DAN GROSS REPORTS: THE “VOICE of the African-American Community” was silenced yesterday when all employees of WHAT (1340-AM) were fired from the talk-radio station. Inner City Broadcasting did the firing. The company had sold the longtime staple of black issues in Philadelphia to Havertown’s Marconi Broadcasting Co. for $5 million in November, as the People Paper’s Jonathan Takiff reported at the time of the sale. Marconi has not disclosed its programming plans for the station, which has been the home for decades to popular morning personality Mary Mason, who could not be reached for comment. Mason was on air yesterday […]
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Whenever we would see sisters around town rockin’ a black burqa in the August swelter, we would wonder aloud: Why would a modern Western black woman become a Muslim? It just seemed to us like trading one form of slavery for another, especially for women. And then we heard an NPR interview with a Muslim sister that asked this very question and her answer, transcribed from memory, had a sad but compelling logic: In a world where I walk around unveiled and get called ‘bitch’ & ‘ho’ routinely, Islam offers less freedom but more respect. Word, that. However, it depresses […]
GUNCRAZY: Two Damn Fools Shoot Each Other Over How Tall James Brown Was, Not Was
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) – A man shot a friend when the two got into an argument over James Brown’s height, police said. Dan Gulley Jr. was charged with assault in the shooting of David James Brooks Jr., police said. Officers said the men were at a friend’s home on Monday when, according to witnesses, the argument over the height of the late “Godfather of Soul” escalated, with Gulley, 70, shooting Brooks, 62, twice in the abdomen. Brooks went to his car, got a gun and shot at Gulley but missed, then went to the police station, officers said. Gulley also […]
SINS OF THE FATHER: Dad Of Greatest Constitutional Violator In Modern Memory Is Elected Chairman Of The Board Of Constitution Center — Apparently Nixon’s Ghost Was Unavailable
January 11, 2007 Dear Friend: I am delighted to write and share with you some very exciting news about the future leadership of the National Constitution Center. It is with great pride that I announce that former President George H.W. Bush has been elected Chairman of the Center?s Board of Trustees for the year 2007. This is the only Chairmanship he holds currently, so we are especially touched that he has agreed to serve in this capacity. President Bush occupies a special and beloved place in American life that reflects many of this institution?s core values, especially the ethic of […]
THIS JUST IN: Fumo Sent THE LETTER Last Summer From Federal Prosecutors, And No It was Not A ‘Come Spend A Week At Our Beach House’ Invite
Typically, prosecutors send target letters to people who are likely to be charged, as a warning and as an invitation to testify before the grand jury. It’s an offer that the targets usually refuse. “It is the rare case, in my experience, that you can talk a prosecutor out of charges once a target letter is issued,” said Lawrence S. Lustberg, a Newark lawyer who defended one of the Commerce Bank executives convicted in the 2005 City Hall corruption trial. However, the delivery of a target letter, part of a secret grand jury process, is no guarantee that charges will […]
Those Who Avoid Vietnam Are Doomed To Repeat It
FROM ATTYTOOD: Lyndon B. Johnson, Jan. 10, 1967: I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do. We face more cost, more loss, and more agony. For the end is not yet. I cannot promise you that it will come this year–or come next year. Our adversary still believes, I think, tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist. We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent […]
Yvonne De Carlo, AKA LILY MUNSTER, Dead At 84
FROM WIKIPEDIA In 1947 she played her first leading role in Slave Girl and then in 1949 had her biggest success. As the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, she played a femme fatale, and her career began to ascend. The 1957 film Band of Angels featured her opposite Clark Gable in an American Civil War story, along with Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. For the next several years, she was constantly working although many of the films failed to advance her career. Cast in The Ten Commandments (1956) in a leading role (as Zipporah, Moses’ wife), […]
Radio Ratings Go Paper-Less, Assessing The Shittiness Of Commercial Radio Will No Longer Kill Trees
On January 11, Arbitron will release the very last radio ratings for Philadelphia that will be produced by paper-and-pencil diaries. The new electronic Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings service will be initiated in Philly on January 11. The Fall 2006 book is being designated the ?currency? in the market until the release of the March 2007 PPM ratings report. The January 2007 and February 2007 PPM ratings are to be released as demonstration data…Instead of Winter Phase 1 and 2 Arbitrends reports, subscribing stations will receive monthly PPM-based audience estimates using the installed PPM sample, which is planned to be […]
TIERNEY Considering Selling Off Inquirer Building & Everyone Work From Home — In Their Pajamas
PHILADELPHIA The owner of Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers said Tuesday it is considering selling the historic building that serves as the publications’ headquarters, a landmark that has graced the downtown skyline for 82 years. Jay Devine, a spokesman for Philadelphia Media Holdings, said the company had interviewed several real estate firms about a potential sale of the building that houses The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. The company, which has cut more than 100 editorial and advertising jobs since Jan. 1, is in the appraisal and planning stage for a possible sale of the Beaux Arts structure. ?They’re just […]
In Cherry Hill, They Call Grade Fixing ‘Hacking,’ While Over In Camden They Call That ‘Administrating’
A Cherry Hill High School East senior and a recent graduate were charged with computer theft after authorities said they hacked into the school computer system and improved grade records for four other students, police and school officials said yesterday. Charged was Jonathan To, 18, a Drexel University freshman who graduated from the elite high school last year. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. A 17-year-old high school senior, whose name was withheld by police because he is a minor, was charged with the same crime. He could be imprisoned in a juvenile facility until he […]
RIGHT WING WELFARE: Santorum Accepts Pity Hire From So-Called ‘Think Tank,’ Thinks He’d Be Perfect Posterboy For Their New AMERICAN ENEMAS Service, Daughter Still Inconsolable About Election Returns
FROM RIGHT WEB: The Ethics and Public Policy Center, founded in 1976, was the first institute to break ground in the new frontal attack on the secular humanists. It has been on the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against liberalism and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. When he founded EPPC, Ernest Lefever said that part of the role of a ?small ethically oriented center? like EPPC was to ?respond directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.? Lefever said he was motivated to start the organization because “U.S. domestic […]
LOCAL GIRL MAKES GOOD: Former Fixture Of Area Poetry Slams Voted Into Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame
BY AMY Z. QUINN She’s hardly the most famous performer to ever come out of Jersey — The Boss and The Chairman Of The Board still hold those titles — but without a doubt, Patti Smith, the High Poetess of Punk, remains the greatest communicator of the kind of nameless electric angst that drives Kids In Search Of Something to head north on the Jersey Turnpike and never look back. When Patti beat it out of Gloucester County, fleeing a factory job and a year short of her degree at then-Glassboro State Teacher’s College, she was armed with a book […]
NOW HIRING: Chilled-Out Entertainers That Will Work For Donuts, Free Ammo And Half Off Well Drinks
With his department already slated to grow by 200 officers this year, Police Commissioner Syl-vester Johnson says he plans to ask for 100 more officers for a new entertainment unit operating along the nightclub-packed Delaware Avenue. Johnson took the unusual step of making his budget priorities known just two weeks before Mayor Street is scheduled to offer the last budget proposal of his mayoralty. “I’m going to give 1,000 percent, everything I have, to make sure that this year we reduce crime,” Johnson said, noting that he remains loyal to the mayor despite making the plan public before telling him. […]