ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Philadelphia Parking Authority says rising fuel costs are forcing it to increase the fee for towing your car away if it’s confiscated by police. Each day, about 100 vehicles are towed in Philadelphia under the city’s “Live Stop” program. That program targets drivers who don’t have proper registration, or who have invalid, suspended, or revoked driver’s licenses. Corinne O’Connor, the Parking Authority’s director of on-street operations, says a Live Stop job can take hours. She says tow trucks get stuck in traffic, just like everybody else, and the Parking Authority has to cover its costs. The Live […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Pregnancy Pact With The Truth
Pregger Teen Denies Pregnancy Pact, Calls 17 Pregnant Friends A ‘Coincidence’ One of the pregnant teenage girls at a Massachusetts high school denied that 17 students had entered a pact in an effort to get pregnant and called the high rate of pregnancies “unlucky” and a “coincidence.” “There was definitely no pact,” Lindsey Oliver, 17, [NOT pictured] who became pregnant when she was a junior, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” today. “There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was […]
ADAM ACURAGI: The Bottom Of The River
One Take New York filmed Adam Arcuragi at an underground flea market. Each Saturday, two levels of a standard, dingy parking garage turns into a full-blown Chelsea flea market.When Adam Arcuragi and band rolled in with instruments, wary vendors objected, reasoning – apparently – that the delightful, stompy sing-along “Bottom of the River” might distract customers from spending their cash on a stack of vintage post cards or a maybe-working Tupac Shakur clock. But Arcuragi and company charmed ’em and a woman with an infectious smile actually emptied a trash tub to provide the band a bass drum. Oh, and […]
GAMBLOR: No News Is Good News
DAILY NEWS: Lawyers for the Daily News and the Inquirer are seeking to block efforts to force 10 reporters to testify about their sources in the probe into now-indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples. A lawyer for the papers’ owner said that the subpoenas issued recently to the papers and the reporters – as well as several other Pennsylvania journalists – by lawyers for DeNaples “were really designed to harass members of the media.” “We believe that the subpoenas really are an attempt to intimidate the press and to deter the reporters from writing articles about the defendant that they […]
KILLADELPHIA: One More Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Police this morning identified a 37-year-old car wash employee who was fatally shot at work in North Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. Fassara Kouyate, of the 200 block of Birch Street in Kensington, was shot at 4:47 p.m. near the intersection of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue, police said. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 5:20 p.m. No arrests were reported.
WORTH REPEATING: Confederacy Of Dunces
KAREN HELLER: Council incumbency is nearly papal in its security. Members die in office. People with IQs no higher than toasters cakewalk through elections in perpetuity, all the while able to collect multiple incomes and pensions while slogging through three months of no legislation. The only time a member gets ejected by a somnolent citizenry is when he or she does something truly heinous. Like driving without a license for 25 years. Philadelphia is such an oasis of promise that any little boy can grow up to be a member of Council. Provided Daddy was mayor first. Three former mayors’ […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
HOW ARE YOU: Daniel Johnston, Popped Fest, WCL, Sunday Night BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Popped festival 2008: same graphics, same format, fancier names (Gogol Bordello, Daniel Johnston) and locations such as World Café Live and there was where your favorite Philadelphia-adopted Italian reporter was last night to delight his ears. Sunday night there were two stages, with the upstairs more oriented to a dancier, hip and more uncommitted entertainment and a downstairs where a various bunch of more or less underground rock acts gather the attendance. First on stage Gildon Works offered a really great live show of indie […]
SHOOTING HORSES: Jersey Jerk Cops To Killing ‘Cutie’
INQUIRER: A Lindenwold man pleaded guilty today to shooting a rodeo horse with a bow and arrow in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, then leaving it to bleed to death in a field near its owner’s home. Jason Allen, 20, was hunting for deer with two friends in January 2007 when they came across “Cutie,” [NOT pictured, left] he told a Gloucester County Superior Court judge. The steel-tipped arrow Allen fired struck the show horse, owned by a Tuckahoe Road family. Allen, along with Kamren Johnston, 25, and Mark A. Simmerman, 21, were arrested a month later and charged with multiple […]
KILLADELPHIA: Aaron McKie Faces Gun Charges
INQUIRER: Former Philadelphia 76er Aaron F. McKie was arrested this morning on charges he lied while trying to buy two pistols despite a restraining order banning weapons possession. McKie, 35, is to be arraigned this afternoon in Montgomery County Magisterial District Court on one felony and one misdemeanor count stemming from his April 8 trip to Abington Gun Sports in Upper Moreland Township. While filling out paperwork to buy a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson and a 9 mm Ruger, McKie denied that he was subject to a court order restraining him from harassing his “child or an intimate partner or […]
RIP: Sage Funnyman George Carlin Dead At 71
REUTERS: Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters. Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
LIVE AND DIRECT: The Philadelphia Popped Festival, 33rd & Market, Saturday [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA & TIFFANY YOON & AMY QUINN]
RIP: Twigga, Beloved Local Giraffe, Dead At 29
INQUIRER: Old age has claimed another animal at the Philadelphia Zoo. Twigga, who at 29 was one of the oldest giraffes in the nation, was euthanized Thursday at the zoo, her home since 1979. In announcing her death yesterday, the zoo said the giraffe — tall for a female at 15 feet — had been on medications for age-related arthritis for some time. “Based on Twigga’s comfort and behavior, the zoo’s veterinary team decided this week that humane euthanasia was now the best course for her,” the zoo’s statement said. Giraffes typically live into their late teens and early 20s. […]