AP Ticker’s [Scrapple News] Hiking in Iran
DEENEY: On Crime And Punishment
BY JEFF DEENEY I’ve been a social worker in the criminal justice system for a little over a year now so I’ve had something of a front row seat to observe the various dysfunctions and outright failures documented in the Inquirer’s series on the courts. The series has done a great job of definitively nailing down a slew of major problems that everyone who has any even small amount of professional contact with the courts has known for a long time. The system is clogged to the point of bursting, and as a result cases get delayed, or dropped, outstanding […]
SPHS Principal Has Impressive Track Record Of FAIL
INQUIRER: South Philadelphia High School’s principal faces harsh criticism over the Dec. 3 attack on Asian students by some of their African American schoolmates. But controversy is nothing new to LaGreta Brown. During nearly a decade in Atlantic City, a tenure that included running the city’s major high school, Brown became involved in numerous disputes with parents, teachers, and staff. Her time there ended in 2008, when she resigned ahead of a school board vote on her dismissal. District administrators are not concerned about Brown’s troubled record in Atlantic City, saying she was exonerated of any wrongdoing. She continues to […]
Philly Man Arrested For Bloomberg Death Threats
NEW YORK TIMES: A man from Philadelphia was arrested Monday on charges that he threatened to kill Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly in several calls made from Manhattan pay phones to 911 over the past seven months, the authorities said. The man, Jeffrey Fisher, 48, traveled to New York from Philadelphia, making 10 calls from pay phones in Manhattan, the authorities said. The Manhattan district attorney’s office charged Mr. Fisher on Saturday with 10 counts of making a terrorist threat. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. MORE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: A […]
KILLADELPHIA: Dead Men Tell No Tales
INQUIRER: Martin Thomas looked at the flier and blanched. “Don’t stand next to this man. You might get shot.” The threat was scribbled on a copy of his signed statement to police, implicating a man in a murder. Thomas, then 20, had revealed a buried cache of weapons and named one of the gunmen who killed a man at 22d and Somerset on a summer night. Now, there were his words to detectives, posted on the wall of a Chinese restaurant in North Philadelphia for all to see. Panicked, Thomas fled, flagged down a police car, and told the officers […]
SPORTO: Cowgirls In The Sand
BY MIKE WOLVERTON The Eagles outscored the Giants Sunday night, but there was some cause for concern. Giants receivers hit on numerous big plays, and missed several more. Mario Manningham was barely out of bounds for what could have been two separate touchdowns. Fellow receiver Hakeem Nicks dropped a sure long TD. And the Giants still put up 38. Factor in that the Eagles got a fluky fumble return touchdown and a punt return TD by DeSean Jackson, things you can’t count on happening every week. My point is that the Eagles had a lot of things go their way […]
Khyber Pass Scion Was International Man Of Danger
INQUIRER: One June day in 1988, customs agents at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport pulled aside an intense and striking young man waiting to get on a plane back home to Philadelphia. They suspected he had heroin in his suitcase. They were right — two kilos’ worth from Pakistan, hidden under a false bottom. He wasn’t tough to crack: Before the day was out, Daood “David” Gilani decided to save his own skin, agreeing to betray his drug-dealing partners by helping U.S. drug agents set up a sting. It was the beginning of a complicated, off-and-on relationship as a confidential informant […]
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIV: Down The Shore
WARNING: Audio NSFW MONICA YANT KINNEY: Did Andy Warhol have Jersey Shore in mind when he predicted that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”? That was around 1968, before cable provided a forum for the classless masses to share their special gifts. It’s easy to argue that these playas are acting. In her Jersey Shore introduction, cast member Angelina even compared herself to reality royalty, bragging that “I’m the Kim Kardashian of Staten Island.” And yet every drunk Guidette scarfing Cool Ranch Doritos after an evening of videotaped humiliation was once someone’s little girl. In ranchers […]
NPR FOR THE DEF: Q&A With Nick Spitzer, Professor Of American Boogie & Host Of NPR’s American Routes
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Nick Spitzer is a folkorist, ethnographer, professor of American Studies at Tulane University and host of the altogether wonderful American Routes — which can be heard locally on WHYY from 2-4 PM on Saturdays and 4-6 PM on Sundays — a heady Creole gumbo of blues, folk, soul, rock and Cajun stylings. Each week Nick scours the highways and the byways, the juke joints and roadhouses, the coffeehouses and corner bars, of these United States to map the crazy quilt patchwork of regional flavors, customs and musics to, in effect, create an audio […]
ANSWER: Is That All There Is To An Iverson Bounce?
INQUIRER: On Wednesday night, for the game after Allen Iverson’s emotional return, the energy at the Wachovia Center regressed to pre-Iverson levels. On Monday, a sold-out crowd of 20,664 packed the arena for Iverson’s “debut.” Two nights later, 12,136 people watched the Detroit Pistons beat the Sixers, 90-86 — a difference of 8,528. Iverson’s effectiveness dropped, too. He scored 11 points both nights, but on Wednesday, he had six turnovers and performed as he had warned, needing to knock the dust off. When the Sixers signed Iverson, their losing streak was at eight games. Since then, they have played three […]
NEWSPAPER DEATHWATCH: E&P Ceases Publication
LOS ANGELES TIMES: For journalists, finding out that Editor & Publisher magazine is being shut down is a bit like discovering that a friend who’s a professional daredevil was killed in an accident onstage. It’s risky enough to be in the journalism business these days, and E&P doubled down on that bet: It was a magazine about newspapers. Now, its reporters and editors (for the print and online editions) will experience firsthand the disruption they’ve been chronicling for more than a decade. It appears that they received three weeks’ notice. E&P has been around since 1901, but it apparently grew […]
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: Vintage Green
REVERIE 295 W. Girard Ave. 215.769.2302 reverievintage.com BY ASHLEY MYERS Reverie, located on Girard near 2nd, is a consignment shop for vintage wearables, collectibles, and furniture. The store opened on Valentine’s Day 2008 and is owned by 4 women: Brady Sanders, Christa Cywinscky, Nicole Marcote, and Ana Troncoso. The idea for a consignment store came when Nicole (owner of Quince, right next door to Reverie) told Anna and Brady about the open store space available on 2nd and Girard. The women all shared an interest in fashion, art, reusing and recycling, and thought it would be a great space to […]