BY DAVE GAMBACORTA OF THE DAILY NEWS Police say it was during this routine stroll that the lives of Leon [Harris, 17], an honor student at Upper Darby High School, and Michael and her brothers intersected. At 9:47 p.m., Michael’s brothers Breon Jones, 15, and Ronald Johnson, 17, jumped out of the SUV and approached Leon. Police say they asked him for cash – he had none – and told him to get into an alley. Frightened for his life, Leon turned and ran. Jones shot him once in the back, police said. Leon fell; the bullet had hit his […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
THE MAN COMES AROUND: Norman Mailer, The Free Library, Last Night [Photo by Eva Liao]
HIZZONER ’07: Judge Says Rules Are For Other People, Says THE MACHINE, Er, Bob Brady Stays On Ballot
BY WENDY Luzerne county Common Pleas judge Patrick Toole found Brady should have disclosed pension contributions the carpenters union makes on his behalf on his candidate?s statement of financial interests. But Toole said Brady acted ?in a reasonable and responsible manner? in filing out the form and should be allowed to amend his filing. ?Whenever possible, election contests should be decided by the hand of the voter in the election booth and not by the pen of the judge in a judicial chamber,? the judge found. He concluded that Brady was not required to disclose his city pension, because he […]
The Case Of The Vanished Owner, The Silent V.P. & The Newspaper That Got Scooped On Its Own Sale, Possibly
As you may well have heard by now, the following item appeared in Michael Klein’s Inqlings column in this Sunday’s Inquirer: The Philadelphia Weekly is on the market, according to publishing sources around town. I hear that the asking price for the freebie formerly known as the Welcomat is north of $25 million and that Review Publishing LP has signed confidentiality statements with prospects. It’s not clear whether other Review papers — the Atlantic City Weekly and the South Philly Review and the Southwest Philadelphia Review — are involved. Neither publisher Anthony A. Clifton [NOT pictured], who’s owned the paper […]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]
THE EARLY WORD: PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HAND OF THE MAN WHO STILLED THE WATER
[This is a picture of Joe Boyd, with hat, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when Dylan went electric.] This is Joe Boyd’s Wikipedia entry: Record producer Joe Boyd was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He first became involved in music promoting blues artists while a student at Harvard University, and in 1964 made his first visit to Britain, returning the following year to establish an overseas office of Elektra Records. He was eventually to settle in London.He became best-known for his work with British folk and folk rock artists, including the Incredible String Band, Martin Carthy, Nick Drake, John Martyn, […]
GUNCRAZY: Letting God Sort ‘Em Out
BY JOSEPH GAMBARDELLO OF THE INQUIRER An 18-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded yesterday afternoon outside a McDonald’s restaurant in West Oak Lane. Detectives were seeking the killer and a motive in the 1:17 p.m. shooting in the 2200 block of Stenton Avenue. The victim, not immediately identified, was taken with a stomach wound to Albert Einstein Medical Center and died at 2:10 p.m.It was the second fatal shooting of the day as the number of homicides in the city grew to 95. At 3:12 a.m., a 29-year-old man was shot multiple times in the chest in the 1300 […]
SPORTO: The 700 Level Needs Your Vote
The current issue of Sports Illustrated [not pictured, because quite frankly we prefer this old-school cover with our man McEnroe] features a poll where readers can decide which blog is the go-to for Phillies info. Congrats to all who were nominated: 700 Level, Beerleaguer, Phillies Flow, and The Phillies Fan Page. We don’t really have a dog in this fight, but we’re gonna go with our man in the cheap seats, Enrico Campitelli Jr., for two reasons: First of all, 700 Level is the all-time goddamn GENIUS name for a Philly sports blog. Second, Enrico is the only Philly sports […]
GAYBO: FIRST WE TAKE LOS ANGELES
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Hollywood. Malibu. Beverly Hills. All calling cards for the rich and famous. But beneath that superficial veneer lies a dark side to L.A. living. Ramon and I took advantage of an airfare war in January and snagged cheap tix to L.A. Neither of us had ever been, mostly because I had always heard such awful things about the place. Still, the lure of sunshine and 75-degree days was strong, so off we went. Driving. Nobody walks in L.A. Having lived on the East Coast all my life, I’m quite familiar with the concept of traffic, […]
DOJ’s WHITE HOUSE LIAISON INVOKES THE FIFTH
“The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real,” says her lawyer. WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ liaison with the White House will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday. “I have decided to follow my lawyer’s advice and respectfully invoke my constitutional right,” Monica Goodling [pictured right, at a law school alumnus picnic], Gonzales’ counsel and White House liaison, said in a statement to the Senate […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
OK Go outshines top act Kicks Snow Patrol’s Motherfuckin’ Ass! BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Saturday at the Tweeter Center, it was OK Go’s night; Snow Patrol just headlined it.Snow Patrol, as you may well known, is the British band that had huge, ubiquitous hits with “Run” (a.k.a. the “Light Up” song) and “Chasing Cars,” which, thanks to some emotionally pitched placement in movies and TV dramas, have become suburban anthems for minivan malcontents everywhere – the kind of songs that make you want to open up the moon roof and pump your fist in the air. That’s the good […]