Inquirer now? Ugh. In vaguely related news, John Street's post-mayoral employment, beginning in January, will be at Temple University as a professor of urban politics and policy. Governor Rendell, who himself is an adjunct at U. Penn, encouraged Street to make the move. Officials responding to a report of a fire at a home in Upper Darby yesterday discovered......

Milton Street's court-appointed lawyer in his corruption trial (not his NJ traffic ticket trial; try to keep up!) couldn't come to an agreement with her client on how to handle his case, so she's withdrawing from the case. Street can't afford to hire his own lawyer (what's he been spending his money on? Not paying traffic tickets, that's for sure), so he's being appointed a new one, although the judge pointed out he probably......

It's First Friday—also known to us as the most wonderful time of the month. Public drunkenness is never more fun—or acceptable—in Old City. (Even on Saturday nights. Seriously.) Phillyist will be hitting up three First Friday events in particular, and we wanted to tell you about them, too. First up is the uwishunuyear party, at FUEL (3rd and Arch—the old Real World house) hosted by uwishunu, the "new kid on the blog," run (slightly covertly)......

NBC 10 managed to get an exclusive interview on Wednesday with Milton Street, the brother of Philadelphia mayor John Street. Milton Street was recently indicted with federal tax and fraud charges and this was his first interview with the media. The interview was handled by anchor Tim Lake. Street was cagey and evasive as he was denying the charges against him while Lake seemed a bit out of his league. Some highlights: Lake: You had......

Sorry, guys! We're distracted by Heroes as we write this, so no pointless babble here. Just go check out what our sister sites are doing! Austinist tells you how to vote so you don't have to think. Sweet! Parisist: Now, why on earth would anyone think that Parisians were rude? Chicagoist: Da Bears! SFist: Why doesn't John Street have him some fun affairs? Houstonist: Care to start a pool? How long before the fatal......

The Terrel Owens "did he or didn't he?" debate continues. (Only his publicist knows for sure.) We wonder how Eagles fans will react to him when he's in town to play on October 8th, in light of recent events. Legal gambling in PA is getting ready to begin: 5 gaming licenses have been issued to PA racetrack/casinos, with 8 more licenses (some in our city) expected to be granted soon. Two businessmen have admitted......

Has Philadelphia dropped the cheesesteaks and picked up the barbells? That's what the latest issue of Men's Fitness claims, reporting that Philly is now America's "23rd fittest" city. Sounds mediocre, but that's quite a climb from 1999, when we were ranked the most obese city in America. That's a lot of uneaten scrapple!! And who's to credit for our Charlie Brown-esque rise to 23rd place? None other than Mayor John Street, of course. Besides......

Sometimes, it's too easy to make the obvious association. If you're already tired of Saumel L., scroll past the first two cities. Houstonist wants this mothaf***in' snake out the mothaf***in' playpen! Gothamist wants these mothaf***in' rats off this mothaf***in' plane! Austinist: We are so jealous. So. Jealous. SFist: John Street would never do this. Thank God. Londonist: We're also guessing you won't see this whisk(e)y as an ingredient in a barbecue sauce being served at......

Another week come and gone. As Phillyist prepares to spend the weekend in bed convalescing (we blame the cold on, well, the cold), we thought we'd leave you with a few final tidbits of -ist goodness. See you Monday! Gothamist: If Philadelphia had its own local-celeb anti-litter ad campaign, who would you want to see in it? Austinist: We wanted to go to SXSW too, but not this badly! Seattlest: There seems to be a......

As if simply being near the Liberty Bell wasn't exciting enough, a couple of people were shooting up the place early this morning from their car windows. The intersection of 5th and Market was closed while police finished investigating. No arrests have been reported. Speaking of inexplicable rage and cars, a car crash in North Philly led to a killing. It's being reported that some guy in a teamster's jacket went nuts and stabbed the......

Oh potholes, how you mock us! Lying in wait for us to bicycle into your Cadillac-sized craters, laughing maniacally when our gaping head wounds bleed onto your broken edges - no more! Or so says Mayor John Street. Mayor Street has announced war on city potholes come this April with the introduction of his 100-day initiative, Operation Smooth Streets. This time it's personal. City Managing Director Pedro Ramos says city residents spoke up, letting their......