Local Transgender Podiatrist settles gender discrimination complaint.......yea, you read it right....

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A transgender podiatrist who alleged that he/she was forced from a top position at St. Luke's Hospital in Allentown has settled her gender discrimination complaint against the hospital.

Gwen Greenberg, who was director of the podiatric surgical residency program at St. Luke's Hospital-Allentown for 13 years, filed a complaint in November with the Allentown Human Relations Commission and another in December with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

As part of the settlement terms announced Friday, St. Luke's agreed to add "gender identity and expression" to the categories of people protected by its patient bill of rights, to offer education to hospital staff on gender identity and sexual orientation issues.

Other details, including whether Greenberg would be reinstated or receive back pay, were not released in the joint statement released by her lawyer and the hospital.

"All outstanding matters between Dr. Greenberg and St. Luke's have been privately and amicably resolved at the satisfaction of both parties," the statement says.

Greenberg, formerly known as Gary Greenberg, received counseling and hormone treatments before changing his/her name and persona to that of a female four months before he/she filed the complaint. He/She said he/she had long suffered from dysphoria, a condition characterized by intense feelings of being the wrong gender.

Philadelphians March against Violence, April 4th......

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- It has been a winter of tears and funerals for the Philadelphia public schools.

More than a dozen schoolchildren have been murdered since classes started last fall, putting this academic year on pace to be one of the district's deadliest in a decade. All but one happened far from school property, but they have sparked action among teachers and administrators sick of burying their students.

Victims include an 8-year-old struck by a bullet as he rode in a car, a 13-year-old who was raped and stabbed in an abandoned row house, and two teenage girls -- a standout student at the city's performing arts school and a budding equestrian -- found massacred with their families.

Since September, the district has stepped up its year-old policy of offering reward money -- usually $5,000 or $6,000 -- for tips leading to an arrest in a student's murder.

There has been a surge of recruits to the district's "safe corridors" program, in which volunteers equipped with radios keep watch over the main streets used by children as they walk to and from school.

More than 1,000 children, teachers and parents are expected to march on April 4, Palm Sunday, through a neighborhood where 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs was fatally wounded last month when a gunfight erupted outside his school.

Comcast's latest Deal.........

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comcast Corp. has signed an agreement to buy the TechTV cable network from billionaire Paul Allen's Vulcan Programming Inc., the company said Thursday.

Comcast will merge TechTV with its G4 network, which is devoted to the world of video games.

The deal is valued at around $300 million, according to a source familiar with the terms who spoke on condition of anonymity. EchoStar Communications Corp., which runs the Dish Network satellite television service, is taking a stake in the network of about 12 percent, according to the source.

The deal more than doubles the reach of G4, which is now seen in about 15 million homes on digital cable. The new network will be seen in about 44 million homes.

The purchase is subject to regulatory approval and may take several months to close, the company said.

Until then, the two networks will continue to be run separately. TechTV, which was originally launched in 1998 as Ziff-Davis TV, is based in San Francisco. The new, combined network, which has yet to be named, will be based in Los Angeles.

Charles Hirschhorn, founder and chief executive of G4, will run the combined network.

"I went to bed a kid and woke up an adult," Hirschhorn said.

Philadelphia-based Comcast had budgeted $150 million over five years to get G4 to profitability. The merger announced Thursday accelerates that goal and nearly doubles the amount of original programming on G4.

G4 features programs such as a daily news show called "Pulse," a review segment and even a show detailing the tricks programmed into games — known as "cheats."

TechTV also has some game-oriented programming, including the show "X-Play," a daily technology news show and other original programs.

The new network will have a strong focus on games, Hirschhorn said. The gaming industry has sales of about $11 billion a year.

"It's the fastest growing sector of the entertainment business," he said.

Today's guests on the Radio show are Ladislau G. Hajos local author of Search for Love and our old friend Rowan Scarborough , Pentagon Reporter for the Washington Times.......

Center City Philadelphia's Latest Report Card....

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The population of Center City is up 9 percent since 2000, and its residents — younger and better educated than those elsewhere in the city — feel safer.

Now for the bad news from the annual "State of Center City," which is compiled by a business organization.

The area is losing professional and high-tech jobs.

The report by the Center City District found that Philadelphia lost 10 percent of these high-end jobs between 1991 and 2003, while the suburbs attracted 38 percent more of them.

"We have a very strong residential sector; we have a good, healthy education and health-care sector; we have a recovering hospitality sector, and we have an office sector, which is our largest center of employment (and) which has not been growing," said Paul Levy, the group's executive director.

The report faulted the city's tax structure and lack of regional business marketing for the job loss.

Philadelphia Phillies help the Florida economy.....Florida's spring training attendance up 17 percent from 2003

ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) - Attendance at Florida's spring training games is up 17 percent compared to 2003 and is on pace to set a Grapefruit League record, according to figures released Thursday by the state's sports promotion organization.

Per-game attendance through Wednesday stands at 5,978, compared to 5,105 at this time last year, the Florida Sports Foundation said.

"We're hoping to get to 6,000 per game. That would be something," Florida Sports Foundation spokesman Nick Gandy said.

Should the average turnout stay at this level, total attendance would reach a record 1.6 million. Attendance through 197 games is 1,177,655, with three games rained out.

"It shows how strong spring training is to Florida, that we have both residents and tourists attending our games," said David Cardwell, executive director of the Grapefruit League Association.

While 16 of the Grapefruit League's 18 teams are seeing higher turnstile counts, much of the attendance boom can be credited to the opening of the Philadelphia Phillies' new stadium in Clearwater.

Through 11 games at Bright House Networks Field, 84,860 fans have passed through the gates for an average of 7,715 per game. In 2003, the Phillies averaged 3,400 fewer at crumbling Jack Russell Stadium.

"The message we've been sending, and so far the Legislature is responding favorably to, is that spring training is economic development and tourism development," Cardwell said. "It means money to the state, it means more activities for our residents and guests, and it highlights Florida throughout the world."

Southwest to quickly expand Philadelphia flights

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it will double the number of flights it operates in and out of Philadelphia, raising the competitive stakes with US Airways, the dominant carrier in the city.

Just weeks before Southwest moves into Philadelphia, hitting struggling US Airways with low-fare competition, colorful Southwest Chairman Herb Kelleher swooped into town for a bus tour with reporters.

Kelleher announced that after starting May 9 with 14 daily flights, Southwest will quickly expand service on July 6, adding trips to Boston and other cities and doubling the number of flights.

Porn Actress Missing in Conshohocken....UPDATE....

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A photographer was charged with stabbing to death a Canadian porn actress, apparently after a photo shoot with a sexual bondage theme, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Anthony Joseph Frederick, 46, of Eagleville, Pa., was charged with first- and third-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, lying to authorities and possession of the murder weapon, which has not been found. He was ordered held without bail.

Jennifer Mitkus, 29, said by authorities to be Frederick's assistant, was charged with lying to authorities and hindering apprehension. She was in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Frederick, 46, was arrested around midnight Tuesday, less than a day after the body of 23-year-old actress and model Natel King (aka Taylor Sumers) was found in a rocky, heavily wooded area near the Schuylkill River in suburban Philadelphia. She had been missing for more than three weeks.

Philadelphia Neighborhood Transformation Initiative Stumbling Along

Philadelphia- The mayor's anti-blight initiative, which anticipated taking down between 11,000 and 14,000 buildings over five years, has had a reality check.

Based on demolition costs over the past 12 months, program director Patricia Smith yesterday estimated the city will raze no more than 6,000 to 7,000 structures.

Demolition costs have ballooned to $22,000 per house, up from an average of $14,000 last spring, Smith said.

It also appears that the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative has exhausted money set aside to acquire condemned properties.

The city has committed $60 million to buy 5,525 properties condemned by City Council over the past 20 months.

The city will have completed taking roughly 1,500 of those properties by June 30.

But because the funds are pledged to condemned properties remaining in the pipeline, the acquisition of new properties is at a standstill, said Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell.

Blackwell, who has all but exhausted the NTI allocation for her West Philadelphia district, wants the Street administration to add $15 million to the current budget to acquire more land, even if it means issuing more bond debt.

The administration already is asking Council to amend the budget for fiscal 2004 to boost demolition spending by $25 million for a total of $53 million.

The spending changes are within the context of a five-year program financed by $275 million to $290 million in bonds.

That seemed like a whole lot of money when Council approved NTI in 2002, but it clearly isn't stretching as far as expected.

The destruction of abandoned and derelict buildings, especially the 7,000 or so that are imminently dangerous, is a key component of Mayor Street's anti-blight plan.

But the sharp reduction in how many buildings will get demolished doesn't mean NTI isn't succeeding, said Barbara Grant, the mayor's press secretary.

"We basically will be making a significant dent in the number of imminently dangerous houses," Grant said.

"So we do feel like we're accomplishing our goals there."

The initiative also is meeting its goal to attract developers to renovate or build new housing in deteriorated neighborhoods, Grant said.

The administration gives NTI credit for stimulating the production of nearly 4,000 new and rehabbed housing units that are either under construction or in the production pipeline.

"It's weed-and-seed money," Grant said.

The administration said the 40 percent increase in demolition costs is driven by three factors:

--Too few firms bidding on the work. Although as many as six firms bid on the two most recent demolition packages, earlier batches drew only two or three bidders.

--A higher-than-expected number of structures that require hand demolitions because they are connected to other properties. Hand demos add $1,000 to $1,500 to the cost of each take-down.

--More hand demolitions mean that more party walls must be stuccoed at a cost of $9,000 each. The city estimates for every 100 buildings razed, 64 party walls have to be repaired.

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Philly Skateboarders take some more lumps

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When skateboarders got the boot from famed Love Park in Philadelphia, some crossed the street to the concrete apron near City Hall, turning Dilworth Plaza into the latest scene.

Months later, city officials are catching up with them, affixing cleats and metal discs to railings and benches at the plaza to keep skateboarders away.

New signs announce the ban on skateboarding, bicycling and in-line skating.

The change, which cost $6,500, is necessary to protect pedestrians and reduce property damage on benches and railings, said Managing Director Phil Goldsmith. The city has spent $8,500 to replace damaged railings, while other damage runs to the tens of thousands, officials said.

"It would be a far greater cost to the city to do nothing," Goldsmith said.

Scott Kip, a skateboarding advocate, said the city will pay a significant price for the ban, in terms of its public image.

"The Real World" returns to Philadelphia

MTV's hit reality show The Real World in back in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the end of a fight with local unions.

Show producers and labor leaders negotiated a deal Tuesday to bring it back to the city - one week after Bunim/Murray Productions left the area amid a clash with the city's powerful unions.

The parties had been negotiating since Friday in Mayor John Street's City Hall office. Details of the agreement have yet to be released.

Bosses of the Real World's 15th season packed up on March 16, three weeks after arriving, amid a dispute over its hiring of non-union laborers to work on the building where the cast of seven strangers would be thrown together and have their lives videotaped.

The column-fronted former bank in the trendy Old City neighborhood was 70 percent finished in its conversion to a swanky loft when work halted.

The End was Nigh....

An asteroid flew past Earth last week so close that it nearly entered an orbital halo where weather satellites roam. Scientists spotted it March 15 and watched it zoom by just three days later. It posed no threat, but there are hundreds of thousands more where that one came from.

And while asteroid 2004 FH, as it is known, was watched calmly by astronomers, a more frightening scenario unfolded two months earlier:

An unprecedented asteroid scare in January had astronomers worried for a few hours over a rock that had a 1-in-4 chance of hitting Earth during the next few days. At the time, some of the scientists were unsure who should be notified. The event has prompted NASA to set up a formal process for notifying top officials in the future of any impending impacts.

Astronomers estimate there are about 1,100 asteroids larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) that sometimes inhabit the same general space as Earth. These are the potential civilization destroyers. More than half have been found and some 90 percent are expected to be catalogued by 2008.

Philadelphia Region, Where the United States comes for it's Meth.......?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia region is increasingly the source of the methamphetamine consumed in the eastern United States, according to Drug Enforcement Agency officials.

In one recent case, a Hatfield man admitted he was making methamphetamine in a Towamencin hotel, police said after the man's arrest in December.

Across Pennsylvania, state police believe they are on track to uncover a record number of methamphetamine labs this year after finding 32 in the first three months alone.

The number has nearly doubled each year for the past two years, totally 117 in all from 2001 to 2003. Because of the hazardous materials used to make the drug, cleanup costs average $2,000 to $4,000 per site — and taxpayers generally foot the bill.

"We're going to get slammed this year," said Sgt. Mike Rudda, who heads a state police unit that handles illegal drug labs.

Plan Presented to Save Three Historic Buildings in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Center City real-estate mogul has offered to buy three historical buildings near Rittenhouse Square, to save them from the wrecking ball and a future as a parking garage and movie theater.

Michael Singer, who owns hundreds of properties, including an apartment building near the Square, offered $11.25 million for the lot, saying he would partner with Frankel Enterprises. The buildings include the former Rittenhouse Coffee Shop, considered architecturally significant; the old Warwick apartments; and the Oliver H. Bair Funeral Home.

Singer wants to restore the coffee shop as a small restaurant, the Warwick as apartments, and the funeral home as an office building.

The three buildings are owned by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, whose executive director, Joseph Egan, said the ideas had come too late.

"We're committed to the theater complex," Singer said.

About a dozen groups are appealing the commission's September vote that approved the demolition of the stores.

An update on the Real World Philadelphia..........

A quick update on where things stand with the grassroots email write-in campaign in support of bringing The Real World back to Philly ...

As of noon today, more than 3,100 messages have been sent since Friday via www.campusphilly.org/realworld urging Bunim/Murray Productions to film in Philly. This morning, a packet with the full list of messages submitted thus far was sent to the mayor's office, the governor's office, the unions, and Bunim/Murray.

Campus Philly and Young Involved Philadelphia analyzed the 2,815 messages submitted as of 5pm on Sunday by age and by residence. 85% of respondents were between 12 and 34 years old (MTV's key demographic). 61% are from Philadelphia, 22% are from the Pennsylvania suburbs, 8% are from the New Jersey suburbs, and 9% are from elsewhere or did not identify their place of residence.

Submitted by Josh Sevin(YIP)

Photo courtesy Rodney Anonymous

Rev. Al Sharpton visits the Philadelphia Region

OXFORD, Pa. (AP) — A Democratic presidential candidate was stumping in the Philadelphia region this weekend, but it's not front-runner John Kerry.

The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke at a parents' day celebration Sunday at Lincoln University in suburban Chester County.

Sharpton told students they have no excuse if they don't succeed.

"Don't ever settle for being black. Don't ever act like you're banned for life because of your circumstances," he urged them.

Sharpton also said that President George Bush had failed to show the American public the true picture — or cost — of the war.

"To bring this country to war, lose 500 soldiers, to spend billions on defense is an impossible position to take. We don't have money for public schools and grandma's prescription drugs, but we do have $7 billion to go to war," Sharpton said.

NASDAQ and The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Partner to Offer Options on The NASDAQ Composite Index(R)

NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA, March 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. ("NASDAQ®") and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) today announced that beginning today, options on the NASDAQ Composite Index® will be listed and traded at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Philadelphia Veterans Stadium reduced to rubble

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Veterans Stadium was reduced to a pile of rubble in just more than a minute today as hundreds of people gathered to watch the demolition.

About 3,000 pounds of explosives took down the old concrete home of the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles, section by section in a clockwise direction as loud booms rang out.

A large area around the sports complex in South Philadelphia was closed off, and airspace above the stadium was restricted to a 1,500-foot elevation for a quarter-mile radius during the implosion.

Passing truckers blared their air horns in salute and, at one point, dozens of bystanders tried to cross over a police barricade, but were pushed back by police. A siren blared several minutes before the detonation, which began after Mayor John Street's 10-second countdown.

When it was over, a large cloud of dust rose over the site, home to the Phillies and the Eagles for more than 30 years. All that remained was a pile of concrete slabs and pillars.

Firefighters hosed down the rubble to contain the dust, which was so thick from some vantage points that the implosion was obscured and only the thundering booms could be heard.

Once the dust settles, workers will begin breaking down the concrete pieces, which will amount to 70,000 cubic yards of material. Contractors will be recycling debris on the site until July, and the spot will eventually serve as a 5,500-space parking lot.

The Phillies plan to paint an outline of the Vet's playing field across the new parking lot, and place granite markers at the former home plate, pitching mound and base locations.