Oh boy, just look at all the articles about the Larry Mendte case. Apparently Mendte hacked into the email of Alycia Lane 537 times in 146 days, and did so wherever he was around the clock, from home, his desk at work, his Shore home in Ocean City, and even the Union League. He then passed on the information he obtained to a Philadelphia Daily News gossip columnist, in order to undermine Lane's ongoing......

The Philadelphia area is under an excessive heat watch through Sunday. In response, the Philadelphia Senior Center, in conjunction with Comcast-Spectacor, will give away 300 fans on a first-come, first-served basis this morning. The Daily News examines how an alleged DUI killer's outrageous MySpace page is not exactly helping his case. (What a freaking idiot.) The city's Board of Revision of Taxes meets at 10AM today to vote on the Actual Value Initiative, a plan......

Your traffic restriction updates for today: the northbound I-95 ramp to Broad Street is closed from 8AM to 4PM for structural steel repairs. There will also be lane closures this week on I-95, the Vine Street Expressway, and the Schuylkill Expressway. Due to the recent loss of $1.4 million in federal funding, and accreditation problems, the Berean Institute, a North Philadelphia landmark that has provided vocational and business education to African-Americans for 109 years, could......

The City of Philadelphia still has police officers—at least temporarily—thanks to a deal struck this week. Michael referred to the deal as buying time to work out the details of a longer-term agreement. Maybe he's right, or maybe he's just postponing the inevitable. Only time will tell. Michael's slogan for Philadelphia's soon-to-be-effective law requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms within 24 hours: "If you lose your piece, call the police." Somewhere, Johnny......

For the first time in almost ten years, fewer people in the Philadelphia area are predicted to travel 50 miles or more this Fourth of July weekend than did the previous year. The change is believed to be due to high gas prices, increases in the price of food, and other expenses. And it's probably just as well, because cops are hiding out there on the roads in PennDOT trucks, ready to tip off other......

"Five men were indicted in New Jersey yesterday on charges of illegally selling guns bought in Bucks County sporting goods stores to buyers in Trenton." Philadelphia Police Officers Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III, both five-year veterans who worked in the 25th District in North Philadelphia, were charged with aggravated assault and other offenses for allegedly beating up a graffiti prankster in August 2007. Now police authorities have reopened another Internal Affairs investigation into......

Figures released yesterday revealed that $613 million of the money gamblers have been pumping into slot machines in Pennsylvania will go to property-tax relief for most homeowners and to lower the wage tax in Philadelphia. It's all thanks to Act 1, passed in 2006, which gave the state a portion of the gaming revenues from slots to use for tax relief. The Inquirer points out that finding the lowest gas prices in the area......

While touring Pennsylvania yesterday touting his health care plan, John McCain also got in a dig against Obama for failing to endorse the proposal, supported by himself and Clinton, to suspend the federal gasoline tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. "City officials yesterday embraced the concept of bicycle sharing as a way to reduce traffic and pollution, but said many questions must be answered before Philadelphia becomes the first U.S. city to institute public......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. It's finally official: Guillermo del Toro will indeed be directing the movies based on The Hobbit. Hoorah! (Via Ross) America, prepare to be stimulated even earlier than you expected! Btw, we hear the government is considering following up the free money with some free bread and circuses. (Via Sarah) Warren Ellis has the normal collection of weird, interesting, and mind-blowing stories today. We......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. After it came out that seven recipes listed on John McCain's campaign website as being "Cindy's Recipes" had actually been copied verbatim from the Food Network, the campaign blamed an intern, saying he'd "been dealt with" and that "we took away his zero pay." Heh heh heh. Meanwhile, a disturbing practice called microtargeting tries to connect consumer habits, like how people eat, with......

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you. Today is Tax Day. If you're not feeling so jolly about paying your income taxes, Irving Berlin and Danny Kaye can help (via Jill). If you're still depressed after that, just go get yourself a free donut at Dunkin' Donuts; they're giving one out today to anybody who buys a coffee. Speaking of taxes, we're depressed that digital......

In reaction to that AP series last month revealing that Philadelphia ranked first among 24 metropolitan areas reporting traces of an assortment of drugs in its water supply, today the City Council's committees on health and human services and the environment will examine the Water Department's data on the subject. Hopefully you're already aware that tomorrow is Tax Day. If not, you'd better get to work! Regardless, a warning: "According to a recent study......

Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us! This week's winner was a no-brainer. How could we pick anybody but the man who grabbed pretty much all the headlines, Milton Street? Where could we even begin? The biggest news, of course, was Milton being convicted of tax evasion. But our favorite part of this whole ordeal was Milton's "defense," sort of like the one Wesley Snipes pulled out in connection with......

The Inquirer takes a close look at Mayor Nutter's first budget proposal. The subtitle of the article is: "The $3.98 billion plan seeks bonds for pensions and a kitty for unions." Awww, that's nice! He's getting a kitty for the unions! We hope it's a cute kitty. David C. Sicoli, a Philadelphia priest with "a long history of abusive and manipulative relationships with adolescents," according to a grand jury report, has finally been defrocked by......

Hakim Glover, the cousin of the man who allegedly killed Officer Chuck Cassidy, pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice. Glover is accused of helping his cousin flee to Florida. The Convention Center expansion project was halted on Christmas Eve when the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia obtained an injunction ordering wrecking crews to stop work. The preservationists want to save the two small but historic Broad Street buildings......

"A former lawmaker has returned $79,000 he was paid to serve as litigator for House Republicans." But the state Ethics Commission still has to decide whether his contract violated Pennsylvania law, in which case he might have to pay fines equal to three times that amount. The 90-year-old woman who was beaten and robbed outside her Port Richmond home last month has now died from her injuries. The police are asking for help in......

Lynnise Burnett, a 14-year-old freshman at Germantown High School, had been missing since Thursday, and had sent distressing text messages over the weekend, one saying that "she was in a dark room and she was hungry and that someone was going to kill her." Apparently she was able to sneak back into her home recently, as police found her on the roof of the house Saturday night threatening to jump. She was taken to......

Negotiations are over, and the Delaware River will now indeed be dredged and the channel deepened, which means the Delaware River Port Authority board can finally meet again after 17 months (Rendell had refused to call a meeting of the board until the dispute was settled). Philadelphia corrections officer Christopher Davidson has been arrested after going on a crazy rampage on an ATV in East Germantown on Tuesday evening. He drove all over a......

Five people in Cherry Hill and one in Pennsylvania, who are being described now as "Islamic radicals," were arrested last night for an alleged plot to attack Fort Dix, and a public information officer at Fort Dix says it wasn't the only base targeted; there was actually a plan to attack several bases in the Northeast. "Five of the men are expected to be arraigned in federal court in Camden today. The other one is......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

Hey, we got your mayoral race updates right here! First of all, looks like Fattah's much touted college-prep program might not be all it's cracked up to be locally, and he's also falling behind in the polls, but maybe his new TV ads will save his bacon. Speaking of TV ads, the Inquirer takes a look at Tom Knox's, and also takes a look at what the candidates in general are planning to do about......

We here at Phillyist don't condone drug use or any other illegal activity, but sometimes the actions taken in the pursuit of justice seem a bit strange to us. For example, a recent Time.com story explains that just because something is illegal, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't tax it. That's right. Until recent court action called the lawfulness of this, well, law, into question, Tennessee authorities required all carriers of contraband substances to......

The last time I got into a cab, I realized that I had enough money to pay for my ride, but not enough to last me for the rest of the night. I asked my driver if I could pay with a credit card. He said “No, reader’s broken.” I asked why every cab in town seemed to have a broken credit card reader (because multiple people I know have been told this, and......

I am writing this post in El Paso, Texas, from the bedroom that was exclusively mine from the ages of just-turned-thirteen to nearly-nineteen. My mom has since taken it over as sort of an office/storage space for all her teaching supplies. I can't blame her: I'm home, at best, three weeks out of the year these days. If you're a regular reader of Foodsday Tuesday, you already know that I have a strong penchant......

- Thanksgiving is coming - which always means travel headaches, but Philadelphians may have more long-lasting travel woes. It has been proposed that the gas tax be raised 12.5 cents a gallon, and, naturally, there's still the ever-looming threat of raising SEPTA fares while cutting their service sometime next year. Clearly, we all need to find jobs where we walk to work. (via) - Geno's owner and champion of English-only ordering, Joey Vento, has donated......

Today, Thrillist directed us toward Neighboroo which, despite its silly name, is a very, very cool new website that goes along nicely with our recent population milestone. You can look at a map of the whole US, or zoom in on a specific region or city. Phillyist didn't find many things we didn't already know on the map. Our taxes are ridiculous, our air is bad, our crime rate is inexcusably high, and our......

...You Got Served (Process Served): Does anybody feel anything but schadenfreude for Lindsay Lohan anymore? (Via The Superficial.) ...Awesome: Sacha Baron Cohen is like, a fortune teller or something. (Via What Would Tyler Durden Do?) ...Music: What, do they just hand you a record deal for every ten films you star in? (Via MSN.) ...Ass Kickings: This makes us so, so happy. It would make us happier if it was real. And painful. (Via......

Seattle is jealous of us! Well, sort of: The Seattle Times has a nice editorial about how our city is a great green sponge. Meaning we're doing a not so bad job trying to protect the environment and our water. Yay! Apparently some folks in New Jersey are pretending to be farmers - by owning a horse or two, or mowing a little hay in their spare time - in order to receive breaks on......

...Unintentional(?) Puns: Pamela Poker? Pamela... Poke her? Phillyist is giggling. (Via The Hi-Heeled Hotties) ...Communicable Diseases: At least it's only on her mouth. (Via The Superficial) ...Snap! Lindsay Lohan is a "spoiled child." (Via The Smoking Gun) ...Poverty: Tori Spelling is selling her belongings because her mommy doesn't love her anymore. (Via MSNBC) ...Ridiculous Expectations: Could somebody kindly remind Gwyneth that she's not the center of the universe? (Via Hollywood.com) ...Finally! Mel Gibson doesn't hate......