A just-released study by Transportation for America says 26.5% percent of Pennsylvania’s bridges – or roughly 6,000 – have critical structural problems, earning the Keystone State the distinction of being The Most Dangerous State In The Union To Drive Across A Bridge. Don’t expect that to change any time soon. “Are we trying to … find the funds for it? Yes. But I will go back, and you’ve heard me say it repeatedly: we inherited a $4.3 billion deficit that we have to resolve,” Governor Tom Corbett told Newswork’s Scott Detrow. In the meantime, we might want to start equipping […]
TONITE: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Impersonating The Band hasn’t been a decently-paying gig since Scorsese filmed The Last Waltz in 1976, but judging by the full-up crowd at the Trocadero last time they came through town back in 2009 The Felice Brothers seem to be on their way. Actually, ‘impersonating’ sounds a little too dismissive and I like these guys, so let’s go with ‘evoking’ or ‘carrying on the old, weird Americana tradition’ of the Band instead. Besides, they have the pedigree (hail from upstate New York, sons of a carpenter) they’ve paid their dues (busked in the subways of New York; went acoustic at […]
MEGADITTOES: Enough With The Panthers Already!
DAVE DAVIES: I wish I knew how many hundreds of thousands of federal tax dollars have been spent investigating the New Black Panther Philadelphia voter intimidation case. We can add a few more, now that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has completed its review of the department’s handling of the matter. On election day in 2008, a pair of African-American guys wearing berets stationed themselves in front of a North Philadelphia polling place, calling themselves “security.” One of them had a nightstick. Though the beret boys didn’t interfere with ingress or egress from the polling place and not […]
ABOMINATION: Two More Priests Put On Shit List
INQUIRER: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that two retired priests have been placed on administrative leave while it reviews allegations that they have engaged in inappropriate behavior with minors. The two men join 24 other priests suspended by Cardinal Justin Rigali since the Februrary 10 release of a grand jury report on predatory priests in the archdiocese. MORE RELATED: A Philadelphia grand jury report released in February alleges that the man, identified as “Ben,” had approached church investigators in 2007 with claims of repeated fondling and abuse by a priest at St. Mark during the 1970s. “Ben” had been […]
SIDEWALKING: Popo NYC
Times Square, 3:15 PM Tuesday by JEFF FUSCO
FLEET FOXES: Grown Ocean
From Helplessness Blues, out May 3rd. ROBIN PECKNOID, SINGER-SONGWRITER, FLEET FOXES: Hey, my name’s Robin and I’m a singer in and songwriter for Fleet Foxes, here to write the promotional biography meant to accompany and explain Helplessness Blues. I’m just going to write down some thoughts I have about the album and give you some context. Let’s do this. So, for a bit of background: we’re from Seattle, and the members of the band are me, Skye Skjelset, Josh Tillman, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo, and now our buddy Morgan Henderson, who helped out on the album and will join the […]
COMING ATTRACTION: Q&A With The Man Who Punked The Governor Of Wisconsin & The Koch Bros.
Please standby for a Q&A with Ian Murphy, editor of Buffalo’s The Beast, AKA the man who called Wisconsin governor Scott Walker pretending to be David Koch, one half of the infamous Koch Brothers. Coming soon to a Phawker near you! PREVIOUSLY: KOCH SUCKER: Wisconsin Governor Punked By Alt-Weekly Editor Pretending To Be Koch Brother RELATED: The newly elected governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is outspoken. He said that after his election readers could expect to see in their newspapers, “LePage tells Obama to go to hell.” When he refused to attend a Martin Luther King Day event, he said […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,000 rubber ducks and other bath toys that were headed from China to the U.S. Currents took them, and news reports said some may have eventually reached Maine and other shores on the Atlantic. Thirteen years later, journalist Donovan Hohn undertook a mission: He wanted to track the movements of the wayward ducks, from the comfort of his own living room. “I figured I’d interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, read up on ocean currents and Arctic geography and then write an account […]
SIDEWALKING: Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
7th Ave. & 42nd St., Times Square, NYC, 10:28 AM by JEFF FUSCO
THE DONALD: Those Who Cynically Demagogue By The Birth Certificate Die By The Birth Certificate
SMOKING GUN: What is Donald Trump hiding? The multimillionaire developer has, overnight, become a leading voice of the “birther” movement, members of which doubt that President Barack Obama was born in the United States (and, thus, is unable to produce an authentic U.S. birth certificate). “It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate,” Trump told Newsmax. “I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?” To prove how easy it was for a household employee to find his birth certificate, Trump, […]
OP-ED: Time For Queen Arlene To Vacate The Throne
BY JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF This week the Philadelphia Inquirer is running an amazing seven part story called ASSAULT ON LEARNING detailing how lawless and out of control Philadelphia schools are these days, how they have become thuggish battle zones where violence and brutality — against both teachers and students alike — have become the new normal: By June, the district’s total of violent incidents had grown to 4,541. That means on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn’t even include thousands more who are […]
SIDEWALKING: The Day The Earth Stood Still
[Photo by JEFF FUSCO] Residents Holding Vigil To Mark The 32nd Anniversary Of The Nuclear Reactor Core Meltdown At Three Mile Island Vigil, Middletown, PA 3:50 AM Today PREVIOUSLY: Thirty years ago, half the core of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear complex melted down, but government officials and the utility running the place didn’t know that. And they wouldn’t know for six more years. In fact, as the crisis extended from its start on March 28, 1979, the amount of information available about the nature of the accident remained slim. Key pieces of data were missing. Nobody knew […]