Philadelphia’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot Program — which forces lenders and defaulted homeowners to sit at a city-mediated table before forcing people’s homes into a Sheriff’s Sale — has gotten some good press before, but with this page A1 story in today’s New York Times, it has hit the good-news motherlode. (We’re taking bets [...]

A few years ago, when Lisa Scottoline joined the ragtag team of Inquirer columnists hired by Brian Tierney — a diverse gang that included Michael Smerconish, Rick Santorum and, eventually, John Yoo (which was when we officially could take no more) — Lisa struck us as the most harmless of the bunch. After all, Scottoline’s [...]

>>> As we were saying yesterday, Philebrity Salon returns this evening at 700 in NoLibs with Fishtown Jazz Odyssey whom, we think we can say with some degree of certainty, are Fishtown’s only jazz band (Mummers don’t count, ‘cos that ain’t jazz, son). The group will play sets at 10 and 12 tonight, and Anders [...]

This is kinda fun: Comcast is setting itself up to reap some benefits of the proposed Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger. How, exactly? Oh, probably by getting integrated into it all, and saving face for the utterly lame ComcastTix brand, which is easily the RC Cola to Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s Pepsi and Coke. Meanwhile, that Comcast/NBC Uni merger [...]

This just in: Philadelphia Business Journal is reporting that a federal judge in Denver has ordered Temple grads Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr (pictured) to halt operations of their Bala Cynwyd, Pa. company, Mantria Corp.. immediately, following an SEC investigation over whether the pair had bilked investors out of $30M via an elaborate “eco-ponzi” scheme. [...]

So, um, this is the video for “Michelle Obama,” a track by Al Gorilla, DaQuan Motley of Sgt. Sass‘ new side project. And as with all things Sgt. Sass, it contains language that may not be suitable for your workplace. But wow. Really, just… wow. [h/t Philthy Blog]

In this long, wide-ranging piece in today’s Daily News, Catherine Lucey digs around, trying to get a bead on exactly where Mayor Michael Nutter stands, just about two years into his administration. As you might suspect, the news is mostly bad. In broad strokes, he’s doing perhaps better than John Street — no FBI bugs, [...]

“Songs about people that you know,” indeed.

The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest regular intercollegiate rowing event in the country, and this year, for the first time since 1953, it won’t be here. Why? Good question. According to the Dad Vail folks, it’s all about This Economy; ask Mayor Nutter, though, and he’ll tell you that Philly never even had a [...]

Attn. all you Richard Floridians other there, who’ve been groaning “Where’s my bailout?” for the last year: It’s here. This morning, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, announced that they’ve been allocated $500K by the Recovery Act to give out about ten Creative Industry Workforce Grants in the range [...]

As SEPTA-obsessed as we’ve been lately, we’ve been a little remiss in not talking more lately about the inherent romance of the regional rail during this time of year, what with the peak foliage and the Nick Drake on the headphones and whatnot. (Hey, can you blame us? A little Willie Brown is enough to [...]

This moment in Bullshit Cole Hamels Endorsements: Mr. Heidi probably thought he was being all edgy last month, when he did the voiceover you hear in the viral promo video above for the game Call Of Duty 2, what with all its grenades this and “What the fuck that?” But as usual, Hamels had no [...]

Temple U alumni/Philly residents Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr have found themselves in a lot of hot water this week, as the SEC has charged the firm they work for, Mantria Industries, with an elaborate “eco-ponzi” scheme that bilked oldsters out of their retirement funds with the promise of fortunes from bio-tech startups. The SEC [...]

>>> What could possibly top this gorgeous Indian Summer day? Look up tonight for the The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower. It’s going to be nuts: NASA is predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia, and lucky you, it’s looking like it’s [...]

· Hot Dog Zen: This One’s For Your Id · Tonight: Naked Pint Beer Tasting · Bummer Alert: Food Insecurity Isn’t a Symptom Of A Personality Disorder All this and more — plus the Phoodie Restaurant Guide and Phoodie Calendar on Phoodie.info, the new food and drink blog from Philebrity.

Lord knows we’ve given SEPTA enough guff lately, but before our memories of The Strike That Was fade into the sunset, let us remember this bit for next time: The SEPTA strike was cured, in part at least, buy the promise of… more dick pills. (As in Viagra, Cialis, etc., and not — we repeat, [...]

Sez Charlie: “You might see elf dick.” Pre-order on Amazon here, but really? No air date at all? Fail.

Just a quick heads up to let you know that tomorrow night at Philebrity Salon, for the first time ever, we’re presenting a live jazz band. We first learned of Fishtown Jazz Odyssey (pictured) when they sent us an email that read, in part, “You may not be aware of this, but there is a [...]

A little earlier this month, we told you about PA Rep. Bob Brady‘s (almost) laughable pitch on behalf of Comcast against Net Neutrality. We say “almost” because Brady’s parroting chapter-and-verse policy points from Comcast would be funny if the guy didn’t hold an actual political office. But he does — boy, does he ever — [...]

In case you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a great profile of native sons Tim and Eric in this months issue of Wired. In the accompanying video, the duo, uh, “work.”