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 […]
CENSUS: Honey, I Stopped Shrinking Philadelphia
DAILY NEWS: Good news, Philadelphia! After decades of population loss, the city has stopped shrinking, according to revised Census Bureau estimates delivered to the city earlier this week. On Monday, the city received a letter from the Census Bureau raising the 2008 population estimate by about 93,000. In October, Philly challenged the bureau’s 2008 estimate of the city’s population, which the bureau had set at 1,447,395. It was the first time that the city had challenged the bureau’s estimates since a challenge program began earlier this decade. The new estimate of Philadelphia’s ’08 population is 1,540,351 people, 4,220 higher than […]
A NEW LOW: Man Who Died Awaiting Treatment In The Emergency Room Was Robbed By Other Patients
DAILY NEWS: According to Philadelphia police, Rivera walked into Aria Health’s Frankford Campus, on Frankford Avenue near Harrison Street, about 10:45 p.m. Saturday. He was alone, and apparently had walked from his nearby home on Duffield Street near Foulkrod, his son said. Rivera complained of feeling pain in his left arm and abdomen, and was told to sit in the waiting area, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. At some point during the next hour, Rivera, a longtime bilingual counselor at Olney High School, lost consciousness. He inadvertently became a target, Vanore said, to three other people in the waiting […]
WEEKLY UPDATE: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, AP Ticker. Enjoy.
GREATEST HITS: Today I Saw Revisited
[Artwork by ALEX FINE] BY JEFF DEENEY This installment of Today I Saw Revisited presents two scenes from African Methodist Episcopal churches in North Philadelphia. My experience with the black church community in Philly is that it is totally vital to the function of social services at the grassroots level, and forms the backbone of community support for thousands of families around the city. However, there is a strong conservative streak that runs through many of Philadelphia’s black churches that some white liberal social workers find vexing. The Biblical literalist positions of some churches put them at odds with progressives […]
TICKET GIVEAWAY: A Man Called Josh
UPDATE: Phawker has two tickets to give away to the first reader to email us at feed@phawker.com. Please include a daytime phone number. Good luck! Five and a half years ago, before he was the darling of NPR, Josh Ritter walked onstage as opener to Erin McKeown at the TLA, and he did it unplugged. Not just acoustic, but completely unelectrified—so the always-rowdy bar crowd was miraculously hushed into silence to hear Ritter’s uncommonly beautiful Americana. From there, the room was hooked, many of them learning his soft lyrical twists and plaintive melodies for the first time. Since then, thousands […]
ALERT: Driving-While-Cellphoning Ban In Full Effect
INQUIRER: The price for driving and dialing goes from zero to $75 today in Philadelphia as city police begin enforcing the new cell-phone ban on city roadways. It’s not just motorists who will earn the fine as of today for using a handheld cell phone in motion – those traveling by bicycle, skateboard, scooter, or skates will as well. Hands-free devices are still legal. Police have been issuing warnings for the last month, after Mayor Nutter signed the law in April. Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said officers gave out “hundreds” of pink warning cards to drivers they observed using […]
DAILY NEWS: An Obamacare Explainer
DAILY NEWS:The U.S. House already has passed a sweeping health-care bill, and the Senate narrowly voted Nov. 21 to open debate on its own measure, crafted by Majority Leader Harry Reid. If the Senate approves a bill and the two houses of Congress work out an agreeable plan, we could have the most significant new domestic program enacted since Social Security. “I think we’ll see a bill passed, and there’s a pretty good chance of including a public [insurance option,” said Pennsylvania’s newly Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter. “We have to take one step at a time.” The battle will be […]
SPORTO: En Eff Hell
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY When it comes to sports, I almost always fall into the “traditionalist” camp. And, truly, I like the tradition of Detroit and Dallas hosting Thanksgiving Day games. But there is no disputing that it is an unfair advantage. Every year, Dallas gets a 9-day layoff coming into the season’s stretch drive. Usually their game after Thanksgiving will be against a team on six days of rest. This is an advantage, and so is the fact that the Cowboys are at home for the Thanksgiving game. This means that their opponent on short rest must travel […]
KIA GREGORY: Still Hard Out There For A Pimp
INQUIRER: Forty-three minutes past midnight, a crackle pierced the summer air. For a moment, Leroy Lewis, perched on a concrete wall beside a rowhouse in his Juniata Park neighborhood, talking to two friends, dismissed the sound as leftover fireworks. When Lewis, 19, turned to look, he saw a young man, his baseball cap tilted low, moving from the alleyway across the narrow street, pointing a gun, hunting. “The next shot was me looking at him,” Lewis recounted later. “I just seen a whole bunch of fire.”Lewis took off, dipping behind parked cars, as bullets cut through his stomach, his buttocks, […]
EARLY WORD: God Save The Queen
[“Death Of Cleopatra” by GUIDO CAGNACCI] INQLINGS: Cleopatra, comin’ atcha. Next year, the Franklin Institute will be the first stop in a traveling exhibition about the enigmatic Egyptian queen. “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” opening June 5, follows the FI’s 2007 blockbuster “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,” which National Geographic, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology also had a hand in. Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) was Egypt’s last pharaoh before the Romans stepped in to conquer. The Romans later tried to rewrite history and destroy all traces […]
GAYDAR: My So-Called Life
BY AARON STELLA Welcome back, folks. This chapter of my life story marks the eleventh of its kind. Upon each recounting, I am required to dredge up buried memories that I rarely visit. Recently, however, the impact of my past has become gruesomely clear. There is much left to be done, from what I can see—but I shall be better for it in the end. For those of you who haven’t been following along, you can read the whole story beginning to end after the jump. But for now, onward and upward. So, picking up where I left off last, […]
THIS JUST IN: The Return Of ‘The Answer’?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Allen Iverson’s retirement could be a short one. A person with knowledge of the talks says the Philadelphia 76ers have been approached about signing their former franchise superstar, and team management has held internal discussions about bringing Iverson back. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks have not been made public, says Iverson is among the free-agent candidates the Sixers are considering to replace injured point guard Lou Williams, who’s expected to miss eight weeks after jaw surgery. “I think we would look at all the options for sure, but nothing has really happened,” Peter […]