ASSOCIATED PRESS: A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the public corruption trial of a former Pennsylvania juvenile court judge accused of taking millions of dollars from the builder and owner of youth detention centers, a scandal known as “kids for cash” that resulted in the dismissal of thousands of convictions Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, faces a 39-count federal racketeering indictment that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. A prosecutor said in his closing argument Wednesday that Ciavarella violated the public trust by taking $2.8 million in kickbacks and extortion payments, using youth […]
BOOKS: Q&A With Dan Dunn, Playboy’s The Imbiber
BY LAURA WESTERMAN Hunter S. Thompson once said “there is no honest way to explain [the Edge] because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.” For Playboy “Imbiber” columnist Dan Dunn, these words are both a cautionary warning and an irresistible dare. He’ll be in town on Thursday to promote his new book Living Loaded: Tales of Sex, Salvation, and the Pursuit of the Never-Ending Happy Hour, a heady cocktail of booze expertise and sexual misadventure. His tales of drunken hook-ups, barroom brawls in Ireland, all-day benders and Bible-driven mosh pits […]
WTF: Your Daily Dose Of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s News’
—Delco mom duct tapes baby to chair, takes picture (SEE left), shows police who don’t think it’s so funny –Half of all Phils’ home games could be sold out by Friday —Scott Brown reveals to 60 minutes that he was repeatedly sexually abused by a camp counselor when he was 10 —Steve Jobs screws the pooch on tablet-based publishing subscriptions — Prison officials dispute USA Today claim that O.J. Simpson was severely beaten in prison by white supremacists for bragging about bedding white women —Justin Bieber says what no U.S. politician has the balls to say: American health care system […]
SUMMER FICTION: Throw Your Arms Around Me
PREVIOUSLY: Gimme Fiction
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In March, Twitter will turn five years old. The microblogging service — which now has an estimated 200 million users worldwide — has been used by heads of state, astronauts in outer space and protesters in Iran, Egypt and Tunisia trying to disseminate information after news media crackdowns in their respective countries. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins Fresh Air’s Terry Gross on Wednesday for a wide-ranging discussion about the service, including how it was used recently in Egypt to help organize the revolution and how it has been used to spread democracy movements in other countries. “How a […]
KITCHEN BITCH: Greatest Pot Roast Ever Made
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN Ah, the ubiquitous pot roast, the bane of American children everywhere. Leathery meat, thin, drippy sauce, soggy vegetables—a nasty meal I’ve met many times in my life. Luckily, my mom asked me to make a pot roast for the family a few weeks ago when I was home, or I never would have learned how wonderful a pot roast can be if done right. Thanks for putting me to work, Ma! I decided I was going to put my extensive (read: expensive) culinary training to use to make the reviled pot roast not only edible, but also […]
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN: You’re Next Gadhafi!
BBC: Hundreds of people have clashed with police and pro-government supporters in the Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say. Eyewitnesses told the BBC the overnight unrest followed the arrest of an outspoken critic of the government. The lawyer was later said to have been released but the protests continued. Pro-democracy protests have swept through several Arab countries in recent weeks, forcing the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt from power. A call has been put out on the internet for protests across Libya on Thursday. There is no independent confirmation of the overnight protests in Benghazi, but eyewitnesses say that at […]
MADOFF: The Banks ‘Had To Know’
NEW YORK TIMES: But during a private two-hour interview in a visitor room here on Tuesday, and in earlier e-mail exchanges, he asserted that unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in his elaborate fraud, an about-face from earlier claims that he was the only person involved. Mr. Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence, seemed frail and a bit agitated compared with the stoic calm he maintained before his incarceration in 2009, perhaps burdened by sadness over the suicide of his son Mark in December. Besides that loss, his family also has faced stacks of lawsuits, the potential […]
WTF: Your Daily Dose Of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s News’
— Nazi-esque anti-multiculturalism screed from Pat Buchanan tweeted approvingly by Domelights —John Boehner says too f*cking bad if people lose jobs from budget cuts –South Dakota bill would legalize killing of abortion providers –TUMBLR page collecting tweets of people bragging about their total ignorance of Arcade Fire in the wake of Album Of the Year Grammy win. (Rosie O’Donnell is on here a page or two in)
Freedom Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose
BOSTON GLOBE: The possible heirs of Egypt’s uprising took to the streets yesterday in several parts of the Mideast: Iran’s beleaguered opposition stormed back to central Tehran. Demonstrators demanded more freedom in Bahrain. And protesters in Yemen pressed for the ouster of their ruler. The protests — all with important implications for Washington — offer an important lesson about how groups across the Middle East are absorbing the message from Cairo and tailoring it to their own aspirations. The heady themes of democracy, justice, and empowerment remain intact as the protest wave works it way through the Arab world and […]
All-Star Cast To Perform Big Star’s Sister Lovers Live
Big Star’s third album, Third/Sister Lovers, has long been revered by artists and critics as one of the most influential albums ever produced. Written and recorded when the legendary 70s band was primarily a studio project consisting of Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens, the third album was never been performed in public with the original string and wind orchestrations. That changed in December 2010, when an all-star band unearthed the original scores, assembled an orchestra and performed Big Star’s Third at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC. Performers that night included Jody Stephens (Big Star), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Mitch Easter (Let’s […]
Florence & The Machine Coming To Festival Pier 6/20
[Illustration by LAURA LOVEDAY] June 20th with Twin Shadow at the festival pier. Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb 18 at 10am at Livenation.com or call 800-745-3000. Ticket are $30, $33 day of the show.