Under the nascent ownership of Brian Tierney and Philadelphia Media Holdings, the Inquirer and Daily News have not only managed to stanch the chronic hemorrhage of readers, they’ve actually seen a modest, but no less substantive uptick in circulation. In this era of mass media ‘shrinkage,’ this is nothing short of a modern miracle. How did they do it? With prizes inside. That’s right, borrowing a page from the cereal-maker’s playbook, PMH has been giving away prizes like Bob Barker on ecstacy. To wit: Philadelphian Jennifer Barr is the grand-prize winner in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie contest, which […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
MAGGOT BRAIN: Nurse Sentenced For Allowing Infestation In Patient’s Head For allowing a horde of maggots to fester in the head wound of an elderly patient, a former nursing-home supervisor was sentenced yesterday in Delaware County court to four years’ probation and ordered to pay $4,800 in restitution. Donna Marie Cameron, 40, of Aston, was once director of nursing at the now-defunct St. James Retirement and Rehabilitation Center, in Chester. The court found that Cameron was anything but aware of the needs of Patricia Holdsworth, 72, a St. James’ resident suffering from skin cancer and mental-health issues. In June 2005, […]
Earthlink A No-Show At Council Wi-Fi Hearing
Will Wireless Philadelphia fulfill Mayor Street’s soaring vision of a city where all residents enjoy affordable Internet access or will it end up like man’s early attempts to fly by strapping on homemade wings and jumping off a cliff? The grimmer view dominated yesterday’s City Council technology committee hearings into Wireless Philadelphia’s progress. Councilmen Frank Rizzo Jr. and Brian O’Neill were appalled that Atlanta-based Earthlink, Inc. — the Wireless Philadelphia provider that recently announced it was getting out of the wireless-city business — did not show up to testify. O’Neill said he had received a statement “allegedly from EarthLink” on […]
Q&A: Armed America Photographer Kyle Cassidy
Dan and his Mossberg Model 88, Bushmaster AR-15, Rock Island Armory / Sendra M16, Remington 700 PSS, Springfield XD, FN Five-seveN, H&K USP, Sig Sauer P226, Colt Commander 1911, and Glock 22 by KYLE CASSIDY Kyle Cassidy has been a freelance writer and photographer since 1999. His photographs have been published in the New York Times, Barron’s Financial, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He writes frequently about technology and has been an outspoken voice in the area of practical modern photographic theory. Largely known for his fashion and portrait photography, he became interested in photographing gun owners during the 2004 Presidential […]
BEANIE TO DELUCA: Big Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy
FROM THE INQUIRER: In prison, he hadn’t written a word. “I wasn’t in that state of mind,” said Sigel, who’s as well-respected a lyricist within rap as he is notorious outside it for his run-ins with the law, which include a 2003 attempted-murder charge. (He was acquitted.) “I wasn’t Beanie Sigel then,” he says. “I was 57613-066.” When he came up with “Return of the Bad Guy,” Sigel thought it would be the title track of his next album. But “Bad Guy” did not even make it onto his fourth album, which comes out Tuesday. It’s called The Solution. “I want […]
FREE BILAL: AP Photog Gets Day In Kangaroo Court
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi investigating magistrate on Sunday convened the first criminal hearing in the case of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by the U.S. military without charges for nearly 20 months. Hussein was present for most of the nearly seven-hour, closed-door proceeding in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq before magistrate Dhia al-Kinani. It was the first time Hussein or his lawyers have seen any of the materials gathered by the U.S. military against him since his arrest in Ramadi on April 12, 2006. Al-Kinani, however, issued an order that the proceedings and details of […]
THE SADDEST ANIMATED GIF IN THE WORLD
By ONESOUND
RECONSIDER THIS: My So-Called Life
BY EVA LIAO Here’s one for the kids of my generation, the kids who grew up stuck between the loud, crude fads of the ’80s and the comparably apathetic, bereaved children of today. Here’s to the victims of a less dramatic, and all-the-more innocent decade known as the ’90s. Last month the DVD series of My So-Called Life was released to the elation of the pathetically nostalgic, such as myself. It’s been 13 years since the show last aired on ABC, running only one season. The series came to an unexpected halt once lead actress Claire Danes, who was only […]
REALITY CHECK: On CP’s Baby ‘Mama Drama’ Story
BY JEFF DEENEY Doron Taussig’s City Paper article “Mama Drama” details the backlash from one grassroots women’s coalition against the escalation of foster care placements by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. The escalation comes in the wake of scathing news probes into an alarming number of child deaths taking place under DHA’s watch. It’s a touchy subject that draws strong reactions from all sides: DHS feels like they have stepped up to the plate, doing what was absolutely necessary to stamp out a crisis. Conversely, any mother, no matter how incapable of adequately caring for a child she may […]
PAPERBOY: Super-Dooper ‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Fat Sack Of AK47 Peace On Earth’ Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN We know how it is: so many words to read, so little time to surf for free porn. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you, freeing up valuable nanoseconds that can now be better spent ‘roughing up the suspect’ over at Suicide Girls or what have you. Every Thursday 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 you towards the gooey caramel center of each edition. Why? Because we like you. ON THE COVER: CITY PAPER: […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
GET REAL ESTATE: Subprime Crisis Spurs Home Loan Interest Rate Freeze WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has hammered out an agreement to freeze interest rates on certain subprime mortgages for five years to combat an escalating number of home foreclosures, congressional aides said Wednesday. A person familiar with the matter said the rate freeze would apply to borrowers with loans made from Jan. 1, 2005, through July 30 of this year with rates that are scheduled to rise between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010; likewise, the program would only be available for owner-occupied homes — to ensure the […]
TMI TV: Kidnap Victim To Host Chat Show
(CNN) — Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager who was held prisoner for eight years in a basement, will have her own television chat show, her media adviser confirmed to CNN Thursday. Natascha Kampusch gives an interview in August 2007, a year after she escaped from her captor. The 19-year-old made headlines around the world after she escaped from a subterranean bunker below the house of Wolfgang Priklopil in a suburb of Vienna 16 months ago. Her captor killed himself by throwing himself under a train only hours after she fled. Kampusch will be hosting a show on the Austrian television […]
Ever Get The Feeling Stephen A. Smith Is Mad At You?
“And when you look at the internet business, what’s dangerous about it is that people who are clearly unqualified get to disseminate their piece to the masses. I respect the journalism industry, and the fact of the matter is …someone with no training should not be allowed to have any kind of format whatsoever to disseminate to the masses to the level which they can. They are not trained. Not experts. More important are the level of ethics and integrity that comes along with the quote-unquote profession hasn’t been firmly established and entrenched in the minds of those who’ve been […]