MEDIA: Daily News Gets A New Boss

Executive Vice President Mark Frisby will take over as publisher of the tabloid, Tierney said. Tierney will remain President and CEO of the Daily News. “This shows we’re going to actually step on the gas and invest more in the Daily News,” Tierney said. Brian Tierney — the CEO of the company that owns the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer — announced today that he is appointing a new publisher for the Daily News. Frisby came to the company last fall after serving as publisher of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J. He will continue to supervise production, […]

OBAMA: The Man Comes Around

“Obama also met for 30 minutes with Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter at the Sheraton Center City Hotel, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. He declined to characterize the meeting.During the primary, Obama had endorsed and stumped for one of Nutter’s rivals, Rep. Chaka Fattah. A spokeswoman for Nutter declined to comment on the meeting, saying it was private.” [INQUIRER] WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT: Barack Obama, Electric Factory, 5:10 P.M. [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Comic Don Rickles is known for insulting his audiences on stage, but he doesn’t consider himself an insult comic. His heyday was in the ’50s and ’60s, on TV and in Vegas. Frank Sinatra, an early fan, helped get him noticed. Now Rickles has written a memoir, Rickles’ Book. PLUS, documentary producer Huw Cordey helped create the staggeringly ambitious BBC series Planet Earth. The series was five years in the making and was shot in 62 countries on every continent. It was broadcast in the United States on The Discovery Channel, and is now available on DVD. RADIO […]

TONITE: Secret Cinema Under The Stars

On Tuesday, May 22, the Secret Cinema will present the historic drama Magnificent Doll at a very historic site — the cobblestone and ivy courtyard of the Morris House Hotel, built in 1787 as the luxury home of one of the Revolutionary era’s most celebrated families. This very special event will include dinner and a movie, and proceeds benefit The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The film to be shown is a little-seen biopic from Hollywood’s golden age, Magnificent Doll, starring Ginger Rogers as feisty first lady (and latter-day ice cream icon) Dolly Madison. Co-starring are David Niven and Burgess […]

TODAY I SAW…

[Photo by RACHAEL SHIRLEY]   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 […]

POP IN TAPE: Hot Wax In The 215

VINYL SOLUTION: Jerry Weber of Jerry’s Records, Pittsburgh, PA — the man who taught a generation of yinzers to love records BY MICHAEL FICHMAN Every summer, I troll around the streets of Philadelphia on sunny Saturdays and Sundays, looking for records. Behind mattresses and shitty table lamps, there are stacks of moldy gems waiting to see the light of a crisp diamond stylus. There are Al Greens who have gone decades without singing sweet romance, Bohannons who haven’t put their lifts on since the Carter Administration, Dwight Yoakam’s dry and desiccated like roadkill ten miles outside of Bakersfied. A typical […]

INFANTICIDE: Dead Trunk Baby Ruled Homicide

The Delaware County medical examiner has made public his findings in the death of a newborn boy – found last January in the trunk of a car. Medical examiner Fredric Hellman would not comment but released a written statement citing asphyxiation – smothering – as the cause of death for the newborn baby boy. His death has been ruled a homicide and charges are pending. The baby was found January 22nd in a duffel bag in the trunk of a car on Drexel Avenue in Upper Darby. The statement goes on to say the death was the result of “assault by […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

          FRESH AIR To celebrate, our producers have picked memorable moments from the past 20 years that they want to play back for you. Today’s show includes classic excerpts from interviews with Dexter Filkins, a reporter embedded with Marines in Iraq; actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who created the comic Kazakh Borat; undercover cop-turned-rapper Eric Davis; and “cutman” FX Toole, whose memories of life in the ring were the basis for the movie Million-Dollar Baby. RADIO TIMES WITH MARTY MOSS-COANE In response to Paul Wolfowitz’s resignation as president of the World Bank, we discuss his tumultuous two-year […]

FIGHT CITY HALL: Welcome To The Machine

Netroots Democrats in Philadelphia are locked in a fierce fight for control of the city’s Democratic organization, though their motivations have as much to do with good governance as winning elections. Chris Bowers is a Philadelphia activist and professional blogger for MyDD.com (as in Direct Democracy), a national netroots site. A former union organizer whose first foray into partisan politics was volunteering for Dean in 2004, Bowers says he got involved locally because “no one from the Democratic Party had ever contacted me about any election in the nearly seven years I had lived [here].” And he was fed up. […]

FEDS: Ex-Seaport Museum Prez Pirated $1.5 Million

PHILADELPHIA — The former president of the Independence Seaport Museum was charged with mail fraud and tax evasion after scamming the struggling institution out of more than $1.5 million, federal authorities said Monday. John S. Carter, 57, of Osterville, Mass., submitted false invoices to fund home improvements and other personal expenses, including jewelry, electronics, clothing and a pair of rare historical artifacts, authorities said. Carter also kept the proceeds from the sale of a rare boat that had been donated to the museum, authorities said. “The defendant used the museum’s funds as his personal piggy bank,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said. […]