QUATARI DIPLOMAT SCRAMBLES F-16s BY SMOKIN’ IN THE BOYS ROOM Two F-16s scrambled to escort a United Airlines jet into Denver International Airport on Wednesday night after a Qatari diplomat apparently tried to sneak a cigarette, then joked that he had wanted to set his shoe afire, federal law enforcement officials said. Initially, the incident raised fears of another terrorism strike similar to a passenger’s Christmas Day attempt to ignite explosives in his underwear as a Northwest jet approached Detroit, and to the 2001 shoe bomber, Richard Reid, who tried to set fire to his shoes on a transatlantic flight […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With A.P. Ticker
A.P. discusses Philly’s new weed policy, ‘collateral murder’ in Iraq, the Donovan McNabb trade and, of course, the Fightins.
Casino To Be A Wynn-Wynn For Wynn Says Wynn
INQUIRER: Casino mogul Steve Wynn on Monday declared that his plans for a South Philadelphia casino would be “Wynn top to bottom,” carrying both his name and signature design. After meeting for an hour and fifteen minutes with Mayor Nutter at City Hall Monday night, Wynn said in an interview with The Inquirer: “We only have one brand. We don’t have a down-market brand. It’s our place.” When Wynn Resorts surfaced in February as a new developer to take over the faltering Foxwoods Casino project, there was speculation that he might not bring his style of high-end casinos to Philadelphia. […]
PIGGIE OF THE WEEK: PA A.G. Tom Corbett
This week A.P. Ticker calls out Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett for suing to repeal health care reform in a shameless bid to draw Tea Party support for his gubernatorial campaign.
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggie Of The Week
This week, A.P Ticker calls out mainline dentist/Jersey Shore medical waste dumper Dr. Thomas W. McFarland Jr.
JUDGE 2 PARENTS: Only You Can Prevent Flash Mobs
DAILY NEWS: Over two days of trials, 29 youths have been convicted for participating in flash mobs. All juveniles found delinquent yesterday face up to four years in a state facility, but most who pleaded guilty were sentenced to four weekends at a Poconos boot camp, 60 days of electronic monitoring and two years’ probation, and were ordered to take biweekly drug tests and to attend school every day on time. Those with prior convictions or other glaring problems in their backgrounds were sentenced to state facilities. Dougherty got creative with two teenagers who gave cops a hard time while […]
ENDGAME: Got Waterloo?
NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama. By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent the bill to President Obama, whose crusade for such legislation has been a hallmark of his presidency. Democrats hailed the vote as historic, comparable to the establishment of Medicare and Social […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With A.P. Ticker
Bling heist at the Franklin Mills mall, smackdown at the Aramingo Diner. Sure sounds like March Madness.
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggie Of The Week
This week A.P. takes on the Tea Party douchebags protesting the president’s speech on health care reform at Arcadia University on Monday.
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggie Of The Week
This week A.P. shames the predatory Pennsyltucky capitalists that own and operate private prisons and paid judges kickbacks for sentencing children who had committed minor crimes at best to jail time in their facilities.
THE NEWEST DEAL: Nutter Proposes Soda Tax And $300 Garbage Collection Fee To Cover Budget Gap
KYW: Saying “nothing worth having in life is free,” Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter on Thursday morning delivered a nearly $4-billion budget to City Council. And he asked for the lawmakers’ support for two firsts: a tax on soda and a fee for trash collection. Nutter proposed a flat $300 per year, per property trash fee (see previous story) and a two-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks (see related story). He said these will bring in an extra $184 million per year to save city services. MORE RELATED: William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CDC chief Thomas Frieden […]
THE EARLY WORD: The Price Of Free Speech
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] Journalist Maziar Bahari and Dr. Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University, join the National Constitution Center for a conversation on the future of free press and free speech in Iran on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 6:30pm at the National Constitution Center. Bahari was held in solitary confinement following Iran’s disputed elections in June 2009 for allegedly playing a role in a Western media effort to instigate unrest. He was released in October 2009, and is currently an international correspondent for Newsweek. The program is taking place in conjunction with the One Book, […]
GAMBLOR: Steve Wynn To Takeover Foxwoods Fail
INQUIRER: Wynn Resorts confirmed Tuesday that it had signed a letter of intent to take control of developing and running the struggling Foxwoods Casino project. But the deal is contingent on approval from Pennsylvania gaming regulators. The Foxwoods project is at risk of losing its license for repeated delays since winning one of the city’s two slots licenses in 2006. He only offered a general idea of what he had in mind, saying it would be a one-story casino with two or three levels of parking on either side. Asked how much Wynn Resorts would spend on the waterfront site, […]