Philebrity takes us back in time and into God-knows-where! The 700 Level is taking on the freakin' Eagles haters just in time for the season opener this Sunday! The Lunch Counter thought SarPal's speech was pretty terrific. Attytood did not. Speaking of SarPal, Philadelphia Will Do had some issues with Broad Street Reviews' article on Bristol Palin's (aka BritPal) unborn child. SEPTA Watch has some good news: SEPTA is actually making improvements! We just hope......

A 22-year-old New Jersey man found guilty of beating another man in the parking lot before a Phillies game last year, has been sentenced to at least a year of nonreporting probation, allowing him to be deployed to Iraq with the National Guard in just a few weeks. The military deployment is being considered part of his sentence. SEPTA bus schedule changes start tomorrow with Regional Rail changes following on September 7th. It's all part......

Yesterday morning, 20-year-old Community College of Philadelphia accounting student Fakhur Uddin was bound with duct tape and string, shot in the head, and left in the back room of the East Germantown gift and sundry store he was minding for his ailing father. Police believe he was killed during a robbery. Apparently one of the key witnesses against Vincent Fumo in his corruption trial will be his own son-in-law. In the hopes of keeping......

Dorrell Shaw, 26, who was wanted for questioning in the recent series of sexual assaults in Frankford, turned himself in to police yesterday. But authorities warn the case is by no means closed; Shaw was in prison during the first of the assaults, and it's quite possible he was not responsible for any of them. The rebuilding of the Market-Frankford El, a project that is now $300 million over budget and two years behind schedule,......

Can somebody please tell us where in Philadelphia this picturesque little newsstand is? Because we think AT&T might be cheating. Photo, appropriately enough, taken with the author's iPhone at the Eleventh Street El stop.......

We bring you the buzz in the 215 blogs. Not For Tourists (Philly edition) checked out The Toy Shop in Northern Liberties. Old school fun—yay! SEPTA Watch took a lovely bike trip using... SEPTA? Yep. And speaking of bikes, The Illadelph reports that the PPA is installing bike racks at some of its garages and lots. No word yet on whether they'll be ticketing bikes left more than two hours. Brendan Calling turned a critical......

The big story is the huge fire that started early last night at the Riverwalk at Millennium apartment complex in Conshohocken. The fire destroyed three buildings and left three others damaged. Residents of the apartments are trying to cope with the loss of their homes and, in some cases, pets. This morning, fire trucks were still on the scene and firefighters were napping on the sidewalk as embers from the buildings smoldered. In the wake......

The SEPTA R8 Fox Chase commuter train was on its last run of the day at 10:15 last night when it struck and killed a teenage girl just south of the Lawndale station. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Philadelphia today for a private meeting at a Center City law firm to say thank you to some of her major supporters. A 16-year-old Delaware County girl on her way to a slumber party......

Some updates on local criminal cases: the Bucks County mother accused of turning a sleepover into a sex party was ordered to stand trial yesterday. Andy Reid's son Garrett Reid was sentenced to two years in a relatively new state corrections program that combines incarceration and intensive drug treatment. Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his latest appeal for a new trial on Monday. Perhaps not surprisingly, the DRPA got an earful from angry commuters yesterday at......

Wiretapped conversations being used as part of an investigation into organized crime in North Jersey could help federal authorities build their case against mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo and Elkins Park businessman Salvatore Pelullo in an unrelated financial fraud probe that stretches from Philadelphia to Texas. Jocelyn Kirsch is scheduled to plead guilty this morning in U.S. District Court. Four more murders took place in the city this past weekend. In honor of the fact......

Penn now has a building named after a former editor of The New York Post Page Six gossip column. (Via Jill) Expect backups late tonight into early tomorrow morning on the westbound Schuylkill. Click through for details. Also expect upcoming delays with SEPTA as it makes another push to finally complete its overdue, overbudget reconstruction of the Market-Frankford El. When a 46-year-old Upper Darby meter maid tried to write a ticket for a Yeadon......

A week's worth of local Craigslist hijinks. How's this for a Paris to Philly housing swap? You provide one beautiful apartment near the Eiffel Tower and your BMW and I give you my crumbling West Philly twin and a Septa pass. Should that not work out, maybe I'll hit up this guy for his offer of free rent in exchange for deep friendship. The kind of friendship that is so consuming you are not allowed......

I take public transit to work every day. I often take it home, as well. Once in a while, I'll hop on the bus—but more often than not, I'm underground, first on the Broad Street Line and then on the El. And my intra-city commute gives me ample opportunity to observe bad behavior. And as I've mentioned on more than one occasion, SEPTA is like a hotbed for rudeness. Sure, there are those occasional polite......

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......

We bring you the buzz in the 215 blogs. The Highstrung Loner was amused by SEPTA's new signage. (Warning: parts of this website are NSFW.) Philly Chit Chat was sad to find out that the TLA near the art museum is closing. We say look on the bright side: the inventory sale is a good opportunity to augment your DVD collection. Phawker pointed out the virtual media blackout on the Articles of Impeachment read against......

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......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. Friend and famous local tech dude Tom Boutell has unveiled the public beta of his alternative to iSEPTA. It provides scheduling data on SEPTA trains, subways, trolleys, and buses, and supports not just the iPhone, but pretty much any web-enabled phone. It's called septime. Check it out. (Via) Enjoy a hilarious video critique of the worst DVD ever. If you have seen the......

"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......

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.......

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If you're like us, you have an iPhone. This means two things: 1.) You are very cool, and B.) You can now use your iPhone to access SEPTA Regional Rail schedules via iSepta! iSepta is an application that lets iPhone users check train schedules, plan their trips, and perform a few other sundry SEPTA tasks, all via their iPhone. (Geek alert! Actually it's a "web application" or "web app," in that it is not a......

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. We think we've mentioned the Turn Around America video contest here before, but things have changed a bit since then: now in addition to a national winner, a Philadelphia winner will also be chosen. Also, the deadline has been extended to June 10th. (Via Rachele) Beware! The LOLCat meme is leaking into the real world! Yay! The First Avenger: Captain America is going......

We previously posted about SEPTA's celebration this past weekend of the 100th anniversary of service for 69th Street Terminal and the Route 100 Norristown High Speed Line. What we didn't realize is that SEPTA was more than a year late with its celebration. Fresh news on the Bonnie and Clyde front! We know you're excited. Looks like Jocelyn Kirsch is nearing a federal plea deal. Prison time is still likely, however, given the scope of......

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......

Update: Our math has been corrected, below. Thanks to Elliott C. Back for pointing it out so graciously. You know, it figures. Just as Philly was starting to wash the "egg of corruption" off its public face, city employees had to go and chuck a huge chicken baby bomb in its puss by embezzling $21 million …in office supplies. Office supplies! Gone missing: laptops, cell phones, office furniture, paper, pens, paperclips, those little tab things......

Figures released yesterday revealed that $613 million of the money gamblers have been pumping into slot machines in Pennsylvania will go to property-tax relief for most homeowners and to lower the wage tax in Philadelphia. It's all thanks to Act 1, passed in 2006, which gave the state a portion of the gaming revenues from slots to use for tax relief. The Inquirer points out that finding the lowest gas prices in the area......

Philebrity applauded the installation of solar panels at the Philadelphia Naval Yard while simultaneously making fun of Naval Yard denizen Urban Outfitters. Maybe next we'll get some windmills. We know of a few places to put them where there's plenty of hot air being blown about. Geeky Mom pondered why nice people finish last, while pointing out the glaring discrepancies in how local students purport to think and how they actually act. Slacktivist made an......

We’ve often seen our relationship with SEPTA as a “loveless marriage,” too: The City and our beloved transportation system are promising a more cooperative relationship leading to “a vibrant, clean, safe and efficient transit system.” And they got a bridge they can sell ya, too. Police fear a serial robber who has hit 20 businesses is getting bolder, which may lead the armed bandit to become violent. The description is as vague as usual, but......

We bring you the buzz from the 215 blogs this week: Philebrity was as annoyed as we are with Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal's daily "one question for Obama" emails—especially since there is NO QUESTION MARK in the email. Oh... no question, Mark... no pun intended. Heh. The Philadelphia Turkey wrote about the battle for control of shrubbery at the Delaware Avenue casinos. The satire stars DiCicco and Nutter in the modern day version......