Firstly, we've got to congratulate Michael on the opening of his play. What's that? You didn't know Michael had a play? Well he does. Sort of. Michael is the honorary producer of the Arden Theatre's production of The Piano Lesson, which officially opened on Wednesday night. (Look for our review of the show next week.) Back in the more traditional political arena, Michael is becoming more active in the increasingly hostile Democratic primary. After an......

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......

Perhaps Senator John McCain is feeling pressure to court the remaining Christian conservative votes he has not already pulled out from under former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who is a former evangelical pastor. Many far-right conservative voters have expressed doubts about McCain’s allegiance to their values, including notorious radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. This may be the reason why in the past week he has been openly embracing fiery evangelical leaders. In 2000, the Arizona......

You know how Michael rolls – green. And not green like dollar bills with 19" wheels and reverse-spinning rims. Green like he's going to be reducing his carbon footprint. The new Mayoral wheels are a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid. And he even saved the city some coin, as he paid for the Tahoe with his leftover campaign funds rather than taxpayer money. Of course, we think that if Michael was really serious about helping save the......

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......

Nearly a year after the massacre at Virginia Tech, questions on gun control have emerged again in the wake of the February 14th shooting at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. A Google News search yields just as many op-ed pieces about the Illinois tragedy as news articles. Here’s a review of gun-related news in those states: Virginia seems unchanged by the tragedy as far as gun regulation is concerned. According to the Virginian Pilot,......

Even if you don't feel like watching this entire video, you'll want to see what our Governor does at about 8:15 in.......

SEPTA will announce its "Go Green Go SEPTA" initiative this afternoon at Market East Station. (We've already seen the ads up there; they're posters with real moss or grass glued to them.) The idea is to increase ridership to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming, and they've timed it for the Philadelphia Flower Show, which runs March 2-9 at the Convention Center and is typically a time of increased ridership. General manager Joseph......

The president and board chairman of the city-funded nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound testified yesterday that they were forced by Mayor Street and his senior aides to spend an extra $21 million that they knew did not exist in the city budget. It's those expenditures that have forced Safe and Sound to cancel dozens of programs in recent weeks. You can find copies of Safe and Sound's testimony online here and here. Insiders say......

Colgate-Palmolive has a great little contest running where you vote for one of nine children's hospitals around the country, and the one with the most votes gets a Fun Center where sick kids can go to forget about their illnesses for a moment and remember how to have fun. Each Fun Center will be equipped with a flat screen monitor, DVD player and a Nintendo Wii. Sweet! The promotion has gone so well, all......

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......

Last Friday & the weekend: Michael defended his decision to cut $21 million in funding to Philadelphia Safe and Sound, the program that, as we mentioned last week, John Street had shifted money to in the waning days of his administration. And he announced that the Department of Public Welfare would be auditing Safe and Sound's finances for the last couple years. Michael also ignited Governor Rendell's fury with his revocation of SugarHouse's casino license,......

Yesterday the state Gaming Control Board appointed a retired university president as trustee of the Mount Airy Casino Resort, due to the fact that its owner, Louis DeNaples, was charged last week with lying during his application for a state gaming license. In the wake of Super Tuesday, the Daily News and the Inquirer both take a look at how the candidates fared and what voter turnout was like in the area. The Daily......

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......

Yesterday Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey unveiled his plan for getting Philly out of its "crime emergency." The plan includes deploying 200 more officers to dangerous parts of the city, and it will hopefully help Ramsey fulfill his pledge to reduce homicide in Philadelphia by 25 percent. Of the plan, Ramsey said: "There is nothing fancy about it. It's fundamental, it's basic. This is not Batman and Robin coming out of a cave somewhere." That's......

Philly sure can attract the celebrity. Yesterday Senator Hillary Clinton graced our fair walks to secure support from Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter for her presidential bid. But her appearance pales in importance against the paragon of womanhood who is visiting us today. Yes, folks, that’s right: Paris Hilton is in town. Again. This time she’s not shilling perfume, but rather her new film The Hottie and the Nottie. Although it doesn’t get an official......

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.......

Heath Ledger died yesterday afternoon in a NYC apartment, and early indications are it was from an overdose, but an autopsy will be performed today to determine the facts. Gothamist has a detailed, much-updated post on the topic. Both the Inquirer and the Daily News are taking a look this morning at the three finalists for the job of chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia, and the Inquirer also has a look......

The grandnephew of former Mayor W. Wilson Goode - a 24-year-old named Timothy J. Goode - was shot and killed late Friday by police during what they're describing as a drug bust. Police say Goode pulled a gun on them, and that the weapon has been recovered, but Goode's mother says that's not true and that her son was shot twice in the back. The tapes from surveillance cameras at the scene may be......

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......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. It's hard to tell yet if the movie's going to be much better than the first, rather disappointing, installment, but the trailer for Hellboy 2 is pretty cool. Some impressive Star Wars-themed cakes and confections. (Via) Check out the surprising and fascinating true history of Christmas (via Debbie). Or, if you prefer your Christmas slightly less true, check out NORAD's Santa Tracker instead......

The Daily News takes a look at the problem of domestic violence in the city and the rather poor way that it's dealt with by officials. Foreclosures were down in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in November, as compared to October 2007 and October 2006. Governor Rendell called into 610 WIP to talk about Lanegate. Basically he wanted to explain what her phone call to him had been about (she just wanted someone to hear......

The saga of CBS 3 anchorwoman Alycia Lane has gotten even stranger. The Daily News reports that her first call upon release from NYPD custody was to Governor Edward Rendell. A spokesman for the governor,Chuck Ardo, said to the paper that she did it to "make sure he knew her side of the story because he is an opinion-maker and runs around in influential circles." And "I think she knew better than to ask......

"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......

The "10,000 men: A Call to Action" campaign will get started in earnest on Saturday when they put the first 200 men on the streets. It'll be a field exercise for squad leaders, and apparently they'll also be doing a door-to-door campaign to alert neighbors of the effort. Then they'll be patrolling in South Philadelphia next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of police officer Chuck Cassidy, was......

Use caution if you're travelling around the area this morning - there's actually snow on the roads north and west of the city, and 2 to 7 inches in northeastern parts of the state, and the weather has already caused some accidents and downed power lines. Some schools are opening late or canceling their morning kindergarten; check out NBC10's full list of school closings here. Mayor Street, "once regarded as Public Enemy No. 1......

The Inquirer has the story of an American soldier from Bucks County who worked hard in Iraq trying to rebuild the country and is now home for the holidays. Princeton University scientists announced yesterday that they'd discovered a way to reproduce the chemical signals that the bacteria that cause cholera use to communicate with each other, which opens up the possibility of a new way to fight bacteria: talking to them in their own......

Oh, man. Did you see that Rick Santorum is writing an opinion column for the Inquirer now? Ugh. In vaguely related news, John Street's post-mayoral employment, beginning in January, will be at Temple University as a professor of urban politics and policy. Governor Rendell, who himself is an adjunct at U. Penn, encouraged Street to make the move. Officials responding to a report of a fire at a home in Upper Darby yesterday discovered......

Hey, it's election day! And what with the Mayor's race being a foregone conclusion and everything, the interesting stuff is happening in the fight for two seats on the state Supreme Court. The search for John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of Officer Chuck Cassidy, is over. Police apprehended him at a homeless shelter in Miami at 7AM. They tracked him down after learning that a relative had bought a bus ticket to......