Five masked Jamaican men barged into [popular reggae] Club William Penn at 57th and Ludlow streets at about 3 p.m., said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. The would-be thieves intended to rob [bar owner Clinton] Horrit, who is also Jamaican, but shot him once in the leg when he confronted them at the front of the bar. Horrit, 45, was then shoved into a white Ford or Chevy van that was waiting outside his club, Walker said, and a nail-biting ransom plot quickly unfolded. “By that point, they were too far into it,” Walker said. “The captors used his […]

ACCUWEATHER: High: 85 F RealFeel: 90 F Times of clouds and sun, warm and humid with a shower or thunderstorm

During the July 17 edition of ABC’s Good Morning America, co-anchor Diane Sawyer falsely claimed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “vows to filibuster, talking all night to close out all topics besides a vote on Iraqi troop withdrawals.” Sawyer was referring to Reid’s plan to hold an all-night Senate debate prior to the July 18 cloture vote on a Democratic proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq. However, by planning to extend the Senate session throughout the night, Reid is not “vow[ing] to filibuster,” as Sawyer reported. Rather, he is highlighting the Republicans’ blocking of an up-or-down vote on […]

BY JONATHAN VALANIA In its golden age, jazz was the radiator steam squealing out of the neon tenement soul of the postwar American night. Native son John Coltrane — who died 40 years ago today — was one those angel-headed hipsters tweaking the thermostat. You could bookend his sax mojo with the almost-pop My Favorite Things and the transcendental dissonance of Ascension. But Live at the Village Vanguard, Coltrane’s great white whale, swallows both of them whole. Recorded live over four nights in 1961, this box set captures Coltrane just as he was making the transition from mortal to immortal. […]

Newspapers writing about television is like the cavemen writing about the dinosaurs, or vice-versa. Either way, you’re living in the past, man. Please move on. Everybody else has.

FRESH AIR Peggy Orenstein wrote in the July 16 edition of the New York Times Magazine about the use of donor eggs in vitro fertilization. It’s a topic she knows: Orenstein pursued six years of treatments, including egg donation, before giving birth to her daughter. Her memoir is Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother. PLUS Kelly Willis‘ Translated From Love is the first release from the “new traditionalist” country singer since 2002’s widely acclaimed Easy. The 12-track […]

DEAR MISS NJ, Heard you got into a bit of a sticky wicket with ye olde drunken boobie-biting pix. To quote one of your best presidents: I feel your pain. (SEE ABOVE) I wanted to commend you on your courage in facing down your blackmailer. And to quote one of your worst presidents, let me say: Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. That was Richard Nixon, and his secret White House taping system was sort of the Facebook of its day. In closing, let […]

From the Comments section: “I WAS SO SHOCKED 2 HEAR THAT 1 OF MY BESTFRIENDS COUSIN’S WOULD DO THIS 2 AN INNOCENT CHILD I WAS SO SHOCKED ND OVERWHELMED WHEN I HAD SAW HIS FACE ON THE NEWS AND I RAN 2 C MA BESTFRIEND ND HER MOTHER LATER ON THAT DAY 2 SHOW MY CONDOLENSES I LIVED WITH HIM EAT WITH HIM GREW UP WITH HIM BUT NEVA EXPECTED THIS DAY 2 COME THAT MY ALMOST LIKE BLOOD COUDIN WOULD BE PROFILED AS A KILLER!!!=( ND I KNO HOW IT FEELS 2 LOSE SUM 1 ND I’LL HOPE ND […]

Philadelphia police have uncovered a major marijuana farm inside a three-story row home in the city’s Spring Garden section, after a neighbor called police. The neighbor reported the sound of breaking glass at the home near 22nd and Wilcox Street on Monday, apparently as someone tried to break in. When police arrived they failed to find an intruder, but they did find a very sophisticated marijuana farm. Plants were found growing everywhere, from the basement to the third floor. The home was equipped with sophisticated growing lights and a rooftop ventilation system so people at street level couldn’t smell the […]

It will be one of the Street administration’s last acts: awarding a 20-year contract — likely the largest in Philadelphia history — that will change the look of city streets and pump millions into the city treasury. The subject is “street furniture” and no, it’s not the kitchen chairs Philadelphians put out after a snowstorm to save their parking spot. City officials are now weighing proposals from three companies to design, install and maintain — for the next two decades — hundreds of new bus shelters, newsstands, trash receptacles, public toilets and benches. In return, the winning contractor will get […]

THE BIG BAMBINO: Frank Rizzo, circa 1969. That night stick in his cummerbund came in handy for cracking the skulls of peace-creep hippies and uppity negroes keeping the peace. Rizzo loved peace, but even more he loved cracking the skulls of peace-creep hippies and uppity negroes the keeping of it. By cracking the skulls of peace-creep hippies and uppity negroes any means necessary. And no one can take that away from him. He died 16 years ago today.