BY JEFF DEENEY As the morning wears on in room 315 cabin fever sets in. The students don’t leave the classroom at any point during the day except for brief staff-accompanied bathroom visits and for a short lunch break that doesn’t come until 1:30. On some days the group’s restlessness builds to a breaking point right before lunch that results in dangerous outbursts like students throwing furniture across the room out of frustration with their confinement. On other days the boys spirits’ are worn down enough by the slow passage of time that they become briefly willing to listen to […]
THE NEW DEAL: Obama Announces Nat. Sec. Team
NY FISHBOWL: Barry Blitt, the cartoonist responsible for the New Yorker‘s controversial terrorist fist-jabbing cover, among others, returns this week to “vet” Barack Obama. Of course this time around “Vetting” refers to the all important decision of picking a “first” puppy — thus far we know they want a mutt, but that it needs to be hypoallergenic and won’t be a girly dog. MORE LOS ANGELES TIMES: Reporting from Chicago — President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team today, including formally announcing his intention to nominate his onetime rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER There are few greater pleasures in this American life than watching a young, gifted rock band in the prime of its youth burn through its set before an adoring hometown crowd with the confidence of five young men who’ve come to realize that — after all the blood, the sweat and the tears that got them to this point — they are making their mark on the world. It’s even better when the young, gifted band is local. Such was the case Friday night at the way-sold-out Starlight Ballroom, where Dr. Dog staged an […]
BUZZKILL: Twilight Star Caught Roastin’ A Bowl
TMZ: Tsk, Tsk, Tsk PHAWKER: This Is A Teachable Moment NORMAL: The FBI has released its annual report on Crime in the United States 2007. Once again, the number of people in the United States arrested for marijuana has gone up. 872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana in 2007, and of those arrests, 89% or 775,138 were arrests for simple possession – not buying, selling, trafficking, or manufacture (growing). This represents an increase in marijuana arrests of 5.2% from the previous year and the fifth straight year marijuana arrests have increased from the previous year. Now a marijuana smoker is […]
KILLADELPHIA: Mother Killed In Hit On The Father
INQUIRER: At a news conference today at Philadelphia Police Headquarters, authorities released new information about a triple shooting this morning on the 3300 block of Mutter Street in Hunting Park that left a 19-year-old woman dead and her husband and young son seriously injured. The injured boy is a 5-year-old who was shot twice, police said. There was another child, 2, inside the house when the gunfire erupted, but that toddler was not injured. Two assailants entered the rowhouse through the basement. They found the four members of the family – a 20-year-old father, 19-year-old mother, and the two young children — […]
FORTRESS AMERICA: Pentagon Plans To Station 20,000 Troops Inside The U.S. Homeland
WASHINGTON POST: The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials. There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. The Pentagon’s plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response […]
Ex-City Paper Editor Gravely Injured In Hit And Run
Brian Hickey (pictured above with Danny Devito, on the set of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia), formerly editor of the City Paper and spokesman for John Dougherty’s unsuccessful bid for Vincent Fumo’s state senate seat (not to mention a trusted colleague during our staff writer days at PW), was seriously injured by a hit and run driver in Collingswood last night, according to his wife Angela. He is currently in the Trauma-ICU of Cooper University hospital and in stable condition after emergency surgery to alleviate swelling of the brain. INQUIRER: Hickey, 35, was walking to the PATCO station on Atlantic […]
ILLADELPHIA HALF-LIFE: Postcards From The Edge
INQUIRER: In the tight rowhouse streets of North Philadelphia, people share walls and worries. Few outsiders see, know or feel the cycle of want and chaos that a week of privation creates. To show what life north of Spring Garden Street looks like to some of the people who live there, Mariana Chilton, a professor and anthropologist at Drexel University’s School of Public Health, gave digital cameras to 40 women. Out of a simple idea, complex images and narratives emerge. An exhibit of the photos, called Witnesses to Hunger, will open to the public Dec. 11 at Drexel’s Bossone Center. […]
WORTH REPEATING: To Live And Die In Mumbai
BY SUKETU MEHTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MY bleeding city. My poor great bleeding heart of a city. Why do they go after Mumbai? There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness. Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim […]
KILLADELPHIA: 1 More Dead Since You Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Police found the body of an unidentified man inside a parked car North Philadelphia shortly after 12 a.m. today. The man, who was shot in the left chest area and the arm, was discovered in the 4600 block of North 16th Street, police said. He was pronounced dead at Einstein Medical Center. The investigation is continuing and no other details were available. MORE ALSO: A man who was carjacked in Hunting Parkon Friday remained in Temple University Hospital in serious condition today with a single gunshot wound to his buttocks, according to city police information officer Christine O’Brien. The […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
I’M RICK JAMES, BITCH: : King Khan & The BBQ, Johnny Brendas, Last Night BY TIFFANY YOON I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Love City, the opener for Johnny Brenda’s Black Friday show, but unfortunately, I missed their set, which is supposed to pull influences from psychedelic 70’s punk, 90’s grunge and 80’s new wave. I did catch some words with the bass player Patrick outside, and he said they had some technical difficulties anyways. He seemed pretty upset, and to top it off Jamie, the lead of Love City, walked by looking miserable and fairly wasted […]
BOOKS: Death Of A Salesman
INQUIRER: Robin’s Book Store, a favorite haunt of the Philadelphia’s literati, announced last week that this will be its last holiday season. It will be closing up shop at the end of January. Early this afternoon there were a handful of customers at the store. The customers appeared surprised at the store’s demise. The city’s oldest independent book seller, Robin’s has long hosted poetry readings and autograph signings at 108 S. 13th Street. “Operating a books store was always a better hoppy than a way to make a living, but now it’s impossible” writes Larry Robin in a news release. […]
GUNCRAZY: Woman Shot In Old City Bar
INQUIRER: A 26-year old woman was shot in the leg inside an Old City nightclub this morning, police said. At 1:20 a.m., police responded to a shooting inside CEBU in the 100 block of Chestnut Street, police said. The victim had been shot in the lower right shin. The woman was taken to Jefferson University Hospital where she was listed in stable condition. No arrests were reported. MORE