There was a cool marathon at the AMC at the Neshaminy Mall on Saturday: all five Best Picture nominees in a row. Kind of wish we could have made it to that... If you can't wait to see the result of the legal proceedings against Senator Vince Fumo... well, get used to disappointment, because the trial isn't likely to start until early 2008, and it'll probably go on three to four months. Check out......

Scary story: a bus got out of control, apparently due to a mechanical problem of some kind, on the campus of Bucks County's Pennsbury High School and injured 17 students, one of them critically. Philly police have invited the family of Bryan Jones - the 20-year-old that cops shot during a New Year's Day gun battle - to meet with them, in order to discuss the details of his death. The cops need your help......

- Senator Arlen Specter is taking the federal administration to task for leaving Congress out of the loop - and suggesting that a "constitutional confrontation" is on the horizon. (Hey, who needs both checks and balances anyway?) In a letter to Dick Cheney, Specter allegedly makes note of recent domestic spying activity and a congressional raid by the FBI. Phillyist finds it refreshing that our elected officials are protecting our rights in the battle......

Fellow Philly bloggers Albert Yee, Howard Hall, and Tulin Ozturk sat down with Senator Vince Fumo, his son, and a couple of City Councilmen on May 10th to talk off the record about politics in general, the next mayor's race in particular, and the internet. Fumo's son is a computer software engineer, and suggested the meeting after reading some posts expressing frustration with local politics. Fumo (who doesn't have time to read "that stuff," apparently)......

- Looks like the Mayor's brother won't be running for state representative after all. We imagine he didn't want the job all that badly, since he didn't bother showing up to defend his petition. - The Frankford part of the city is in the news for gunfire again...this time a deliveryman was robbed at gunpoint, and several shots were fired at his car. Thankfully, he was not wounded. - Senator Vince Fumo claims the Republicans......

According to the Chicago Tribune, Philly is one of about thirty cities that were recently invited to submit a bid explaining why they should host the 2008 Republican National Convention. We're thrilled; are you thrilled? If our bid turns out to be the most attractive, we would ask that Cheney please leave his guns behind. (Via) 60 years ago this week, ENIAC, the first practical, all-electronic computer, was unveiled right here in Philly, at U......