Results tagged “philadelphiaschoolreformcommission”

Yo, Philly in the News

Yo, Philly in the News

  • The cell phone ban proposal in Pennsylvania suffered a hit yesterday. The measure that would have banned hand-held cell phone use while driving was rejected yesterday after three hours of intense debate.
  • A new veterans cemetery to be known as Washington Crossing National Cemetery is scheduled to start construction in Bucks County next year, with the first burials starting toward the end of the year. The plans for the new cemetery will be available for review tonight during a public briefing by the Department of Veterans Affairs at Washington Crossing Historic Park.
  • Somehow the story of the twin gay porn star burglars keeps getting better. Now it's come out through court testimony that their mother served as a lookout during their rooftop break-ins.
  • Also in the Daily News this morning is an article providing more details on the case of the three North Philadelphia teenagers killed in a car accident on Saturday.
  • The Inquirer has an article about the Philadelphia Community Cats Council, a group of folks trying to manage and reduce the city's huge feral cat population, estimated to be at least 250,000. They do this by trapping feral cats, neutering them, and then returning them where they were found. Both the Daily News and the Inquirer have articles about Sharon Hill native John Patrick Foley and his elevation this weekend to the status of Cardinal...

  • While the court battle still rages over whether SEPTA will be able to eliminate transfers or not, Rendell and Fumo announced Tuesday that all seventh-through-12th graders who live more than 1 1/2 miles from their schools will ride for free with a new weekly transit pass. Students who live closer to their schools will pay a reduced rate of $14.45 for the new pass.
  • An abandoned warehouse in West Kensington was the site of the start of a 7-alarm fire Wednesday morning that led to the evacuation of people within a two-block radius, and the destruction of many neighboring houses.
  • D'oh. The city will be spending $1.3 million dollars to fix a mistake made years ago that violates the contract with the firefighters union. The contract states, reasonably enough, that diesel emissions must be vented outside firehouses, but the city installed air-filtration systems that do not do that.
  • Police are still looking for the abusive mother and the 7-year-old son she supposedly abducted. They've had some reported sightings, but none of them have panned out.
  • "A recently completed 'citizens' inspection' of a third of the 140 parks operated by the Fairmount Park Commission and the city Recreation Department" revealed that said parks are in bad shape, and that the park system itself needs a lot of work. There seems to be some argument, however, over whether this means the charter should be changed, or whether it just means they need more money.
  • 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 Covenant Award in recognition of their original and effective educational achievements."
  • All the Brady news that's fit to print! First of all, he and his legal team are now saying he didn't forget but deliberately did not declare his city pension on his nominating papers because he thought they did not need to be included. Regardless, legal challenges to his nomination will not be cleared up quickly; it sounds like we could look forward to weeks more of this, with the case probably eventually going to the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, there is some good news for Brady: he got the top spot on the ballot. Assuming he ends up on it, of course.
  • Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia has doubled the number of new private school scholarships available to low-income kids in the city. That's 1,000 new, four-year scholarships averaging $1,000 a year. Cool stuff.
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