With The Mooney Suzuki Tonight At The Khyber
GAMBLOR: ‘I Don’t Know Whether To Cry Or Shit Spit’
Pennsylvania state senate Republicans are raising the stakes in their standoff with Rendell administration officials who are refusing to testify about the possible closing of casinos if the budget stalemate drags on (see previous stories). Republican state senator Jane Earll chairs a committee that has issued subpoenas to two Rendell administration officials to testify about the possible casino closures. Despite the subpoenas, those officials were no-shows at a Friday morning hearing. Earll says the committee will now explore its legal options. She declined to say what those options are, but a lawyer for Senate Republicans has said the arrest of […]
THE CASE AGAINST THE VICE PRESIDENT
ImpeachCheney: Go here to sign the petition
NPR FOR THE DEF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Carol Muske-Dukes has written three novels and seven collections of poetry, been a National Book Award finalist and received a Guggenheim fellowship. Her latest novel is Channeling Mark Twain, which fellow author Mary Karr describes as “a riveting story about women in prison, with language that scorches the page and characters you won’t be able to live without.” PLUS, British singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry is probably best known as the frontman for Roxy Music, the experimental synth-pop band he founded in 1971. But over the years, in between his Roxy music, he’s recorded albums devoted to songwriters he admires. […]
CLOSE CALL: Terror Docs Made Local Inquiries
BY JOHN SHIFFMAN AND GEORGE ANASTASIA INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Two of the seven doctors arrested in Britain after last week’s failed bomb attacks had explored the possibility of coming to the United States, making inquiries to a Philadelphia-based organization, sources said. After the Glasgow airport bombing attempt, FBI agents visited the Philadelphia headquarters of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. The nonprofit organization is a national clearinghouse that certifies the qualifications of foreign-trained doctors to work as medical residents in the United States. Agents found records there on two of the British suspects. One of them, sources said, is […]
The Tao Of Sluggo
This is so awesome we are running it again. Please pay attention this time, it will be on the test.
iMAYOR: Much Ado About Doing Nothing
Even on a superficial level — what about appearances? What about the lack of dignity of the city’s chief executive wearing workout clothes and sitting in a lawnchair near a Dumpster? Sure, Ed Rendell made himself look ridiculous on occasion. But when he was photographed in a swimsuit doing a cannonball dive, it was to publicize that his administration opened the public pools on time. When he was photographed on his hands and knees, scrubbing a bathroom floor, it was to promote the fact that his administration was literally cleaning up City Hall. It wasn’t about getting himself a new […]
PAPERBOY: Read All About It!
BY AMY Z QUINN Look, this whole midweek holiday thing is messing me up. PW came out a day early this week, who knew, and besides, the Philly alt-weeklies are tough to come by down in Cape May. Oh right, you can read them online. Sssshhh, don’t tell the Boss. Anyway, I would have loved a nice light read this week, fortunately/unfortunately both weeklies’ cover stories are thick and juicy like that yardbird you chowed down on at your cousin’s barbecue. OUT FRONT Philadelphia Weekly: Steven Wells has the cover with a feature on a powerhouse girl’s soccer team, the […]
Miss NJ Defies Blackmailer Threats To Expose Photos
Miss New Jersey says someone is threatening to make some personal photographs of her public if she does not give up her crown. But Amy Polumbo [NOT pictured, that’s actually Vanessa Williams] is not just Miss New Jersey, she’s also a Jersey girl, and says she has no intention of giving in. “It would certainly be easier for me to simply succumb to these unlawful and immoral threats, and quietly disappear,” Polumbo said today at a news conference she called in Asbury Park. Polumbo, a 22-year-old Howell resident and a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, won the Miss […]
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 […]
EDITORIAL: What I Did On My Summer Vacation
BY DAN BUSKIRK CONCERNED AMERICAN When President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence on four felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, he waited till the eve of a national holiday, presumably hoping that everybody would go to the beach or the mountains, get drunk and spend most of Thursday grumbling to co-workers about having to come back to work instead of the double standard of justice for rich, white, politically-connected males. But for some of us, the Fourth Of July isn’t just about barbecues, fireworks and bumper-to-bumper traffic — some of us actually take the time to reflect […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Yiddish Policeman’s Secret Ball
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN BOOK CRITIC Michael Chabon throws down metaphors like a deejay dropping beats, skillfully teasing out the intersections of character and the circumstance that bend, break and, eventually, make them. As author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay and the critically acclaimed book-turned-movie Wonder Boys, Chabon has proven himself time and time again as a master storyteller. His new novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, is no exception. Lovers of film noir will appreciate Chabon’s protagonist, Detective Meyer Landsman, for his Bogart-like qualities. Like Bogey in The Big Sleep, Landsman is at once a ruthless, […]