PHAWKER: Just to start off with, for the sake of readers that might not know anything about The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles please explain… JON FOY [pictured, below right]: Sure. Well, it’s a documentary about a mystery. It explores this sort of urban legend-esque type of phenomenon. Someone’s been laying these tiled messages, and they’re embedded in the street. They look like little plaques. They’ve got messages about resurrecting the dead. They’re sort of cryptic. They’ve been in the street for almost three decades, basically across the U.S. and South America. Nobody knows who does them – or why, […]

Grumman’s Greenhouse, Lenfest Plaza, PAFA, 7:01 PM Tue. by JEFF FUSCO ASSOCIATED PRESS: It was born as a military aircraft, enjoyed a second career as a firefighting plane and is settling into its golden years as a piece of public art after a close call with the scrap heap. “Grumman Greenhouse” is a decommissioned military plane that was being sold for scrap in Alabama when 27-year-old artist Jordan Griska purchased it with a more noble fate in mind. Its new home is next door to his alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in a new plaza it […]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Interest in the newly released 1940 U.S. census is so great that the government website with the information was nearly paralyzed shortly after the records became available to the public for the first time. Miriam Kleiman, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Archives, told The Associated Press that the site registered more than 22 million hits in just four hours on Monday, from almost 2 million users. In a tweet posted after 5 p.m. on its official Twitter account, the archives said the website had received 37 million hits since the information was released at 9 a.m. Computer experts […]

PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE:  According to a recent report produced by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, 87 percent of the department’s white firefighters believe that disciplinary decisions are biased by race; less than 30 percent of all firefighters think that hiring and promotions are done “without regard to race or ethnic background.” Numerous stories of unfair race-based treatment circulate through the city’s engine houses. There is the story about African-American Cory Nuble, who complained that a pair of black lieutenants harassed him for being too friendly with white firefighters. There is the story of Troy Gore, an African-American fire captain and Valiants […]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The doors to Oaksterdam University in downtown Oakland were cordoned off by yellow tape and blocked by United States marshals. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration removed trash bags of unknown materials from the school to a waiting van. Arlette Lee, a spokeswoman for the Internal Revenue Service, told reporters that agents were serving a federal search warrant but that said she could not otherwise comment on the purpose of the raid. “What we are doing here today is under seal,” Ms. Lee said. About a dozen protesters gathered in front of the multistory building, which is adorned […]

FRESH AIR Aziz Ansari is about to hit the road. The 29-year-old comedian and star of Parks and Recreation is embarking on a multicity comedy tour, where he’ll be riffing on what he calls the “fears of adulthood.” You know, babies. Marriage. That kind of stuff. “I see a lot of my friends are kind of entering serious stages of their lives where they’re getting married and having children, and I’m getting to the age where that stuff is getting expected of me,” Ansari tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “And it’s all very terrifying to me. It still feels like […]

[Artwork by JUAREZ MACHADO] This coming Thursday,  a crowd of people will dance the tango around Swann Memorial Fountain at Race and 18th Streets. Authorities will not stop it.  This bacchanalia is no flash mob. Rather, it will commemorate the day when water will once again flow through Logan Square’s fountain.  Anyone will be able to join the instructors, performers, musicians and party-goers with impunity to recreate an historic, massive “municipal dance” that was held to mark the opening of the fountain back in 1924. At the time, local police were stationed to assure that dance moves would not get […]

DOWNLOAD: Complete PMN Sale Press Release  [PDF]

 PW: After his arrest, Johnson negotiated with the commonwealth for a plea deal that spared his life; the state offered life plus 40 to 80 years. But the day he was scheduled to sign, Johnson surprised the court by firing his court-appointed attorney, hiring a private lawyer and rejecting the plea. Then, in a hearing last year, Judge Renee Cardwell-Hughes had to advise Johnson that he technically had no counsel, since his new attorney had not been paid. Now, court-appointed attorneys Lee Mandell and Gary Server are representing Johnson. Server introduced three last-minute strategies designed to save Johnson’s life. Two […]

MSNBC: The voice heard crying for help on a 911 call just before Trayvon Martin was shot to death was not that of George Zimmerman, according to two forensic voice identification experts, one of whom told MSNBC on Sunday that he believes the evidence is strong enough to use in court. “The tests concluded that it’s not the voice of Mr. Zimmerman,” Tom Owen, of Owen Forensic Services LLC and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, told MSNBC. Asked if he thought such tests would be admissible in court, Owen said “yes” and noted he had recently used […]

PREVIOUSLY: Montgomery County Police have released dash cam video of a Batman impersonator being pulled over in Silver Spring last week. It didn’t take long for the jokes to start, especially when the dispatcher asked if the officer needed backup. “You can send me Robin if you wish,” said the officer. Lenny Robinson was driving his Lamborghini “Batmobile” but was pulled over for not displaying his license plate. Robinson may not be a real superhero, but he is using his powers for good. He dresses up in the batsuit to visit children in local hospitals. When Robinson showed officers the […]