[Artwork byIAN DAVID MARSDEN] THE GUARDIAN: Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege [former News Of The World Editor/spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron] Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned. According to a police statement: “The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.” Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the […]
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT: Phawker Scoop Triggers A Front Page Story In The Philadelphia Inquirer
INQUIRER: Signs of Jamaica abound at the Penn Relays, the 116-year-old track-and-field festival held each April in Philadelphia. Food carts sizzle with jerk chicken. Fans sporting the green, yellow, and black of the Caribbean nation’s flag sit together at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field, and roar. Each year about 40 teams are drawn from more than two dozen Jamaican high schools, with an additional four to six club teams composed of older runners. Now, however, it seems that some Jamaicans who applied for visas to compete in the Relays in years past were “mala fide applicants . . . […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ long-awaited collaboration The Harrow and the Harvest came out in June, marking an almost eight-year wait for fans of their 2003 album Soul Journey. The 10 songs that make up the new album deal with some heavy subjects: identity, loss, unfulfilled expectations, death and desperation. “We’ve kind of half-jokingly said that this record is 10 different kinds of sad,” Welch tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “And there are 10 songs on it.” On today’s Fresh Air, Welch and Rawlings perform an in-studio concert featuring several songs from The Harrow and the Harvest, and […]
ANNIVERSARY: Frank Rizzo Still Making ‘Attila The Hun Look Like A F*ggot’ 20 Years After Death
INQUIRER: The crowd surrounding the Frank L. Rizzo statue Saturday afternoon seemed to be in a time warp, as the former Philadelphia mayor’s entourage and admirers came out to pay their respects. The Quaker City String Band played as dignitaries arrived on foot and in cars, some following the motorcade that came down Broad Street from Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham to the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall. Saturday marked 20 years since Rizzo died of a heart attack while campaigning for a third term as mayor, a job he had held from 1972 to 1980. Even in […]
THE FRACKING SONG: My Water’s On Fire Tonight
RELATED: Talisman Terry, the “friendly Fracosaurus” star of a coloring book published by Talisman Energy, will no longer explain the natural gas drilling process to youngsters after the company announced plans today to stop distribution of the controversial children’s book. “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventure” was a 24-page booklet that explained natural gas drilling in kid-friendly fashion and could be downloaded from the Calgary-based energy company’s website. It had been distributed at community fairs in northeastern Pennsylvania through the company’s Good Neighbor program. Talisman Terry’s message is overt and unapologetic: drilling for natural gas in formations like the Marcellus Shale is […]
MURDOCHALYPSE NOW: Rebekah Brooks Arrested By Police; Chief Of Scotland Yard Resigns In Disgrace
[Artwork by SSOOSAY] NEW YORK TIMES: Earlier Sunday, the British police took Ms. Brooks, 43, into custody after she arrived at a London police station by appointment. The timing, two days before a separate parliamentary inquiry into the crisis, drew a skeptical response from opposition lawmakers who said the arrest might inhibit Ms. Brooks’s ability or readiness to testify before the panel while she is the subject of police inquiries. David Wilson, a lawyer representing Ms. Brooks, said she “maintains her innocence, absolutely.” It was the latest twist in a series of events that has transformed Mr. Murdoch from a […]
HOPELESS: Obama Caves On Elizabeth Warren Who Is Reportedly Mulling Running Against Scott Brown
HUFFINGTON POST: Wall Street Journal report on Friday that Obama was not expected to nominate Elizabeth Warren, who was instrumental in setting up the agency but faced stalwart opposition from Republicans. Elizabeth Warren confirmed the news of Cordray’s nomination in a statement to The Huffington Post. “Rich has always had my strong support because he is tough and he is smart-and that’s exactly the combination this new agency needs,” she said. “He was one of the first senior leaders I recruited for the agency, and his work and commitment have made it clear that he will make a stellar director.” […]
MY AWESOME GEEZER CONCERT ADVENTURE: A Perfect Circle At The Festival Pier Saturday Night
BY MIKE WOLVERTON In a parallel universe, A Perfect Circle would be Rock-and-Roll Gods, appealing in equal measure to metal meatheads, pretentious art-rockers and even the ladies. But in this universe, A Perfect Circle has a problem. Their dynamic singer, Maynard James Keenan, is also the frontman for a much bigger band (Tool), which is his top priority. That means that while Tool is recording or touring, A Perfect Circle is stuck in a holding pattern, working around Keenan’s availability. The excellent debut album (2000’s Mer de Noms) was followed in 2003 by the fantastic Thirteenth Step. A year later […]
EATING: The Second (Or Third) Coming Of Neil Stein
[Photo by BRADLEY MAULE] FOOBOOZ: Once one of Philadelphia’s most talked about restaurateurs, Neil Stein has spent his time rather quietly since his January 2007 release from SCI Schuylkill, where he served a yearlong sentence for tax evasion and wrote about the prison food. But now the man who was at the helm of a restaurant revolution and brought us the concept of outdoor dining is ready for his comeback. This morning, Stein confirmed that he plans to open a restaurant at 1801 JFK, a space currently occupied City Garden, the Chinese restaurant. MORE RELATED: There’s an old saying: You […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Above: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act, BY WILLIAM C. HENRY What with all the fabrication, phoniness, and out and out fiction being farted forth from the mouths of Boehner/Cantor et al. vis-a-vis the budget balancing/deficit reduction stalemate, there couldn’t possibly be a more perfect time for some good old fashioned fiscal “factualizing.” Here we go. R E A D M Y L I P S America: Social Security has never added ONE PENNY to the deficit! Not one fucking red cent! And, ANYONE who tells you that we can’t afford to maintain Social Security […]
EARLY WORD: Spaghetti Warehouse Ready To Rock
As you may have heard, a new music venue called Union Transfer will be opening at 1026 Spring Garden St. (in the former Spaghetti Warehouse building) come September. According to a press release, the venue will be a “big dramatic space with sweeping arches, stained glass, vintage chandeliers and […] the best and biggest PA/sound system in Philadelphia, plus parking for 200 cars and lock-up posts for more than 200 bicycles.” They just announced their fall line up, and it is quite impressive: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (9/21), Mogwai (9/29), Shellac (9/29), RJD2 (10/14), Wild Flag, Gillian Welch(10/20), Dum […]
Murdoch Says He’s Sorry; Rebekah Brooks Resigns
CNN: Rupert Murdoch plans to apologize Saturday amid a burgeoning phone-hacking scandal in the United Kingdom that led to the resignation Friday of Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of Murdoch’s News International. “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred,” Murdoch will say in an ad that is to appear in newspapers on Saturday. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.” Police in the United Kingdom have identified almost 4,000 potential targets of phone hacking. There were also allegations that reporters may have bribed law enforcement officers. MORE REBEKAH BROOKS: At News International we pride […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
U2, Lincoln Financial Field, 9:34 PM BY JONATHAN VALANIA DAN DELUCA: The band took the stage to the strains of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” And in the night’s most-winning gambit, the foursome brought off a gleaming, life-affirming “Beautiful Day,” dedicated to recovering Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with the aid of her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, in a video clip recorded in outer space. “Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows,” Kelly said, speaking a Bowie line that Bono then sang as U2’s song segued into Bowie. It might sound corny, but it made my hair stand on […]