INQUIRER: More than 40 percent of city students still can’t read or do basic math at grade level. MORE RELATED: Literacy statistics and juvenile court: 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate. More than 60 percent of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate. Penal institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who receive no help. This equates to taxpayer costs of $25,000 per year per inmate and nearly double that amount for juvenile offenders. Illiteracy and crime […]

BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD If the collaboration of Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 seems a bit odd, or AstroTurf-y, it’s because it is. What’s true is that Eminem and Royce had a track together on 1999’s Slim Shady LP titled “Bad Meets Evil” and recorded a handful of non-album tracks, including a track titled “Renegade,” which eventually was re-dubbed with Jay-Z vocals and became part of the classic Blueprint album. However, “Bad Meets Evil” is more revisionism than reality. Eminem’s group D12, particularly lead-member Proof, had a falling-out with Royce and released a barrage of ‘diss’ tracks towards one another for […]

PHILLY.COM: A veteran Philadelphia homicide prosecutor who was forced to resign last week was asked to leave because she accessed the expunged arrest record of a young prosecutor whom District Attorney Seth Williams personally hired in October. Sources told the Daily News that MK Feeney, who worked in the D.A.’s Office for 15 years, abruptly resigned last Thursday after digging up information about Kevin Harden Jr., a 25-year-old assistant district attorney who was arrested several times as a youth. Harden has been arrested a handful of times, mostly for drug offenses, sources said, and survived being shot five times in […]

INQUIRER: The presidential motorcade will head for a 5:30 p.m. big-ticket fund-raiser at the Mount Airy home of David Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president and a Democratic mahoff. MORE RELATED: The president is listed as speaking at 8:30 at a private residence in Philadelphia, according to a copy of the president’s schedule, which the source confirmed as the Cohen event. Cohen oversees government affairs for the company. MORE PREVIOUSLY: The bonds between the cable industry and the world of politics are coming into HD-worthy clarity these days. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen will host a fundraising dinner for President […]

MOTHER JONES:  On August 2 (or maybe a few weeks later), the US government will reach the legal limit on how much money it can borrow—a.k.a., the “debt ceiling.” It’s currently set at $14.3 trillion. The government borrows money to pay for everything from tax refunds to wars and veterans’ benefits, not to mention repaying our creditors, which include China, Japan, the United Kingdom, state and local governments, pension funds, and investors in America and around the world.A debt ceiling has existed since 1917. Before that, Congress had to provide its stamp of approval each time the Treasury Department wanted to […]

BY COLONEL TOM SHEEHY Eddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964, in Evanston, Illinois. Should this man ever decide to write his autobiography, he already has the title: “Longing To Belong” which is also the name of a song from his praiseworthy new album, “Ukulele Songs.” The need to have a relationship to people, places, and things seems to be an enduring theme running through much of Vedder’s music over the last two decades. As such, Vedder has made it his business to establish a very strong connection with Philadelphia which  harkens back to the […]

All Tomorrow’s Parties returns to the USA this September in the new location of Asbury Park, N.J. bringing an I’ll Be Your Mirror event to the iconic waterfront. For the inaugural U.S. I’ll Be Your Mirror, Portishead will curate and headline their first East Coast shows since 1998 on the Saturday & Sunday. As well as Day Tickets, ATP have to date been selling two types of weekend pass – ‘Three Day Jeff Mangum’ passes that include Jeff Mangum’s Friday show and guarantee access to one of the Portishead shows (as well as everything else at the festival) and ‘Three […]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Oh, for Fox Sake – Stewart Eviscerates Stewart www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook So Fox News is currently trying to paint Jon Stewart as a racist for using his Amos & Andy voice when impersonating GOP-pizza-guy-for-president Herman Cain. Stewart responds with a funny-as-shit montage of his greatest cultural/racial/ethnic stereotype hits,  as if to say, ‘if you want to play the race card, let’s play 52 pick up, bitches.’

NEW YORK TIMES: You know the story of the Volt, don’t you? As the General Motors entry in the race to build a viable electric car — a race that includes the all-electric Nissan Leaf, a raft of Fords in various stages of development and an electric sedan that Tesla will soon begin selling — it may well be the most hyped American automobile since Lee Iacocca rolled out the Chrysler minivan. Begun four years ago, and championed by the legendary auto executive Bob Lutz, the Volt project managed to survive G.M.’s descent into bankruptcy, and emerge as the company’s […]

Our top story tonight: Mob violence. No, not the Goodfellas/Sopranos kind of mob — I’m talking about flash mobs of violent black teenagers roaming the streets of Philadelphia looking for people to beat unmerciful — people whose only crime, best we can tell, was being white at the wrong place at the wrong time. This is so not good. This is bad for Philadelphia — setting back years of revival and revitalization. This is bad for white people — justifying the worst instincts of the racist and the borderline racist. This is especially bad for black people, because if this […]

[Illustration by ALEX FINE] DAILY NEWS: The 12th Police District squad car creeps down Chester Avenue, in Southwest Philadelphia, turning the head of nearly everyone on the street. Onlookers squint, their faces tensing up in the sunlight. Passers-by crane their necks to get a better look at who’s behind the wheel before the car comes to an abrupt stop. Everyone watches as an officer emerges and dons his blue police cap, badge No. 2431 gleaming as the sunlight hits the silver at a perfect angle. “Hey Joe!” someone invariably shouts from the street at Officer Joseph Young, the district’s community-relations […]

FRESH AIR If you bite into a tomato between the months of October and June, chances are that tomato came from Florida. The Sunshine State accounts for one-third of all fresh tomatoes produced in the United States — and virtually all of the tomatoes raised during the fall and winter seasons. But the tomatoes grown in Florida differ dramatically from the red garden varieties you might grow in your backyard. They’re bred to be perfectly formed — so that they can make their way across the U.S. and onto your dinner table without cracking or breaking. “For the last 50 […]