[Illustration by SHEPARD FAIREY] CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA 2010 ANNUAL REPORT: The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some […]
The Last Democrat With Sack Wants His Seat Back
[Artwork by KEITH TUCKER] ALAN GRAYSON: I’m in. I’m running for Congress. I’m running because I promised Charlaina and Rick that I would. Charlaina called me a few weeks ago, from the hospital. She told me that her husband, Rick, was suffering from multiple organ failure – lungs, kidneys and liver. Rick was 56 years old. That’s three years older than me. Rick was a veteran. But the Veterans Administration wasn’t covering his hospital bills. Rick had had a bad liver since he was 30, when he contracted hepatitis. No insurance company would go near him. Every day Rick survived, […]
Afghan Prime Minister’s Brother Assassinated
NPR: Officials say a bodyguard has killed the powerful half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Ahmed Wali Karzai had been a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government. Officials say he was assassinated today at his home in the southern province of Kandahar. He was head of the Kandahar provincial council and had become a political liability for the Hamid Karzai government after a series of allegations. They included involvement in drug trafficking and that he was on the CIA payroll. MORE GLOBE AND MAIL: Be’s the coalition’s best asset or its worst liability. […]
TONIGHT: The Dude Abides
[Illustration by TSTOUT] BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’ll admit to being surprised when the Coen Brothers’ seventh film, The Big Lebowski, was deemed a certified “cult classic,” with costumed fans and tribute conventions and the whole obsessive nine yards. At the time of its release, I found the comic detective spoof to be a breezy lark; amusing, but somewhat of a disappointment after the their morbidly enthralling breakthrough crime film Fargo. Lebowski‘s success should not have come as a complete surprise. Chief among its assets is the hugely likable Jeff Bridges, who has rarely had as rich a comedic […]
PMN To Lure Online Subscribers With Free Tablets
BY ALEXANDER POTTER Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) President and CEO Gregory Osberg today announced the launching of Project Liberty, a series of initiatives to boost digital readership, including a new subscription drive that will provide free Android tablets to subscribers of digital editions of the Inquirer and the Daily News, as well as philly.com. It is the first initiative of its kind undertaken by a major newspaper in the United States, said Osberg during a press conference this afternoon at the Academy of Natural Sciences. When Phawker asked how many online subscriptions PMN would need to compensate for the plunging […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Cass McCombs At JBs
OK, we’re gonna make this real easy, i.e. Google-able, and hyper-local: What Cass McCombs album contains the song “City Of Brotherly Love”? First Phawker reader to email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the correct answer wins two tix to see Cass McCombs at Johnny Brendas on Sunday July 17th. Put CASS in the subject line and include a cell phone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed. PITCHFORK: Over the course of his previous four albums, McCombs fashioned himself an enigmatic vagabond in the classic Dylan mold, yet it wasn’t until 2009’s Catacombs that his enigma started to feel more like […]
Murdoch Used Tabloid Harrassment To Punish Politicians Like A Shock Collar On A Disobedient Dog
NEW YORK TIMES: However much they might deplore tabloid methods and articles — the photographers lurking in the bushes; the reporters in disguise entrapping subjects into sexual indiscretion or financial malfeasance; the editors paying tens of thousands of dollars for exclusive access to the mistresses of politicians and sports stars; the hidden taping devices; the constant stream of stories about illicit sex romps — politicians have often been afraid to say so publicly, for fear of losing the papers’ support or finding themselves the target of their wrath. If showering politicians with political rewards for cultivating his support has been […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Star Of David
JAY ROSEN: I saw the movie Page One tonight. I think I’m too familiar with the subject to be a good judge. But I do have one observation to share. Page One shows off David Carr’s incredible feel for the American idiom. No character David Simon has come up with is better than Carr. MORE TELLY DAVIDSON: Page One tells the story of the 2009-10 production year at the Times, focusing on several reporters (young bucks like Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tim Arango make appearances), but the main characters are embattled editor Bill Keller, and gruff, lovably no-nonsense media writer David Carr. It also gives us a look inside […]
PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF: Michelle Bachmann’s Husband Runs ‘Gay Cure’ Clinic With Taxpayer Funds
THE NATION: As Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann has surged in the polls, the spotlight has turned on her husband and main political adviser, Marcus Bachmann, who has a PhD in clinical psychology and owns two Christian counseling centers in Minnesota. There has been a great deal of speculation that his clinics, which have received $161,000 in state and federal funding, try to cure homosexuality—and the chatter has only grown louder since his comments likening gays to “barbarians” who “need to be educated” and “disciplined” surfaced in the blogosphere last week. Marcus Bachmann has denied these allegations. “That’s a false […]
HOPELESS: DEA Re-Affirms Classification Of Marijuana As Dangerous Drug With No Redeeming Social Or Medical Value, Just Like Heroin
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. Advocates for the medical use of the drug criticized the […]
SIDEWALKING: The Only Way To Live Is In Cars
Upstate New York, 2 PM by JEFF FUSCO
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Louis CK on dating post-divorce: “You sort of feel like you just got out of prison. And they give you the suit you were convicted in. And they give you a paper bag with a watch and a wallet in it. And they give you eight bucks and a bus ticket and the cars are going way too fast and you can’t cross the street — and you’re considering going into a motel and hanging yourself after carving your initials. And you know … there’s not a lot of women my age who’re single. If they’re single it’s […]
Lynne Abraham Still Crazy About The War On Drugs
DAILY NEWS: Lynne Abraham doesn’t get it. She didn’t get it when she was Philadelphia’s district attorney from 1991 until last year. And she’ll probably never get it, no matter how many statistics and reports show that America’s 40-year-old “war on drugs” has been a hugely expensive and crime-inducing failure. “My view remains unchanged with regard to drug abuse,” Abraham, 70, said from her office at the Archer & Greiner law firm, where the bulldoggish ex-prosecutor is now a partner. Her view is that people who smoke marijuana – by far the most widely used illicit drug in the United […]