LOS ANGELES TIMES: This historic town, where America’s founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction. It may become the nation’s most closely watched small city. Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town’s many tourists. That’s more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and Boston. Unlike anywhere else, cash-strapped Lancaster outsourced its surveillance to a private nonprofit group that hires civilians to tilt, […]
GUARDIAN COUNCIL: Votes Counts In 50 Iranian Cites Exceeded The Number Of Registered Voters
NEW YORK TIMES: TEHRAN — Locked in a bitter contest with Iranians who say the presidential elections were rigged, the authorities have acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters, state television reported Monday following assertions by the country’s supreme leader that the ballot was fair. But the authorities insisted that discrepancies, which could affect three million votes, did not violate Iranian law and the country’s influential Guardian Council said it was not clear whether they would decisively change the election result. The news emerged on the English-language Press TV as a […]
JAILHOUSE ROCK: Fumo Looking At Hard Time
KAREN HELLER: After all these years of Vince’s being the Prince of the City and Harrisburg, of battling and fighting for you, but often for himself, in that $9-for-you, $1-for-him way of his, it comes down to this: He’s between a rock and hard time. Talking to a battery of leading defense lawyers and former prosecutors, I can tell you this: Based on the sentences of other corrupt officials, Fumo’s most likely going away for a long time, and soon. Convicted in March on all 137 counts, the former state senator faces a possible term of 21 to 27 years. […]
LIVE REVIEW: Seinfeld At The Academy Of Music
BY JONATHAN VALANIA “Comedians are the new philosophers,” the girl next to me whispered in my ear conspiratorially, like this had just occurred to her for the first time — at 24, she was roughly half the median age of the crowd at the Academy of Music Friday night where Jerry Seinfeld was staging a two-night/four-show big-ticket stand, endeavoring to put the lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s dictum that there are no second acts in American lives. I just shrugged and thought: Maybe back in the day. Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks — those guys were philosopher […]
KILLADELPHIA: 5 Dead Since You Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Father’s Day ended violently yesterday with four people — two women, a 50-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy — gunned down about two hours apart in different parts of the city. The first shooting happened at 7:21 p.m. in the 2200 block of Wanamaker Street in the city’s Overbrook section. Police said they believed a 60-year-old man shot two women, a 31-year-old who died at the scene and the other, described as the shooter’s 55-year-old girlfriend, who was declared dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Their names were not released. According to neighbors, the man shot […]
TONITE: I Walked With A Zombie
BY KYLEE MESSNER Easter Sunday 2006 began the first of Philly’s annual Zombie Crawls, in honor of the birth of J.C. Today, Philadelphia is the second city in the country to host an official zombie crawl, with events like Zombie Prom and the new Zombie Beach Party under its belt. Tonight marks the inaugural Zombie Beach Party and to mark the occasion we chatted up Zombie organizer DJ extraordinaire Robert Drake. PHAWKER: Explain what the Philly Zombie Crawl is. ROBERT DRAKE: For some it’s a chance to take make-up and costume design to an extreme and really embrace their […]
YELLOW JOURNALISM: The Last Truth Teller
POLITICO: POLITICO learned today that the Washington Post has terminated its relationship with liberal columnist/blogger Dan Froomkin. Froomkin authored the “White House Watch” blog and was told today that the blog had essentially run its course. MORE PAUL KRUGMAN: OK, I have no idea about the actual decision process. But I have a theory about the general mindset of the people who made this decision. Here’s how I see things: many people in the news media, especially at the managerial level, decided a long time ago that movement conservatism was The Future — and that the sensible thing, whether or […]
BLOOD BATH: Iran Gov Forces Thwart Mass Rally
WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC FACEBOOK: Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that […]
QUALITY OF MERCY: Dems Unveil Health Care For All
TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU: Senior House Democrats on Friday presented a sweeping plan to reshape the nation’s health care system that represented the fullest presentation yet of congressional liberals’ vision for improving medical care — including a promise to provide health insurance to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans without adding to the nation’s deepening debt. The full price tag is expected to top $1 trillion. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, […]
The First Time I Got High…
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY STEPHANIE SAYES Considering the fact that I was blazed out of my MIND the first time I got high, it’s a wonder I remember anything at all. But I remember the details with crystal clarity. Probably because at the age of 17, I thought I was partaking in something so bad, so out of the realm of my sheltered world, that my first experience with marijuana, or any drug for that matter, has always lived in my mind as a magical memory. I was visiting Philly for the first time. My then-boyfriend was a freshmen […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
Do something.
AYATOLLAH: Shut Up, Sit Down!
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Iran’s supreme religious leader threw his weight behind the disputed landslide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday, calling the vote “God’s blessing,” ruling out any fraud, and ordering an end to massive street protests. In what may prove a pivotal point in the post-election crisis that has shaken Iran for nearly a week, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei took an uncompromising stand at Friday prayers. “If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible,” declared Ayatollah Khomeini, speaking to an overflowing crowd of tens of thousands at Tehran University that was bolstered […]
SEPTA GIRL: Public Transit Is For Lovers
BY PHILLYGRRL SEPTA and dating do not always mix well. In fact, if you’re a female SEPTA rider, you may as well write off dating entirely. For one thing, waiting for the bus is not as glamorous as catching a cab. When you’re hailing a cab at the end of a date gone well, there’s a certain Carrie Bradshaw-like pose that is struck. A one-hand-on-your-hip, other hand showing-off-your-manicure pose. There’s the shifting of weight, to highlight the stilettos. A toss of the hair, or two. Whereas if you’re a SEPTA bus taker, you have that whole exhaust-in-your-face thing. Not always […]