One question: Why do we always have to have the stupid airport? Seriously, it kills me that I can never get on a plane without knowing that the morons at Philadelphia International Airport are going to find a way to leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. Case in point: Sunday night, I returned from St. Louis, where I had gone to a bachelor party for a guy whose wedding I am in......

"A man who was being evicted from his apartment in Yeadon, Delaware County, yesterday pulled a gun and shot the constable who served the eviction notice and the apartment manager, police said. The gunman fled into Southwest Philadelphia and hid in a rowhouse at 1846 Conestoga St, but a host of cops tracked him down and arrested him as he attempted to get away out the back door." The wounded men were listed in critical......

Strange and amusing stories are already pouring out of Milton Street's trial. Yesterday Philadelphia Airport Services official Gregory Taylor testified that Milt's "financial problems and apparent affinity for debt had led Street to bounce three checks for $133,000 each - part of an alleged kickback - that he had written to PAS. And that Street had asked for personal loans and demanded that PAS hire a politically connected minister for a no-show job." Today,......

Yesterday the state Gaming Control Board appointed a retired university president as trustee of the Mount Airy Casino Resort, due to the fact that its owner, Louis DeNaples, was charged last week with lying during his application for a state gaming license. In the wake of Super Tuesday, the Daily News and the Inquirer both take a look at how the candidates fared and what voter turnout was like in the area. The Daily......

"A weekend Philadelphia police clash with partygoers at a Latina girl's 'Sweet 15' celebration ended with at least 20 people alleging they were beaten by officers, prompting the first major internal investigation of officer misconduct under new Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey." A woman 28 weeks pregnant was killed with a single shotgun blast to the back shortly after 1AM this morning on the 4600 block of Griscomb Street. She was found by police......

One-time rap music impresario Alton "Ace Capone" Coles is on trial for using his record company as a front for a $25 million, Southwest Philadelphia-based cocaine trafficking network, and yesterday a former girlfriend, and the mother of his two children, testified against him. A man was walking north on Broad Street near Somerset in North Philadelphia, just before 5PM, when someone ran up to him from behind and, he thought, punched him in the......

"State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Philadelphia) has been nominated for a 'Golden Duke' award in the category of Best Local Scandal over at Talking Points Memo." *Sniff* We're so proud! (Via Sarah) New Jersey Transit's River LINE reached a grim milestone on Friday when it experienced its first fatal accident in its short history. A 50-year-old man, who was coming from a bar, was struck and killed when he returned to the tracks......

The Daily News takes a look at the problem of domestic violence in the city and the rather poor way that it's dealt with by officials. Foreclosures were down in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in November, as compared to October 2007 and October 2006. Governor Rendell called into 610 WIP to talk about Lanegate. Basically he wanted to explain what her phone call to him had been about (she just wanted someone to hear......

Good morning, readers, from a Phillyist on a plane, killing time on the way to Louisville via Chicago. Yeah, I know that's really out of the way. But then, so is Louisville. Air travel is generally hated by most people. Strangely, though, today's experience has been almost pleasant. Here's why: (1) Tuesday afternoons in December are apparently an awesome time to fly. Business travelers are out of town, going about their midweek business, and......

75-year-old Maximo Jurado escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and has been on the run ever since - until he was captured by police last night in Philadelphia at the home of an ex-girlfriend, who had known him for a over a year but had never discovered the truth about his past. The Daily News story we linked to the other day about the bloated Parking Authority pay roll has caused Ed Rendell......

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......

Police have charged Duane Jackson, 45, with attempted murder and attempted rape in the case of a woman who was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her home near Center City in July. Authorities suspect Jackson may be responsible for other attacks in the city and are looking into that now, so more charges are probably on the way. An appeals court panel has upheld the 81/2-to-17-year prison sentence given to a computer consultant for......

Yesterday Unity Day was celebrated in the rain on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and thousands of people of all shapes, sizes, and colors attended, enjoying music, food, games, and activities. A report to be released today by City Controller Alan Butkovitz shows that two decades of expensive attempts to build a new computerized water billing system have achieved little, and the system will almost certainly not be done by the time Mayor Street leaves office,......

In a rather surprising decision, the Board of License & Inspection Review voted unanimously yesterday to allow the Death of Venus mural to remain on the wall in the historic district, even without a permit. Although the Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Tacony-Palmyra Bridges are still officially "safe," they're also described as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Most will be undergoing repair or updating soon. The extremely congested Terminal F at the Philadelphia International......

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......

In case you haven't heard yet, Michael Nutter captured the democratic nomination for mayor of Philadelphia. As the city has not had a Republican mayor in six decades, this makes him almost a shoo-in for mayor elect. Mumia Abu-Jamal is up for another appeal. If he wins, his life could be spared. If he loses, "he will be in imminent peril of lethal injection." The Kimmel has a new president and CEO—and she's from......

It's our travel season right now, and having spent more time in and around Philadelphia International Airport than we'd like, we've been struck by the number of creepy dudes that can afford to fly the friendly skies. So we weren't that surprised when we read about a recent airplane-related arrest wherein an off-duty flight attendant ejaculated onto a passenger. Here's what we've determined he was thinking as the working flight attendant gave the safety......

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......

As we reported yesterday, Milton Street got arrested! Will this deter him from continuing his run for mayor? We're betting not. Our favorite parts of this story are the details: the cops found him outside a 7-Eleven near his Moorestown, NJ home, arrested him because of two traffic tickets that led to contempt citations, and he ended up in jail because he couldn't pay the combined fine of $3,250. (Btw, non-imprisoned mayoral candidate Chaka......

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Most Likely to Rule: Pan's Labyrinth - Ofelia and her pregnant mother move in with the girl's stepfather, a Fascist officer named Captain Vidal, in Navarra in post-Civil War Spain. As Vidal works to get rid of the rebels, Ofelia retreats into a fantasy world: a labyrinth behind the mill, which harbors a creature named Pan who claims to know her secret destiny. Directed by the......

The PA Gaming Control Board isn't handing out its two Philly slots parlor licenses until tomorrow, but Mayor Street has already picked one group he'd like to be a recipient: Planet Hollywood's Riverwalk Casino. That just happens to be the group with lots of local minority investors that plans to use city-owned land - and that's funding the New Years Eve fireworks display. The foot fetish guy has moved on to South Philly, but......

Mayor Street's brother Milton and two officials with Philadelphia Airport Services were indicted this afternoon by a federal grand jury for corruption and tax fraud in relation to a contract at the Philadelphia International Airport. In January 2000, Milton Street "began hiring himself out as a highly paid consultant to area businesses who believed that Milton Street could help them obtain business with the city of Philadelphia." He also failed to report to the IRS......

Recent corruption probes have supposedly made local politicians nervous and potential campaign contributors skittish. So the upcoming Mayoral campaign will be clean and fair, right? Yeah, uh huh. We'll believe it when we see it. A U Penn criminologist and three colleagues have built a computer model for predicting which existing offenders are most likely to commit murder. They're going to turn it into a piece of software and deliver it to the probation department......

All those gun control bills got voted down in Harrisburg, but some supporters of the legislation are calling it a success that the bills even got as far as they did. Folks who use Route 291 near the Philadelphia International Airport are going to be rerouted onto Bartram Avenue for some time. This is to make room for construction while a runway gets extended. Local restaurateur Susanna Foo acted out a fantasy of many......

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......

- It probably goes without saying by now - but if you're planning to fly out of Philadelphia International Airport, you're going to want to get there very early and watch what you pack in your carry on luggage. -The proposed fence around Independence Hall is meeting some resistance from residents. Ah, irony. It won't protect us - but it does irritate us from time to time. If you have comments about the project, here's......

Taxi drivers were on strike yesterday morning at the Philadelphia International Airport, forcing travelers to use other forms of transportation (such as limos, vans, and the R1 line). The cab drivers are still up in arms about those new requirements for their vehicles, which include the installation of GPS units, and a limit of 250,000 miles. Speaking of transportation problems, you should be aware that the El will not be running (due to reconstruction efforts)......

Philly's bid to be the host for the 2016 Olympics got heavy coverage in the Daily News this weekend, but the most interesting article to us was this one, which reveals that Philadelphia was the only city not to send its mayor to the pitch meeting with the US Olympic Committee Board of Directors this past Friday. Apparently Street felt city Commerce Director Stephanie Naidoff was the best person to send. He did write......

Late last night, the area around the Philadelphia International Airport was struck by a (simulated) radioactive explosion. Early this morning, Bensalem was hit as well, and later on today, "one of the region's waterways and a SEPTA train will also be attacked." It's all part of a two-day field exercise meant to test the response of the five counties to terrorist attacks on the transportation infrastructure. Supposedly the public won't be affected by the exercise,......

This afternoon the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue will be the site of a conference hosted by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and entitled Islam and the West. It's being held in honor of the 90th birthday of Professor Bernard Lewis, a noted scholar of the Middle East and currently Princeton's Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies. Showing up for the birthday party/deep political discussion will be plenty of other......