INQURER: The beleaguered principal of South Philadelphia High resigned Thursday, abruptly ending her controversial tenure after it was revealed that her state certificate was inactive. School officials made the announcement in the afternoon, after The Inquirer asked about the status of LaGreta Brown’s certification to work as principal. The state Department of Education confirmed that the certificate, issued in 2000, was inactive because Brown had not fulfilled a requirement for continuing education. Brown’s resignation, on the day teachers were to take a vote of no confidence against her, ended a turbulent tenure at the 900-student school. On Dec. 3, the […]
BIG BLACK: Gulf Spill Like A Valdez Every Four Days
[via THE BIG PICTURE] NPR: NPR’s Richard Harris has learned that much more oil, 70,000 barrels a day or more than ten times the official estimate, is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon pipe, based on scientific analysis of the video released Wednesday. That’s the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez tanker full every four days. Assuming the flow rate has been steady since the gusher started on April 20, the gulf spill surpassed the Exxon Valdez in the first four days. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Toby Leaman of Dr. Dog
BY JONATHAN VALANIA There are few greater pleasures in this American life than watching a young, gifted rock band in the prime of its youth burn through its set before an adoring hometown crowd with the confidence of five young men who’ve come to realize that — after all the blood, the sweat and the tears that got them to this point — they are making their mark on the world. It’s even better when the young, gifted band is local, as will be the case when Dr. Dog takes the stage at the Electric Factory tonite in support of […]
POLL: Sestak Opens A 9 Point Lead Over Specter
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY POLL: Congressman Joe Sestak (49 percent) leads incumbent Arlen Specter (40 percent) by 9 points in the race for U.S. Senate among likely Democratic Primary voters in Pennsylvania, according to a poll released today by the Suffolk University Political Research Center. Twelve percent of voters were undecided. The winner of the Democratic Primary will most likely face Republican Pat Toomey, who led Peg Luksik 60 percent to 9 percent in the Republican Primary for U.S. Senate. MORE USA TODAY: Sestak, who is 58 and has great hair, brags about his surge in the polls in his latest ad, […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
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 […]
Last 5 GOP Presidents Would Be Unelectable Today
NEWSWEEK: In the year and a half since Barack Obama was elected president, Republicans nationwide seem to have given up on the whole governing thing and chosen instead to play a long, rancorous game of “I’m More Conservative Than You Are.” They’ve been playing it in Utah, where incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett—lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 84—lost a primary battle this past weekend. They’ve been playing it in Florida, where moderate Gov. Charlie Crist was forced last week to abandon his bid for the Republican Senate nomination and run as an independent instead. And they’ve even been playing it on the […]
MOVE ON: Day That Will Live In Infamy
CLARK DELEON: The apocalyptic irony of May 13, 1985, is that everything the crazy people predicted came to be. MOVE said the authorities would try to annihilate them, and as a consequence there would be a fiery confrontation the likes of which Philadelphia had never seen. Let me describe May 13 in the shorthand I developed as a reporter and columnist watching the events unfold. A bunch of crazy people had taken five children hostage. (None of the six MOVE adults were the biological parents of the children inside 6221 Osage Ave.) The police tried freeing the children in the […]
SIDEWALKING: Time Has Come Today
Times Square, 40th & 7th Ave., 12:14 PM by JEFF FUSCO * WIKIPEDIA: Columbia president Clive Davis didn’t want them to record their song “Time” and said that they didn’t record that kind of stuff at Columbia. He also wanted to find a white group to record the song for them. The band said that this would never happen. When they broke the news to David Rubinson he was very heartbroken as he was really looking forward to producing “Time”. He found a solution to the problem. He told the brothers that he might lose his job for doing this […]
TRAGIC: Sarah Silverman Show Cancelled
[by Dan Springer caricatureking.blogspot.com] NEW YORK TIMES: Unlike some of her Comedy Central brethren Sarah Silverman never made an episode of her show that elicited ominous messages from shadowy groups – her only sin was producing a series that grew too expensive for that cable channel to produce. (O.K., and possibly showing a man deriving illicit pleasure from a toy train. And casting Ed Asner as a Nazi officer.) But those days are no more: Comedy Central said on Wednesday that it was not picking up “The Sarah Silverman Program” for a fourth season, confirming a report that appeared in […]
REAL ESTATE: So You Want To Buy A Home
BY AARON STELLA “Oh Osh magosh me? A house? Mortgages and mahogany? Brunches and backsplashes? Go pick on someone your own size!” Was what I told my broker/boss at CITYSPACE, a real estate agency, when she asked me if I was considering buying a house anytime soon. That was November 2009. I was 24-years-old and in my sixth month employed at CITYSPACE as their Web Content Associate. I possessed relatively little knowledge about real estate and home owning, and to me, people just didn’t purchase homes until they’re ready to settle down. A few weeks after my broker poked me […]
KITCHEN BITCH: Making Chicken Tikka Time
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN I fell in love with Indian food about 10 years ago, when one of my friends and I popped into a nondescript storefront selling curries and naan like McDonalds sells hamburger, with only two or three guys working the entire line and whipping up orders like it’s nobody’s business. As an Indian food virgin, I was drawn to a dish that was both exotic and familiar at the same time, one I was sure I couldn’t go wrong with, just because of the description, which probably went something like this: “Succulent pieces of yogurt-marinated chicken draped in […]
TECH: The Future Of Public Transit?
INHABITAT: It’s a backpack harness system with a network of wires strung all over the city. All you have to do is strap on the battery-powered harness, hop onto a wire and start flying around the city. It may be science fiction now, but someday this could be a reality. Recently presented at TEDx conference in Thessaloniki, and based on Kolelinia, the flying bicycle lanes constructed from taut steel wires, Kolelinio goes a step further, making the efficient urban transport system accessible to anyone, even those with disabilities. Each person has their own backpack composed of a harness, a battery […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With Your Host AP Ticker
AP goes off on the big fake ID scandal at PennDOT and the teacher hiring freeze at Philadelphia School District, plus the Flyers rocked and Lady Pha Pha got cold-cocked. Get in here!