Dear Philadelphia: I have lived here now for nearly six years. I made it through four and a half without buying pepper spray, and only acquired one from a friend when a string of sexual assaults last fall were a little too close to home. It remains attached to my keychain, except for when it isn't: before shows at the Electric Factory or TLA, I make sure to detach it and leave it somewhere......

The Inquirer has a nice article about the Community College of Philadelphia's Gateway to College program, which helps dropouts earn high school diplomas and college credits at the same time. There were two car crashes last night involving police vehicles. A teenage girl accompanied by a 5-year-old stole a patrol car at around 5:40PM while the officer was interviewing a complainant on the 1200 block of Gilham Street. She dropped the child off with......

Here's a very horrifying and surreal story for you: Tuesday night a 10-year-old boy was playing outside near his home on Lindley Avenue near 5th Street in Olney when a 25-year-old man walked up, grabbed the boy, and sliced his throat with a knife. The man was held by the family until police arrived, but he offered no resistance and didn't try to get away. Why he did it is still a mystery. The......

The latest in local politics: it looks like Brady is going to get a bunch of union endorsements. But it could be TV ads that decide the race. Meanwhile, Tom Knox is partnering with Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to create a "reform ticket" - even though, as the Inquirer points out, Blackwell was the only Council member to vote against reform. Speaking of campaigns and the City Council, the nastiest campaign this election season is......

Knox, facing tough opposition from the other candidates in ads and at a recent debate, decides to fight back with... more of the same! He just bought $400,000 worth of time for his TV commercials. The Kingsessing Recreation Center, site of an April 12 shooting, has long had, and continues to have, problems with drugs and violence. Residents don't feel the city is doing enough. The regular monthly meeting of the Kingsessing Recreation Center......

A Penn State football player and his girlfriend got into "an altercation" with some guys on the street, and then later called up his other football-playing buddies and they all went and broke into the apartment building where the guys lived, where "a melee ensued." All of this is allegedly, of course. Anyway, half a dozen Penn State football players are facing charges ranging from criminal trespass to burglary. (Via reader Ross) A senior......

Apparently the NYPD recruits, and often holds their police-entrance exam, right here in Philly. In fact, they just had the test on Saturday at Temple. We were wondering what they were doing set up in the Gallery on Friday... Yo, dude, Kumar's gonna be teaching at Penn! Seriously, Kal Penn (no relation) is going to be a guest instructor for the Asian American Studies Program in the spring 2008 semester. Appropriately enough, the classes......

Holy crud! Well, this Phillyist's prediction about how the whole casino thing was going to go has just been totally shot to hell: yesterday the City council unanimously approved putting that referendum about casinos on the May 15 primary ballot, which "would change the city charter to ban casinos within 1,500 feet of any residential neighborhood." We'll be jiggered! All the Brady news that's fit to print! First of all, he and his legal......

The Philadelphia Inquirer has some more details about the madness that went down at West Philly High on Monday, as well as fall-out over the removal of the school's principal last week. Meanwhile, West Philly High isn't the only Philadelphia school experiencing violence and insanity; the Abigail Vare Public School on Moyamensing Avenue and Morris Street in South Philly went into lockdown Monday afternoon after a shooting occurred at a basketball court across the street.......

Area anti-casino forces are attacking on various fronts. Next month the City Council will vote on whether to include a question on the next ballot which could put the decision of whether to have casinos in the city or not in the hands of voters. Bill Cosby gave another of his patented controversial talks at a Save Our Children forum at the Community College of Philadelphia on Wednesday. Meanwhile, (perhaps at Cosby's insistence?) cops......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Mendi & Keith Obadike: The Scribe Video Center presents Mendi and Keith Obadike, conceptual Internet artists. 7PM at The Scribe Video Center (4212 Chestnut Street, 3rd Floor). $10 80's Prom: Get your boutonnieres, corsages, and formalware, then curl your hair to the highest height you can manage. This month's Sex Dwarf theme is the 80's prom, and dancees who arrive in full 80's prom regalia get in......

Somebody might buy the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News - or, to be more specific, a corporation is considering purchasing Knight Ridder Inc., the company that currently owns the papers. The corporation in question is the MediaNews Group of Denver. Their vice chairman and chief executive officer, William Dean Singleton, toured the offices of the Philadelphia papers last week, claiming he "always liked Philadelphia." Huh. Other companies have been touring the offices of......