Please standby for a Q&A with Ian Murphy, editor of Buffalo’s The Beast, AKA the man who called Wisconsin governor Scott Walker pretending to be David Koch, one half of the infamous Koch Brothers. Coming soon to a Phawker near you! PREVIOUSLY: KOCH SUCKER: Wisconsin Governor Punked By Alt-Weekly Editor Pretending To Be Koch Brother RELATED: The newly elected governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is outspoken. He said that after his election readers could expect to see in their newspapers, “LePage tells Obama to go to hell.” When he refused to attend a Martin Luther King Day event, he said […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,000 rubber ducks and other bath toys that were headed from China to the U.S. Currents took them, and news reports said some may have eventually reached Maine and other shores on the Atlantic. Thirteen years later, journalist Donovan Hohn undertook a mission: He wanted to track the movements of the wayward ducks, from the comfort of his own living room. “I figured I’d interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, read up on ocean currents and Arctic geography and then write an account […]
SIDEWALKING: Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
7th Ave. & 42nd St., Times Square, NYC, 10:28 AM by JEFF FUSCO
THE DONALD: Those Who Cynically Demagogue By The Birth Certificate Die By The Birth Certificate
SMOKING GUN: What is Donald Trump hiding? The multimillionaire developer has, overnight, become a leading voice of the “birther” movement, members of which doubt that President Barack Obama was born in the United States (and, thus, is unable to produce an authentic U.S. birth certificate). “It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate,” Trump told Newsmax. “I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?” To prove how easy it was for a household employee to find his birth certificate, Trump, […]
OP-ED: Time For Queen Arlene To Vacate The Throne
BY JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF This week the Philadelphia Inquirer is running an amazing seven part story called ASSAULT ON LEARNING detailing how lawless and out of control Philadelphia schools are these days, how they have become thuggish battle zones where violence and brutality — against both teachers and students alike — have become the new normal: By June, the district’s total of violent incidents had grown to 4,541. That means on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn’t even include thousands more who are […]
SIDEWALKING: The Day The Earth Stood Still
[Photo by JEFF FUSCO] Residents Holding Vigil To Mark The 32nd Anniversary Of The Nuclear Reactor Core Meltdown At Three Mile Island Vigil, Middletown, PA 3:50 AM Today PREVIOUSLY: Thirty years ago, half the core of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear complex melted down, but government officials and the utility running the place didn’t know that. And they wouldn’t know for six more years. In fact, as the crisis extended from its start on March 28, 1979, the amount of information available about the nature of the accident remained slim. Key pieces of data were missing. Nobody knew […]
WORTH REPEATING: Do NOT F*ck With Queen Arlene
DWIGHT OTT: “I see you called the superintendent at home,” she said. I told her that I had no other option. Then she asked, “What’s this I hear about threats on the superintendent’s life?” I said, “No, no. She must have misunderstood. I asked her about vandalism of her car and tried to verify the story with her.” I shook my head and went back to tinkering with my notes. The phone rang again. It was the Philadelphia Police Department. They wanted to know whether and why I had called the superintendent at home. I explained. Then they wanted to […]
SWINDLE: There Is A Class War On And We Are Losing
BOB HERBERT: As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion. Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now. […]
TONITE: Dead Men DO Tell Tales
Phawker Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Valania will be on News Radio 77WABC in NYC tonight from 9 PM — 11 PM to discuss his Duffy’s Cut PW cover story with host John Batchelor. UPDATE: The interview was recorded moments ago, but will not air until Friday, some time between 9 PM — 11 PM. We will add a download link to this post as soon as it becomes available. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: Exhuming The Old-Timey Mass Murder Mystery At Duffy’s Cut “The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.” —William Faulkner BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA […]
GOING ROGUE: The Thrill Kill Cult Of Bravo Company
ROLLING STONE: The poppy plants were still low to the ground at that time of year. The two soldiers, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes, saw a young farmer who was working by himself among the spiky shoots. Off in the distance, a few other soldiers stood sentry. But the farmer was the only Afghan in sight. With no one around to witness, the timing was right. And just like that, they picked him for execution. He was a smooth-faced kid, about 15 years old. Not much younger than they were: Morlock was 21, Holmes was 19. His name, […]
REVIEW: Reks’ Rhythmic Eternal King Supreme
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD Nas’ Illmatic established the original archetype for blockbuster hip-hop success. The process— simply create a short album (no more than 15 tracks) and grab beats from an onslaught of top-notch producers for a hootenany-style album that features a focused variety of hip-hop’s soundscapes. Hey, it worked once for Nas and the formula did its job creating rappers like Jay-Z, 50 Cent and other household names. However, the formula became trite and got dropped in favor for single-producer albums in the mid-‘00s. Thanks Kanye! Massachusetts-based boom-bapper Reks borrows Nas’ formula with his newest effort, Rhythmic Eternal King Supreme, […]