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(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia city officials decided to go forth with their scheduled Fourth of July fireworks presentation at the Art Museum late Wednesday night, and the 20-minute show went off despite the rain and original reports the show had been cancelled. Many of the spectators, who camped out for hours, went home missing the spectacular sight. As a steady rain fell during a parade and a concert by Philadelphians Hall and Oates, word got out the fireworks display had been called off for concern over the "low ceiling," a direct result of rainy weather. So shortly before 11 p.m....

1997: Last Time 400 Mark Reached (AP) PHILADELPHIA -- Four murders on the day before Christmas pushed the city's 2006 homicide total to 400 for the first time in nearly a decade. The last time the city reached the 400 mark was 1997, when the year ended with 418 murders. That marked the last of eight years in the 1990s in which there were at least 400 killings, including a record 500 in 1990, according to police statistics. The spate of overnight violence started when pizza delivery man Michael Orlando, 43, was shot while trying to make a delivery...

Philadelphia Gets Tough on Violatorshttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16968717 07/26/2006 By: Michael P. Tremoglie, Special To The Evening Bulletin Philadelphians are being gunned down in record numbers - mostly by people who were previously convicted of violent crimes, or acquitted of violent crimes, by one of Philadelphia's legendary lenient judges. The Street administration's response to the carnage was a typical liberal one - blame gun laws. Never mind the reams of evidence that state that more guns owned by honest citizens deter crime, the Street administration follows the failed liberal Democrat doctrine to reduce crime - ban guns. Never mind that the perpetrators are...

Street's Ousting Of The Boy Scouts An Act Of Political Cowardicehttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16997240 http://tinyurl.com/qhhrm 08/02/2006 By: GREGORY J. SULLIVAN, Special To The Evening Bulletin The decision by Mayor John Street and supported by the Fairmount Park Commission to punish the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America for its adherence to the organization's long-standing prohibition on openly homosexual members and leaders is the triumph of political correctness over sound policy. What is more, it is a betrayal of an organization and, most especially, the young boys who desperately need the moral instruction of the Scouts more than ever. Since...

Fitzpatrick steps in for Boy Scoutshttp://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-07312006-691181.html http://tinyurl.com/pvk5s By BRIAN SCHEID Bucks County Courier Times Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, wants the city of Philadelphia to end its dispute with the Boy Scouts of America. Fitzpatrick has sent a letter to Philadelphia Mayor John Street, blasting the city's pending decision to oust the Boy Scouts from their Philadelphia headquarters for refusing to change their policy prohibiting gay members. Fitzpatrick, an Eagle Scout and former president of the Bucks County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, also gave a brief speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday in support...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A bank official testified Monday that he didn't believe it was wrong for his company to have donated tens of thousands of dollars to local politicians who could help the bank get business. Douglas Pauls, the chief financial officer at Commerce Bancorp, said he considered it to be a "common practice" of big American companies. "Is there anything improper about that whatsoever?" asked Kevin Marino, a lawyer for a Commerce Bank official being tried on corruption charges. "No," Pauls said. Pauls offered his defense of the company as federal prosecutors began introducing evidence designed to portray two...

I 'M a former Philadelphia resident living in Anderson, S.C. Philly will always be home and greatly missed. But when I read that the mayor's staff had welcomed French supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal with warmth and gifts, I was repulsed. Those supporters are citizens of a country that wouldn't support the U.S. and our allies in the effort to remove the brutal dictator and mass-murder Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. They protected convicted murderer Ira Einhorn for years. Have any of these activists seeking freedom for Mumia ever read the trial transcripts, the post-conviction-relief hearing transcripts or reviewed any...

Posted on Thu, Jul. 01, 2004 White, Kemp deny charges By Emilie Lounsberry, Leonard N. Fleming and Marcia Gelbart Inquirer Staff Writers Ronald A. White and former City Treasurer Corey Kemp pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges leveled in a sweeping corruption indictment, and White said federal authorities had "taken a genuine friendship and tried to portray it as something corrupt and manipulative." White and Kemp, with two other defendants, were in court the day after prosecutors asserted that White showered Kemp with money and gifts, and that Kemp, in return, allowed White to call the shots on who got...

FEDS GIVING OUT BUG LETTERS NOTIFYING PEOPLE THEY'VE BEEN TAPPED A SIGNAL NOOSE IS CLOSING By KITTY CAPARELLA & DAVE DAVIES caparek@phillynews.com THE HEAT just turned up a notch in the city public corruption probe. FBI agents are notifying people whose conversations were intercepted by phone taps and listening devices, according to sources familiar with the ongoing investigation. Two agents arrived at Mayor Street's campaign office Tuesday to deliver written notice to Connie Little, a former special assistant to Street who left the government earlier this year to work on his re-election campaign. Little is a longtime member of Street's...

Democrats Repeat Divisive Strategy in Philadelphia by Timothy P. Carney Posted Nov 7, 2003 If all of the United States were like Philadelphia, the Democratic Party would have a strategy for sweeping the 2004 elections. It would involve former President Bill Clinton, 2000 loser Al Gore, race-profiteer Jesse Jackson and actor/pundit/all-purpose political hack James Carville. The tactics would be unfounded charges of racism, naked Bush-bashing and facile demonization of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. Using these methods, Democratic Mayor John Street of Philadelphia fought off an insurgent campaign by Republican businessman Sam Katz. While Democrats in Mississippi and Kentucky did everything...

Mayor's BlackBerry seized by FBI By Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., L. Stuart Ditzen and Joseph Tanfani Federal authorities have seized Mayor Street’s BlackBerry handheld computer as part of their wide-ranging probe into possible corruption in City Hall. Armed with a warrant, FBI agents arrived at City Hall and asked for the BlackBerry late this afternoon - hours after Philadelphia police, in a sweep of the mayor’s office, discovered a sophisticated listening device and several microphones the FBI had planted in the ceiling of Street’s City Hall office, said an official involved in the investigation. Street turned the device over to...

Posted on Sat, Jun. 07, 2003 Mayor nixes brother's airport deal Street cites 'potential' of impropriety By DAVE DAVIES daviesd@phillynews.com Mayor Street yesterday pulled the plug on brother Milton's $1 million-plus contract to maintain baggage equipment at the Philadelphia airport. "I don't like the fact that this was a contract Milton entered into with no bidding," the mayor said at a press conference. "It has the potential to be looked at as a kind of insiders' deal." Street said he asked his brother to withdraw from the contract, and he did. The mayor said he first heard about the contract...

Republican challenger Sam Katz has made a race of the fund-raising battle for City Hall, as campaign-finance reports filed yesterday show that he and Mayor Street both have more than $3 million available to spend on the coming campaign. While Street is about $224,000 ahead in cash on hand, Katz outraised Street in the first five months of the year, pulling in more than $4 million to Street's roughly $2.5 million. "I think we're doing a better job of raising money," Katz said in an interview yesterday. "I'm gratified by the extensive support that's materialized both in money, in volunteers...

The NAACP has criticised Philly Mayor Street for not naming Sylvester Johnson, an African American, as permanent police commissioner. At an NAACP event, Mayor Street assured the audience that "Don't you let nobody fool you, we are in charge of the City of Brotherly Love. We are in charge!"