Sons of Ben and other Philly area soccer fans rejoice: the Inquirer says sources are telling them that "Major League Soccer is moving swiftly toward an agreement that will grant a long-sought expansion team to the Philadelphia region." Saint Joe's will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5PM today to officially open its new Hawks' Landing parking and retail facility at 54th and City Avenue. Hawks' Landing is a $19 million project that features a five-story,......

The Inquirer takes a look at the future of local public transportation fare systems. SEPTA could be going with a smart card that's more like a new-generation Visa or MasterCard than it is like PATCO's recently introduced Freedom card. Next up in Milton Street's fraud trial: testimony today from a Vietnamese business owner that Milton supposedly cheated out of $80,000 for a share of a nonexistent airport subcontract. Child-care advocates and children will be......

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,......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! It was the week where Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey unveiled his plan to tackle Philadelphia's crime problem. It should have been a week of optimism and feeling like we're gonna get things headed in the right direction. But alas. We were reminded of the city's problems by the fact that, on the day that Ramsey announced his plan, he was in the process......

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......

Yesterday Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey unveiled his plan for getting Philly out of its "crime emergency." The plan includes deploying 200 more officers to dangerous parts of the city, and it will hopefully help Ramsey fulfill his pledge to reduce homicide in Philadelphia by 25 percent. Of the plan, Ramsey said: "There is nothing fancy about it. It's fundamental, it's basic. This is not Batman and Robin coming out of a cave somewhere." That's......

"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......

Last Friday & the weekend: Michael probably doesn't know it, but he got a shout-out from Hot Hot Heat frontman Michael Bays at last week's FREEZEtival before the band played "Bandages." What the connection between the song and our mayor is, we have no idea. And in real news, Michael named his appointees to the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority board. Monday: Michael joined a record-setting number of volunteers at this year's MLK Day of Service,......

The Daily News suggests strongly that if the city made use of private ambulances when Fire Department medic units are swamped with calls, it could make the difference between life and death for certain patients. Philadelphia doesn't use nonmunicipal ambulances because of legal issues. 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. Last......

The grandnephew of former Mayor W. Wilson Goode - a 24-year-old named Timothy J. Goode - was shot and killed late Friday by police during what they're describing as a drug bust. Police say Goode pulled a gun on them, and that the weapon has been recovered, but Goode's mother says that's not true and that her son was shot twice in the back. The tapes from surveillance cameras at the scene may be......

The Inquirer has the highlights from Nutter's first crazy day as Mayor, and they also take a look at his "almost impossibly ambitious goals for Philadelphia." Nutter's first act as Mayor was to declare that Philadelphia has a "crime emergency," for which our new police commissioner has only 22 days to develop a strategy. A high-profile area World War II veteran who has served as a frequent speaker, museum advisory board member, and reunion......

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......

The Inquirer takes a closer look at the Philadelphia policeman who was shot the day before the shooting of Chuck Cassidy, by a gunman who then fled and ultimately drowned in the Schuylkill. They also put the incident in the larger context of criminals in Philadelphia getting released from jail only to commit more crimes and be arrested again, over and over. Meanwhile, another Philadelphia police officer was injured this weekend, this time by......

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has been closed in both directions between the Philadelphia and Willow Grove interchanges, and is likely to stay closed most of the morning, due to a fiery five-car accident earlier today involving a tractor trailer and a pickup truck. Thankfully, as of this writing, no fatalities have been reported. The Fort Dix suspects are asking to be moved Special Housing Unit at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia due to the fact......

The Inquirer has the story of an American soldier from Bucks County who worked hard in Iraq trying to rebuild the country and is now home for the holidays. Princeton University scientists announced yesterday that they'd discovered a way to reproduce the chemical signals that the bacteria that cause cholera use to communicate with each other, which opens up the possibility of a new way to fight bacteria: talking to them in their own......

The Attorney General's Office has accused Former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of giving his relatives fake jobs in order to pay them thousands in taxpayer dollars. A cheval-de-frise (an iron-tipped log that's placed in a riverbed along with many others in order to gore the hulls of enemy warships) was recently found at the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia. It's a relic from the mid-1770s, and......

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Lisa Aversa Richette - a controversial advocate of society's disadvantaged - died of lung cancer this past Friday. She was 79. Here's an article about the complex planning going into tonight's Democratic presidential debates at Drexel. The Inquirer has the details on two local child-sex cases; a 52-year-old former scoutmaster from Mont Clare is looking at 16 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with a......

The Daily News discusses the biggest appointment the next Mayor will have to make: the police commissioner. Nominations are being accepted now for the Citadel Heart of Learning Awards, which honor the best educators in Chester County. Anyone can submit a nomination online at www.citadelheartoflearning.com between October 1st and December 31st. There was a fire Tuesday night at a Northeast Philadelphia warehouse where a Mummers group stored its props, and Fire Department investigators ruled yesterday......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. You might have heard about a little game called Halo 3 getting released late last night/early this morning. Game|Life has the details on the midnight release party at a Best Buy in Manhattan, while Joystiq covers a non-launch in Boston and an actual, celebrity-infested launch in LA. Beware, however! Rumor is that the limited edition packaging for the......

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,......

Apparently a lot of cops, already unhappy with Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson's selection of Kimberly Byrd as his chief of staff, are now even more pissed that he's changed her title to executive officer of the department, even though he insists it's not a promotion, and will involve no increase in pay, just an increase in duties. Johnson has been getting a lot of flak lately, for this and other decisions, on Domelights.com, an......

Councilman Frank DiCicco is declaring war on the casinos. In related news, some folks who had been charged with disorderly conduct after protesting the casinos outside the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's offices last month have been acquitted. Are we heading toward tougher gun control laws in Philly? The Police Commissioner and various gun control advocates are calling for them, after the release of a report that highlights two dozen cases around the country, and......

This Phillyist works just a block away from the Inquirer/Daily News building, so its weird to think that it might be sold and become...something other than the Inquirer/Daily News building. In the wake of the news that the young man shot on New Year's by police was unarmed comes the news that the mother of another unarmed man shot by police, this time back in April, is suing the officer who fired the shot,......

That ramp at the Linc was swaying again, and this time the movement was even caught on tape. But engineers still insist the ramp is safe and sound. Regardless, it sounds like during the off-season they're going to try to find a way to make it not sway, so fans don't get so freaked out all the time. Fighting crime is clearly going to be the big issue in the 2008 mayoral race, so......

The 12th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service is coming up on January 15th. Don't know how you can help? We should have more info for you as the day approaches. A Northeast Philadelphia boy imitating a stunt from the latest Jackass movie threw himself out a second-story window and landed on his head. He was in critical condition as of Wednesday. In the wake of police union president Robert Eddis' call......

The police have caught one of the city's most dangerous killers - although they didn't know he was one of the city's most dangerous killers when they arrested him. They were booking him for stealing a cell phone when they realized who they had. Two police raids this past Friday and Saturday turned up a bunch of drugs (including especially large amounts of cocaine), guns, and wads of cash. The Board of Ethics is......

In response to the growing violence problem in our fair metropolis, some folks have proposed Philly's men and women in blue institute a "stop-and-frisk" practice, wherein they would, well, stop and frisk individuals they suspect of potentially carrying illegal weapons. In the Inquirer article from which Phillyist learned that this crime deterrent strategy is under deliberation, a video clerk from Kingsessing said he would support the measure, saying, ""If you've got nothing to be guilty......

Montgomery County resident David Downey can't keep it in his pants - less than a week after being freed on $250K bail for third degree murder charges for feeding a 17 year old 'escort' a lethal dose drugs and paying off a couple of people to dispose of the body, he violated his bail by having a professional booty call in Upper Merion. At least he didn't kill this one.Governor Ed Rendell is opposing......

There's good news a-brewin' if you're really into death and destruction -- the crime rate in Philly is up for 2005. Woohoo! According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, at the rate we're going (more than one homicide per day) we could easily exceed 380 murders by the end of the year -- the most since 1997."Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson blames the increase in Philadelphia on the availability of guns, which are involved in about 80 percent......