The company that owns The Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, has expressed interest in joining with outside partners to buy Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of the storied Wall Street Journal. “If there was a formalized bidding process, it would be our intention to participate,” Brian Tierney, chief executive of the company, Philadelphia Media Holdings said this evening. “We would participate as Philadelphia Media Holdings along with other investors. We wouldn’t do it it alone.” Dow Jones has been the object of a $5 billion takeover bid from media baron Rupert Murdoch. Dow Jones has been under siege […]
JUNK SCIENCE: The Bottle And The Damage Done
[artwork by Alex Binnie] BY ELIZABETH FIEND LIVING EDITOR Booze — it’s intoxicating, complicated stuff. Light drinking can extend your life, heavy drinking will end it prematurely. Consuming a small amount of alcohol prevents platelets in the blood from sticking together and forming clots, thus preventing heart attack and certain types of stroke. (Aspirin helps prevent blood clots in a similar way.) But anything more than one drink a day for women and up to two a day for men is a bummer for your health. Drinking more can cause stroke and heart disease, and also messes up your liver […]
Technically, It’s Not Against The Law To Marry A Bear
[Courtesy of Married To The Sea]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Journalist Scott Shane writes for The New York Times about terrorism and the CIA’s interrogation techniques. His article “Soviet-Style ‘Torture’ Becomes ‘Interrogation’” describes how the United States has adopted interrogation techniques that it decried when they were used by the Soviet Union. PLUS, author Tara McKelvey interviewed former prisoners from Abu Ghraib for her book Monstering: Inside America’s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War. McKelvey is senior editor at The American Prospect and a research fellow at the NYU School of Law’s Center on Law and Security. RADIO TIMES The foie gras dilemma. Animal activists […]
GAMBLOR: Anti-Casino Appeal Craps Out In Court
Neighbors of the proposed Foxwoods Casino had no legal standing to challenge the state’s decision to build a slots-parlor near their homes, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. In a ruling that augurs ill for similar challenges by City Council, anti-casino activists and neighborhood groups, the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal from four civic associations opposed to the licensing of Foxwoods Casino on Christopher Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. The Philadelphia casinos still face other legal and political obstacles, including four remaining appeals before the Supreme Court, and a casino-restrictive ordinance to be considered by Council next week. INQUIRER: No […]
Seal Stranded In The Delaware — Cute, Loveable, Bitey
A 7-foot gray seal eluded an attempt to net it and splashed back into the Delaware River, where sightings have been occurring since Saturday. Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, in Brigantine, attempted to throw a net over the 300-pound male seal Tuesday in an area of woods and marshes in suburban Philadelphia, about 50 miles upriver from where the river becomes salty. Schoelkopf said he had to release the net before the seal dragged it and Schoelkopf into the river. He said the animal was “very strong,” with “not a very good disposition.” “He doesn’t like […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
GERMANTOWN – June 5, 2007 – Philadelphia’s homicide total jumped by 2 again overnight. Police are investigating a pair of deadly shootings that happened within 15 minutes in Germantown. Around 2 a.m, police were called to the intersection of Broad and Lindley streets in Logan. A 52-year-old man was shot 3 times in the chest. He was taken to Einstein Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Then, about 15 minutes later, another person between 25 and 30 years old was killed in a shooting. The second one happened in Germantown near the intersection of Church Lane and Baynton Street. That […]
TODAY I SAW…
[Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] 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 […]
BREAKING: Scooter Gets 30 Months Behind Bars
WASHINGTON — I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby [NOT pictured], former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying to investigators about his role in leaking the identity of an undercover CIA officer. [Appealing for leniency] Theodore V. Wells Jr., the lead defense attorney: “the weight of being so publicly humiliated should factor in to some extent… He has fallen from public grace. It is a tragic fall, a tragic fall.” WASHINGTON POST: Justice Is Served! Come And Get It!
DOPEY: The Bud Was Kind, The Cops Less So
David Pellicott, a resident of 3rd Street near Monroe, was arrested by undercover narcotics cops who had been informed that Pellicott was selling 10 pounds of hydroponic weed for $50,000, according to officials from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office. Cops searched Pellicott’s Queen Village apartment and recovered $247,450. Officials said the pot Pellicott sold was grown in Canada and contained an especially potent mix of tetrahydrocannabinol — THC — producing a powerful hallucinogenic effect. DAILY NEWS: Reportedly It Made Side Four Of Physical Graffiti Sound Fucking Awesome!