What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. New Amsterdam (Mon, 9PM-10PM, Fox) It's the first season finale, and John is flashing back to his days as a con man in the 1920s while in the present he and Eva investigate the death of a woman who seems to have drowned. Also, John begins to suspect he was wrong about Sara being The One. American Experience (Mon, 9PM-11PM, WHYY & WLVT) It's a profile of......

D'oh! We up and forgot to celebrate Pennsylvania Day yesterday! While we were forgetting, Pennsylvania was earning the national average grade of B-minus in the Pew Center on the States scorecard on the effectiveness of state government, which just happened to get released yesterday. PA "was praised for creating a plan to respond to its alarming backlog of bridges in need of repairs and furnishing meaningful information about programs funded with state money." Meanwhile,......

Pennsylvania ranks very low amongst other states in requiring breakfast to be served in its schools to the children of low income families. A new memorial design for the President's House, which "would allow visitors to peer down through a glass shed and view archaeological remnants of an 18th-century house once occupied by presidents and slaves," will be unveiled tomorrow night at Freedom Theatre. "The DRPA, whose board meets today to adopt its annual budget,......

Go across the Walt Whitman Bridge and take the North-South Freeway to Route 55. Travel South on Route 55 for about 25 miles, and you'll find yourself in Vineland, New Jersey. (Insert wisecrack about Vineland's awesomely bad municipal website here.) Why would you go to Vineland? Well, at the moment, you probably wouldn't. But next summer, you might have a reason to. Paste Magazine is reporting that C3 Presents—the force behind Lollapalooza and the......

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......

In a rather surprising decision, the Board of License & Inspection Review voted unanimously yesterday to allow the Death of Venus mural to remain on the wall in the historic district, even without a permit. Although the Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Tacony-Palmyra Bridges are still officially "safe," they're also described as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Most will be undergoing repair or updating soon. The extremely congested Terminal F at the Philadelphia International......

If you're wondering what all those cops are doing hanging around near the Gallery this morning, it's not because somebody stole a rhinestone "You look better on MySpace" T-shirt; it's because W is coming to town! Yes, the President himself is coming to Philadelphia to speak at the American Legislative Exchange Council's Thomas Jefferson Freedom Breakfast at ALEC's 34th Annual Meeting at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown at 1201 Market Street. Plenty of other big-name political......

Army v. Navy at the Linc this Saturday! Exciting. Low-income families in the region are being offered cheap oil for the second year in a row, thanks to Rep. Chaka Fattah, Citgo, and Venezuela. To apply, call Citizens Energy Corp. at 1-877-JOE-4-OIL. This story isn't actually Philly-related - it went down in Horsham, PA - but it's sort of local, and it's so odd and tragic and even vaguely funny, we just had to mention......

Three fatal car crashes occurred in the area between Thursday night and Friday morning. One involved a speeding car travelling the wrong way on the Schuylkill Expressway. The vehicle collided with another car, killing both drivers. The highway was closed for three hours as a result. Meanwhile, another fatal accident early Friday on Route 42 in New Jersey blocked off the Walt Whitman Bridge for hours. The third incident was a hit-and-run and occurred Thursday......

The NJ Supreme Court has decided that homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals (what a novel idea!) and has given state lawmakers 180 days to rewrite the law to include either gay marriage, or some sort of civil union. In other words, there may soon be a closer option for local gay couples who want to solidify their unions. Awesome. Equality is a good thing. (Via Libby) Sunday night a New Jersey......