[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 by […]
PBS FOR THE BLIND: We See It Even When You Can’t
BY AMY Z. QUINN The common misconception about the Iraq War seems to be that military leadership inserted American troops into a conflict without an exit strategy. In fact, the opposite is true. From the moment American generals — all retired now, by the way — set foot on the sands of Iraq, the mission was to get out as quickly as possible. For Rumsfeld and the Neocons, the Endgame was the whole game. The problem is that the light military footprint game plan didn’t include a strategy for actually winning the war, and in the resulting lawless vacuum a […]
We Need A Pitcher Not An Underwear Stitcher
The Phillies, not that surprisingly, followed their recent stretch of good play by losing two of three to the Tigers over the weekend, and packed their bags as a third-place team once again for the road trip that began last night in Cleveland with Cole Hamels on the mound. As always with the Phils, things could be better, things could be worse. INQUIRER: Always Keep Your Eye On The Ball Not The Other Way Around
KILLADELPHIA: Stop & Frisk? You’re Soaking In It
What nobody mentioned is that stop-and-frisk — in which police stop people suspected of criminal activity and pat them down for illegal weapons — is already used by police in Philadelphia. “The idea of giving officers training to recognize [illegal] guns? That’s already in place,” said Lt. Fran Healy, a lawyer for the Police Department. Last year, Philly cops stopped 132,765 pedestrians, according to department data. Some of those stops would have involved a pat-down or an arrest. A rough analysis shows that Philadelphia averaged nine stops per 100 residents last year. New York City averaged six stops per 100, […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Washington Post correspondent Thomas Ricks — author of the bestseller Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq ? talks about his latest trip to that country and the latest strategies the Pentagon is employing there. Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Wall Street Journal staffer, is also author of Making the Corps and A Soldier’s Duty. ALSO, former Navy petty officer Stephen Benjamin, trained as an Arabic translator, was headed to Iraq when he was dismissed from the Navy under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Benjamin is gay; his supervisors knew he was gay, and […]
KILLADELPHIA: Shooting The Messenger
It’s true, says Christopher Pearo. When you think you’re about to die, your life really does flash before your eyes. Pearo, 36, a newspaper-delivery driver for the Daily News and Inquirer, had just been robbed of $15 by two assailants and shot in the neck as he deposited papers yesterday in a locked drop-box at a deli at 64th Street and Buist Avenue, Southwest Philadelphia. DAILY NEWS: Stand And Deliver! RELATED: A 27-year-old man, who police said was one of the group, was beaten to death sometime early yesterday and left for someone else to find. Police found his body […]
FORT DIX SIX: 3 Surefire Ways To Get Bail Denied
Agron Abdullahu, one of the Fort Dix Six, scratched graffiti into the door of his jail cell that included an AK-47 assault rifle firing bullets at the letters “FBI,” prosecutors charged yesterday. They said he also etched the name of a town in Kosovo, his homeland, along with an Albanian acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which prosecutors called a paramilitary organization with a history of war crimes. “The subject matter of the etchings alone is disturbing at best, and at worst demonstrates the volition of an individual predisposed to violence,” prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in federal court […]
THIS YOU MUST SEE: Taito Version 1.0
It’s Pixar-riffic!
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Georges Seurat Models (1887-88), oil on canvas, 79″ x 98″ Barnes Foundation RADIO TIMES While Philadelphia’s City Council has approved a lease agreement which would enable the Barnes Foundation to move to the Parkway, Montgomery County is floating a new plan to keep the Foundation in Lower Merion. We revisit the Barnes Foundation debate with GRESHAM RILEY and ROBERT ZALLER, who have been discussing the issue online in the Broad Street Review and at a May 21st public forum at Drexel. FRESH AIR Louise Arbour, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and onetime chief prosecutor in the Yugoslav and […]
GAYBO: Philly Radio Is Gayer Than Ever!
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Is the buzz true — does Philly have a new “gay” radio station? Their name and slogan sound gay enough: “My 106.1 — Feel the energy!” Sounds like an ad for a Miami circuit party, if they could just cut the energy with GBH. A recent peek at an 11 a.m. weekday playlist includes ultra-’90s gay club hit “Show Me Love” by Robin S., equally queer ’90s diva Cathy Dennis with “Touch Me (All Night Long),” No Doubt’s “Hella Good,” and the unofficial overplayed song of 2006, “Unwritten” by uber gay Natasha Bedingfield. However, as […]
FORECAST: The Hotness
Summer heat has arrived in advance of the season’s official start on Thursday, with the temperature expected to reach 91 degrees today and 92 tomorrow. The weather will then sink to a more seasonable level, into the mid-80s. ACCUWEATHER: Here Come The Warm Jets
KILLADELPHIA: Two More Dead Since U Went To Bed
A 22-year-old man died this morning after being shot in the stomach in North Philadelphia. Police have also released the name of man fatally shot on Saturday. Today’s shooting took place shortly before 12:30 a.m. in the 3400 block of Huntington Street, Officer Beth DiDonato said. The victim was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:03 a.m., she said. The shooting raises the city’s homicide total for the year to 185. On Saturday, Pablo Hernandez 3d, 33, died after being shot in the thigh in the 500 block of Moore Street in South Philadelphia. Police […]