BAGHDAD – The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours, including five slain Thursday in a single roadside bombing that also killed four Iraqis in Baghdad. Elsewhere, a suicide truck bomber struck the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area of northern Iraq, killing at least 16 people and wounding 67, an Iraqi commander said. The latest U.S. deaths raised to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. [via ASSOCIATED PRESS]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR ON WHYY Jeff Goodell’s book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, now out in paperback, argues that the U.S. is more dependent than ever on coal. Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine; he’s also the author of Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the account of nine miners trapped underground. RADIO TIMES WITH MARTY MOSS-COANEThere is a heated debate going on in the Senate over a new energy bill. Senate Democrats have promised its passage by the July 4th recess. We talk about the controversial […]
PAPERBOY: We Read ‘Em So You Don’t Have To
EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the new, improved and re-named version of Cover Wars — check it out, it’s not just for art directors anymore! Recently it was pointed out to us that there is more to an alt weekly than a pretty cover. And we’re like, ‘yeah, there’s that American Apparel ad on the back, too!’ And they’re like, ‘No Assleak, there’s actually articles and shit inside!’ And we’re like, ‘My god, you’re right!’ Sensing that this recurring feature deserves more than just the Warholian 15 minutes of aesthetic sassiness and art history jokes we’d previously allotted it — and […]
POP IN TAPE: Hot Wax In The 215
‘RIAA! Freeze Motherfucker! Slowly Step Away From The Computer!’ BY MICHAEL FICHMAN A blog called Thou Shall Not Leak (shouldn’t that be “shalt?”) has gotten all sorts of attention on it’s first day, thanks to the internet sleuthing of my homegirl Maura‘s posse at Idolator. Here’s what the single, solitary post on TSNL had to say: Hi, Instead of doing what everyone else has done and create a blog to leak music to people ahead of release dates illegally, I thought (largely since I work in the industry and people’s lack of care or respect for the hard work […]
METH BUST: Local Insomnia Rates Plummet Overnight
Hear me now and believe me later: The biggest meth bust in Philadelphia history did NOT happen in Manayunk yesterday. Markle Street is clearly Roxborough. Police say Bloomer appears to have been a middleman. They say he sold bulk amounts after buying it from a network on the West Coast. All it took was a phone call. Chief Insp. William Blackburn tells Action News, “As a result of that conversation he would procure the drugs, and later have those drugs sent by FedEx to the Roxborough section of the city.” This is an ongoing investigation with police now trying to […]
KILLADELPHIA: 5 Dead Since U Went To Bed
BY PETER MUCHA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Two murders in the city yesterday were followed by even more carnage — a triple slaying in North Philadelphia this morning, according to police. The five gun deaths raise the year’s homicide total to 192, up from 177 as of this date last year, police said. Today’s shootings happened outside at about 2:30 a.m. in the 1600 block of Sixth Street, near the intersection with Oxford Street. One of the victims, Bruce Burman, 23, lived on that block. The other two have been identified as Sean White, 19, of 1400 North Marshall Street, and […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
[photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] GABBA GABBA HEY: The Teeth, Jefferson Square Park, Last Night
ROUGH JUSTICE: Mob Kills Man With Its Bare Hands
AUSTIN, Texas — A crowd attacked and killed a passenger in a vehicle that had struck and injured a child, police said Wednesday. Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night. The man who was killed had been trying to stop the group from attacking the vehicle’s driver when the crowd turned on him, authorities said.The child was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. [via AP]
HOT DOC: Steve Volk Tired Of Getting Ass Kicked
FROM: Tim Whitaker, PW Editor TO: The Staff Date: 6/20/07 Senior writer STEVE VOLK is leaving PW to become a staff writer at Philadelphia magazine. He’ll be leaving in two weeks. Steve has played a major role in the editorial department for the last five years, scoring a whole bunch of awards and helping to set the tone for the paper. Guys like Steve are hard to replace. We’d wish Steve luck, but he won’t need it.
SLOW NEWS DAY: Smooshed Turtle Triggers Mayhem
UPPER TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Why did the turtle cross the road? We’ll never know, but it sure caused one heck of an accident. A woman who swerved to avoid hitting the reptile as it crawled across the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway Tuesday afternoon lost control of her car, crashed through a guardrail and tumbled down an embankment before the car flipped over onto its roof. Saranne Goldinger, 65, of Cape May, was wearing a seat belt and was not critically injured, State Police said. Her car, however, was heavily damaged. The turtle fared even worse. A vehicle that […]
JUNK SCIENCE: Think Globally, Eat Locally
BY ELIZABETH FIEND LIVING EDITOR This is a special season of wondrous fruits and the freshest of vegetables. It only comes once a year and lasts only a few short but tasty months. Right now, this very minute, is the time to jump on board and get with the program of buying your produce from neighborhood farmers markets.There are basically three types of places that grow our produce: big agribusiness factory-type farms, organic farms and recently, a growing movement of small local farms. It used to be a no brainier that if you wanted the best, most healthful food, and […]