Philly International will not see a great reduction in number of flights this fall, unlike other major cities like Las Vegas and Chicago. If you're counting on that trip to Vegas paying the heating bill this winter, better head out there now. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey will hold six town hall meetings in July. Each public meeting will focus on particular neighborhoods, and residents will be asked about local problems and suggestions on making......

Remember, Eagles fans: tickets go on sale this morning at 10AM. The Inquirer offers tips on how to score some for yourself. Today is Philadelphia City Council's last meeting before summer break, so they're going to try to make decisions on a lot of leftover items at the last minute, including proposals to hike fines for littering, privatize the city's sludge plant, take control of Fairmount Park, force contractors to keep sidewalks open during construction......

Sixteen men will receive fatherhood awards from the Father's Day Rally Committee at a reception in North Philadelphia tonight. In case you were wondering, no, SEPTA transit police did not strike yesterday. About an hour before the 2PM deadline, negotiations began at SEPTA headquarters in Center City, and continued until about 10 before ending for the night. Nothing has been resolved, but they were scheduled to meet again at 9 this morning, which means they'll......

The Inquirer profiles a Germantown clinic whose services are described as indispensable, but which may shut down soon due to a lack of funds. Suspended Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. testified yesterday in his ecclesiastical trial, trying to explain why he had not told anyone that his brother was sexually abusing a high-school student in the 1970s. A preliminary hearing was held yesterday for the five North Philadelphia teens arrested in the beating and......

SEPTA is, for better or worse, a part of most of our city-dwelling lives. We still remember the headache that was the 2005 transit workers strike, and we just had to negotiate with the El; folks who depended on the buses were especially and exquisitely screwed. So although the union is different this time and the bosses are promising no disruption in service, the threat of a SEPTA strike this week has us a wee......

The Inquirer covers yesterday's early school closings due to heat, and points out that we'll see more of the same today. They also talk about the help and charity inspired by an article about a family struggling without air conditioning in the heat. A while back, state legislators increased pay for injured police officers and made it easier for them to resist returning to work. Now on any given day, roughly 250 Philadelphia police......

Philadelphia public and parochial schools plan to maintain regular hours today, but some schools in the surrounding area are closing or having early dismissals due to the excessive heat. Click through for the full list. A bunch of insane people actually had a bike race in Manayunk this past weekend, and other insane people actually went outside to watch it. Uh, whatever. We were inside keeping cool. The Inquirer discusses Mayor Street's already fading legacy.......

Well, Jocelyn Kirsch isn't going to jail, but she has been placed under house arrest, where she's to be under the custody of her parents or grandmother at all times. She'll also continue to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, and her bond has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000. Click through for some of the strange and goofy details of her various crimes in California. Two women were sitting in a van parked......

At the risk of being labeled an asshole, we must pass on to you the news that Jocelyn Kirsch stole that credit card from a co-worker at Starbucks and used it to buy a candle and bed linens at Target. That's just sad. In other Bonnie and Clyde news, Edward K. Anderton has a 3PM hearing today at the federal courthouse in Center City, where he is expected to plead guilty to identity theft.......

"Five men were indicted in New Jersey yesterday on charges of illegally selling guns bought in Bucks County sporting goods stores to buyers in Trenton." Philadelphia Police Officers Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III, both five-year veterans who worked in the 25th District in North Philadelphia, were charged with aggravated assault and other offenses for allegedly beating up a graffiti prankster in August 2007. Now police authorities have reopened another Internal Affairs investigation into......

As promised, yesterday Mayor Nutter announced his plan to combat homelessness. Click through for the details. The 14-year-old Lansdowne boy accused of stabbing his older brother to death over a video game has admitted to voluntary manslaughter. The judge will determine his sentence at a hearing on June 5th; he faces a maximum of seven years of supervision until he reaches age 21. The polo team from the acclaimed equestrian program on Chamounix Drive in......

Soaring gas prices are leading to increased ridership on local public transportation services like SEPTA, which just passed a $1.1 billion budget for 2009 that includes major upgrades to handle all those new riders. Because of course, fuel costs are increasing for SEPTA, too. The Philadelphia chapter of the Boy Scouts sued the city in federal court late Friday to prevent being evicted from its city-owned headquarters or being charged $200,000 a year in rent.......

"The jury in the second murder trial of Wilfredo Santiago in the execution-style slaying of Police Officer Thomas Trench in 1985 will resume deliberations today." "Pennsylvania is taking steps to make gifted education available to more students, but that has done little to quell long-standing tension between parents and school districts over how the state's brightest are educated." Some more road closures for you poor motorists: the left lane on southbound I-95 approaching Bartram Avenue......

Yesterday Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey fired four police officers and disciplined four others for taking part in the infamous videotaped beating of three shooting suspects. "Students from four Philadelphia-area high schools are meeting at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia today, with other students videoconferencing from as far away as Louisiana, to discuss issues in the presidential election and create a student agenda for the candidates." As promised, Governor Rendell announced the highest......

Michael's been in office for a little over four months now, which apparently means it's time to start fund-raising for his reelection campaign. Michael appointed former Daily News columnist Mark Alan Hughes as the city's "sustainability director," charged with overseeing environmental initiatives. Michael's proposed budget easily cruised through a City Council committee, clearing the way for approval by the whole Council, which should come next week. Some people are accusing Michael of inappropriately excusing the......

"Lane closures are scheduled this weekend on northbound and southbound Interstate 95 near the Betsy Ross Bridge (Exit 26) for bridge deck repairs." Click through for the details. The three men whose arrest and beating was captured on video by a news helicopter have their preliminary hearing scheduled for this morning. They're accused of taking part in a May 5 shooting that wounded three people in Feltonville. Meanwhile, police officials have changed their account......

The fourth annual commuter competition sponsored by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia started this morning at 8AM. Three commuters race from 45th and Spruce to City Hall, one on a bike, one in a car, and one in a bus. The BCGP is obviously expecting the cyclist to win, thus proving that two wheels are better than four. Philly's own Bonnie and Clyde are the "poster children for identity theft," according to Federal authorities.......

SEPTA will give away free rides to passengers of the Route 100 Norristown High Speed Line from 11AM through 4PM tomorrow, as part of a celebration of the 100th anniversary of service on the route. SEPTA is also celebrating the 100th anniversary of service to and from the 69th Street Terminal, so there will be a reception there and a series of related activities and events. In other SEPTA news, the agency will be providing......

Eric DeShawn Floyd, the third suspect in the murder of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, was arrested last night when he was found sleeping in a boarded up rowhouse in Southwest Philadelphia at 11:10PM. He was unarmed and offered no resistance. Philadelphia police thus met their goal of capturing Floyd before Liczbinski's funeral. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Germantown Masjid has refused to conduct funeral services for Howard Cain, the bank robber who actually killed Liczbinski.......

Recent events over the border in New Jersey have brought to light the sad plight of some of the people who appear on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition—they're given a big amazing house and then can't afford to pay the taxes and utilities on it. In its typically overblown and melodramatic fashion, the Daily News takes a closer look at the phenomenon of cop-killers, in the wake of the murder of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. The Daily......

"A man who was being evicted from his apartment in Yeadon, Delaware County, yesterday pulled a gun and shot the constable who served the eviction notice and the apartment manager, police said. The gunman fled into Southwest Philadelphia and hid in a rowhouse at 1846 Conestoga St, but a host of cops tracked him down and arrested him as he attempted to get away out the back door." The wounded men were listed in critical......

UPDATE: A seven alarm warehouse fire on the 1300 block of Adams Avenue in the Frankford section of the city was declared under control at 7:30 this morning, but nearby residents were evacuated, 160 homes are without power, and various road closures have created a traffic headache for many. "The 14-year-old accused of stabbing his older brother to death during a fight over a video game last July is back in court today for a......

In reaction to that AP series last month revealing that Philadelphia ranked first among 24 metropolitan areas reporting traces of an assortment of drugs in its water supply, today the City Council's committees on health and human services and the environment will examine the Water Department's data on the subject. Hopefully you're already aware that tomorrow is Tax Day. If not, you'd better get to work! Regardless, a warning: "According to a recent study......

Mayor Nutter will join Hillary Clinton at two events today. The first is a talk about public safety at 10AM at the West Philadelphia YMCA—a talk which, ironically enough, is not open to the public. The next is at 5PM at Drexel University. At the public safety talk, Clinton will unveil a crime-fighting plan that she claims will halve homicide rates in cities over five years. Meanwhile, the Inquirer takes a look at how and......

Photo of Free Tibet protesters at 5th and Market Streets taken by the author this past weekend The Daily News has more on how faulty the emergency radio system is, and also a bit on how personnel are under-trained on its functionality. Meanwhile, PHA cops have similar problems with their radios. The Daily News interviewed three women from Philadelphia's Asian American community on the controversy going on now over the 2008 Summer Olympics. (If......

The police got the guy who beat up and robbed that 81-year-old lady, who subsequently gave him a good smack on the head with a chair leg and sent him running from her home. A memorandum sent to the School Reform Commission from the state's school-safety watchdog informed the group that it was flunking when it comes to properly disciplining the majority of violent students and thoroughly reporting serious crimes. Mayor Nutter had proposed......

Commissioner Charles Ramsey has ordered an Internal Affairs investigation into how the suspect that cops had cuffed and put in the back of a patrol car somehow drove off in the vehicle on Sunday. It appears that the suspect "slipped his hands under his feet and then squeezed through an opening in the Plexiglas panel separating the back and front seat." The question is, how was he then able to start the car? A police......

Police are asking for the public's help in locating the mother of a baby who was found swaddled in a blue and gray blanket and stuffed in a black garbage bag amid shrubs and branches in the front yard of a home on 58th Street near Chestnut yesterday afternoon. The baby, who had been born yesterday morning and whose umbilical cord was still attached, is healthy, and police say they are not looking to......

Animal cruelty investigators raided some rowhouse stables on Fletcher Street yesterday, giving the owners 24 hours to relocate the 60 horses on the site. The Daily News paints a pretty horrific picture of the conditions the animals were living in. Chelsea Clinton was at Penn yesterday, stumping for her Mom, and said we should expect to see her and her family a lot in the near future. Which sounds like a threat to us. Beware,......

Highway Patrol Officers were passing a house on Jefferson Street near 26th on Friday night when they spotted a man who matched the description of someone who had robbed and shot another man earlier that night. When they arrested him, they discovered that the house had a cache of drugs, money, and weapons, including seven loaded handguns, an AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun, two Kevlar vests, $3,000 in cash, and $25,000 worth of cocaine. In......