EDITOR & PUBLISHER: For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros. According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies. For comparison purposes, in September 2007 reporting period, daily circ fell 2.6% and Sunday was down 4.6%. […] Daily circulation at The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped 11.0% […]
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: The Badlands
BY JEFF DEENEY Last week’s daylight shooting of multiply convicted drug gang leader Jose “Mostro” Ortiz and the wave of retaliatory carnage unleashed in the Badlands provides an opportunity to share some knowledge I’ve gained about that neighborhood’s inner workings. I learned a little bit about the Badlands both during the time I spent working there in social services (most recently as a school based behavioral health worker in an elementary school not far from the original murder scene) and through conversations with former and active addicts who have recently been involved in the area’s drug culture. Hopefully my contribution […]
KILLADELPHIA: 3 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Three overnight slayings capped a bloody weekend in the city as Philadelphia homicide detectives continued to search for shooters who on Thursday gunned down the leader of a North Philadelphia drug gang and his associate. Late Sunday, a 42-year-old man was shot four times shortly after 11 p.m. on the 1000 block of Pallas Street in West Philadelphia. The man, who has not been named by police, was pronounced dead at 5:23 a.m. at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Investigators have no motive or suspects in the slaying. Early this morning, a 27-year-old man was shot once […]
STAMPA BAY: Phils Crush Rays 10-2
ESPN: As if Game 3 didn’t provide enough drama, Game 4 is just the same. When Phillies pitcher Joe Blanton hits a home run, things are going Philadelphia’s way. Can the Rays respond? Phillies 10, Rays 2
EDITORIAL: Why Whitey Can’t Vote
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don’t think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore. I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years. In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation […]
HOWARD POWER: Phils Win Game 3
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Carlos Ruiz finished off a madcap ninth inning with an infield single with the bases loaded, and the Phillies outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 early Sunday in Game 3 of the World Series for a 2-1 lead. This was midnight madness and then some on a rainy night that pushed the start to 10:06 p.m. and it wrapped up at 1:47 a.m. Ruiz, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard homered for the Phils, but it took three kooky plays to win it on a bases-loaded trickler with no outs. It all came down to this: Rays reliever J.P. […]
THE COST OF CHANGE: Priceless
The cost of change is, it turns out, astronomical — especially when the moneyed guarantors of the status quo will spare no expense to ensure that the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. Obama needs your help. In the first two weeks of October, the Obama campaign spent $105 million, while only raising $35 million during that same period, a precipitous drop from the pace of campaign donations in September. With just 10 days left in the campaign, every dollar counts. Phawker has been running a de facto fundraiser with Bruce Springsteen fans, offering a […]
SHPILKES*: Ex-Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman Pens Jew-Baiting Anti-Obama Email
NEW YORK TIMES: A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.” At first blush, it was typical of the sorts of e-mails floating around with false, unsubstantiated and incendiary claims this year. But where most of the attack e-mails against Mr. Obama have been mostly either anonymous or from people outside of mainstream politics, this […]
TONITE: John Hodgman To Rock 215 Fest
215 FEST: We are proud and pleased to announce that the festival starts off this year with an arched, eyeglass-vaulting eyebrow on TONIGHT, when the one and only Mr. John Hodgman, the mild-countenanced, somewhat disturbed author of /The Areas of My Expertise/, and /More Information Than You Needed to Know/, and world-renowned expert on the little-known history of mole men gambols upon the hallowed, tastefully weathered boards of the Latvian Society. Mr. Hodgman will be joined by his friends, among them the incomparable *David Rees,* creator of the famed clip-art comic /Get Your War On/, and the world’s first blogger to […]
KILLADELPHIA: 5 Dead In 22 Hours
INQUIRER: Police identified the victims as Jose Ortiz, 45, of the 3200 block of Rorer Street and Roberto Beltran, 38, of the 2900 block of Howard Street. The victims dropped immediately and were declared dead at the scene. Police were still trying to determine whether both men, with criminal histories, were targets.Police said one of the men killed was a suspect in other killings in the area, and authorities said yesterday’s slayings might have been retaliation. The crime scene was at an open-air market on West Indiana Avenue near Mutter Street, where casual merchants do a brisk business selling a […]
PHUCK: Phils Lose Game Two Of World Series 4-2
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Squeeze plays, a wacky checked swing and a fresh face out of the bullpen. These plucky Tampa Bay Rays pulled out all their tricks at Tropicana Field to tie the World Series. James Shields stymied the slumping Philadelphia Phillies, rookie David Price got the final seven outs and Tampa Bay rebounded from a rare home loss with a 4-2 victory Thursday night that made it 1-all. MORE RELATED: Dear Tampa Bay Rays fans: Your stadium is shit. We Philly fans know all about shit stadiums. Yours is one. We don’t have one anymore. I hate looking at the […]
THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT: Q&A with Palmyra Delran
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS EDITOR Every scene is forever trapped in a cyclical process of being loved, hated after going mainstream, and then, with the passage of time, finding its niche again amongst the ever-stubborn contrarians of the new age. These trends are inevitable, what is cool now will be deemed uncool given enough time and will eventually resurface again amongst a new generation to be heralded as cooler than ever. Garage rock, coupled with ’60s pop and surf have been going in and out of style since, well, the ’60s. The Friggs, who ruled the local garage-rock roost […]
KILLADELPHIA: Two Dead, One Arrest
INQUIRER: Police this morning identified two recent homicide victims and announced arrests in one of the slayings. Marta Martinez-Lozada, 37, was shot dead Tuesday afternoon during a botched robbery in Kensington. A witness flagged down police in the 2600 block of Lawrence Street and said Martinez had been gunned down by an unidentified male who fled the scene in a red Honda driven by woman, police said. Detectives yesterday arrested Oscar Alvarado, 25, and Cynthia Alvarado, 28, and charged them each with murder, robbery, and various weapons counts. A man killed yesterday in a Frankford alleyway was identified as Thomas […]