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Saturday, May 3: A Philadelphia police officer, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, is shot and killed with a semiautomatic weapon while responding to reports of a bank robbery in the city’s Port Richmond section. Liczbinski is the second officer shot in the city this year, and the third in the last two years. Monday, May 5: About a dozen Philadelphia police officers, less than 24 hours into the manhunt for the third and final suspect in the Liczbinski shooting, beat three suspects who had been fleeing the scene of an unrelated murder. The entire incident happens to be caught on tape by...

Days after a Philadelphia police sergeant was killed with a semi-automatic rifle, Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell called upon Congress to enact a new federal assault-weapons ban that would remove such weapons from the streets."The time has come for politicians to decide," said Rendell at the City Hall news conference attended by top police brass and state elected officials. "You have to decide whether you're on their side - the men and women who wear blue - or whether you're on the side of the gun lobby."The federal assault-weapons ban, which lasted from 1994 through 2004, outlawed an array of...

http://www.philly.com/philly/polls/18765614.html One week ago Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski was shot at least 5 times with an AK-47 by a trio of bank robbers fleeing the scene of their crime. One of the three was later killed by Police gunfire; the other two have been apprehended. Sgt. Liczbinski was laid to rest yesterday. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20080509_Sgt__Liczbinski_mourned_at_Cathedral.html

Police: Gun At Officer Shooting Scene Traced To Duncannon Man HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A gun sold in Harrisburg for drugs wound up in Philadelphia, where it was found at the scene of a fatal shooting of a police officer, officials said. Police said Levi Swigart, 19, of Duncannon, Perry County, told them he sold the .22-caliber revolver to buy crack from a man at a convenience store along Cameron Street in Harrisburg. Swigart's mother reported the gun stolen in February. The same gun was found at the scene where Philadelphia police officer Steven Liczbinski was shot and killed over the...

As the reward for the third suspect in the weekend slaying of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski grew yesterday to more than $123,000, authorities intensified their wide-reaching dragnet for a man they called "armed and dangerous." Police pursued leads from Lancaster, Pa., to Newark, N.J., in search of 33-year-old Eric DeShann Floyd, who they say was the "muscle" in a trio that on Saturday robbed a Port Richmond bank and then killed the pursuing sergeant. But investigators believed Floyd, a convicted armed robber who in February escaped from a Reading halfway house, most likely was still hiding in Philadelphia. Police...

A Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed with a military assault rifle late this morning when he confronted at least two robbers who had just held up an Bank of America branch at a Shoprite supermarket in Port Richmond. --snip--- a police spokesman, described one as a man wearing “Muslim garb” and carrying a shoulder bag. He said that a second, who might have been a woman, was wearing “light brown Muslim garb.” A third possible robber, a man, was described as having worn a “dreadlock wig” and a “construction mask.” He had on blue jeans and a flannel...

PHILADELPHIA, April 29, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called on the citizens of Philadelphia last night to embrace those who have lost loved ones or who have been wounded in service to America. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen received the Gold Medal of the Union League of Philadelphia during a ceremony at the 1862 building, right down the street from City Hall. The league was established during the Civil War as an organization to help restore the Union, and it has pursued its mission to uphold the nation for the 135 years since. Mullen challenged...

Friday, April 25, 2008 This week’s outrage comes courtesy of Philadelphia Police Commissioner, and former Washington, D.C. police chief, Charles Ramsey. As we recently reported, the Philadelphia City Council passed five gun control measures, which were subsequently signed by Mayor Michael Nutter in direct violation of Pennsylvania’s state preemption law. A Philadelphia County court granted NRA’s motion for a temporary restraining order against the new gun control regulations and ruled that Philadelphia is barred from enforcing the ordinances and moving forward on promulgating regulations. But the City opposed the injunction, saying they believed that the ordinances are both necessary and...

As the US city of Philadelphia prepares for its most closely watched political primary in generations one significant part of the population seems to have already picked their man. Muslim-American community leaders, activists and voters in the city of brotherly love, as Philadelphia is known, say Barack Obama is by far their preferred candidate. Philadelphia's Muslim community is one of the most significant, in terms of size and in terms of prominence, of all US cities. There are up to 70,000 people worshipping in 34 mosques in the city alone, leading one local leader to describe Philadelphia as "a Mecca...

Montgomery County results explain Clinton's win TRIBUNE-REVIEW By: Salena Zito By all accounts, Pennsylvania's Montgomery County should have been Sen. Barack Obama's low-hanging fruit. From Norristown with its abundant black vote to the Main Line with its affluent well-off latte liberals, "Montco" was tailor-made for the Illinois senator. "I was shocked," said Karen Matthews, wife of GOP Montgomery County chairman Jim Matthews. Karen, who made her own news by switching to Democrat so she could vote for Obama, fully expected a big Obama win. "My only explanation is that people say one thing, and then do another," she said. Karen...

It's time for Philadelphia leaders to understand that lawlessness by the city government is one of the many factors contributing to the city's culture of crime and violence. The lack of respect city officials have shown for the laws of Pennsylvania by passing illegal gun-control ordinances sets a tone for residents that honoring the rule of law is optional in this city. When the City Council passed and Mayor Nutter signed a package of gun-control bills that limits the ability of law-abiding citizens to purchase and possess firearms, they brazenly declared themselves independent from the laws of the commonwealth. It...

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Following the decision by a Philadelphia judge earlier this morning, prohibiting enforcement of a series of gun-control laws passed in violation of state law by the Philadelphia City Council, Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade association of the firearms industry and plaintiff in the suit – issued the following statement: “We are pleased with the court’s decision to honor state law and grant our petition to enjoin Philadelphia from enforcing the City Council’s recently passed gun-control laws. These laws would only hurt law-abiding firearms...

Rendell joins Chelsea Clinton for 'gay pub crawl' in Phillyby BRETT LIEBERMAN, Of The Patriot-News Saturday April 19, 2008, 4:22 PM Christopher Murray embraces Chelsea Clinton Friday night when the former first daughter campaigned with Gov. Ed Rendell and actor Rob Reiner during a pub crawl of gay bars in Philadelphia. They loved her hair; they smacked her butt; they hooted and hugged Friday night as Chelsea Clinton hit Philadelphia for what campaign aides called a "gay pub crawl." BRETT LIEBERMAN, The Patriot-News "Chelsea, the gays love you!" Jeff Guaracino, 35, shouted as the former first daughter took the stage...

<p>Barack Obama seemed puzzled. Angrily puzzled. The apostle of hope seemed flummoxed by the audacity of the question. At the April 16 Philadelphia debate, George Stephanopoulos, longtime aide to Democratic politicians, was asking about his longtime association with Weather Underground bomber William Ayers. Continues...</p>

Jeremiah Wright on estrogen Posted: April 18, 20081:00 am Eastern © 2008  Last Friday in this column I reported on a brewing scandal that would be front-page news on the New York Times if the developments had concerned anyone other than their hero:Barack Hussein Obama.Instead, the new media was left to pick up and disseminate how one of Barack Obama's presidential campaign bundlers is Jodie Evans – a political ally to Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez, and an advocate for Islamic militants.The story was also a yawner for ABC News "journalist" George Stephanopolous, because he didn't see fit to ask a single...

There's no debate: Pens trump politics tribune-review by salena zito Politics stops at the water's edge -- even if that water's frozen, apparently. About 57,000 more households in the Pittsburgh region tuned in to watch the Penguins beat up on the Ottawa Senators than tuned in to see two senators (Obama and Clinton) beat up on each other in the Democratic presidential debate, according to Nielsen Media Research. The hockey game played in 175,000 – or 23 percent – of all households in the Pittsburgh metro market, while the blame game played in 118,000 households – or 14 percent of...

April 17, 2008 -- PHILADELPHIA - By sheer, drowsy default, Hillary Rodham Clinton won last night's debate against Barack Obama. Only because she came the closest to describing why everyone in America is so tired of this whole endless psychodrama.It came as she was trying to explain why she and Obama have both been making up so much nonsense on the campaign trail lately. "We both have said things that, you know, turned out not to be accurate," Clinton said. "You know, that happens when you're talking as much as we have talked."

Obama considers Cheney 'wise' TRIBUNE-REVIEW By-Salena Zito When asked how he would work with the former presidents if he were elected, Sen. Barack Obama said that he would be more apt to seek the council of President George H W. Bush than his son, President George W. Bush. Obama said he considers the elder Bush's foreign policy "wise." Interesting. Wasn’t it Dick Cheney who served as the secretary of defense from March 1989 to January 1993 under President George H.W. Bush? And didn’t Cheney direct the United States' invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East?

J. Leon Altemose, controversial contractor, dies at 68 By Sally Downey and Jane M. Von Bergen Inquirer Staff Writers J. Leon Altemose, 68, a contractor who gained national attention for his stand against building-trade unions, died in his Malvern home Friday after a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis. To his fellow "open-shop" builders, Mr. Altemose was a hero, paving the way for nonunion contractors in a heavily unionized area. He won their admiration by standing fast against unions in the face of vandalism, firebombings, and destroyed machinery and equipment at his sites. Mr. Altemose himself was beaten up at one...

Obama, speaking to a group of supporters in San Francisco, CA. , recently said: "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment...

Burden of proof -- Clinton counts on delegate math By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, April 13, 2008 Every other story written by journalists across the country gives a spreadsheet of reasons why Hillary Clinton should step out of the Democrats' campaign. Yet in the public's eye, there she stands as though she has not a care in the world. One reason may be that the party's super-delegates who remain uncommitted have an unspoken burden of proof to determine whether this race goes on or not. So far, they have not exercised their superpowers.

God, guns and Obama TRIBUNE-REVIEW By: Salena Zito On Friday it was reveled that Sen. Barack Obama told wealthy San Franciscans last Sunday that small-town Pennsylvanians and Midwesterners "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" about their economic status. By today in Muncie, Ind., Obama acknowledged that he "didn't say it as well as I should have."

The Los Angeles Times: "Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce. It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay. That sets up a culture clash, pitting a candidate who promises to transform American politics against the realities of a local political system important to his presidential hopes.” “Obama's posture confounds neighborhood political leaders sympathetic to his cause....

Nutter defiantly signs five gun laws Council's measures appear to fly in the face of state law and legal precedent. The NRA says it will sue. By Jeff Shields Inquirer Staff Writer Mayor Nutter likened himself and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state legislature and legal precedent. "Almost 232 years ago, a group of concerned Americans took matters in their own hands and did what they needed to do by declaring that the time had come for a change," Nutter said as...

Obama advance: 'Get me more white people' POLITICO Ben Smith From the account in Carnegie Mellon's paper, the Tartan, of a Michelle Obama event in Pittsburgh: While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.” “I didn’t know they...

A Philly Tax Cutter Can Mayor Nutter cure the city’s cancer? With 380 homicides recorded already this year, a spate of recent cop shootings, and one particularly gruesome cop killing that led to a nationwide manhunt, Philadelphia is among America’s most dangerous big cities. The crime issue dominated this year’s mayoral race, which Michael Nutter, a blunt and sometimes histrionic former councilman, eventually won. But while crime gets the most attention, Nutter’s success as mayor will ultimately rest on improving the city’s dysfunctional economy. Notwithstanding the glitzy renaissance taking place in its center, Philadelphia is an economic basket case. The...

An error of judgment: Penn is out TRIBUNE-REVIEW BY: Salena Zito Hillary Clinton's chief strategist and pollster Mark Penn has made like Elvis and left the building, a little more than two weeks before the Pennsylvania April 22nd primary.

Rendell-Casey, Round 2 By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, April 6, 2008 To win Pennsylvania, Barack Obama must pull off a "Missouri" -- that is, do what he did in the Show Me State: win a handful of heavily populated, liberal-centric counties and call it a day. Ironically, that is what Ed Rendell (a Hillary Clinton supporter) did to Bob Casey (an Obama supporter) in Pennsylvania's 2002 Democrat gubernatorial primary.

Sharon Conroy spent yesterday morning doing the quietly heartbreaking chores that a parent must do when her child is killed - going to court, stopping by his apartment, collecting the new bills that he'll never get to pay. But by last night, she was ready to do a bittersweet victory dance. Police officials announced that four more Simon Gratz High School students had been arrested and charged with murdering Sean Patrick Conroy. The arrests came a week to the day that Conroy, 36, died of a fatal asthma attack after six teens inexplicably pummeled him on an underground Center City...

BY Tyesha Tazwell's count, there were a dozen of them - six girls, six boys - hanging around together. One of the girls tried to get Tazwell's attention by uttering a polite-sounding "Excuse me." Then they pounced. Tazwell, 24, said it took only a few seconds for the teens to knock her to the ground. They pounded her face with a barrage of kicks and punches, stole her purse and chanted "Watch your mouth! Watch your mouth!" when she finally got to her feet and tried to get help. It might sound like Tazwell received this brutal beating in some...

'Mother's pride' is laid to rest By DAFNEY TALES & DAVID GAMBACORTA Philadelphia Daily News LONG AFTER the final hymn had been sung and the last rose had been laid across her son's bronze casket, Sharon Conroy sat in her quiet home in Lansdowne trying to make sense of it all. Her mind drifted through a steady stream of tender memories of her son, Sean Patrick Conroy. She could see him as an eager, grinning Cub Scout, then as the kid who went to dinner and a movie with her every Friday night until it seemed uncool at age 15....

Don’t Scout Don’t Tell by: Bethany Stotts, April 01, 2008 Despite the lack of media coverage, Philadelphia’s local Boy Scout chapter still faces the same choice which sparked so much controversy this Fall: suffer a $199,000 rent hike or vacate their headquarters. Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the chapter, told reporters in 2007 that the new expenses “would have to come from programs. That’s 30 new Cub Scout packs or 800 needy kids going to our summer camps.” Spokeswoman Kera Walter recently provided an update, saying that the chapter is still trying to work with the city for a compromise. Options...

Mayor Michael Nutter Tells ABC News He Would Have Quit Church if His Pastor Made Such Remarks. Sen. Hillary Clinton's most prominent African-American supporter in Pennsylvania says that had he been a member of Sen. Barack Obama's church, he would have left because of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery and controversial sermons. "I think there's no room for hate, and I could not sit and tolerate that kind of language, and especially over a very long period of time," said Philadelphia's newly elected mayor... "If I were in my own church and heard my pastor saying some of those kinds...

A 36-year-old man died yesterday afternoon within an hour of being beaten by four youths on a SEPTA platform a short distance from City Hall and the Center City Starbucks store where he worked. The attack happened in view of passersby and a transit policeman who was unable to help.

Ask Candidates about the Boy Scouts Dear Member of the Media: The city of Philadelphia is a war zone. Philadelphia has the highest murder rate of all major U.S. cities and one of the highest overall crime rates. One in thirteen young black males in the city was shot or killed in the past 5 years. Over 1,000 youth under age 24 were shot in 2006 alone. Philadelphia has one of the highest high school dropout rates of all major cities and is among the highest in gang membership, gang violence and drug use. One answer to this crisis facing...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

Last Edited: Thursday, 27 Mar 2008, 6:06 PM EDT Created: Thursday, 27 Mar 2008, 4:43 PM EDT An armed man continues to keep authorities at bay on the Walt Whitman Bridge. The Walt Whitman Bridge between South Philadelphia and Gloucester City, N.J., has been closed since about 4:30 p.m. New Jersey State Police Capt. Al Della Fave says troopers tried to stop a vehicle for a minor speeding violation, but the driver wouldn't pull over. He says troopers stopped the pursuit after a few minutes because the man was driving erratically and police feared someone would get hurt. After that,...

PR governor, four Philadelphians charged By John Shiffman Inquirer Staff Writer Puerto Rico's governor and four Philadelphians, including prominent fund-raiser Robert M. Feldman, were charged this morning in San Juan with federal campaign-finance related crimes. The investigation of Gov. Anibal Acevedo-Vila, a Democrat who faces re-election this year, was triggered by the FBI's Philadelphia City Hall corruption probe in 2003. The governor was charged with conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and filing a false tax return. In a statement issued this morning, Acevedo-Vila proclaimed his innocence and said the indictment was politically...

This morning federal agents have arrested five persons linked to Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo-Vilá. Late Tuesday, a federal Grand Jury returned sealed indictements after a three year long investigation on the campaign finances of the Governor and his party. Sources say that eight other persons are going to be arrested today, including the Governor and other top party officials. The probe also includes campaign finance schemes which originated in Philadelphia. Governor Acevedo is affiliated with the Democrat Party and is a Barack Obama supporter. Developing...

The incident occurred at about 2:35 p.m. before the turnstiles on the Market-Frankford Line concourse at 13th and Market streets, police said. One adult male was taken to Jefferson University Hospital but was later pronounced dead. Police said homicide investigators have been summoned to the scene. A transit police sergeant was on patrol on the eastbound platform at the time of the incident. "While on patrol, he notices across the way, on the westbound concourse, a white male adult, about 30-years-old, and he's being confronted by four, young black males. A disturbance is obvious to him. He goes to investigate,"...

Maybe, just maybe, it’s now worth at least asking whether Hillary Clinton might wind up as the Democratic candidate for vice president. When the chatter about a Democratic “dream ticket” began last year, it was easy to dismiss. Either Clinton or Obama would win a clear victory in the primaries and, after what inevitably would be a contentious campaign, each would want as little to do with the other as possible. Clinton, if she emerged victorious, would instead choose some kind of national security graybeard to her political right, a retired general perhaps, or maybe even a Republican. Likewise, Obama...

When Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention. The campaign's current trajectory is, in fact, alarmingly similar to the one that produced that disastrous affair. Back then, Carter had built up a delegate lead with early wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, and several Southern states. But, as the primary season dragged on, Kennedy began pocketing big states and gaining momentum. Once all the voting ended and Kennedy came up short, he eyed the New York convention as a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Barack Obama's speech last week, hastily prepared to extinguish the firestorm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, won critical praise for style and substance but failed politically. By elevating the question of race in America, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate has deepened the dilemma created by his campaign's success against the party establishment's anointed choice, Hillary Clinton. In rejecting the racist views of his longtime spiritual mentor but not disowning him, Obama has unwittingly enhanced his image as the African-American candidate -- not just a remarkable candidate who happens to be black. That poses a racial dilemma for...

It is a tribute to Hillary Clinton that even though, rationally, political soothsayers think she can no longer win, irrationally, they wonder how she will pull it off. It's impossible to imagine The Terminator, as a former aide calls her, giving up. Unless every circuit is out, she'll regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave, crawl through the Rezko Memorial Lawn and up Obama's wall, hurl her torso into the house and brutally haunt his dreams. "It's like one of those movies where you think you know the end, but then you watch with your fingers over...

Even though Barack Obama has "moved on" from the messy association that he has recently been forced to explain to man who had been his pastor for 20 years, it is clear - the voters haven't. There are legitimate questions being raised about a relationship that spans a generation and the beliefs of a man who has on multiple dozens of occasions issued some of the most vitriolic, bigoted, racism imaginable in America today. No doubt one of the most infamous video moments recently unearthed was Jeremiah Wright's use of what he cleverly believed to be a cute play on...

Watching the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright gesticulate like a horny peacock and spew out ignorance, hatred, and bitterness towards America truly inspired my religious faith. Once Wright pointed out that he was “still in Bible country,” I began to “love the hell out of” rich, white people just as much as Wright does. How could so many people not understand that white people have caused all the world’s problems? As Wright pointed out to his congregation, the Bible says it’s so. I’m not sure what verse actually says that, but I’m now betting that rich, white people are responsible for my...

I am struck, though not entirely surprised, by the widening gulf between some Cable TV commentators and pundits reaction to Obama's speech and that of most of middle america. So disparate is the treatment, that It leads me to ask: did we watch the same speech? By and large, the acclamation given his speech by most liberal pundits has been unrestrained and effusive: On MSNBC, Sally Quinn gushed that it was the greatest in all of human history; tune in to any cable news channel and you will hear similar accolades. We have seen this all before, most notably in...

A Philadelphia restaurant has been cleared of a discrimination complaint triggered by the owner's sign telling patrons, "This is America. When ordering, please speak English." "This is a great victory," owner Joey Vento told WND today after the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations ruled his sign could stay in the window of Gino's Steaks South Philadelphia landmark store. The controversy began in October 2005 when Vento put up a small bumper-sticker size sign. On June 12, 2006, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations launched on its own initiative a discrimination case against Vento. It alleged the sign violated the city's...

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia agency has ruled that English-only signs at a famous cheesesteak shop are not discriminatory.

Super delegate Murtha endorses Clinton Posted March 18, 2008 8 :50 PM Congressman Jack Murtha, D-Johnstown, became the first super delegate to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton since the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4th.