Deregulation Without Representation Is Tyranny, YO

REMOTE CONTROL: How big are the stakes in the so-called network neutrality debate now raging before Congress and federal regulators? Consider this: One side in the debate actually went to the trouble of hiring people off the street to pack a Federal Communications Commission meeting yesterday — and effectively keep some of its opponents out of the room. Broadband giant Comcast — the subject of the F.C.C. hearing on network neutrality at the Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts — acknowledged that it did exactly that. Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early […]

QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: Inky Finds PPA Worker Comp Claims Are Astonishingly High

INQUIRER: Battling fires and fighting crime is risky work, to be sure, but those jobs have nothing on writing parking tickets. Or so it would seem, if workers’ compensation claims are any indication. Over the last four years, employees at the Philadelphia Parking Authority have reported being hurt on the job more than twice as often as city firefighters or police officers. As a result, the Parking Authority spends far more on settling workplace-injury claims: $1,558 per employee, compared with the firefighters’ average of $1,084 and the Police Department figure of $833, according to an Inquirer analysis of city and […]

NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006

FRESH AIR Director Brett Morgen joins Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross to discuss his new film, Chicago 10. Morgen uses archival footage and animation techniques to tell the story of the anti-war activists known as “the Chicago 8” — a misnomer, he says, and one he corrects in his film title. Outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, protesters rallied to show disapproval of the Vietnam War. They hadn’t been granted demonstration permits, however, and for a week, they were involved in violent conflict with Chicago police. Less than a year later, eight of the protest leaders — the so-called Chicago […]

BLANCO Y NEGRO: N*gger Please!

BY RUDY SIMPSON It may be a cliche to say that controversy sells records, but that doesn’t make it any less true. By that metric, Nas is poised to go mega-platinum with his forthcoming release, the unspeakably titled Nigger. That is, assuming a hip-hop album — or any album for that matter — can still go mega-platinum in this day and age. I am beginning to have my doubts. Nas is no stranger to provocation. He proclaimed that “Hip Hop is Dead” with his last release and even rhymed on wax that he “waves automatic guns at nuns” in a […]

TURD BURGLARS: Cops Say Gay Porn Wonder Twins Responsible For Wave Of Daring Rooftop Robberies

DAILY NEWS: TWINS Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney have been arrested for allegedly breaking into area businesses by cutting rooftop holes to gain entry. Turns out, they were also just as skilled at breaking into their second, more respectable careers — as hardcore gay-porn stars. The 25-year-old Goffney twins, both of New Jersey, were arrested Feb. 19. They were charged with breaking into Moon’s Beauty Shop at 9th and Washington streets in South Philadelphia and the adjoining Wings and More, using only a handsaw and ax to get in through the roofs of the establishments. A Rite Aid at Front Street […]