Hello. I’m former Mayor of Philadelphia John F. Street for the new Apple 3G iPhone. The “3G” stands for “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!” Just a little joke. But there’s no joking about this incredible piece of technology. The new 3G iPhone has everything a former Mayor of Philadelphia needs. Take Push Email: now when my lawyer needs to reach me about a subpoena or schedule a hearing, I get his email instantly. And with Push Calendar,......

Animal cruelty investigators raided some rowhouse stables on Fletcher Street yesterday, giving the owners 24 hours to relocate the 60 horses on the site. The Daily News paints a pretty horrific picture of the conditions the animals were living in. Chelsea Clinton was at Penn yesterday, stumping for her Mom, and said we should expect to see her and her family a lot in the near future. Which sounds like a threat to us. Beware,......

Phillyist's favorite news item this morning is this one: twin 25-year-old internet hardcore gay porn stars Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney (apparently known as Keyon and Teyon in the biz), of New Jersey, have been arrested for a series of robberies in Philadelphia and New Jersey wherein they gained entry to businesses by cutting holes in the roofs using a handsaw and ax. In Nether Providence, they broke into Wawas, and Chief Richard Slifer of......

Two things with regard to this post. 1. Sorry the post didn't go up last week. The author was out of town on business and flaked out and didn't get someone to cover the post. 2. We're abandoning the day-by-day format that we'd adopted for our first several recaps of the goings-on in the Nutter Administration, and will be doing a more streamlined list of the previous week's highlights. The change is mainly because it......

Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of police shootings in the country. The Daily News takes a look at what's being done about it, and is pretty underwhelmed. Apparently "many of the officers involved in these shootings are back to their regular street beats, even though most incidents are still being investigated without a determination that the officers were justified in firing their weapons." Due to the fact that local schools had received recalled......

Around 2AM yesterday, Joseph Kelly Sr. was driving along the Vine Street Expressway when he saw a homeless man in a wheelchair marooned on the median. He pulled over and crossed three lanes on foot to try to help the man across the street. As one car slowed down to let them pass, another struck that vehicle and then ran into Kelly and the other man, killing them both. A 17-year-old male knocked on the......

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,......

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......

An interesting entry by a blogger describing some conversations overheard on a train involving a local politician and Republican presidential candidate John McCain. (Via Sarah) Delaware River Port Authority officials announced yesterday that a $4 million network of cameras with "intelligent" software will be installed along the PATCO rail line and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge starting in April and scheduled to finish up by the end of the year. The cameras are designed to detect......

Heath Ledger died yesterday afternoon in a NYC apartment, and early indications are it was from an overdose, but an autopsy will be performed today to determine the facts. Gothamist has a detailed, much-updated post on the topic. Both the Inquirer and the Daily News are taking a look this morning at the three finalists for the job of chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia, and the Inquirer also has a look......

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 latest in the case of Ebony Nicole Dorsey, the 14-year-old girl allegedly killed by her mother's boyfriend: the Daily News has an exclusive interview with the girl's mother, Danielle Cattie, who calls her boyfriend a monster. Meanwhile, the Inquirer quotes Cattie's brother defending his sister; he says she's "a great mom who deeply loves her children," and "She's a good person who made some bad decisions. She's paid a horrible price." It may seem......

Two separate laws aimed at making most government records public by default are making their way through the state legislature. The House bill, which was approved by a committee yesterday, is stronger than the bill that was passed by the Senate yesterday, 48-1. Another day, another shooting in Philadelphia. Two officers responding to a call about a man causing a disturbance in West Philadelphia early yesterday morning chased the man into an alley, where he......

The Daily News has more on what's happening in the city in the aftermath of the death of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy. The reward for information has been increased, the manhunt has been stepped up, and later today "detectives expect to have a video of the murder that was enhanced at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va." In a lengthy hearing yesterday, more sordid information came out about Andy Reid's sons Garrett and Britt......

Last night at about 6:30PM, a three-year-old boy, who was outside with his grandfather on the 400 block of Decatur Street in Holmesburg, ran into the street between parked cars and was struck and run over by a dark-colored SUV. The driver stopped, got out, said the child had run into his path, and then drove away. The child is now in critical but stable condition with numerous injuries. Anyone with any information about......

Investigators are still trying to work out how a woman's vehicle ran over both of her legs while she was in the drive-thru lane at a McDonald's in Phoenixville this past Friday. (Via JReedNet, via our contribute page) A whole array of services are now being offered to college students nationwide - as well as right here in the Philadelphia area - with names like DormAid, DormMom, CollegeBellhop and Soapy Joe's. They do things......

A study released earlier this week revealed that Philadelphia area drivers spend an average of 38 hours a year sitting in traffic, which is up an hour from last year, but as it turns out, it's still not that bad as far as traffic delays in large American cities go: we ranked 33rd. But we ranked second in the level of impact that accidents and stalled vehicles have on traffic congestion. Kind of makes......

A little Philly celebrity news: 50 Cent was in town earlier this week. Click through for details and pictures. Earlier this spring, when the whole thing came out about the Philadelphia School District's budget problems, their chief financial officer and budget overseer resigned. But it's just now coming out that, despite the fact that she only worked for the district for two years, she left with a ridiculously good deal: she was paid for unused......

The Inquirer has a nice little article (and a video) about the super-cool Girls Rock Philly day camp, which is at Girard College this week. Apparently every summer Senator Arlen Specter likes to visit all 67 counties in Pennsylvania and have a little Q&A session. Here's how the trip's going this year. Another annual ritual in PA is a SEPTA bus tour for Philly assistant DAs of some high crime city neighborhoods. This year......

Psst. Rumor is, Billy Penn will soon be enclosed in scaffolding again for waterproofing. It was announced yesterday that a company called Pacifica Ventures would be opening a $75 million "entertainment production facility" (read: film studio) in the Delaware Valley by the fall of 2008 - and it's all thanks to our new tax-incentive package for filmmakers. "Pacifica is looking at sites in Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia Counties for a 500,000-square-foot facility." Yesterday the......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Modern Marvels (Mon, 8PM-9PM, History Channel) - Tonight's modern marvel is chocolate, so obviously this episode is required viewing. Included is the history of chocolate, the chocolate-making process (including the manufacture of M&Ms), and the many properties that chocolate is thought to possess. LA Ink (Tue, 10PM-11PM, TLC) - Fugitive from Miami Ink Kat Von D is opening her own tattoo parlor - High Voltage Tattoo -......

Famous rocker and local dude Bon Jovi doesn't like that the name of the Mijovi energy drink is so similar to his own, so he's got his lawyer sending them letters telling them to stop using it, and suggesting something like "My Jovi" instead. Which... actually makes it look more like "Bon Jovi" to us. (Via Jill) More news about toxic gas leaks! The Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne was closed early yesterday morning when......

Paul Vallas, former chief executive of the Philadelphia School District, is lucky. His contract states that he has to get his final $180,000 paycheck within 30 days, so he will. But a backlog in the auditing process that determines how much each person is owed means that other former employees of the school district will have to wait months for their money. Yet more information is coming out about that shooting in South Philly (a......

The Philadelphia Inquirer has some more details about the madness that went down at West Philly High on Monday, as well as fall-out over the removal of the school's principal last week. Meanwhile, West Philly High isn't the only Philadelphia school experiencing violence and insanity; the Abigail Vare Public School on Moyamensing Avenue and Morris Street in South Philly went into lockdown Monday afternoon after a shooting occurred at a basketball court across the street.......

How about a little local celebrity gossip? WPVI's Monica Malpass is being sued by her former fiance (auto-parts entrepreneur Stephen Thorne) because she won't give him back the engagement ring, even though she supposedly agreed to do so, and he has requested her to numerous times. The casinos are apparently sending attorneys and private investigators to harrass people who signed those anti-casino petitions. Smooth, guys. Smooth. Meanwhile, a Bucks County judge has been appointed......

There are tons of follow-up articles on that mass murder down at the offices of Zigzag at the Naval Yard. The Daily News has a general article about the tragedy, as well as more on Zigzag and their clients, a timeline of the day's events, and profiles of the victims. Meanwhile, the Inquirer covers the story in detail, as well. As we suspected, lots of people are not too hot on Fattah's "congestion charge" idea.......

The snow storm came to Philly, and it was worse than was originally expected! Many schools in the area yesterday dismissed students early and/or cancelled after-school events. A couple of crazy bastards parachuted down off the Comcast Center Sunday morning. Of course, as is requisite these days when you do something stupid and dangerous, a video was taken and promptly posted on YouTube (although sadly, it has since been taken down). Police are looking for......

We've been a little disdainful of Valentine's Day over the past week. Really, though: what is a blogger without a healthy serving of disdain? But it does occur to us that there are some people out there who actually want to do something for Valentine's Day that isn't simply sitting around and trashing Valentine's Day, even if they don't have a specific romantic "Valentine" with whom to share the holiday. So, Phillyist wants to know:......

As we mentioned a while back, King Tut is coming to town this weekend! Well, okay, maybe not the King himself, but a bunch of his coolest stuff will be on display at The Franklin Institute. Now that it's become clear that Tom Knox is doing exceedingly well, and has a great deal of money, a bill has been introduced to temporarily cancel the campaign contribution limits in order to even things out a......