How about those Phils? Their success is good, not only for fans, but also for the local economy. The election is getting closer, which means it's time for some voter intimidation! "An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day." This is false. A plumber was buried......

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 House rejected the economic bailout plan yesterday and the Dow plummeted. The Inquirer takes a look at how local folks and small businesses are coping with the economic crisis, and the Daily News finds that things are going well for at least one set of businesses: secondhand shops. A second-grade student at Harrington Avery D School in West Philly brought a bag of marijuana to school yesterday and showed it off to his......

A fire broke out in City Hall shortly after 4:30AM on Saturday in a judge's chambers. The chambers were being remodeled and were not occupied. It's possible that an electrical problem was the cause. There were no injuries, although three other offices sustained smoke and water damage. Latrice Bryant, chief legislative aide to Philadelphia City Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., issued a letter of apology to Goode yesterday for holding up signs during a......

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......

A report is due out today from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council comparing heart surgeries at area hospitals. John Jackey Worman, the Delaware County man whose child porn case we've been posting about here for some time, was convicted in federal court of dozens of child-pornography charges yesterday. Worman could spend the rest of his life in jail. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. An off-duty SEPTA police officer was......

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......

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The Inquirer is covering some of the nightmarish testimony at the Worman child porn trial. D'oh. Philadelphians have been ranked the ugliest again. (Via Ross) Yesterday citizens and other officers paid their respects at the public viewing for Police Officer Isabel Nazario. An additional viewing is being held until 11 this morning at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, with a mass scheduled for noon. The bleak economy and overly optimistic budgeting have led......

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......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! One of the most fun things about the quadrennial circuses that are the Democratic and Republican National Conventions is the protesters. They're frequently a rich source of both important social discourse and absolute hilarity. Pick a subject, any subject, and somewhere in America—especially at convention time—someone is protesting it. Someone out there is protesting kittens as you read this. We're all for protesters,......

"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,......

A 22-year-old New Jersey man found guilty of beating another man in the parking lot before a Phillies game last year, has been sentenced to at least a year of nonreporting probation, allowing him to be deployed to Iraq with the National Guard in just a few weeks. The military deployment is being considered part of his sentence. SEPTA bus schedule changes start tomorrow with Regional Rail changes following on September 7th. It's all part......

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......

"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......

Image courtesy of the British Library. Londonist explored the hidden basement levels of the British Library.Phillyist wondered whether AT&T was treating them just like everyone else.Bostonist got all worked up about grammar. A local man, member of the Typo Eradication Advancement League and apparent troublemaker, was busted (or is it got busted?) fixing/besmirching an historic sign at the Grand Canyon.Seattlest talked with icanhascheeseburger.com head honcho Ben Huh about the existence of dirty LOLcats and......

Former CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte is scheduled for a plea hearing at 9:30AM this morning at the federal courthouse at Sixth and Market Streets, where he is expected to plead guilty to hacking into the personal e-mail of onetime colleague Alycia Lane. Lawrence Scott Ward, 65, a former marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, is already serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison for trafficking in child porn, but yesterday new......

We're so proud: one of the Eagles cheerleaders (Janelle Stangl) has been named by Maxim as one of the NFL's four "most gorgeous" cheerleaders in the magazine's September issue, which hits newsstands today. Click through for a pic. The Daily News describes a climate of fear and anger in Frankford, with residents on the lookout for a serial rapist. "Anticrime activists passed out flyers in the neighborhood yesterday while police—in a massive manhunt—took the unusual......

A look at how locals are faring in the Olympics. Police are still searching for the rapist or rapists who have been terrorizing the Frankford section of Philadelphia. A man was arrested Saturday in a kidnapping and sex assault, but police don't believe he's connected to the other incidents. The Inquirer takes a look at the crowded and sometimes dangerous conditions on the Kelly Drive bike path at Boathouse Row. The Daily News lists......

Torontoist featured video of an absolutely insane series of explosions at a propane facility in the north end of the city last weekend.Despite an eventful week at the Olympics, Phillyist focused on local, Philadelphia teams.Seattlest, freshly aware of their "Junior High Readability Level," implemented a new weekly feature spotlighting a local they’re totes crushing on. First up, a guy they met at the Seattle Tattoo Expo.LAist reported on a protest by bicyclists in Santa......

A lawsuit by the Philadelphia firm of Cozen O'Connor blaming the government of Saudi Arabia for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks is probably dead in the water now after a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that Saudi Arabia could not be sued for acts of terrorism. A 1-year-old child was slashed in the neck yesterday afternoon at a North Philadelphia home. The suspect is believed to be the child's father, but police are withholding the......

The Phantom Attacker! Throughout folklore there have been tales pertaining to spectral assailants attacking helpless citizens, usually women, whether as knife-wielding maniacs who disappear into the night or ghostly leapers who accost their victims and elude police. During the Victorian era in London a caped marauder was attacking women in London. He became known as Spring-Heeled Jack, and his spate of attacks remains unsolved to this day. This sinister apparition, adorned often in dark garments,......

Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, owner of the Daily News and the Inquirer, requested their union employees to forego a $25-a-week raise scheduled to begin September 1st, as a cost-cutting measure in the face of declining revenue that has afflicted newspapers nationwide. Members voted overwhelmingly to do so. Early this morning, someone called police to report a break-in at a South Philadelphia home. The homeowners were away at the Shore. While investigating, police critically wounded a......

Undercover officers were standing in as prostitutes on Kensington Avenue yesterday afternoon and Wednesday, cracking down on prostitution. Some lucky schmuck bought the winning Powerball ticket last week at the Turkey Hill Minit Mart in Willow Street, PA, just south of Lancaster. This Phillyist can sadly report that it wasn't him. But whoever it was will be revealed at 10 this morning. A group of residents in Yorktown feel their community is being threatened because......

A bill now pending in the Pennsylvania legislature would legalize video poker in Pennsylvania's 5,000 private clubs and social halls. Speaking of gambling, the Borgata yesterday ejected a smelly poker player from the casino after receiving complaints from other players. The 440-pound man had been playing for 17 straight hours, and now he wants an apology. PETA has named Citizens Bank Park the most vegetarian-friendly sports venue in North America for the second year in......

The Swan Day Spa in wealthy Berwyn on the Main Line was a front for a brothel, and the three people who ran it were arrested in Nevada and Pennsylvania yesterday. Vandals pushed over more than 200 headstones at a historic African American cemetery in Collingdale, including the stone of famed Philadelphia civil-rights activist Octavius V. Catto. A state trooper and member of a collision/accident-reconstruction team in Philadelphia was arrested for allegedly using his state-issued......