Philadelphia, PA

Yesterday, Twigga, who was 29 years old and one of the nation’s oldest giraffes was euthanized. She had lived at the Philadelphia Zoo since 1979.

When Twigga’s death was announced, the zoo said that she had been on medications for age-related arthritis for quite some time.

“Based on Twigga’s comfort and behavior, the zoo’s veterinary team decided this week that humane euthanasia was now the best course for her,” the zoo’s statement said.

Giraffes typically live into their late teens and early 20s.

She is the second giraffe to be euthanized at the zoo this year. Puzzles, 27, was euthanized in March due to age-related problems.

Earlier this month, Petal, then the oldest African zoo elephant in the nation at 52, died at the zoo.

“The zoo has a lot of very old animals, and we’re coming up to the end of the life cycle for many of them,” said Kirsten Wilf, a zoo spokeswoman.

Twigga was born at the Knoxville (Tenn.) Zoo, and was described as “an extraordinarily gentle giraffe” who was well liked by staff and visitors. She raised six calves during her years at the zoo.

The Philadelphia Zoo has two other giraffes: Stella, a 7-year-old female, and Gus, a male who will turn 2 next month. Gus recently arrived at the zoo from Texas.

The giraffe exhibit has been empty while the young male completes a precautionary quarantine period expected to end in mid-July.

Twigga’s remains were taken to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square for a necropsy and burial.

Guess what? Alycia Lane finally went and sued CBS 3, and it actually contains the phrase “the Prince Albert of Monaco Exploitation.” Oh, this is amazing.

Lane’s lawsuit against her employer alleges the station didn’t respond to complaints her private email had been viewed and also said the station treated female employees worse than its male ones. The suit also says co-anchor/alleged email snooper Larry Mendte was jealous of Lane’s higher salary (reportedly $800k vs. $700k) and her popularity.

Michael Klein writes:

Lane’s suit claims that a statement from Colleran that Mendte read on-air on Jan. 7 killed her career. It read in part: “After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made, we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories.” It added, “We understand that Alycia expects to be fully vindicated in that proceeding” in New York.
The suit says the “clear meaning” was that Lane was “now unable to report the news for any news station anywhere in the world.”

Video under the belt.

(more…)

The Inquirer’s Patrick Kerkstra reported that a group of local investors have rescued Wireless Philadelphia.

The group includes Derek Pew and Mark Rupp, who are apparently both local and businessmen. “Little if any” taxpayer money was used in the deal; the two plan to offer free, advertising-supported wireless Internet in the city. Hey, how long until we can start taking bets on the advertising market collapsing? Opps, I guess I just started.

Mayor Nutter talked about Wireless Philadelphia at noon.

Black bears tend to be solitary animals, with the exception of mothers and cubs. The bears usually forage alone, but will tolerate each other and forage in groups if there is an abundance of food in one area. - Defenders.org

Even though Black bears are reported to not be really threatening, Deborah Samsel had the surprise of her life. Doesn’t this bear in back yard nonsense happen all the time though?

Hola, Jocelyn Kirsch is in the news again, and Philly.com has it on the front page. What fun! This time, it’s the Inquirer who has the goods: Apparently, prosecutors will seek a revocation of her bail, sending her to jail.

Kirsch, 22, the sometimes-violet-eyed beauty who captivated an international audience once tantalizing photos of her on vacation hit the Internet, had been scheduled to plead guilty this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
But last night, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that the plea hearing would be rescheduled and that a detention hearing would be held instead.

“The government will move to detain her,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen, who declined to elaborate last night about the underlying reason for the detention request.

There’s also a poll asking how long Kirsch should go to jail for; “More than 15 years” is currently leading.

If you have any Philadelphia News, Events, etc. please email them to phillytips@kyledylanconner.com.

I would also like to personally apologize for about-philadelphiapa.com being down for the past 24-48 hours. 451 Press was experiencing some difficulties.

Bobbi Booker and her unborn baby lost their live because of an idiotic game of one-upmanship three days ago.

Police said that Booker, 27 years old, who was four months pregnant, died at 9:20 p.m. Monday at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Doctors had tried to find a way to save the mother of two and her fetus since Sunday night, when Booker was hit in the side of the head with a stray bullet while her boyfriend, Michael Thomas, traded gunfire with Lamar Johnson, police said.

Thomas, 26 years old, and Johnson, 22 years old, were officially charged yesterday with Booker’s murder and the murder of her unborn baby.

Homicide investigators said that the gunfight, which occurred outside the Queen Lane Apartments in Germantown, was simply an escalation in an ongoing petty feud involving Thomas, Johnson, and several other men.

Thomas used a shotgun during the shoot-out, while Johnson fired shots from a 9-mm handgun, police stated. Homicide Capt. James Clark has said that both men have “lengthy” criminal records.

Book was inside of the apartment building and was apparently hit by a stray bullet from the 9-mm when she walked by a window.

On June 1st, 2008 CBS 3 made a statement that Larry Mendte “will not be on CBS 3’s broadcasts pending further investigation,” related to the federal probe into whether the anchor illegally read emails of former colleague Alycia Lane.

For the full story click here.

If you have any Philadelphia News, Events, etc. please email them to phillytips@kyledylanconner.com.

Bill Cosby’s hip-hop CD comes out soon, and boy is the nation excited! The Cos(by) gave an interview to Ukee Washington, who irritatingly kept calling him “Dr. Cosby.”

Cosby told kids to put down guns and get real jobs by going to Community College. And look what you can do afterward!

“You can become a mechanic, what kind of mechanic? Air-conditioning? Listen, think about that. You can charge 75 dollars just for showing up, not having the parts and saying you’ll be back! That’s a lot of money!”

Hey, kids, put down the guns and you can get a job as an unreliable mechanic everyone hates! Thanks, Dr. Cosby. We can’t wait to hear what else you have to say.

The murder trial of Mark Patrick O’Donnell in Montgomery County on Friday somehow turned into a sex toy show. O’Donnell is charged with killing his girlfriend’s daughter, 14-year-old Ebony Dorsey; the Daily News writes the prosecution’s case paints O’Donnell as a crackhead sex fiend.

But, wait, the defense has another theory, and then this happened:

First, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele walked to the back of the room and asked a group of teenage girls to leave – “It’s probably not a good idea to be in here” - as Santarelli slid on a pair of rubber gloves and got to work.

Judge William J. Furber, who is presiding over the nonjury trial, nodded stoically as the detective displayed a vibrator, purple anal beads, a bottle of “pleasure-enhancing lubricant,” a videotape titled “Big Bad Biker Bitches” and a mysterious sex device with wires coming out of it. “Whatever this device is,” Santarelli said from the witness stand, holding up what appeared to be a black tassel whip.

Ahh, yes, of course, the sex toy defense, where you attempt to… to what, exactly? Oh no, the victim’s mother had sex toys, clearly this defendant is innocent. Innocent, biker bitches!

Currently Philadelphia police are on the lookout for a gun-toting thief who snuck into a Drexel University building and gave a female employee the scare of a lifetime.
The robber made his way into Stratton Hall at 32nd and Chestnut streets shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday and soon wandered into a faculty member’s office, said Capt. Benjamin Naish of Southwest Detectives.

The unidentified employee screamed when she saw the man, who was clutching a handgun. “He told her to shut up, and then there was a slight struggle,” Naish said. “The victim did not, however, suffer any serious injuries.”

The crook made off with the woman’s cell phone, but his face was captured on several Drexel security cameras. Naish described him as a thin, 6-foot to 6-foot-3 mustachioed black man in his 20s who wore a distinctive long-sleeved white shirt that appeared to have an image of a mime on it.

Dominic Ceccanecchio, Drexel’s senior associate vice president for public safety, said the university is asking its students and faculty to remain on alert. School officials have shared video images of the suspect with security officers at Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania.

“We hope that we get a positive outcome in the near future,” Ceccanecchio said.

Crazy.

Larry, we all know you wanted those bikini photo’s, but you didn’t have to do this!

Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation of CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte and searched his home to determine whether he illegally accessed the private e-mail of onetime colleague Alycia Lane, numerous sources told The Inquirer today.

Mendte’s lawyer, Michael A. Schwartz, confirmed tonight that FBI agents approached his client Thursday and searched his home. Schwartz said it was related to “claims made by Alycia Lane.” He added that “Larry is cooperating fully with the investigators and hopes to promptly reach a resolution of this matter.” [...]

FBI agents from the Computer-Crimes Squad executed a search warrant on Mendte’s Chestnut Hill home on Thursday and seized his personal computer - a rarity given his status as a journalist.

Wow. And, once again, the whole Alycia Lane saga continues to not only (A) drag on, but (B) get even stranger. Who knows. But now that the feds are involved, will they release the bikini photos? Maybe?

There’s more on everyone’s new favorite con man, Paul Krueger. The man who allegedly bilked women who met him on Millionairematch.com by telling them he was a Grammy-nominated music producer was arrested yesterday in Atlantic City.

Cops say he stole around $100,000 from 13 women and gambled it away down the shore. The Daily News says not only was he not a millionaire, he was homeless! “He used his only possession, a laptop, to lure women,” the paper writes.

He apparently didn’t even meet most of the women he scammed money from; he just got them to send him money for his new company that would be making CDs and DVDs. Yes, people are stupid, blah blah blah.

NBC 10 also spent a few minutes early in its 6 p.m. newscast last night to cover a “scandalous sex shop” in West Chester. Apparently, there’s a store with lingerie that has sex toys in the back, and people are not happy because it’s near an ice cream shop, a pizza place and a school.

“I think anytime you take something like that - something involving human sexuality and pervert it -that’s wrong,” the Rev. Edward Deliman told NBC 10. The “sexologist” is unbowed, ready and willing to fight for her shop’s right to sell vibrators.

Center City offices are on alert right now after that loud fighter jet noise that went overhead just a few minutes ago. Seriously, what the hell?

RJ: You hear that just now?
D-Mac: I did!
RJ: Like some kind of fighter jet
D-Mac: Yeah.
RJ: The place is abuzz!
D-Mac: WHAT COULD IT BE???
RJ: Man, seriously — it was creepy.
D-Mac: PWD will get to the bottom of this!
D-Mac: “Perhaps a UFO,” I’ll write.
RJ: …DEVELOPING…
D-Mac: Or maybe knocking down some of those buildings for the Convention Center expansion?
RJ: Nah — it was overhead and moved from east to west
D-Mac: definitely a UFO then
RJ: IT WAS THE FLASH, RUNNING TO JLA HEADQUARTERS

Turns out Air Force Week in Philadelphia began yesterday, and it’s probably just the annual Scare the Hell out of the Office Workers on Their Day Back to Work Flyover. (Air Force Day at Independence Hall started at 11 a.m., so there’s your culprit.)

Chris Booker has been fired from his morning show drive-time job at Q102, the Inquirer reports in a rather huge headline on the front page of Philly.com currently. (The website also switched from a photo of Booker himself to one of him and girlfriend Alycia Lane. Great move!)

Q102 is apparently moving “to a show that’s more music-intensive.” Oh, and Diego Ramos will not be fired, though a bunch of other people have been axed as well. I can only imagine that Barsky will soon be the host of a new morning show somewhere.

Booker told Mike Klein he was surprised: “I’ve been fired before for low ratings, but never for being No. 1.” On a side note, I enjoy tremendously the poll question on the front page of Philly.com: “Speak out: Did the station act hastily?” Oh, yes, they should have waited until a full investigation was done of his show. Due process!

If you have any Philadelphia News, Events, etc. please email them to phillytips@kyledylanconner.com.