QUATARI DIPLOMAT SCRAMBLES F-16s BY SMOKIN’ IN THE BOYS ROOM Two F-16s scrambled to escort a United Airlines jet into Denver International Airport on Wednesday night after a Qatari diplomat apparently tried to sneak a cigarette, then joked that he had wanted to set his shoe afire, federal law enforcement officials said. Initially, the incident raised fears of another terrorism strike similar to a passenger’s Christmas Day attempt to ignite explosives in his underwear as a Northwest jet approached Detroit, and to the 2001 shoe bomber, Richard Reid, who tried to set fire to his shoes on a transatlantic flight […]
NEWSPAPER DEATH WATCH: Tierney Says Inquirer And Daily News Will Be Out Of Money By July
INQUIRER: Brian P. Tierney, president and CEO of Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., lashed out at his company’s lenders Wednesday, suggesting that they were purposefully trying to financially destroy the media firm by seeking to delay the company’s scheduled April 27 auction. […] Should the auction be delayed, the company’s bankruptcy case could drag on well into the summer and beyond, which would be a financial disaster, Tierney said. The company has estimated that it will run out of operating cash by July. MORE UPDATE: Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C.’s bankruptcy auction remains scheduled for April 27. A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With A.P. Ticker
A.P. discusses Philly’s new weed policy, ‘collateral murder’ in Iraq, the Donovan McNabb trade and, of course, the Fightins.
Casino To Be A Wynn-Wynn For Wynn Says Wynn
INQUIRER: Casino mogul Steve Wynn on Monday declared that his plans for a South Philadelphia casino would be “Wynn top to bottom,” carrying both his name and signature design. After meeting for an hour and fifteen minutes with Mayor Nutter at City Hall Monday night, Wynn said in an interview with The Inquirer: “We only have one brand. We don’t have a down-market brand. It’s our place.” When Wynn Resorts surfaced in February as a new developer to take over the faltering Foxwoods Casino project, there was speculation that he might not bring his style of high-end casinos to Philadelphia. […]
PIGGIE OF THE WEEK: PA A.G. Tom Corbett
This week A.P. Ticker calls out Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett for suing to repeal health care reform in a shameless bid to draw Tea Party support for his gubernatorial campaign.
THE PEACE CORPS DIARIES: Letter From Paraguay
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH In Paraguay, there are 230 Peace Corps volunteers, ma o meno. That group is expected to rise to 300 or so in the coming year as Pres. Obama is pumping a lot more money into the agency as a whole. Peace Corps in Paraguay is also one of the biggest programs in the country — only Ukraine has more volunteers. Within the 230, 49 are in my “G” or training group. We will be working in three different sectors — Health and Sanitation (mine), Early Education, and Urban Youth. The Health and Sanitation group has about […]
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 […]
Everything You Know About Flash Mobs Is WRONG
[Photos by AL IN PHILADELPHIA] BY JEFF DEENEY So late last week the flash mob story broke national, and the middle class is freaking out about poor black teens using new technologies to organize riots that threaten white business districts, even though now it seems there was never a flash mob to begin with. You’ve heard all kinds of commentary from a thousand white journalists who have never spoken to black teenagers in the neighborhoods except maybe when taking statements in court for a story, and seen bloggers who are equally distanced from urban poverty jumping in front of cameras […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggie Of The Week
This week, A.P Ticker calls out mainline dentist/Jersey Shore medical waste dumper Dr. Thomas W. McFarland Jr.
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 […]
JUDGE 2 PARENTS: Only You Can Prevent Flash Mobs
DAILY NEWS: Over two days of trials, 29 youths have been convicted for participating in flash mobs. All juveniles found delinquent yesterday face up to four years in a state facility, but most who pleaded guilty were sentenced to four weekends at a Poconos boot camp, 60 days of electronic monitoring and two years’ probation, and were ordered to take biweekly drug tests and to attend school every day on time. Those with prior convictions or other glaring problems in their backgrounds were sentenced to state facilities. Dougherty got creative with two teenagers who gave cops a hard time while […]
Q&A: With Philly-Based Photographer E.C. Adams
PHAWKER: Let’s start with some basic bio info: where are you from, where did you go to school, how did you wind up in Philly, and what was the aha moment that made you want to become a photographer? E.C. ADAMS: I was born in Louisville, Kentucky. My parents died (at different times) when I was a small child; I then moved in with relatives in Lancaster, PA. I attended a small private school in Lancaster. After that, several “prodigal son” episodes were intermingled with stints at a few different universities, the last being Temple, where I was a French major. But the […]
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 […]