Fresh Air from WHYY December 8th, 2006 Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and co-executive producer of The Colbert Report both on Comedy Central. It was recently announced that he will be leaving both shows at the end of this month. Before working with The Daily Show, Karlin was an editor of the satirical weekly newspaper, The Onion. He also collaborated with Jon Stewart on his material for The Academy Awards show. This interview originally aired on Apr. 4, 2006.

BY DANIEL RUBIN The ride, waiting outside Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station, was a nice touch. “It can’t be the limo,” guitarist/songwriter Paul Keen recalls thinking. They’d been looking for a van. The Philadelphia roots rockers had arrived. This was last week — hours before they were to meet with the YouTube people, who were flying in from L.A. Awaiting them was a night on the town, new equipment from Gibson, and – too bright and early on Wednesday — a date with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.” She was to present them with a Golden Mouse award for having the best […]

For nearly a year, Eric Hayes, 17, had been in the city’s witness relocation program while testifying about an arson attempt on his family’s Southwest Philadelphia home. Almost every night, he stayed at a Philadelphia hotel under an assumed name. And nearly every morning, he’d go back to his old neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia, where he was still Eric, flipping burgers at a McDonald’s alongside coworkers who loved him. On the day before Thanksgiving, Hayes was shot three times in the head while waiting for a bus in Northeast Philadelphia, where his family had just found a house. He died […]

KICK, PUSH, KICK: Lupe Fiasco, Trocadero, December 7, 2006 “Chicago artists had a good day at the Grammy nominations. Leading the way was West Side native Lupe Fiasco, whose debut album, “Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor,” brought nominations for best rap solo performance and best rap song (“Kick Push”), as well as best rap album.” — CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Arctic air is moving into the state,” meteorologist Kevin Fitzgerald said. The front brought its own moisture supply and the lift needed to produce snow. Lake-effect snows came to northwest Pennsylvania and the Laurel Mountains with the arctic air rushing over a warmer Lake Erie, he said. One of the day’s crashes involved a tractor-trailer which overturned about 12:40 p.m. on Route 36 near Roaring Spring, state police at Hollidaysburg said. Vernon Valtez Gray, 43, of Philadelphia tried to turn from Route 36 onto Closson Road to go to Smith Transport, police said. Gray made the turn at an unsafe […]

BOSS HAWG REPORTS: Pif, David Ansill’s Frenchy BYOB could be in its last throws. Talk of the Table is that the 38 seat Bella Vista boite’s doors are only open Friday through Sunday, and that the South Eight Street property is for sale. Meanwhile the man who’s put the Oh! In Offal says that all snail slinging and no play makes him tired…Meanwhile, just when you thought the OC couldn’t get any whiter, everyday soul sistah Delilah Winder’s tony Bluezette, aka the “Black Continental,” which has weathered troubled waters admirably since opening in 2000 has closed. The story they’re sticking […]