INQUIRER: Dorrell Shaw will be charged with four of the six sexual assaults in Frankford this summer, police said today, citing a “definitive DNA link” in one of the attacks and other corroboration in the three others. Shaw, 26, a convicted burglar, who lived blocks away from several of the attacks, is in custody on a parole violation. “He’s not on the street,” said Capt. John Darby of the Special Victims Unit, “so that threat has been removed.” Shaw will be formally arrested for the assaults once the district attorney’s office approves the charges. On Monday, police released Shaw’s name […]
MEDIA: Ex-Anchor Pleads Guilty To Email Hackery
INQUIRER: Former CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte pleaded guilty this morning in U.S. District Court to hacking into the personal e-mail of onetime colleague Alycia Lane. During a brief court hearing in Philadelphia, Mendte pleaded guilty to a single felony count. Federal prosecutors agreed not to make any recommendation of whether Mendte should be sentenced to prison though U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin still would be free to impose such a sentence. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mendte could face a maximum of six months in prison. Mendte had no comment as he emerged from the courtroom, but his wife, Fox29 anchor […]
EARLY WORD: Lord Of The Amps
Let’s say you were in a big famous group called the Black Keys and you were playing at a place like, say, the Electric Factory and your vintage, 1968, 100-watt Marshall Plexi, Super Lead guitar amp went down on you just hours before the show. Chances are you would have end up at the door step of Philly’s most respected and revered amp builder John Martin. Over the years many bands both big and small found their way to John’s humble South Philadelphia workshop/home, from the Black Keys to L7 to local favorites like The Original Sins and the Lilys. […]
BREAKING: War Is Over — In Three Years
WASHINGTON POST: U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country by the end of 2011, and Iraqi officials said they are “very close” to resolving the remaining issues blocking a final accord that governs the future American military presence here. Iraqi and U.S. officials said several difficult issues remain, including whether U.S. troops will be subject to Iraqi law if accused of committing crimes. But the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the agreement publicly, said key elements of a timetable for troop withdrawal […]
GET YOUR WAR ON: The Race Card
RELATED: Phawker Tawks With Get Your War On Creator David Rees
TONGUE IN CHIC: Q&A With Nico Muhly
BY DAVE ALLEN Nico Muhly is a thoroughly modern composer. His pieces are larded with innately contemporary textures, wherein classical elements — harpsichord, violin, celesta — bump up against vocalists rapidly-intoning lists over the sound of scraping knives and burbling synthesizers. In just a few short years, he’s earned just as much cred in the pop music world (collaborations with Antony and the Johnsons, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Bjork) as he has in the hallowed halls of classical (commissions from the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, and NYC avant-garde venue The Kitchen) while maintaining an astonishing level of productivity. He’s already […]
THE EARLY WORD: Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing
The Friggs [pictured above, wrasslin’ at the Khyber circa 1990-something] reunite Saturday at Tritone. Details after the jump…
BREAKING: Casinos Considering New Sites
PHILLY CLOUT: Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter today announced that the developers of Foxwoods, a casino proposed for the Delaware riverfront in South Philly, are considering different locations for the project. Rendell said the developers did not say where those new locations might be, other than that they’re inside the city limits, not on the riverfront and not within 10 miles of casinos already open in Bensalem and Chester. Rendell cautioned that the new locations are only being considered. “This should not be considered definitive,” Rendell said. “There is nothing that is sure or certain here.” MORE
DRUG TEST: ‘Massive’ Drug Sweep Nets Paltry Yield
OK, time for another edition of DRUG TEST wherein we vet the media’s reportage on the so-called War On Drugs, separating the seeds and stems of law enforcement press release hyperbole from the sober, reality-based facts. Today we check out this article posted on Philly.com by the Inquirer’s Sam Wood. Let us say up front that we think Sam is a damn good journo, not to mention a damn good Joe, so understand that nothing we are about to say is personal. Anyway, onward and upward — forward, never straight! Heh-heh… In a series of drug raids yesterday, Philadelphia police […]
PAPERBOY: Special ‘Miss Me, Bitches?’ Edition
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 […]
DOUBLE DOS: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report after the jump. Enjoy.
WORTH REPEATING: John McCain Can’t Remember How Many Homes He Owns, How About You?
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PHILADELPHIA — This morning, Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change launched a statewide search to find Pennsylvanians who, like John McCain, have so many homes that they just can’t keep track of the number. Our new media team will be at Love Park in Philadelphia beginning at 1:00 PM and volunteers and field staff will be calling voters throughout the day in an attempt to uncover even just one person who doesn’t know how many homes he or she owns. Yesterday, McCain was asked how many homes he owns. Clearly uncertain, he responded, “I think — I’ll […]
EXCERPT: How I Got To Starbucks
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] A Teenage Memoir Of Midlife Crisis BY COLLEEN REESE By the time it was over, high school finally made sense to me: Clean lines were drawn between the extraordinaires bound for leafy private colleges and the Joe Regulars headed to state schools; between the part-timers headed to community college and the free spirit do-gooders who would travel the world and eventually settle down for a little missionary work in Uganda or whatnot; and let us not forget the sons of working class shlubs doomed to endless summer apprenticeships with their neighbor’s landscaping companies. And, as predicted, […]