Saad’s Halal is closed until Monday, July 11. (Photo West Philly Local)

Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim neighbors! The holy month of Ramadan began on Sunday, and as always, some of Muslim-owned restaurants will be closed for a month or will have limited hours.

Saad’s Halal restaurant at 45th and Walnut has closed and will reopen on Monday, July 11. Manakeesh Café and Bakery will be closed during the day starting Monday, June 6 and will be open for pickup starting at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served starting at sunset, and closing at 11 p.m. every night. The restaurant is also offering special catering for iftar. For more information, visit Manakeesh’s Facebook page.

Other restaurants may also offer specials during this month. Feel free to post this information in our Comments section below.

Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration is rethinking the much publicized move of the police headquarters to 46th and Market, despite the start of $250 million in renovations and plans for an art installation and possibly even a new Police Athletic League branch.

According to reports first in Phillymag.com and then Philly.com, the Kenny administration is assessing the feasibility of moving police headquarters from its current location at 750 Race St. to the old Philadelphia Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad, leaving the future of the sprawling 87-year-old Provident Mutual Insurance Co. campus at 46th and Market in question. Kenney told Philly.com that the plans to move to West Philly are now “up in the air.”

In a proposal devised by Michael Nutter’s administration, the Provident campus was planned to be renamed the Public Safety Services Campus and would include the Department of Public Health and the Medical Examiner’s Office. But Kenney told Philly.com yesterday that the Provident campus might be better for “health-related” services and that moving police to the Inquirer building would place it near City Hall and other downtown offices.

The City Council approved more than $250 million in funding to complete the renovations at the Provident, which were scheduled to be completed by December.

Michael Farrell (photo from Penn GSE website).

The School District of Philadelphia has announced the hiring of a new principal to replace the school’s founding principal, Sheila Sydnor, who is retiring at the end of the school year.

Michael T. Farrell, a West Philly native and the founding principal of Thomas Elementary School in South Philadelphia (run by Mastery Charter Schools) will take over at Penn Alexander in the fall. Farrell has been at Thomas since 2013 and before that he was an assistant principal, special education coordinator and teacher at various Philadelphia schools, including Science Leadership Academy.

A committee of Penn Alexander teachers, the School Advisory Council and University of Pennsylvania assisted the district in the nationwide search, which took more than three months.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Sydnor began her career as a teacher in 1975 and was principal of M.H. Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia before coming to Penn Alexander when the school opened in 2001.

“The Penn Alexander School is one of the brightest spots in The School District of Philadelphia as a result of Sheila Sydnor’s stellar leadership,” Dr. William R. Hite, Superintendent said in a statement.

Sydnor will assist Farrell in the transition, according to the statement.

Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut) has been closed since Friday and is likely to remain closed all week for air-conditioning system repairs. The Library Friends’ Friday book sale and other events and programs have also been cancelled.

The library reported on Friday that the temperature was in the low 90s on the second floor. The library experienced similar problems last summer and was closed on hottest days.

The library staff posted the following message on its Facebook page:

“We continue to experience excessive heat in the building (85*F +), and will not be able to open to the public until repairs are initiated.  Continue Reading

A large tree fell down this morning on the 4700 block of Larchwood Avenue and heavily damaged a parked car. No injuries have been reported. The block was closed to traffic as of 9 a.m. on Monday. (Photos by Michael Froehlich).

A West Philadelphia 7th grader, Saif Siddiquee, participated in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, being held this week in Washington, DC. 13-year-old Saif is a Penn Alexander School student. On Wednesday, Saif competed in the Preliminary Rounds 2 and 3 (onstage oral spelling) and spelled correctly both words (“crudités” and “recrudescence”) presented to him by the Bee’s official pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly.

Only 45 kids out of the 285 who entered in this year’s competition made it to the Finals, and, unfortunately, Saif wasn’t one of them. Nevertheless, we congratulate Saif on his great performance and for representing his school and Philadelphia in this prestigious contest.