New Mayor Nutter sworn in

180px-Michael_Nutter.pngMichael Nutter is our mayor.

Yesterday, in front of 1,500 people in the Academy of Music, Nutter gave a 40-minute inauguration speech that mirrored his campaign of hope and change.

He predicted “the greatest American city turnaround that anyone has seen in the past 50 years.”

Temple was mentioned just once in his 2,500 word inauguration address, in Nutter’s farewell to outgoing Mayor John F. Street, wishing him luck in “his new career at Temple University.” However, Nutter did make one of his specific goals to increase college educated city residents.

Street, who will become an adjunct professor at Temple this spring semester, was in attendance, in addition to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, W. Wilson Goode Sr. and William J. Green, all city mayors 

“We need to send an unmistakable message to the small minority who are holding the rest of us hostage,” he said. “You will no longer terrorize our neighborhoods. No longer will you hold us hostage in our own city.”

He is the thirty-third man to serve since the 1854 consolidation of Philadelphia County. Since Goode, Sr. came to Room 215 of City Hall in 1984, three of the last four mayors of the city have been black.

Nutter set three specific goals for his administration. Reducing the city’s homicide rate by 30 percent to 50 percent over the next three to five years, closer to 200 murders a year instead of the 392 recorded in 2007, according to the Inquirer. He called to double the number of city residents with college degrees. Philly is just 92 of the nation’s 100 largest cities for its population of college-education residents, with only 18 percent of its adult residents holding four-year bachelor’s degrees. Thirdly, he calls to drastically reduce the city’s 45 percent high school dropout rate over the next five to seven years.
“We can do that, we must do that,” Nutter exhorted. “…We must give our young people the opportunity to grow and develop and be successful.”

Playboy offers more Lane rumors

1219freealycia.jpgRumors continue to rage that CBS 3 anchor, bad girl and tabloid side show, Alycia Lane, has been offered a chance to bare all and pose nude for Playboy magazine.

The New York Post reported the offer before Christmas, and while CBS 3 remains Lane-less, as the news starlet is on ‘vacation,’ bloggers have continued the discussion.

Lane, who first came into the national consciousness when she reportedly sent photos of herself in a bikini to a married sports anchor early this year, has gotten the attention of the region, and, increasingly, everyone in need of drama all the way to the Phoenix-based National Ledger.

According to the Post report, Playboy is considering offering a lucrative offer for Lane, whose current vacation started early after she was arrested for allegedly punching a female police officer.  

Man dies on subway

ellarge.jpgA man died after being hit by a SEPTA train in Frankford yesterday, according to CBS 3.

The man, said to be 30-years-old, was transported to Temple University Hospital where he died. He was taken there after being stuck around 12:30pm near Frankford Avenue and Orthodox Street, northeast of Main Campus. 

Trains were stopped for some time, so SEPTA offered shuttle services. Police are still investigating.

This comes little more than a week after a woman from Warminster died from injuries she sustained when her car was hit by a SEPTA train in the eastern Montgomery County town of Hatboro, according to The Intelligencer.

Released from jail and our sex dreams

alycia_270_grim.jpgShe was released from jail. But, good God, big media, have you no mercy? The precious face of Alycia Lane, who since becoming a CBS 3 news anchor in 2003 has been the sexiest brown haired beauty on CBS other than Ray Ramano, has been unleashed.

Coming out of a New York City criminal court early yesterday morning, Lane was caught without TV makeup, frustrated and, well, not put together. Compare the photo to the left to her station released graphic below it.  

20071217_dn_g1alyc17c.jpgAs the details emerge about why Lane ended up getting arrested by two NYC cops in downtown Manhattan, the story is getting more and more absurd. According to the New York Post, Lane was in a cab with her so-labeled boyfriend, Q102 morning host Chris Booker, and another couple traveling behind a slow-moving vehicle that turned out to be an unmarked police car.

One of the men reportedly got out of the cab to yell at the driver of the unmarked car. The anonymous driver turned out to be a plainclothes police officer and when a female officer, also in the unmarked car, approached Alycia Lane, who at this point had gotten out and begun to take photos of the incident, the female cop got a lesson… don’t f with Philly news anchors. Lane reportedly punched the officer, lacerating her face, and CBS 3’s biggest star got carted off to jail amid a flurry of obscentities. 

Despite the fun, we’ve lost a great one. Between this incident and when she allegedly sent bikini photos of herself to Rich Eisen, the married ABC sports reporter, CBS 3 can’t possibly keep her around. Can they?

Even if they do, it looks like there’s a return to the competition to find who is the hottest Philly newscaster. Is it ABC 6’s Erin O’Hearn or Fox 29’s Kerri-Lee Halkett? We’re leaning towards Erin, but let us know. For sure, Alycia’s out.

Cheesesteaks with an accent

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Joey Vento, the owner of Geno’s Steaks – one half of the cheesesteak launching pad near South Philly’s Italian Market – is still getting ink for a sign he put on his business’s window back in 2006, according to KYW Newsradio.

The sign, “This is America, when ordering ‘Speak English” got international media attention for being a symbol for the struggles the United States has had with its newest wave of immigration. 

On Friday, Vento testified at a hearing of the Philadephia Commission on Human Relations, which has the power to heavily fine him or even revoke his business license.

The Commission found probable cause that Vento discriminated against the foreign-born. Vento counters that he has never turned down a customer but that, instead, he put the sign up for political beliefs.   

Vento, whose grandparents emigrated from Italy, is a self-made millionaire off wiz and sirloin. A decision won’t be made for at least two months. 

Philly sex icon in jail

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Alycia Lane, CBS 3 anchor and Philly sex goddess, allegedly punched a female police officer in the face, according to a post by Philadelphia Daily News blogger Dan Gross, a Temple alum. 

Not surprisingly though, even huge Philly news manages to get outshined by New York City. It was a NYPD cop Lane reportedly punched, and she is currently locked up in a NYC jail, after being arrested just after 2am this morning in downtown Manhattan.

The NYPD report mentioned an unidentified male with Lane when the alleged assault went down. No report yet on why this just makes Alycia Lane seem hotter.

And the ugliest campus in America is…

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Drexel University.

Not that anyone has ever heard of it, but the Web site campussqueeze.com rated the 20 most beautiful and 20 ugliest colleges. Local colleges Rowan and Drexel were among those receiving the short end of the stick. On Drexel:

It’s small, sporadic, and basically Philadelphia’s urban dumpster called a higher place of learning. That’s embarassing [sic]. The people of Drexel (the administrators, not the students) need to wake up and look around their filthy campus and shape it up.

Ouch.

No local colleges Swathmore and Princeton made the “most beautiful” list though.

Daily Pennsylvanian inspires crime spree

20071203_dn_0jsg39tl.jpgWell, not exactly.

But when an identity thieving young couple had their apartment raided, police found – among other things:

The couple had traveled all over the word and had a $3,000-a-month apartment.

[Source: philly.com]

Penn paper duffs stolen-underwear story

DP.gifDid ya hear about the Penn kid who broke into the dormitory rooms of female students and stole their underwear? Yeah.. creepy. A little awesome, too.

Yet, all the Daily Pennsylvanian opinion bloggers could get out of that was a snide masturbation joke directed at engineering students.

I might have gone with, “Police refused to comment on what happened to the perpetrator’s underwear.”

Actually, that’s what The Spin, DP’s opinion blog, is, a constant reminder that while perhaps dumber, poorer, less successful and celebrated than Penn kids, we are definitely smarter funnier. All in 300-word posts with dead punch lines (see the hilarious DP jabs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania).

Edit: “smarter” to “funnier” (12/7/07)

Updated: Armbrister to leave Temple

ClarenceArmbrister.jpgClarence Armbrister will leave his position as senior executive at Temple to serve as chief of staff for Philadelphia Mayor-elect Michael Nutter at the beginning of his term, according to university spokesperson Ray Betzner.

He will continue to serve the university until Nutter is inaugurated January 1, 2008, when he will transition from North Broad to City Hall.

Armbrister has previously served a city-wide capacity, as city treasurer and managing director of the Philadelphia School District.

Armbrister was taken on by the Adamany administration in April 2003 at a salary exceeding $250,000, according to a report by The Temple News April 2004. He was promoted early in President Ann Weaver Hart’s administration.

Armbrister was not immediately available to comment, as a City Hall press conference was held at 2pm today. His connection to Nutter was not readily known.

More after the jump…

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