Clarified comments about assignment operator.
Improved evaluation of strpos.
Added basic handling for times when '[the] status [is] not available'.
Updated get_date_string() to reflect new information about the 311 RSS feed's date format.
Added use of time() function.
Changed get_date_string() to make better use of time().
Replaced get_date_string() with better use of date() and strtotime(). Also improved reporting of RSS feed errors.