DAILY NEWS: He met the girl whom he is accused of later victimizing in 1995 at the Olney Recreation Center, where he was teaching karate to youngsters. She was 10. He spent the next two years befriending her and her family, gaining their trust and, quietly, laying a trap, court documents allege. After the first two alleged assaults in the van in 1997, Wiggins began routinely taking his young victim out for car rides, court documents indicate. Some ended back in Fairmount Park, others at his house on Chew Avenue near Front Street in Olney. But all of the trips […]
SPORTO: Did It Just Get Drunk In Here?
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Things change quickly in sports. A week ago the Eagles took the lead in the NFC East, but they still looked like a 3 or 4 seed at best and were clearly a notch below the top two, New Orleans and Minnesota. Fast forward seven days and the Saints just lost, the Vikings just lost, and the Eagles have won five in a row. Suddenly a #2 seed and a bye week are within reach. The Birds will hold the tiebreaker against Minnesota, but the Vikings will have to slip up in one of their […]
Eagles Fans + Snow = Fire + Gasoline
GONZO: Before the game, I was talking to one of the Eagles’ front office employees. She was saying what a good job the Lincoln Financial Field workers did removing the huge mounds of snow from the stands. She was right. It took 45 minutes to help shovel my friend’s car out yesterday. Imagine how hard it was to clear a 67,000-seat stadium. But despite the valiant effort, they couldn’t get it all. There was still plenty left over when the gates opened and the fans trickled in. The first snowball was launched from the upper deck at 2:46 p.m. It […]
AVALANCHE: ‘Storm Of The Century’ Shows No Mercy
INQUIRER: On the eve of the winter solstice, the most potent December snowstorm in 100 years — complete with thunder and lightning — has left the region under as much as 20 inches of snow. And for the rest of the week, the faintest sunlight of the year will glance off a bright and dense cover, which may affect weather for several days. And for the rest of the week, the faintest sunlight of the year will glance off a bright and dense cover, which may affect weather for several days. Temperatures may not get out of the 30s until […]
GAYDAR: Dumpstas Vs. Octomom
BY AARON STELLA GAYDAR EDITOR The Dumpsta Players, that raucous band of merry drags, pulled out all the stops last Wednesday night at Bob and Barbara’s with they’re Christmas tabloid scalping of Jon and Kate + Hate in Outerspace! B&B’s tight quarters were especially packed that night; those present, making as much of a scene as would be expected from a crowd jiving with the DP’s prescription of dissolute theater. Kicking off the show was the bellicose but buoyant Mr. and Mrs. Ponzio (Mr. Ponzio played by the Jackal Jester himself, Ricky Paul), belting out a reel of “Jingle Bells” […]
BE VERY AFRAID: Winter Storm Warning In Effect
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: … WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SATURDAY TO 6 AM EST SUNDAY… THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOUNT HOLLY HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SATURDAY TO 6 AM EST SUNDAY. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OVERSPREAD THE AREA FROM SOUTH TO NORTH LATE TONIGHT AND SATURDAY MORNING. THE SNOW MAY FALL HEAVY AT TIMES AS THE STORM MAKES ITS CLOSEST APPROACH TO THE NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE COASTS. WARMER AIR MAY PUSH IN FROM THE OCEAN AND CAUSE A MIX OR CHANGE TO PLAIN RAIN ALONG THE […]
WORTH REPEATING: Bring Back Barkley, Too
GONZO: The Sixers need something to keep the fans interested while simultaneously distracting them from a team that has just six sad wins and the fourth-worst attendance in the NBA. They need a big personality to get the city talking about pro hoops again. They need to make a bold move. They need to hire Charles Barkley. A few months ago, Barkley told the Boston Globe he’d like to become a general manager. It’s Charles, so you have to wonder how sincere he was when he made that statement. In the past, he has said he’d like to become a […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
STYLE COUNCIL: Planet-Friendly Panache
ARCADIA BOUTIQUE 819 N. 2nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19123 P: 215.667.8099 BY ASHLEY MYERS Arcadia is an exclusively eco-friendly boutique located in the middle of Northern Liberties. The boutique has been providing Philadelphia with a variety clothing and accessories, vintage designs, and showcasing local artists and designers since September 2007. Arcadia came to Philadelphia after owner AliMcCloud saw a need for eco-friendly fashion in Philadelphia. Before opening the boutique, McCloud lived in New York, attended FIT, and did a thesis focusing Green fashion. The boutique offers mainly women fashions with a small selections of men and children clothing as well. […]
REPORT: Phila. Drinking Water Contains Contaminants At Levels Above The Legal Limit
[Click image to enlarge] FRESH AIR: In part because of overwhelmed sewer systems, human excrement and dangerous chemicals are making their way into our waterways and drinking water. New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg returns to Fresh Air to talk about chemicals in our drinking water, and how the nation’s sewer systems are desperately in need of infrastructure repairs — even if the fix is not exactly politically attractive. An estimated one out of ten Americans is exposed to this unsafe drinking water. Duhigg reports on the “worsening pollution in American waters” — and regulators’ responses to the problem — […]
SEX4TICKETS TRIAL: Like A Bad Romance Novel
INQUIRER: She arrived at Manny Brown’s at 7:30 that night and walked up to a man sitting at the bar. Officer Michael Brady was in plain clothes and wearing the Penn State jacket. She asked if his name was Bob. He said “yes.” Three more undercover officers, including Bugsch, sat at a table about 15 feet away, Brady said. Brady testified that Finkelstein said she was married but in a very open relationship and that her husband knew she was a prostitute but didn’t care. Finkelstein continued, Brady said, telling him, “I’m a whore. I love sex. I just can’t […]
TONITE: Get Your Dumpster On
BY AARON STELLA We’ve got one last push before the end of our first year in recession, but the Dumpsta Players, those lascivious lint-lickers of the everydrag, have decided to drench you in the year’s drossy tabloid afterbirth beforehand with their Christmas special Jon and Kate + Hate in Outerspace! Fate would have it that the Gosselin’s hyper-fertility would be sullied by their love for the camera and the Benjamins: during a rehearsal with their children at Ponzio’s for “The Regis Philbin Christmas Special,” Jon storms out and into the arms of Octomom, who’s really an alien. At that, the […]
BEATING THE RAP: The Revolving Door Of Justice
INQUIRER: Just 23 years old, John Gassew has been arrested 44 times, mostly on charges of sticking a gun in people’s faces and robbing them. But in the eyes of the law, Gassew isn’t an armed robber. He’s never been convicted. Despite being called one of the city’s more prolific, and sometimes violent, stickup men by police — they say he bashed a delivery man over the head with a bat, shot at a 13-year-old neighbor, and smashed in the face of a robbery victim — Gassew has been sentenced to jail only once, for a drug charge. The Northeast […]