MALONEY'S LATEST LIE Why do I have the feeling that Richard Maloney and Emperor Street's top cheap shot artist Frank Keel are actually the same person? (Okay, maybe not, but I think you get the idea.) On Thursday, SEPTA's chief spokesman/apologist/liar told the Philadelphia Daily News that SEPTA had not encountered any major problems related to the current arctic cold snap. "Knock on wood, we've not had any breakdown of the system that has significantly affected ridership," Maloney said. I guess Maloney forgot about the hundreds of angry commuters on the Paoli Line this past Tuesday. Or, perhaps, in the overall scheme of things, the Paoli Line isn't really that relevant to SEPTA. Nevertheless, it's just the latest lie to come out of Maloney's mouth, and I don't expect it to be the last one...

TWO SHOOTINGS In two separate incidents on Thursday, bullets struck SEPTA vehicles in Southwest Philadelphia. The first incident occured on a Center City bound 12 bus at 27 St and Schuylkill Av which was operating via University City; the second incident occured shortly before 6:30pm on a southbound 52 bus at 53 St and Greenway as it was looping towards the 49 St and Woodland Av layover point.