BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. 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 […]
SIDEWALKING: Goose Stepping
Martin Luther King Drive 10:32 AM by JEFF FUSCO
Reality Checking The Fables Of Budget Deconstruction
THIS IS OUR MONEY: LIE NO. 3: The prison budget increase is due to criminals, not poor policy. “In 1993, Pennsylvania had 24,000 men and women in its prisons. Today that number is over 50,000. This number speaks to a failure. Sometimes it’s a failure in our schools, or in our society, but ultimately in the personal character of the criminal.” – Tom Corbett Corbett’s budget includes a $186 million increase for the state Department of Corrections. That’s an 11 percent jump, part of a long trend of skyrocketing state prison costs. Corbett attributes this trend to the personal failings […]
REVIEW: Stalley Lincoln Way Nights
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD Is it stupid to get critical over a free mixtape? My bet is “yes.” But how could I not? It’s almost mid-March and Stalley’s Lincoln Way Nights is the only hip-hop release of 2011 semi-worth copping (yet). Top 2011 contenders Talib Kweli and Saigon both dropped duds— though I’ve heard Esoteric has a true banger on his hands. And the Net’s been buzzing about Stalley for a long ass time. Ohio-native, thick-bearded, low-end audiophile, Stalley is a college listener’s wet dream. Why is that? Because the dude claims his music is “intelligent,” but spends 45 minutes talking […]
Wisconsin GOP Defies The Will Of The People, Passes Union Busting Bill With Parlimentary Manuever
WAUSAU DAILY HERALD: The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats and approve an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide. “You are cowards!” spectators in the Senate gallery screamed as lawmakers voted. Within hours, a crowd of a few hundred protesters inside the Capitol had grown to several thousand, more than had been in the building at any point during weeks of protests. “The whole world is watching!” they shouted as they pressed up against the […]
SIDEWALKING: If It Quacks Like A Duck…
Delaware and Race 1:27 PM by JEFF FUSCO RELATED: The tug-boat mate in last summer’s deadly duck-boat accident was talking to family members on his cell phone about his son’s life-threatening emergency moments before the July 7 crash, according to an investigative report released Monday. The report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Matt Devlin, first mate on the tug Caribbean Sea, made or received 21 cell-phone calls during the 2.5 hours leading up to the accident. One of those calls began five minutes before the tug pushed a barge into the duck boat and continued until one minute […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
[Photo by CLAUDE SHADE/CC MEDIA via FRESH AIR] FRESH AIR “His voice would make even Hank Williams cry,” Nicholas Dawidoff once wrote of Jimmie Dale Gilmore in The New York Times Magazine. Gilmore, a singer from West Texas, writes songs that would be described as alternative country. But for his forthcoming album, Heirloom Music — in which Gilmore teams up with the band The Wronglers — he says he was thinking more in terms of bluegrass music — although that’s not an exact description. “We were calling it old-timey music, but that still wasn’t quite accurate,” he says. “But [bluegrass […]
NPR FOR THE TONE DEAF: National Public Radio CEO Steps Down In The Wake Of O’Keefe Sting Video
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: NPR chief executive officer Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday in the wake of a sting video that showed fundraiser Ron Schiller (no relation) criticizing Jews and disparaging conservatives, the tea party movement, and former NPR political analyst Juan Williams, whose firing in October may have set into motion one of the most tumultuous eras in NPR’s 41-year history. James O’Keefe, the controversial conservative sting artist behind the ACORN “pimp videos,” said Mr. Williams’s firing in October sparked the latest sting operation, in which two actors posing as representatives of a Muslim Brotherhood front group met with Mr. Schiller, […]
Archdiocese Suspends 21 Priests Pending An Investigation Into Widespread Child Abuse Allegations
NEW YORK TIMES: Parishioners began filing into the massive Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul here just before noon for Ash Wednesday services, their heads bowed, as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia faces one of its biggest crises. On Tuesday, it announced it had suspended 21 priests in connection with allegations of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior with minors. Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, who was officiating at the service, was expected to address the scandal, which has many in his 1.1-million-member church reeling. A dozen protesters stood quietly by the front doors carrying placards. One read: “Name […]
POT CALLS KETTLE BLACK: Virulently Anti-Terrorist Congressman Was An Apologist For IRA Terror Tactics
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Representative Peter King, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, thinks that Muslims aren’t doing enough to stop the scourge of terrorism in their own community. And so on Thursday, he’ll begin a series of hearings on the radicalization of Muslims in America, or as Muslim congressman Keith Ellison calls it, “a witch hunt.” […] King rose to power as a Long Island politician in the eighties in part thanks to strong support from Irish-Americans. Back then, King didn’t see it as a community’s job to police terrorists in its midst. In fact, he didn’t seem to […]
SIDEWALKING: Forget About It Jake, It’s Chinatown
10th & Cherry, Monday 2:33 PM by JEFF FUSCO
TONIGHT: Blair Witch Trial
It’s March. It is, or it was, or it’s going to be fifty degrees today, depending on when you read this. Point: it’s about time to leave hibernation. Nurse your winter-wounded-heart at Johnny Brenda’s, with pints of lo-fi love. Say Hi (To Your Mom) is headlining the evening (and no longer saying hi to your mom; apparently it’s been four years and you shouldn’t ask about it). His new 2011 release Um, Uh Oh, “has expanded beyond bedroom-pop eccentricities to embrace dark, ominous (but still major-key) synths, toothy bass and roughed-up electric guitars,” restless vocals and deals with the devil. […]
Corbett Balances Budget On The Backs Of School Kids; Marcellus Shale Drilling To Remain Tax-Free Gimme
INQUIRER: In education, Corbett’s budget would wipe out nearly $550 million in basic education funding – a 10 percent cut from this year – and another $650 million for higher education. The four so-called “state-related” universities, including Temple and Lincoln, also would also take a big hit, losing more than 50 percent of their state funding. The state system of higher education, which includes the state universities, also would see its funding cut in half. To offset the pain of cuts to public schools, the governor is asking school districts to reopen their collective bargaining agreements to push for a […]