[Photo by NDBUTTER] INQUIRER: Philadelphia police shut down 11 blocks of South Street between 1 and 2 a.m. Sunday after officers decided that large crowds, estimated as high as 20,000 people, were in danger of overwhelming the area. Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said Saturday night’s crowds apparently swelled because of rumors among local teenagers about the Greek Picnic, once an annual event that drew thousands of members of African American college fraternities and sororities to the city. While it was not held this year, a substitute event, which had difficulty securing a venue, drew some Greeks to the […]

MORNING CALL: Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett came under fire Friday when he said some jobless Pennsylvanians would rather collect unemployment than return to work. During a campaign appearance in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Corbett told a reporter from Pennsylvania Public Radio that “the jobs are there,” but he’d been told by business owners that, “one of the issues, and I hear it repeatedly – one of the individuals said, ‘I can’t get workers. People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment.’ ” Corbett told the radio outlet that a business owner had “literally” told him […]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The federal official leading the Gulf oil spill cleanup said Friday a new containment cap and an additional ship collecting oil could effectively contain the spill in the next three days The work to replace a leaky containment cap on the well head with a tighter one will begin Saturday, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said. At the same time, a ship connecting to a different part of the leak is expected to come online Sunday. Oil will flow unimpeded into the Gulf during the cap switch for at least part of the weekend. If all goes according […]

AG Everything’s Berri FAT BEATS/RED APPLES 45 Rap veteran AG never gets his props. He’s received critical acclaim for his collaborations with NYC producer Showbiz in the 90s, but his name is never ever mentioned amongst his contemporaries like Guru, Q-Tip, C. L. Smooth, Big L, and the Notorious B.I.G.. This doesn’t seem to bother him. In fact, listening to Everything’s Berri, you’d swear that this could be AG’s debut album. His super-lazy, relaxed delivery deeply contrasts his rigid and formulaic emceeing of the 90s. AG’s flow is neither a rip-off of Jay-Z swagger, nor a clone of “wavy” Harlem-ites […]

BY PAUL J. MAHER JR. Sasha Grey brings to mind the character of the wicked Cathy Ames in John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel, East of Eden, a psychological and physical likeness so eerie that it bears detailing. Steinbeck writes: “It is my belief that Cathy Ames was born with the tendencies, or lack of them, which drove and forced her all of her life. Some balance wheel was misweighted, some gear out of ratio. She was not like other people, never was from birth. And just as a cripple may learn to utilize his lack so that he becomes more effective […]

Ocean City, NJ, 8:45 PM by JEFF FUSCO

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A sightseeing boat carrying 37 people was hit by a barge and overturned Wednesday afternoon, spilling passengers into the Delaware River and leaving two people unaccounted for after a frantic rescue effort. MORE INQUIRER:  Two passengers are missing, a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man, both tourists from Hungary. Police divers entered the river about 5:30 p.m. to search for the victims. Police on both sides of the river searched the banks. MORE INQUIRER: Witness Jason Tilghman said the duck boat had stopped in the river for about 5 to 10 minutes. A crew member screamed “jump!” to […]

[Illustration by BEN HEINE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: A Pennsylvania law banning blasphemous or profane words from the names of corporations is unconstitutional because state employees who apply it must base their decisions on their own religious beliefs, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson in Philadelphia issued a summary judgment Wednesday in favor of an independent filmmaker who sued over state officials’ rejection of his application to name his company “I Choose Hell Productions, LLC.” Baylson said the 1977 law barring the use of “words that constitute blasphemy, profane cursing or swearing or that profane the Lord’s […]