January 5, 2007 – Police are on the scene of a water main break that happened in the area of 3rd and Girard in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia just before noon. Police are stopping traffic including trolleys approaching the area. Reports say that the 30-inch water main break has lead to waters as deep as a foot in some areas. The water department has been notified. ACTION NEWS: Glub, Glub, Glub [If you look closely you can almost see Sweeney’s complete Belle & Sebastian singles collection circling the drain. Tragic. Just tragic.–Ed.]
BUZZ BITCHSLAP: Bissinger Calls On Columnists Grogan And Smith To Do The Right Thing And Pull Golden Parachutes For The Good Of The Inquirer
FROM THE BLINQ COMMENTS SECTION: Given what is happening at the Inquirer, I hope that columnists Stephen A. Smith and John Grogan do what is right and take voluntary buyouts given they have both hit the jackpot in other realms and could care less about what they write for the paper. They both mail their columns in now. Smith is preoccupied with his ESPN show and is apprently never in the city he allegedly covers. Grogan is mired in the gooey syrup that made Marley and Me such a hit and has never shown any knowledge of the region whatsoever.Neither […]
STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES: They Sell Dildos In California, Girl, Don’t They Warn Ya & Man It Pours
BY JOHN SHIFFMAN A Bryn Mawr College student wrongly jailed for three weeks on drug charges by Philadelphia police has settled her civil-rights case for $180,000. Janet H. Lee, now a senior, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after screeners found three condoms filled with white powder in her carry-on and city police said field tests showed that the substances likely contained opium and cocaine. Lee was held in lieu of $500,000 bond for 21 days, until further drug testing proved that her unlikely story – that the powder was just flour – was true. As part of […]
National Association Of Black Journalists Questions Preponderance of Minorities On THE LIST
The Philadelphia Inquirer began informing the 71 newsroom employees Tuesday night that they would be let go as of Jan. 17, 2007. Early reports indicate that as many as 14-16 black journalists were among those laid off, or as much as 22.5 percent of the overall layoffs. According to the 2006 ASNE newsroom census, approximately 11.3 percent of the Inquirer?s newsroom staff is African American. ?This takes the Inquirer in the wrong direction,? said NABJ President Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines. ?While we recognize that economic realities are forcing industry executives to make […]
Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Well, well, well. The bitch is back. Not sure what we mean by that, but it sure sounds like a badass opening. First a few words about our boy Jeff Fusco — hardest working family man in show business, great big grizzly of a man, but a real Gentle Ben. Always a gentleman and a scholar. He always gets The Shot, too. Although for reasons that elude us, PW elected NOT to use one for this week’s The Year In Photos cover. Why the hell didn’t they use that Obama money shot and plug into the zeitgeist for a second? […]
Company Gives List To Guild, Guild Names Names
What follows is a list of the 71 Guild members at the Philadelphia Inquirer who have been notified that they will be laid off. This list was created by the Company and sent to the Guild on January 3rd. Guild representatives are in the process of comparing the Company’s information on hire dates and job categories with the Guild’s records and will also meet with Company representatives on Friday to discuss bumping rights and other layoff related issues.
YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY: First Woman In U.S. History Is Sworn In As Speaker Of The House
SAN FRANCISCO — It shouldn’t be surprising that it took more than 200 years for Congress to select a female speaker of the House. The United States isn’t exactly at the forefront when it comes to women in politics. Women make up a larger share of the national legislature in 79 other countries, including China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an association of national legislatures. The U.S. even trails a couple of fledgling democracies: Afghanistan and Iraq. “When my colleagues elect me as speaker on Jan. 4, we will not just break through a glass […]
INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Global Warming & Rampant Tooth Decay Puts Polar Bears On The Endangered List
REUTERS: White House Says Polar Bears Face Extinction From Global Warming, If It Exists, But The Rest Of Us Will Be Just Fine! So Have A Coke And A Smile! RADIO TIMES: “Is global warming killing off the polar bears? We talk with KASSIE SIEGEL, staff attorney and director of the Climate, Air, and Energy Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. Her organization filed a petition that has led to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose Federal protection of the polar bears. We?ll also hear from KIM LANGEL, Vice President of Conservation at the Philadelphia Zoo, on […]
First Immutable Law Of Probability — The Obvious Answer Is Usually The Right Answer — Points To Penn Game Theorist In Wife’s Brutal Bludgeoning
Ellen Robb, 49, was bludgeoned beyond recognition in the kitchen of her home in Wayne. The wounds were so severe that veteran detectives thought she had been shot until an autopsy proved otherwise. The Robbs, long estranged but still in the same house, were on the verge of separating, according to friends and relatives quoted in the affidavit. Ellen Robb had retained a divorce lawyer, they said, and was planning to move into a $1,500-per-month apartment by New Year’s Day. According to a real estate agent who had met with her, Ellen Robb said she expected to receive $4,000 in […]
GUILD MEMO: 71 Inquirer Employees Given Pink Slips
By now you know the very sad news that the Company laid off 71 of our colleagues from the Philadelphia Inquirer newsroom earlier today.The Company met with most of the victims of its layoff. Those who were laid off also met with consultants who described their pension and health benefits as well as a job counseling service hired by the company. In the immediate future the Guild is seeking more people who will volunteer to be laid off. Volunteers who are accepted by the Company are entitled to full severance, accrued vacation and personal and holiday time. Their health coverage […]
Why Being TIME’S PERSON OF THE YEAR Makes You A Hero To Most But It Doesn’t Mean Shit To Me
BY THE EDITOR: In the 90s, William Kristol was one of those Scaife-funded right-wing ankle-biters, part of the same pathological Clinton Hater cabal that helped Gingrich kill health care reform dead. Nice guys. They got what they had coming when the got their subpoenas caught in the rusty fly of impeachment. Since 9/11 Kristol’s morphed from Fox New’s avuncular pro-war Guy Smiley to shrugging quagmire apologist to one of those guys insisting the way to lower the body count is to send in more bodies and somehow remains gainfully employed as a right-wing talking head. Here he is back in […]
GOD & MAN: Dad, Was Thomas Jefferson A Jihadist? No Son, He Was A READER — Big Difference
Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he’d take his oath of office on the Koran — especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values. Yet the holy book at tomorrow’s ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We’ve learned that the new congressman — in a savvy bit of political symbolism — will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson. […] Jefferson’s copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed […]
Beloved LCB Booze Boss Resigns In Protest Of Fast Eddy’s Double Cross, Turns Out Harrisburg Is A Sleazy Speakeasy Of Backroom Deals And Bullshit As Usual
The man credited with revolutionizing the way Pennsylvania sells alcohol is quitting his job. Jonathan Newman, who took the state-run monopoly and brought it into the modern era with a series of customer-friendly moves, is expected to submit his resignation this morning at a meeting of the Liquor Control Board. Newman’s exit comes just a few weeks after he publicly disagreed with Gov. Ed Rendell’s decision to name a new chief executive officer at the LCB. Former Sen. Joe Conti [NOT pictured, left] was tapped for the $150,000 a year job. Newman makes a little more than $67,000 a year. […]