INQUIRER: The Philadelphia Zoo’s Petal — at 52, the oldest African elephant in a U.S. zoo — died yesterday morning. The animal staff was unable to determine the cause of her death. It did not appear to be heat-related, and an initial exam revealed no health problems, said Andrew Baker, vice president for animal programs. Tests are being conducted and results are expected over the next few weeks. In the wild, African elephants typically live to their early or mid-40s, Baker said. Baker said the elephant-care staff found Petal lying on her right side in her stall when they arrived […]
MIA: Number Of Cops On Sick Leave Skyrockets
DAILY NEWS: ON ANY given day, roughly 250 Philadelphia police officers are out of service due to on-the-job injuries. That’s more than 10 times as many as just a few years ago on a force that numbers about 6,600 officers. The drain on police manpower from “injured on duty” or IOD claims has skyrocketed since state legislators increased pay for injured officers and made it easier for them to resist returning to work. Police can now earn more by staying home than they can on the job. And if they disagree with a doctor’s finding that they’ve healed, they can […]
McCSAME: When The Levees Broke
WHITE HOUSE: President George W. Bush joins Arizona Senator John McCain in a small celebration of McCain’s 69th birthday Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, after the President’s arrival at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix. The President later spoke about Medicare to 400 guests at the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club in nearby El Mirage. White House photo by Paul Morse * ASSOCIATED PRESS: Republican presidential candidate John McCain took stock of still-hurricane-damaged areas of New Orleans on [April 24th] and declared that if the disaster had happened on his watch, he would have immediately landed at the […]
A NEW LOW: Fox’s ‘Terrorist Fist Jab’ At The Obamas
MEDIA MATTERS: During the June 6 edition of Fox News’ America’s Pulse, host E.D. Hill teased an upcoming discussion by saying, “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.” In the ensuing discussion with Janine Driver — whom Hill introduced as “a body language expert” — Hill referred to the “Michelle and Barack Obama fist bump or fist pound,” adding that “people call it all sorts of things.” Hill went on to ask Driver: “Let’s start with the Barack and Michelle Obama, because that’s what most people are writing about — the […]
FORECAST: Holiday In Cambodia
Tuesday, Jun 10 High: 99°F RealFeel®: 106°F Mostly sunny, very hot and humid with the temperature breaking the record of 97 set in 1964 [via ACCUWEATHER] WIKIPEDIA: “Holiday in Cambodia” was the second single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in May 1980 on Alternative Tentacles with “Police Truck” as the b-side. The song appears to be an attack upon both Eastern totalitarianism, Western complacency and the direct relation between the two through American military intervention. In October 1998, Biafra was sued by former members of the Dead Kennedys. According to Biafra, the suit was a result of […]
BYKO: Stick A Fork In Mendte, He’s Done
BYKO: “WHAT WILL happen to Larry Mendte?” I’ve been asked that a few times, because people know that I covered TV for five years, I know the players and I know the process. I know how the squirrels who run TV stations arrange their nuts. After stitching together what has been reported, what is believed to have happened and what is likely to happen, an Etch-a-Sketch picture emerges. To that grainy image I add what else might happen. Larry Mendte is kaput at CBS 3. Why? Odds are he will cop to electronic snooping. In exchange for saving the government […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Thank You For Smoking
FRESH AIR Whether he’s lancing boils, getting crabs from thrift store pants or sitting in a hospital waiting room dressed only in his underwear, one thing is clear: David Sedaris is not shy about sharing those embarrassing, cringe-worthy incidents that members of the general population tend to save for diaries or therapists. In his sixth collection of essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Sedaris continues to bare his body and soul, detailing the aforementioned boils and crabs, as well as an uncomfortable incident in which he accidentally spits a lozenge into the lap of his seatmate on an airplane. […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: Sebadoh’s “Soul And Fire”
Released roughly halfway through their recording career, Bubble & Scrape captured Sebadoh as a band in most profound transition. Since inception, Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney and Jason Loewenstein had ever been more a wonderfully chaotic collective of individuals following their own erratic, crazy-paved paths than the typical, rigidly-defined group. All three wrote and sang their own songs, while live performances would play host to regular bouts of instrument-swapping, as one member stepped up to the microphone as the previous ‘frontman’ returned to the drumkit — stemming from Barlow’s desire that Sebadoh be an entirely democratic process, in contrast to his […]
MUST-SEE WEB TV: Wasgoinon?
You may remember our pal Kilroy from his days as Phawker TV anchorman, which included this priceless interview with Barack Obama. He’s got his own show, Wasgoinon?, currently in production with our New Media partners in crime Woodshop Films/ScrappleTV, in which he more or less tries to see how much trouble a grown man in knickers and a tricorn hat can get into in this city. Get behind it before it gets in front of you.
HBO: Extremism In The Defense Of Liberty Is No Vice?
STEVEN REA: Yes, Polanski was guilty of having sex with a minor. But after his arrest, after months in the public spotlight, dogged by TV cameras and the press — a press intent on resurrecting the horrid 1969 murder of Sharon Tate, Polanski’s pregnant wife, at the hands of Charles Manson’s homicidal hippie cult — the filmmaker became something of a victim himself. As revealed in Marina Zenovich’s 75-minute film, which premieres on HBO tomorrow night at 9, the Polish-born Polanski was at the mercy of a grandstanding, media-obsessed judge. Laurence Rittenband, a Santa Monica jurist who sought out celebrity […]
KILLADELPHIA: 4 Shot, Including Six-Year-Old
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Three adults and a 6-year-old girl were shot outside a social club that was hosting a barbecue, police said Sunday. Someone fired into a crowd of people from an alley across the street around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Officer Tanya Little said. All four victims were taken to a hospital in private vehicles. The adults were listed in critical condition with unspecified injuries; the girl was stabilized and transferred to a children’s hospital. The names of the victims were not released. No arrests had been made and authorities said they were still trying to sort out exactly what happened. […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Tenacity Of Nope
NEW YORK TIMES: While she emphasized its trailblazing nature as she exited the race, her campaign also represented a back-to-the-future effort to restore the Democratic dynasty of the 1990s that could never quite escape the past. Although Mrs. Clinton proved a more agile candidate than many had expected, she built a campaign that was suffused in overconfidence, riven by acrimony and weighted by the emotional baggage of a marriage between former and would-be presidents. As she flew from town halls to rallies on the road, she did little to stop the infighting back home among advisers who nursed grudges from […]
I Went To The Roots Picnic & All I Got Was A Good Time
TEXT & PHOTOS BY JONATHAN VALANIA & TIFFANY YOON 1. Quite probably, Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson is the greatest drummer on Earth. Speaking on behalf of the entire 215…drumroll, please…we could not be more proud or horny. Thank you, try the veal. 2. Black Thought is arguably the baddest MC in the game right now. (Bad meaning good, and also a ‘jive turkey’ is a bad person. Just sayin’.) 3. Not only is guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas a master of Hendrixian six-string psychedelic scribble and Maggot Brain-damaged space-funk, but dude can sing like Smokey Robinson, or close enough for sweaty white […]