Remember those makeshift stables in Strawberry Mansion that animal cruelty investigators raided yesterday? Well, the owners of about 40 of the horses living there removed their animals yesterday, as ordered. About 20 more horses were allowed to stay in three garages on Fletcher Street near 27th that had been made into stables while owners of those properties made repairs. The other structures will be bulldozed today. Yesterday, City Council gave final approval to a lease......

Highway Patrol Officers were passing a house on Jefferson Street near 26th on Friday night when they spotted a man who matched the description of someone who had robbed and shot another man earlier that night. When they arrested him, they discovered that the house had a cache of drugs, money, and weapons, including seven loaded handguns, an AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun, two Kevlar vests, $3,000 in cash, and $25,000 worth of cocaine. In......

Senator Vincent Fumo was eating dinner at his Spring Garden home at 7PM last night when he started experiencing chest pains. He was taken by ambulance to Hahnemann University Hospital where it was determined that he had suffered a heart attack and that his right coronary artery was 100 percent blocked. He had emergency surgery and remains in critical condition this morning, although he was alert and speaking with his family after the procedure. Hey,......

Governor Rendell said that he would back the indicted Senator Fumo's reelection bid if Fumo just asked him. Ed says: "We would be lost in Harrisburg without him because of his skill. He has done great things, and we are lucky to have him." The Inquirer is getting excited about the Philadelphia Flower Show, which will have a preview opening for selected guests tomorrow, and then open to the general public on Sunday. Catherine......

Our very own state could actually be of key importance in the Democratic presidential primary, so the campaigns for both Clinton and Obama will be opening offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the coming days, and expanding their staff by recruiting local pros. The Inquirer takes a look at the battle going on over a proposed state-wide ban on smoking in Pennsylvania. A woman leaped from her third-floor apartment window on South Street near 2nd......

The Daily News takes a closer look at one of the programs that Philadelphia Safe and Sound will have to shut down, thanks to Nutter's budget cuts: the anti-truancy program. Meanwhile, the Inquirer takes a closer look at a federal lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, implicating Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, a Bush cabinet member. A profile of Phyllis Beck and Alice Beck Dubow, the first mother-daughter judges in the......

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......

The Inquirer takes a hard look at the soccer stadium that's being proposed for Chester and whether it will really help the city as much as some people say. "The fate of the city's public golf courses is in the hands of City Council today in a hearing to examine a proposed contract to run them and, hopefully, improve them." Well, it's good to know City Council is taking care of the really important things.........

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......

The Inquirer takes a look at the political landscape on the morning of Super Tuesday. If you're from New Jersey or Delaware, remember to vote! As long as you've done your research, and you care at all. If neither of those things are true then please, don't vote. A federal lawsuit filed in December says that President Bush's housing czar, Alphonso Jackson, pressured the Philadelphia Housing Authority to transfer land worth $2 million to Kenny......

City Council members will review minority-inclusion plans today, which they demanded in December from the Building Trade unions. If they don't approve those plans today, it could jeopardize the financial viability of the whole Convention Center expansion project. Britt Reid is scheduled to be released from jail today. Next he'll be entering a drug court treatment program. The state House of Representatives could vote as early as today on legislation that would require all records......

The Inquirer takes a look at a local and national trend of gay CEOs coming out. Mayor Nutter has tapped a Philadelphia native, and city planner who specializes in urban revitalization, to be the city's next commerce director and deputy mayor for economic development. Key Pennsylvania lawmakers have yet to say whether they support the construction of a riverfront stadium that would be necessary to bring a Major League Soccer team to the Philadelphia area,......

One-time rap music impresario Alton "Ace Capone" Coles is on trial for using his record company as a front for a $25 million, Southwest Philadelphia-based cocaine trafficking network, and yesterday a former girlfriend, and the mother of his two children, testified against him. A man was walking north on Broad Street near Somerset in North Philadelphia, just before 5PM, when someone ran up to him from behind and, he thought, punched him in the......

The PA Guv is meeting up with New York Senator and 2008 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at City Hall. The Inquirer reports that the 1:15pm meeting was added to her schedule late last night. Phillyist suspects a last-minute cheese steak craving may have been the motivating factor behind the visit, but it may have something to do with Governor Rendell's endorsement of the candidate-formerly-known-as 'first lady', which he will make official at the meeting today.......

The presidential race will be coming to the area tomorrow when Bill Clinton travels to Cherry Hill, New Jersey to campaign for his wife. 23-year-old Chante Wright, as part of a deal to cut her boyfriend's jail sentence, agreed to testify in a murder case. It was a dangerous move, and her testimony was crucial, so "she became the first state witness in Philadelphia to enter the federal witness-protection program." She was given a......

Upper Darby police say that a sickly 84-year-old man in Drexel Hill, apparently unable or unwilling to imagine his blind 53-year-old daughter going on without him, killed her and their dog before turning the gun on himself Saturday night. A five-alarm fire blazed for more than three hours yesterday evening in a warehouse in the 1300 block of North Front Street in Kensington. Service on the portion of the Market-Frankford El that runs nearby......

We learned yesterday that City Councilman Jack Kelly and his staff are being investigated by the FBI. Two sources close to the investigation told the Inquirer that what's being looked at are contributions to the councilman by Northeast Philadelphia's largest property owners, and the relationship between them and Kelly's chief of staff. The Delaware River Port Authority plans on spending $25 million on inspections and paint jobs on its bridges between Philadelphia and South......

How did last night's debut of American Idol treat Philadelphia? The Inquirer has the analysis - and a horrifying picture. Two West Philadelphia High students were slashed during an argument on Monday, so a heavy police presence blanketed the area yesterday as students were dismissed for the day. A suspect on the city's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, described as a "one-man army," and who had eluded authorities for over two years while running a......

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......

Lots of changes in local political leadership today. The judges in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas will vote to elect a new president judge. In Montgomery County they'll be swearing in the winners of the November elections. And the same will be happening in Philadelphia today as Nutter comes in and Street goes out. The body of 50-year-old Cynthia Cometz of Woodstown was found inside a BMW that had been submerged in......

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......

The Philadelphia Inquirer takes a look at how yesterday's shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto is affecting Pakistani Americans living in the Philadelphia area. After a three month pause, a grand jury resumed its investigation yesterday into wealthy businessman, and owner of the Mount Airy Casino Resort, Louis A. DeNaples. DeNaples is suspected of lying to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board about his connections to organized crime. DeNaples' brother Eugene, a former state gambling investigator, showed......

First of all, we hope you had a merry Christmas! This morning, we have plenty of articles about what happened in town yesterday, not all of them merry. First off, Philly's violence problem didn't stop for Christmas; a man was found shot to death in the 400 block of North 60th Street near Haverford Avenue last night. On the other hand, the Inquirer also has a story about a baby being born on a Philly......

"State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Philadelphia) has been nominated for a 'Golden Duke' award in the category of Best Local Scandal over at Talking Points Memo." *Sniff* We're so proud! (Via Sarah) New Jersey Transit's River LINE reached a grim milestone on Friday when it experienced its first fatal accident in its short history. A 50-year-old man, who was coming from a bar, was struck and killed when he returned to the tracks......

Dear Philadelphia: Congratulations! Just a day after The Inquirer reported that violent crime was down across the city, we received a press release from the GPTMC extolling all your other achievements in 2007. You deserve a big pat on the back for the national and international media mentions you've garnered this year. People are paying attention to you. You're like a celebrity now. On the Food front, The Today Show decided that Vesuvio Restaurant's......

"Federal highway officials have declined to approve the state's application to make I-80 a toll road," which will obviously make it harder for the state to collect the money from said tolls with which it planned to fund statewide highway and bridge repairs. The New Jersey state legislature gave final approval to a bill today that would abolish the state's death penalty; now all that's needed is for Governor Corzine to sign it, which he's......

As Phillyist Sarah pointed out yesterday in a comment on Philly in the News, Mark O'Donnell was arrested yesterday in the murder of Ebony Nicole Dorsey, the daughter of his girlfriend. He's been charged this morning with beating, strangling and sexually assaulting the 14-year-old. Dorsey's mother says the attack came after O'Donnell had been smoking crack all night, but O'Donnell says that's not true and that he caught the girl molesting his daughter. About 100......

If you still aren't bored of stories about Jocelyn S. Kirsch and Edward K. Anderton, then by all means, read on. Meanwhile, other rather more dangerous criminals are still on the loose. Police still have little to go on in the brutal November 25th murder of John Bartram High School sophomore Antonio Q. Clarke, who was last seen alive trying to catch a trolley in Southwest Philadelphia. Call police at 215-686-3334 or -3335 with......

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......

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......