[Photo by Ella Chappell]y BY LAURA WESTERMAN For the last three months I’ve been constantly clicking through the BBC website reading column inch after column inch of news about the tuition fee battle in my home country while studying for a year abroad at Temple University, where the out-of-state student population pays up to $27,000 per year to study. The ongoing fight against the tuition fee increase in the U.K. over this period has provoked an intense political stand-off between politicians and British students. As you may recall, back on December 9th of last year thousands of students and protesters […]
EXIT THE PHAROAH: The Slow But Certain Abdication Of Hosni Mubarak Has Already Begun
[Artwork by DonkeyHotey] UPDATE: Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has said that he would not run for re-election – but refused to step down from office, the central demand of millions of protesters who have demonstrated across Egypt over the last week. “I never intended to run for reelection,” Mubarak said in his televised address, which aired at 11pm local time on Tuesday. “I will use the remaining months of my term in office to fill the peoples’ demands,” he said. That would leave Mubarak in charge of overseeing a transitional government until the next presidential election, currently scheduled for September. He […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and a team of Times reporters worked with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for months before the Times published hundreds of classified documents obtained by WikiLeaks late last year. In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Keller described how the Times’ relationship with Assange began to deteriorate after the paper published several of the Afghanistan war logs provided by WikiLeaks. On Tuesday’s Fresh Air, Keller explains why the Times decided to publish the documents, the impact of those cables and why he came to regard Julian Assange as “elusive, manipulative and volatile.” Keller […]
How About Some Ice On That Shit Snow Sandwich?
The above illustration was released yesterday by city officials in the hopes of stanching the inevitable Snowplowgate. ACCUWEATHER: A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING. A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM EST THIS EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. * PRECIPITATION TYPES: FREEZING DRIZZLE WILL BE TAPERING OFF THIS AFTERNOON. STEADIER PRECIPITATION DEVELOPING LATER TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING MAY TAKE THE FORM OF RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN…AS THERE IS STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY WITH REGARD TO THE AMOUNT OF LOW LEVEL COLD AIR IN PLACE WHEN THE PRECIPITATION REDEVELOPS. THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD END […]
MEDIA: Rendell, Bissinger To Be DN Columnists
LARRY PLATT: Speaking of loud voices, I also want to welcome our new sports columnist, none other than Ed Rendell. Some fifteen years ago, I sat with Rendell in the mayor’s box at Veterans Stadium while the Eagles waged a furious on-field comeback. He stood up, hoagie innards spewing from his mouth, while he pounded the plexiglas separating his box from that of new owner Jeffrey Lurie, trying to get Lurie and his nonplussed guests to join him in full-throated cheer. Lurie placidly kept his eyes glued to the field. Finally, waving in disgust, Rendell returned to his seat, saying, […]
HEAR NO EVIL: With Your Life Coach A.P. Ticker
A.P. Ticker is many things to many people, a real man for all seasons, both an eternal optimist and a man of constant sorrow. But for most he’s the man who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-shoo-wop. A man with his finger on the pulse of popular culture, a veritable bellwether of what’s hip with the kids. This week A.P. runs down the top five albums in the nation (though admittedly it’s not entirely clear which nation): hot new releases from The Spinach Diplomats, Thundercake, the Sudge-Wumps, The Safe Words and the Long Black Veils. Plus he’s sneaks in a […]
The Man Who Would Save Newspapering In The 215
PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: The task facing Greg Osberg was mandatory: Address a room full of union leaders suspicious of his intentions, and win them over. Never mind that such a goal seemed unattainable.For the past 18 months, ownership of Philadelphia’s most prominent newspapers had been the subject of a legal hair-pulling match. The Teamsters seemed to present the greatest challenge, because the side they favored, the Brian Tierney-led local ownership group, lost. So from their perspective, Osberg had arrived in 2010 as an empty suit, the living embodiment of the faceless banks that won control of the papers following bankruptcy proceedings. […]
SIDEWALKING: Pigs In The Blanket
Chinatown, 10:15 AM by JEFF FUSCO
EARLY WORD: Godard Is Great
Tonight at International House, the Secret Cinema will be presenting an extremely rare dye-transfer Technicolor print of the1967 omnibus feature The Oldest Profession. Popularized during the foreign film boom of the 60s, an omnibus feature is a collection of shorts made by different directors exploring a single theme. The Oldest Profession is a blithe and often comedic examination of prostitution throughout the ages told in six parts. Despite the fact that it includes a segment from legendary French New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard — which was made during what was arguably his richest period — and one from Philippe de […]
RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Julian Assange, Wikileaks And The New York Times But Were Afraid To Ask
NEW YORK TIMES: On the fourth day of the London meeting, Assange slouched into The Guardian office, a day late. Schmitt took his first measure of the man who would be a large presence in our lives. “He’s tall — probably 6-foot-2 or 6-3 — and lanky, with pale skin, gray eyes and a shock of white hair that seizes your attention,” Schmitt wrote to me later. “He was alert but disheveled, like a bag lady walking in off the street, wearing a dingy, light-colored sport coat and cargo pants, dirty white shirt, beat-up sneakers and filthy white socks that […]
WORTH REPEATING: Bill Murray Busted My Stones
URBAN DICTIONARY: A Bill Murray story is when you create an outlandish (yet plausable) story that involves you witnessing Bill Murray doing something totally unusual; often followed by him walking up you and whispering, “No one will ever believe you” and walking away. MORE BLACK BOOK: My friend Matt Katrosar flew to Chicago last weekend to hang out with some of his Windy City pals and attend the Bears/Packers NFL playoff game. He was wearing a Green Bay jersey (in support of old-school Packers legend Ray Nitschke) amid a sea of Chicago blue. During the 2nd quarter, Matt celebrated a […]
EGYPT: Mubarak’s Rule Hanging On By A Thread
[Illustration by khalid Albaih] AL JAZEERA: Protesters have returned to the streets of Cairo, following violent overnight protests across the country staged in defiance of a curfew. Demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital on Saturday morning, shouting “Go away, go away!”, the Reuters news agency said. The latest protests reflected popular discontent with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s midnight address, where he announced that he was dismissing his government but remaining in power. The several hundred protesters demonstrated in full view of the army, which had been deployed in the city to quell the popular unrest sweeping the Middle East’s […]
SNOWTASTROPHE: City’s Snow Removal Tab Was $6 Million Before Latest Storm Pounded The 215
PHILLY CLOUT: Those funds went to overtime for city workers as well as paying for contractors and salt. The city — which does not budget money specifically for snow — still has to tally the cost of this week’s storm. And, with many winter weeks left, the costs could continue to climb. Snow removal costs put a dent in the city’s budget last year. The historic storms that blanketed the city last winter ultimately cost about $18 million, according to the mayor’s press office. RELATED: So far, this winter’s snow total stands about 18 inches higher than last year’s at […]