Pro-Palestinian activists with @JVPPhilly and Rabbis for Ceasefire are are blocking rush-hour traffic on the Spring Garden Street Bridge near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dozens are holding signs and chanting “Let Gaza Live.” While 100+ demonstrators shut down the bridge overhead, a smaller group of a few dozen has moved to block westbound lane on Interstate 76. The view from above:

Saturday night in Philadelphia. A mass shooting on 4th & South Street with reports of nearly a dozen people shot. I’m on scene where police have cordoned off the popular weekend strip, a trail of what appears to be blood snaking along the sidewalk in front of a Rita’s Water Ice. Looks like shooting travelled down South Street — signs of pandemonium stretching several blocks. Broken car window glass. Knocked over trashcans.

I’m in Center City where hundreds of protesters rallied outside the federal courthouse in support of Roe v. Wade. The crowd is now marching down Market Street in rush hour traffic toward another protest at City Hall

Follow @newskag @XimenaReports @oonagoodinsmith & I for more: A sampling of Philly abortion access protect signage:

- “Bans of my body”
- “keep your gross views off my daughter”
- “We Won’t Go Back”
- “Pro-Life is a Lie”

Cars honking, pedestrians cheering.

On a press tour of Philadelphia’s ballot processing equipment in a 125,000-square-foot, heavily guarded warehouse in the city’s Convention Center.

This is step 1: the sorting machine, where mail ballots are first received in the county. This does not read the actual vote. Step 2: the “extractor.” There will be 22 of these OPEX machines, which perform a two step process to extract ballots, first from the outside envelope and then from the inner “secrecy” envelope.

Each device is capable of extracting 12,000 ballots an hour.

A laptop and USB devices were stolen sometime this week from the Philadelphia’s elections storage warehouse.

I went over this morning to check out the security situation. I was able to walk right into the voting machine storage unit, alone, for several minutes. City Commissioners told me this morning the stolen devices have been disabled & they do not compromise the integrity of the Nov. election.

When this video ends, I ran into an staffer who told me press can’t be in the building. I told him the door was open & I announced my name.

Philly FOP again claims DA Krasner "supports murder and refuses to prosecute criminals."

According to Council testimony earlier this month, the DAO's shooting + homicide prosecution rate is 96% in 2020 — same as before Krasner.

All this incident, arrest & charge data is online

https://twitter.com/FOPLodge5/status/1308755159657349120

PPD's clearance rate for shootings and homicides is more striking than the prosecution rate. Here's the data (consolidated by DAO between police and courts) going back to 2015.

The DAO declined to charge in 27 of 1,762 shooting-related incidents through August this year.

Remarkable news in Philadelphia just now on I-676 teargassing:

- Mayor and police commissioner say they were wrong
- Deputy commissioner overseeing protest falls on sword, voluntarily demotes himself
- Officer who pepper sprayed protesters to be fired
billypenn.com/2020/06/25/ken… Many wondering if officials would have acted today without NYT video. Local journalists, witnesses and footage already painted a damning scene. The NYT did not reveal anything about the to-be-fired officer who, plain as day, maced peaceful protesters at close range. But...

NOW: Activists are occupying the lobby of Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building with further demands to defund the police Chanting “No justice, no peace, defund the police,” the group has a formal letter for Managing Director Brian Abernathy (who oversees police for Mayor Kenney; his office is in this building.)

As with other protesters, they’re asking for a $120 million reduction to PPD budget.

Northeast Philly ward leader Brian Eddis wrote a screed calling on Democratic party chairman Bob Brady to resign.

The complaints:
- Brady's "failed leadership"
- Brady handpicking white male friends for top DCC posts
- Brady allegedly muted ("silenced") Eddis on Zoom call Continued:

- Brady allegedly forced party's endorsement of (white male) auditor general candidate from Pittsburgh over a local woman of color, Nina Ahmad, who ended up winning anyway
- Critiques Brady's lobbyist work (Comcast, IBX, etc) and accuses him of enriching himself

AYO: Philly City Council is convening at 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night to move on Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2020 amended budget.

This includes drastic changes to the police department funding. The budget amendments are passing with 5-10 seconds of public hearing.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain has issued an extensive rebuttal of the federal class-action suit filed last week against Philadelphia's federal prison.

McSwain calls the request to release vulnerable inmates "a euphemism for ignoring the law."
billypenn.com/2020/04/15/phi… In the 50-page filing, McSwain argues inmates are not at risk at FDC — and goes further to argue prisons are extraordinarily containers for the virus.

The FDC reported zero cases last week, but inmates allege no testing is being done. McSwain doesn't deny that.

Philly Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw is taking questions from reporters on Zoom right now. City has been bombarded with questions about the number of police officers, firefighters, etc. who have tested positive, but officials will not release numbers day to day.

Outlaw cites privacy concerns and fear that daily release could "lead to panic and people calling in sick."

This @MikeNewall and @cs_palmer report is 100% accurate. You should read it.

My biased opinion: Given the storm of circumstances, the city's best option to save lives now is to divert drug activity away from the neighborhood's residential core.
inquirer.com/news/philadelp… Unfortunately, the easiest solution appears to be the least politically viable: re-open the Kensington bridge camps. Consolidate drug activity there. The city closed them down because they were a public health hazard. That seems laughable right now.

timeline of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. as told through the paintings of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch

January!! you don't even know where Iran is on the map, Rose, calm down

In City Hall where Mayor Kenney and officials are introducing new Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw for the first time Incoming Commissioner Outlaw’s first speech:
- “I will work relentlessly to reduce crime”
- racism and sexism won’t be tolerated
- this is not us vs. them
- we can support police + police accountability
- “I cant do this alone. [No one] can lead such change alone.”

At the United Republican Club in Kensington where Philly GOP ward leaders are voting in a new chairman — or woman, if it’s State Rep. Martina White.

The former chair announced his resignation over the weekend after the party‘s big election loss billypenn.com/2019/11/09/phi… Votes in: State Rep. Martina White is the new face of the Philly GOP.

She’ll be the first ever female chairperson for either Philly’s Democrat or Republican Party.

Very early returns show WFP's Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke staying pretty even with Republicans, but Northeast precincts haven't started trickling in yet based In City Council at-large race, WFP's Brooks and GOP's Oh hold a solid lead for the two contended seats reserved for a minority party. 👀

Here at the @PhillyAFLCIO workers’ summit in Philly with a slate of 2020 Democratic candidates to talk labor. First up, here’s Biden: @PhillyAFLCIO Relations between Biden and local labor have been strained in recent months inquirer.com/news/aflcio-jo…

Today, he's all about unions.

“All my career I’ve been called Middle Class Joe, and down in Washington that’s not a compliment.”

In PHL City Council for hearing on Plain View Project Facebook posts.

Before testimony, acting Commissioner Christine Coulter launches into an apology about the "LAPD: We Treat You Like a King" t-shirt she wore in '90s, recently reported by @cs_palmer inquirer.com/news/christine… @cs_palmer Coulter said she is "profoundly sorry" for the hurt caused by the shirt, and that looking at it through a "2019 lens...I should have known better."

"A life was lost last night in Philadelphia to gun violence," Mayor Jim Kenney says now at a presser about Wednesday's shootout in North Philly.

He was referring to a comparatively unnoticed homicide in South Philadelphia.

Kenney's remark turn toward gun violence reform. Kenney to state and federal lawmakers: "If you choose not to help us, then get out of the way, and allow cities like Philadelphia that struggle with gun violence to enact our own solutions."

The scene at taped off Broad & Erie. SEPTA buses are being used a waiting station for kids from a nearby daycare, some still waiting for parents.

Two mothers described getting the horrible call hour this afternoon that they’re was an active shooting near their children’s daycare "It's a scary situation...," said Amanda, who declined to give her last name. She said her son was at one of the daycares. "He was there when it happened. I was at work when they had called me... They said that there were shooting and they had the kids on lockdown."