The Daily News has a lengthy article on Philadelphia-based model Ray Armstrong and the circumstances that led to him being arrested for the murder of Anthony Williams. Police are seeking a rapist who assaulted a woman in a party bus parked at Lincoln Financial Field during Sunday's Eagles game. Albert L. DiGiacomo, the Chester County chief of detectives, has not been seen on the job in over a month, and no one seems to......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. VH1 Hip Hop Honors (Mon, 10PM-12AM, VH1) Tracy Morgan hosts the fifth annual event, which will honor Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Slick Rick, Naughty By Nature, and Too Short. Those folks will all also perform, along with Big Boi, Biz Markie, Bun B, Ghostface Killah, Wyclef Jean, Kid Rock, Lil Jon, MC Lyte, and Scarface. Animal Cops: Philadelphia (Mon, 10PM-11PM, Animal Planet; Tue, 10PM-11PM, Animal Planet)......

A mother and daughter prostitute team in Wissinoming, who promised to "double your pleasure" in Craigslist ads for their services, were arrested yesterday by an undercover police officer. At a defendant's sentencing hearing yesterday in a robbery and attempted rape case, the woman who had been the victim of the attack began hyperventilating in court and then collapsed in an anteroom. She was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and later released. The defendant was......

Would many LGBT folks actually support McCain in the first place? Not that we don't love an Obama presence at OutFest. Shame he won't be there himself, but if you have $2,300… A sad reminder that burying cops is getting to be mundane around these parts. The stealth economy of South Philly = ticket scalping. At least there are ways of working with them. We’re not too fond of Christine Flowers, and Isaiah Thompson's comparison......

Bruce Springsteen will play a free show on the Parkway this Saturday as part of an open-air rally for Barack Obama. The latest poll shows Obama still leading John McCain in Pennsylvania. In fact, thanks to efforts by the Obama campaign in the area, Democrats now have a 1.1 million registration edge in Pennsylvania, with large gains in the traditionally Republican Philadelphia suburbs. Coverage of Patrick McDonald's funeral. 25-year-old Michael Thomas was held for trial......

The murder trial of Hakeem Bey goes to a Common Pleas Court jury today. Ten minutes into the prosecutor's closing argument yesterday, juror number nine signaled for a break; some heard her say, "I'm scared. I don't think I can do this." She was excused and replaced. The case has been fraught with witness intimidation. Meleanie Hain of Lebanon used to take her holstered Glock 26 handgun everywhere for personal security, but her concealed-weapons......

More information on Daniel Giddings, the accused killer of Philadelphia police officer Patrick McDonald. There's also more on McDonald himself and the area where he was killed, and details on his public viewing. "Service on SEPTA's R6 commuter rail line has been suspended in both directions after a person crossing the tracks this morning was struck by a train." With the presidential election fast approaching, and the key battleground state of Pennsylvania still up......

SustainLane has ranked Philadelphia eighth in sustainability among US cities. (Via Aaron) Philly.com has detailed coverage of the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick McDonald and its affect on the community. Residents of Northern Liberties, Kensington, and Fishtown are fighting a plan to convert the Jumbo Theatre, at Front Street and Girard Avenue, into a concert venue. "The Montgomery County mother who purchased an assault rifle for her teenage son, who was plotting a Columbine-style......

Seven people were shot in five separate incidents within about a 12-hour span from Monday into yesterday. The judge for the Fumo corruption trial is still ill, a fact that may delay the trial for at least a month. Monday was the first work day with higher tolls on the DRPA's Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry, and Betsy Ross Bridges, so it's not entirely surprising that commuter traffic dropped on those bridges Monday,......

SEPTA is getting pretty popular, with rail ridership up 12 percent from a year ago, to its highest point in 25 years of rail operations, but the popularity has brought with it its own problems: crowded trains and parking lots. 43-year-old Tarriq Ali, sentenced to a life term in Delaware, was being transported from California back to Delaware by a private prisoner transportation service when he escaped at Philadelphia International Airport. He is still at......

As part of his attempt to convince Philadelphia business leaders to hire ex-convicts, Mayor Nutter hired one himself: Ronald L. Cuie, as director of the Mayor's Office for the Reentry of Ex-offenders. But Cuie was quietly demoted six months later. Nutter's explanation: "Needs and strategies change and evolve over time, and you utilize your personnel as best you see fit." But the Inquirer points out that while in the position, "Cuie nearly doubled his staff......

Sources say that Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter will announce at a 1PM press conference today that Foxwoods Casino has made an agreement with the state and the city to move its long-delayed slots parlor, originally planned for the South Philadelphia waterfront, to the Gallery at Market East. In January, former President Bill Clinton will replace former President George H.W. Bush as chairman of the National Constitution Center. Bush suggested Clinton as his replacement and......

Officer Isabel Nazario was killed in a crash Friday night during the pursuit of a teenager driving a stolen Cadillac Escalade. A West Philadelphia teen was charged Saturday with third-degree murder and other offenses in the crash, and a vigil was held yesterday to mourn and remember her. A 22-year-old South Philadelphia man was fatally shot Saturday in the city's Point Breeze section, and on the same day, a 29-year-old man was shot to death......

"Authorities yesterday searched the Main Line home of a dentist who they believe may have been involved in dumping some of the syringes and other medical waste found on eight Jersey Shore beaches in the last two weeks." The Penn State football team is in trouble again. Coach Joe Paterno said last night that defensive end Maurice Evans, defensive tackle Abe Koroma, and tight end Andrew Quarless would not play tomorrow against Oregon State after......

A planned merger between Wolf Block of Philadelphia and a Florida law firm has been called off due to the risks presented by the struggling economy. Meteorologists warn that Tropical Storm Hanna could hit the Philadelphia region with high winds and pounding rain tomorrow night and Saturday. A 62-year-old white electrician working at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia hung a noose in a black electrician's locker on August 11th. He says it was just a dumb......

"A Delaware County woman, who allegedly helped her boyfriend lure young victims to her babysitting service so he could secretly tape sexually explicit videos of them in what authorities have called the 'most horrific case' of child exploitation they have seen, pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom yesterday. " 29-year-old Anthony Derubeis of Upper Darby decided to barbecue some books on his grill yesterday morning. When firefighters arrived, he started throwing stuff at them,......

Four people were killed in the area over the Labor Day weekend, and this morning two more men were found slain in a second floor apartment over an electronics store in North Philadelphia. But good things also happened this Labor Day weekend, like a nice Labor Day parade, and Pennsylvania State Sen. Anthony H. Williams' annual street party in West Philadelphia where more than 2,500 people got free meals of hot dogs and turkey burgers.......

Yesterday former skinhead Thomas Gibison was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison by a Common Pleas Court judge for conspiring to commit a racial killing more than two decades ago. A Philadelphia police officer was responding to a call to assist another officer around 1AM this morning when his police car collided with another car at a downtown intersection. The officer is listed in critical condition, but his prognosis is good. Yesterday, the......

Yesterday morning, 20-year-old Community College of Philadelphia accounting student Fakhur Uddin was bound with duct tape and string, shot in the head, and left in the back room of the East Germantown gift and sundry store he was minding for his ailing father. Police believe he was killed during a robbery. Apparently one of the key witnesses against Vincent Fumo in his corruption trial will be his own son-in-law. In the hopes of keeping......

Philly International will not see a great reduction in number of flights this fall, unlike other major cities like Las Vegas and Chicago. If you're counting on that trip to Vegas paying the heating bill this winter, better head out there now. 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......

Dear Philadelphia: You are dubbed "The City of Brotherly Love" due to a very literal translation of your name, which comes from the Greek words philos (love) and adelphos (brother). When you were originally founded by William Penn, your state's namesake and the figure atop your City Hall, you were to serve as a beacon of hope to all those who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs in Europe. You're considered to be......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Friday: N It: Enjoy some improv with The N Crowd at The Actors Center (257 N. 3rd), 8PM. $10 Ashley Deekus: Ashley Deekus, Jesse Sparhawk, and Eichen Oaks at Brickbat Books (709 S. 4th), 8PM. Free. Why Do You Build Me Up: Drink Up Buttercup, Moneynotes, Jukebox the Ghost, Modern Skirts, and Madi Diaz at the Khyber (56 S. 2nd), 9PM. $8 Saturday: It’s International Women’s Day: Celebrate......

As Phillyist Sarah pointed out yesterday in a comment on Philly in the News, Mark O'Donnell was arrested yesterday in the murder of Ebony Nicole Dorsey, the daughter of his girlfriend. He's been charged this morning with beating, strangling and sexually assaulting the 14-year-old. Dorsey's mother says the attack came after O'Donnell had been smoking crack all night, but O'Donnell says that's not true and that he caught the girl molesting his daughter. About 100......

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! As I've mentioned once or twice before on Phillyist, this year I went from being distantly fascinated by comic books to being a seriously obsessive weekly comic book collector. So here are my......

With a preliminary hearing for the case scheduled for tomorrow, the Inquirer takes another look at the 41-year long murder of Police Officer William Barclay. Pennsylvania officials will decide soon whether to spend $45 million to build a stadium in Chester as the final step toward securing a Major League Soccer team for the Philadelphia area. Right now, Philly is second behind St. Louis for the remaining expansion slot, its chances contingent on a stadium......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

Yesterday morning, we caught the Today Show interview with Maureen Faulkner, the widow of slain Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner. She was being interviewed along with Philadelphia conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish about Murdered By Mumia, the book they wrote together chronicling her struggle after the death of her husband. Most people probably have never heard of Officer Faulkner, but most likely they have heard of the man convicted of his 1981......

Take a cursory look at the release history of Blade Runner (which originally came out in 1982) and you might begin to think that Ridley Scott has caught a George Lucas-sized case of Special Edition-itis - you know, that terrible disease that afflicts some directors and causes them to keep tweaking and re-editing and re-releasing their films in different versions, over and over and over. Wikipedia lists seven different versions of Blade Runner, for......

If you still aren't bored of stories about Jocelyn S. Kirsch and Edward K. Anderton, then by all means, read on. Meanwhile, other rather more dangerous criminals are still on the loose. Police still have little to go on in the brutal November 25th murder of John Bartram High School sophomore Antonio Q. Clarke, who was last seen alive trying to catch a trolley in Southwest Philadelphia. Call police at 215-686-3334 or -3335 with......

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Tuesday post only collects the early announcements, so definitely check back on Thursday for the latest ticket news. COMEDY Jim Norton Music Box at The Borgata, Atlantic City Sun, 1/20/08, 9PM On sale: Sat, 10AM, Live Nation Josh Blue House of Blues Atlantic City Sat, 7/12/08, 9PM $27-$41.50 On sale: Sat, 10AM, Live Nation Comedy Stop Tropicana......