City Finds $3.4 Million In An Old Pair Of Pants

INQUIRER: The U.S. Department of Defense handed over $3.4 million to the City of Philadelphia yesterday, after an Inspector General’s Office investigation found evidence of uncashed wage-tax checks from the federal government to the city from 2005. City Inspector General Amy Kurland came across the missing funds as part of an ongoing corruption investigation into a former city employee. Kurland declined to say much about that ongoing probe, but she said the city notified the Defense Department of what it found, and Defense records confirmed that the 2005 checks had never been cashed. Kurland said she did not know exactly […]

The Most Hated Man In Congress Comes To Town Sat.

You might recall him from last week’s outrage of the week — he is the outgoing Senator from Kentucky who fiercely filibustered a bill to extend unemployment benefits to the jobless because it would add to the deficit. This from the man who voted fund two wars on the back of the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich. His message to the hundreds of thousands that would lose benefits? Too fuckin’ bad, freeloaders! He will be signing autographs at the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show. We urge anyone currently collecting to go to the show and get him to […]

JIHAD JERSEY: South NJ Man Captured In Yemen Terror Sweep Tried To Shoot His Way Out Of Hospital

EXAMINER: A New Jersey man from Buena Borough is accused of joining Yemen’s al Qaeda terrorists. Sharif Mobley is in custody in Yemen after an escape attempt in a deadly hospital rampage that left one guard dead. Yemeni officials charge that the 26 year-old Mobley was planning a terror attack. Mobley was apprehended and hospitalized last week.  In a thwarted escape attempt, Mobley killed a policeman on Sunday as he attempted to shoot his way out of the hospital reports say. His friends and family expressed shock. MORE ASSOCIATED PRESS: WMGM-TV in Atlantic City quoted “federal sources” as saying Mobley […]

PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies

BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]

JIHAD JANE: Like A Bad Episode Of ‘Cops’

INQUIRER: She married young and badly. She bounced checks at Pizza Hut and the grocery. She hit the bottle to excess sometimes, talked to her cats, and once attempted suicide. And, as “JihadJane,” she spewed violent-sounding vitriol online for all the world – including law enforcement – to see. From what’s known about her so far, Colleen Renee LaRose is not coming off as the sharpest jihadist in the suburbs. The life of the Pennsburg woman who is due in federal court a week from today on terrorism charges is sounding ever more sad than scary. “She’s had a hard […]

JUDGE: Defunding Of ACORN Is Unconstitutional

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn’t blocked. In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it. The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. […]

STEAL THIS MUSIC: Dr. Dog Is Giving It Away

Dr. Dog is offering a free download of their first single, STRANGER, from their upcoming album, SHAME, SHAME, set for release April 6th on Anti. The Dog will perform on the Jimmy Fallon show that night. Tour dates after the jump. DOWNLOAD: Stranger [mp3] PREVIOUSLY: LET ME COUNT THE WAYS: Why Pitchfork’s Review Of The New Dr. Dog Album Has Its Head Up Its Ass

BEER WARS: Microbrew Taliban Strikes Again

DAILY NEWS: Pennsylvania State Police have staged another beer raid, confiscating about a dozen cases from a leading distributor in Northeast Philadelphia and ordering it to stop selling several well-known imports, including Duvel, a popular Belgian beer sold throughout the Philadelphia region. Agents from the State Police Department’s Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement (BLCE) descended Monday night on Origlio’s Beverage, a wholesale distributor in the Far Northeast whose primary brands include Coors and Yuengling. The police seized about a dozen cases from a small California beermaker, Russian River Brewing Co., and ordered Origlio’s to stop selling Duvel and other beers, […]

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: Catholic Church’s Chief Exorcist Warns That The Devil Is Inside The Vatican

TIMES ONLINE: Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”. He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope […]

RIP: 80s Teen Hearthrob Corey Haim Dead At 38

MTV: The news that actor Corey Haim, 38, was found dead on Wednesday morning (March 10) of an apparent drug overdose has left the late Hollywood icon’s family, friends and fans in mourning. Although Haim’s career had been relatively quiet in recent years, the actor was a steady presence on the big screen throughout the 1980s, starring alongside talents such as Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and longtime friend and collaborator Corey Feldman. In memory of the late actor, MTV News has compiled a timeline of Corey Haim’s career in Hollywood from his first roles in “Firstborn” and “Silver Bullet” to […]

NOT SAFE AT ANY SPEED: The Out-Of-Control Prius

NEW YORK TIMES: Two drivers of Toyota Priuses reported that their cars had sped out of control, one of them ending in a crash. Toyota already has said it was recalling the popular hybrid car for the 2004 to 2009 model years, but only to fix a problem in which the carmaker says a floor mat could trap the accelerator pedal. In a separate recall, Toyota is modifying accelerator pedals it says could stick in 4.5 million vehicles. But a man whose 2008 Prius raced along 30 miles of Interstate in California at up to 94 miles an hour before […]

JIHAD JANE: Suburban Montco Housewife Arrested In Plot To Kill Swedish Cartoonist Who Offended Islam

ABC NEWS: A suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias “Jihad Jane” has been arrested and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and for plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today. Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., described by neighbors as an average “housewife,” is better known to federal authorities as “Fatima Rose” or “Jihad Jane.” The indictment, obtained by ABC News, charges LaRose with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country. She is also accused of […]