After an 18 month Internal Affairs investigation officers Patrick Cavalieri and David McAndrews were charged with assault, criminal conspiracy and reckless endangerment. The charges stem from an altercation that took place with the two officers and a plain clothes officer outside of the MTV Real World House in Philadelphia in May of 2004.

The two officers allegedly went to the Real World House and were banging on the door when a plain clothes officer attempted to stop them. The two officers allegedly attacked the plain clothes officer. The plain clothes officer had been assigned as police protection to the house.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson suspended both officers 30 days and then is expected to dismiss them. The police union plans to fight the suspensions and dismissals.

The outdoor roller hockey league located in Northeast Philadelphia at the Palmer playground will close out its fourth and possibly final regular season tomorrow night (barring rain). There is one game scheduled and it will take place at 7:30 on the lower rink between first place Team Hemi (5-0) and third place Team Venom (1-4). The teams met a couple weeks ago with Team Hemi winning 6-1.

If you are a fan of roller hockey, come on out and witness what may be the last regular season game in the CTHA.

The ballots for the 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame were sent out to voters this week and Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds slugger Pete Rose was not on it. This year marked the final year that Rose would be eligible for the writer

Simon Gagne didn

My first few years in Philly were student years, so my legal state-of-residence was New Jersey. Once I began working, it was sensible to officially “move” here, by changing my legal status, as acknowledgement of my now-12-months-out-of-the-year physical residency in Philadelphia.

When that change was made, I accepted the insurance hike (heck, NJ rates weren’t all that stellar) and the wage tax (I’ve never known any different) and made my peace with those changes.

The one change with which I have yet to make my peace is this state’s damned car inspection system.

Jersey requires an inspection for all registered cars that used to be an annual requirement, but once the inspections standards included emissions tests, and the whole process tripled in required time, each car was put on an alternate-year schedule for inspections. And these inspections are done (or at least were when I was still registered there) for free at state-run centers. State requirement, and the state provides the method to fulfill that requirement. Peculiarly logical.

And that tripling of required time? A five-minute inspection became a 15-minute one. (This does not, admittedly, count the waiting-in-line time, but get up early on a Saturday morning and it’s amazing how short that line is.)

Meanwhile, today was the day for my PA Vehicle Inspection. I dropped the car off with the mechanics at 8 AM, got the call to pick it up 8 hours later at 4 PM, and got to pay $80 for the privilege. And one year from now, I’ll get to do it all over again.

Can someone tell me exactly what coalition of auto mechanics paid off precisely which coalition of legislators in Harrisburg so they’d set up this particular racket? It’s as stupid as if PennDOT mandated that after paying our driver’s license fee to them, we were sent over to Kinko’s to pay $50 more to have the state-required I.D. printed and laminated….

Dear NBC10,

How’s it going? I tend to watch your news program in the evening and I sometimes check your website for the latest news. I had a couple of questions that perhaps you might be able to clear up. First, I wanted to know if at some point you will stick with actual news to report, instead of the fluff that I have seen lately. I read a “News Article” on NBC10.com today about a new designer mixed breed dog called a panda dog. I noticed immediately that it looks just like a panda bear! Wow I thought, amazing. Then when I kept reading I saw the following here. “Columbo, who is naturally white, was dyed using a special hair dye for dogs that lasts about a month” Interesting I thought, the dog is dyed to look like a panda bear. After reading this story, I expect to now see articles about “New Red Pugs” and “Zebra Dogs.” I’ll just find a few strays and give them an Extreme Makeover and perhaps I can find them a loving home. Don’t worry, I’ll include a case of Manic Panic with instructions on upkeep.

And to Cherie Bank I would like to find out where she gets such interesting and riveting topics for her “Health” segment. One of them from last week was titled “Thanksgiving Turkey Is Safe To Eat” which indeed explained that Turkey is safe to eat. Nice Work! And my favorite “Believers Say Homemade Drink Shrinks Gut, Aids Health” where she mentions apple cider vinegar not helping weight loss. Quality reporting. Cherie, what’s next? I have a few ideas. How about “Do we really need sleep? And what to do when you are tired.” or “Is water really good for you?” The best question I just thought of is “Why is Cherie Bank on the air?” “Do we need crap health reporters?”

Nbc10, please, I beg of you, there is a whole community that watches your program and I fear if you keep up this style of faux-news reporting that..that..well..crap…we’ll probably still just watch. But for the good of humanity! Why does local news suck? And is it just me, or does the entire cast scare the crap out of you? It’s like some clone factory, all the same haircut, same personality…Can someone stop me from watching this train wreck of a news program?

I must have missed this somewhere along the line as I didn

My obsession with Eric Hutchinson continues.

He will be recording three shows in December in order to create a live album. One of those shows will be in Philly, next Friday night at North by Northwest in Mt. Airy.

He says,

I want to capture the energy of my live show and for that I will need your help. Please come to these shows and bring your friends. Sing along to the songs. Clap to the beat. I will be playing plenty of old songs as well as many of my new favorites. There are a few of my new songs posted on MYSPACE and this will give you adequate time to learn the words.

You know, of course, that I will be there.

I saw on the news that Senator Arlen Specter accused the NFL and the Eagles of treating Terrell Owens unfairly, and also claimed he was considering handing over the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specter, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said at a news conference Monday in Harrisburg it was “vindictive and inappropriate” for the league and the Eagles to forbid the star wide receiver from playing and prevent other teams from talking to him.

“It’s a restraint of trade for them to do that, and the thought crosses my mind, it might be a violation of antitrust laws,” Specter said.

Oh, boo hoo. He has been the biggest @$$ for the last six months or longer and now the Eagles should have to pretend it all went away? Personally, I would have loved it if McNabb had come out when all this started and said that T.O. was really his second choice and that Marvin Harrison and Randy Moss were not available.

That would have been the truth.

Then I went to T.O.’s Web site for some Q&A. I joined it early in the year because I heard he answered people’s questions. The truth is his message board is open for about five minutes, once a month in the middle of the night. It fills up with three or four people asking multiple questions, then closes. T.O. then logs on whenever the hell he feels like it and gives the biggest non-answers since his own agent.

Here is a sampling:

From DBargas:
Sam McNabb: What do you think of his comments?

TO:
WHO IS THAT? :)

From Power808:
You brought your A game every week and you played to win. Because the bottom line is winning football games. I am very sorry to see you go almost to the point of depression. Long live the philly 81. We miss you and love you.

TO:
I KNOW I DO, ONLY IF THE FANS REALLY KNEW!!! THAT’S Y I CN’T B MAD @ EM, BUT I WISH THEY KNEW AND UNDERSTOOD!! :)

From Perfectseason14:
A reporter asked the question to Drew Rosenhaus, “What have you done for TO besides get him kicked off the eagles?” Of course he said next question, and you smirked in the background. How did you feel about the question?

TO:
I WAS LAFFIN @ A REPORTER MOCKIN DREW, NOT @ WHAT THEY ASKED HIM! :)

From: Eagles_girl
In your book you gave props to your former agent and said that you could trust him fully. Then, a year later, this same guy is gone…

I just don’t get it…

TO:
I DID, BUT THINGS CHANGED AND IT’S VERY UNFORTUNATE! I KNOW WHT I WROTE N MY BOOK! :)

From DBargas:
Jesses stated today that you and Donovan have talked over the phone. Is this true?

TO:
HE SAID THT I REACHED OUT 2 HIM, HVN’T TALKED 2 HIM YET!

It means it’s time to attend Drinking Liberally over at Tangier (18th and Lombard) from 6-9 pm.

Additionally, the store over at Drinking Liberally is now open, for all your holiday shopping needs.