We’re a bit late on this, but it would be a shame if we fail to mention this great achievement by one of our neighbors.

Congratulations to West Philly’s Jacob Soll for receiving the MacArthur award, sometimes called the ‘genius award.’ Soll, a history professor at Rutgers University-Camden, is among this year’s 22 recipients of the prestigious award, which recognizes “exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.” The award includes a $500,000 grant that the recipients will get “no-strings-attached” over the next five years.

Newsworks.org has a great interview with him on this page.

It always seemed too good to be true. The experiment in buying wine at special kiosks in grocery stores around the state, including one at the Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut, is over.

The Pronto Wine Kiosk program which included around 100 kiosks across various Pennsylvania locations is being shut down due to some monetary disputes between the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) that runs the kiosks and the machine supplier, a Conshohocken-based company Simple Brands L.L.C. The PLCB claims to not have been reimbursed by Simple Brands for over $1 million in expenses it incurred from the kiosks wiring and stocking. Simple Brands were supposed to supply the machines at no cost to PLCB, while sharing the profits.

The kiosks had all kinds of age verification technology and even a built-in Breathalyzer (important for the one at 40th and Walnut streets, which is surrounded by students). But customers often said the kiosks were difficult to operate.

Penn’s student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that the Fresh Grocer has expressed disappointment over the kiosk closing. It quotes Carly Spross, the Fresh Grocer Marketing Director, who said that this service brought “convenience” to the Fresh Grocer’s customers and “helped bring in additional foot traffic to our stores.”

A fire destroyed the third floor of a three-story building at 4006 Market St. this morning. The building houses the Bo Sing Chinese restaurant on the first floor. The fire appeared to have started on the third floor of the building. Firefighters had to cut part of the roof off to check for flames. A cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

According to the announcement on the Curio Theatre Facebook page, tonight’s performance of Lord of the Flies in Clark Park has been canceled due to rainy weather and soggy ground conditions. Tomorrow’s and Friday performances are still on (scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.).

Iris Marie Bloom, a well-known West Philly activist and director of the environmental group Protecting Our Waters, is one of the organizers of an anti-fracking protest which will take place tomorrow, Sept. 7, from noon to 2 p.m. in Center City. The protest will include a rally in front of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and march which will follow until 3 p.m.

Another West Philly resident, Beth Nixon of Spiral Q Puppet Theater Ramshackle Enterprises, will also join the action as one of the performers at the rally.

One of the speakers at the tomorrow’s rally is Josh Fox, director of Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland.

For more information on the protest visit this page.

We have learned that there were still a number of West Philly residents without power as of last night as a result of Hurricane Irene. Resident Ben Jacobs wrote us that there was no power on the 400 block of S. 43rd Street since 9 a.m. yesterday morning.

PECO couldn’t provide estimates for West Philadelphia in particular, but there are 5,000 PECO customers in Philadelphia County without power today. Director of Communications for PECO Karen Muldoon Geus said in an email that they expect that power to some 90 percent of customers will be restored by Wednesday and the remainder by the weekend.

Help keep us and your neighbors up-to-date on power issues at your place by dropping a comment below.