Yesterday the Phillies had their first loss of the NLCS, while the Eagles (after a shaky three quarters or so) pulled it together to win and break their recent losing streak. Is there some rule that both teams can't both be winning at the same time? Hey, it's Columbus Day! The Daily News covers a local Columbus Day Parade, and let's us know what's open and what's closed today. A 28-year-old man accused of fatally......

The Phillies beat the Brewers yesterday afternoon to win the Nation League Division Series. At almost the same time, the Eagles suffered an embarrassing loss to the Washington Redskins, but most Philadelphians were ignoring that and focusing on the positive, not to mention the upcoming National League Championship Series where the Phillies will face the LA Dodgers. Your deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania in time for the presidential election is today. So......

The Swan Day Spa in wealthy Berwyn on the Main Line was a front for a brothel, and the three people who ran it were arrested in Nevada and Pennsylvania yesterday. Vandals pushed over more than 200 headstones at a historic African American cemetery in Collingdale, including the stone of famed Philadelphia civil-rights activist Octavius V. Catto. A state trooper and member of a collision/accident-reconstruction team in Philadelphia was arrested for allegedly using his state-issued......

Former Rep. Mike Veon, the No. 2 Democrat in the state House, 10 former and current legislative aides, and one sitting lawmaker were all charged, in varying degrees, with theft and conflict of interest for running a massive political campaign machine out of government offices. According to prosecutors, they were paying staffers, with taxpayers' dollars, to work on political campaigns while on the government clock. More charges are expected. In one particular case, Michael......

For the first time in almost ten years, fewer people in the Philadelphia area are predicted to travel 50 miles or more this Fourth of July weekend than did the previous year. The change is believed to be due to high gas prices, increases in the price of food, and other expenses. And it's probably just as well, because cops are hiding out there on the roads in PennDOT trucks, ready to tip off other......

The Daily News has a lovely story about a young woman who was born prematurely some 25 years ago, and whose life was saved by a nurse at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children on Erie Avenue near Front Street. The young woman is now working at that same hospital with that same nurse to save other premature babies. The George School, a Quaker boarding and day school near Newtown, yesterday became "the recipient of what......

Exciting news! Philadelphia (the Pennsylvania Convention Center, specifically) is going to host VideoGame Expo 2007, from November 2nd through November 4th. The cool thing is that this expo is mostly for consumers, which means regular joes can go in to play the newest games, meet people in the industry, maybe get a job in the industry, compete in tournaments, show off their nerd costumes, and, of course, buy buy buy! The entry price isn't......

The City Council's hearings on Mayor Street's budget opened Tuesday with Street's chief of staff painting a bleak portrait of the city's fiscal future: "a weak tax base, high tax burden, escalating costs, high service responsibilities and low state financial support." Healthcare costs, prison costs, the homeless, and tax cuts are all contributing to the problem, which may lead to the city's surplus slowly shrinking over the next five years. The snow led to......

What with all the stuff going on recently with their staff and students, including a former professor pleading guilty to charges of producing child pornography abroad, Penn is understandably thinking of being a bit more strict about who they let in. Some changes they're considering are performing criminal background checks on prospective faculty, and requiring students to divulge criminal convictions on their applications. Mayoral candidate Dwight Evans has decided to embrace wholeheartedly a demographic the......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Our beloved state Senators, apparently in reaction to the uproar caused by their infamous increase of their own salaries (since repealed), and further inflamed by the information that then came out about their other perks and benefits, have chosen to begin paying part of their own health care premiums, and paying for the leases on their own cars. Well, how sporting of them! Yesterday, good old Governor Ed Rendell signed into law a $2 increase......

Welcome to day five of the SEPTA strike. We'd like to report that both sides have decided to act all adult-like and get with the compromising, but in the five days of striking union and management only met for about two hours. During those two hours it's reported that union officials agreed to a contribution for health care based on salary for all employees, but management rejected the idea. That was a few days ago......

A SEPTA strike is looming in the City of Brotherly Love. For those of us who have lived through a SEPTA strike and rely on public transit, the idea is vaguely terrifying. Bike riding on city streets is a gamble -- the vast majority of city drivers refuse to share the road with bicyclists or pedestrians, and many of the side streets are giant pot hole-infested bike wreckers. And dishing out cab fare plus that......

Republican PA state legislators intend to file suit against Governor Ed Rendell later this week, attempting to limit Big Ed's line item veto power. Their beef? Governor Rendell dared to remove language from the state budget denying the use public money for birth control, family planning counseling or other services at clinics that also provide abortions or abortion counseling through the Department of Public Welfare. Considering the vast majority of clinics that offer family planning......

If you'll be around Ridge Avenue or Kelly Drive today, look sharp. Danny Lasko, a former Marine corporal who hails from near Easton, will be cycling in the area as part of the Soldier Ride National Tour. Lasko lost part of his left leg during a grenade attack in Afghanistan in April 2004. The Tour began in Los Angeles on May 21 and will end July 19 in Montauk. The purpose of the Soldier Ride......