Results tagged “benjaminfranklinparkway”

A debate between congressional candidates filmed Friday in Allentown by a local TV station was censored when it aired Monday to avoid causing financial harm. Democratic congressional candidate Sam Bennett stated that two major banks had failed when in fact they hadn't. WFMZ-TV muted the sound and blurred Bennett's lips as she made the erroneous remarks.

The Philadelphia School District is suffering from a high number of teacher vacancies, which experts say points to systemic problems in the hiring process.

If you made it to Saturday's rally, we'd love to hear about your experience. Leave us a note in the comments and let us know what you thought!

The Philadelphia Turkey lauded the Parkway-crossing antics of a local resident. Brave, or crazy? You decide.

Philadelphia photographer, founder of phillyskyline.com, and friend of Phillyist Brad Maule has sued The Colbert Report, and the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer for using his photographs without permission. He is seeking $1.25 million in damages.

The Daily News examines how an alleged DUI killer's outrageous MySpace page is not exactly helping his case. (What a freaking idiot.)

The Inquirer discusses the Dalai Lama's one-day visit to Philadelphia today.

The Philadelphia Marathon is fast approaching (ha!), and those fleet-footed folks are looking for volunteers to help support the thousands of athletes who will converge upon the Art Museum on November 18. Tasks range from stuffing runner bags two weeks out to distributing blankets and Gatorade on race day. You can sign up for a specific job or offer your services as a general volunteer to be dispatched where you're needed most. You can also form a team and sign up together for one of the larger jobs. For more info, contact Terry at GP Cares (215-564-4544).

A report to be released today by City Controller Alan Butkovitz shows that two decades of expensive attempts to build a new computerized water billing system have achieved little, and the system will almost certainly not be done by the time Mayor Street leaves office, as the administration promised.

Police are saying that 18-year-old Charles T. "Chuckie" Meyers was driving in South Philly on Saturday when he shot and killed a bicycle-riding 14-year-old boy when the boy wouldn't get out of his way fast enough. But friends and relatives of Meyers can't believe he would do such a thing.

As part of Sunoco's Welcome America! series, you'll be able to watch Rocky go the distance tonight on the steps of the Art Museum. And you'll get to watch it for free! This now annual event is a good time for all-- just be sure to bring a blanket. Those steps are hard whether you're pounding 'em or sitting on 'em.

About 1:30AM yesterday morning a woman died when she crashed her car into the back of a stationary PennDot dump truck in a construction zone on northbound I-95 near the Chichester Avenue exit. Northbound traffic was detoured until the lanes were reopened at about 4:30AM.

Nonprofit organization Campus Philly, in association with the city, IKEA, and plenty of other companies and organizations, is holding a huge free concert and festival Saturday afternoon to welcome and celebrate new and returning college students. It's called Campus Philly Kick-Off, and it will lead to un-fun things like road closings (the 2000 block of Winter Street will be closed during setup, and both directions of the inner drives of the Parkway, from 20th Street to the Eakins Oval, will be closed throughout), but it will also include fun things like a TNT Red Bull Freestyle Motocross event; a concert featuring folks like Fat Joe and Saves the Day, as well as local acts like The Capitol Years; an Involvement Fair where you can pick out a good nonprofit, community-based organization to join; free admission to plenty of museums for college students; a live skate jam; and an after party at Shampoo. There will also be a booth set up on the Parkway where you can register to vote, and a free bus loop out to IKEA, so you can do your civic duty and pick up an extra lamp.

What's interesting on TV this week.

Does somebody or something hate the Wissahickon Creek? Not long after a still mysterious contaminant killed more than 1,000 fish in the creek, sparking a short-lived health advisory warning everyone to stay away, the creek has now had 55,000 gallons of raw sewage dumped into it due to "electrical problems" Monday night at an Ambler sewage treatment plant. How an electrical problem can cause huge amounts of raw sewage to end up in the Wissahickon Creek is not exactly clear to us, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, although the water is rather toxic for fish, no more fish appear to be dying, and there isn't enough contaminant in the water for it to be toxic to people. In other words, it's just the right amount of raw sewage! Mmm mm!

A number of interesting and generally solemn gatherings took place on Sunday, including a remembrance ceremony for the Jews who fought back against the Nazis, held at 16th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, near "the first public monument in North America dedicated to the victims of the Nazi Holocaust;" and a panel discussion about the effect of the media on right to die cases, with speakers Michael Schiavo and Julia Quinlan, as part of a conference at U Penn entitled "The Legacy of the Terri Schiavo Case: Why Is It So Hard to Die in America?"

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Schools: There have been 59 reported cases involving drugs or alcohol amongst Philadelphia School District students since September 2004 - in grades K through 6. In one case, a 10-year-old was searched for a knife after threatening to stab another student, and officials found what they suspected was cocaine. Horrifying.

On a related note, the School District of Philadelphia is at the top in Pennsylvania - for drop outs. "An estimated 5,550 School District of Philadelphia students dropped out during the 2004-05 school year, up from the 5,273 who dropped out the year before." There was a meeting about the problem yesterday; new programs are being started and old ones expanded in an attempt to beat the problem. It's a pretty big problem, though, and reaches way beyond the schools.

Oh, Neil Stein, how the mighty have fallen. Neil Stein, former Philly restaurant tycoon, will be sentenced today following his guilty plea last Summer on filing false tax returns. The government is expected to request a sentence of 18-24 months in the pokey - Stein lucked out: the max is nine years. No word on the future of Stein's sole restaurant, Rouge.

Two-headed pigs, two-tailed lizards and mad scientists, oh my! That's what you can expect when The Museum of UnNatural Sciences Presents Morgan Grisley's Magnificent Museum of Morbid Monstrosities at Academy of Natural Sciences. We always knew science was scary.

Brad Pitt can't keep his hands off... Philly, it seems. Us Weekly announced that the Mr. and Mrs. Smith star will be joining Mr. Will Smith at Live 8 this weekend. And Pitt's possibly pregnant friend Angelina Jolie? It's rumored that she will be on hand for the festivities, but nothing's been confirmed. In addition to this big, um, addition, various outlets have confirmed that Kanye West, whose debut album, The College Dropout, was one of the best selling discs of 2004, will perform at Philadelphia's Live 8 show. Sound checks start tomorrow morning and will resume on Saturday morning, even as people fill up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. We hear Maroon 5 totally kills during sound check. Finally, rumors still swirl around acts that may or may not show up in Philadelphia, including Bruce Springsteen, Weezer, Bob Dylan, and Ludacris. Some call it anticipation, but we call it "Um, they still haven't finalized all of this?" Philadelphians can shut up about one issue, though: the city finally signed its contract with Live 8 organizers yesterday. The city will receive $350,000 from the concert organizers. Once the concert is over, we here at Phillyist will turn our heads with the rest of Philadelphia from the toilets to the Mayor's office: "How exactly will he blow all of this cash?" we'll ask. Rebecca Rindler contributed to this article.

Wagers are being placed as to whether or not the museums, businesses, and residences along the Ben Franklin Parkway and surrounding areas will survive Live 8. Some of us are betting on looting, perhaps a plague of locusts, and some of us just think the crowd will erupt into a swarming crowd of miscreant arsonists. Whatever the case, we can all assume that the Parkway will be awash in urine. City officials are guesstimating a crowd of one million. We at Phillyist hear Managing Director Pedro Ramos plans to put out only 300 port-a-potties. Like it's not enough that the city subways smell like a zoo and the Parkway is a major
homeless destination, now we have to deal with Keith Urban and Jay-Z fans urinating against the Please Touch Museum and into the Logan Circle fountain? Not to worry, though -- beloved mayor, John Street, has made this pledge to Philly residents: "The Live 8 concert will happen on July 2, and at 8 a.m. on July 3, I
will be on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and it will be clean. Do you
hear me? It will be clean." Mayor Street may be standing amongst the rubble of what used to be the main branch of the Philadelphia Library, but hey, it'll be clean! Considering only 400,000 people [max] can fit between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Love Park, we're not sure where one million people are going to congregate. Or relieve their bladders. Good news for those living in Center City and the Art Museum area. On a positive note -- if there's looting, I think we can all count on the Franklin Institute's giant heart being passed around the crowd like a giant beach ball. Who wouldn't want to see that? Then again, perhaps Live 8 will come off without a hitch, 300 port-a-potties will be plenty, and a good time will be had by all. We'll keep our fingers crossed.