Senate and House Democrats respond to AG’s federal health care lawsuit HARRISBURG, March 24 – State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Delaware/Montgomery, and state Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery, were joined today by colleagues from the House and Senate at a news conference to respond to Attorney General Tom Corbett’s federal health care lawsuit. During the news conference, the group of lawmakers urged Attorney General Corbett to cease and desist in his efforts to strike down the nation’s new health care reform law. In a letter to Corbett, Leach stated, “Certainly, reasonable minds can disagree on the merits of health care […]
BREAKING: The End Of ACORN Philadelphia
PW: Tuesday night the board of ACORN Pennsylvania voted to dissolve the Keystone state chapter of the embattled community-service organization and re-invent itself as Pennsylvania Communities Organizing For Change, according to Craig Robbins, the former Head Organizer for ACORN PA, who will now serve as executive director of the newly formed PCOC. The board’s decision came in the wake of an announcement Monday from ACORN’s national leadership that it was ceasing operations and that state chapters would be given the option of closing up shop or re-branding themselves as standalone statewide community-service organizations. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Why The Right Hates ACORN, […]
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 […]
RIP: Icon-Making Rock Photographer Jim Marshall
NEW YORK TIMES: Jim Marshall, a photographer who took some of the most famous images of rock and pop musicians, including Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar aflame at the Monterey International Pop Festival and Johnny Cash at San Quentin prison, died on Tuesday night in a hotel in New York. He was 74. Mr. Marshall was as well known for the extraordinary images that he captured as the extraordinary access that he had to some of the most famous names in music. He was a favored photographer of Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin, and he was the only […]
FLASH MOB ALERT: University City, NOW NOT!
[Photo by AL IN PHILADELPHIA] AL IN PHILADELPHIA: On Saturday, March 20, 2010 the South Street District was hit with what the media have been calling a “flash mob”–large groups of teenagers converging on areas organized through social networking websites and microblogs like Flickr. That night I would estimate between 10-20,000 mainly high school students filled the streets and sidewalks. There wasn’t too much going on, as many of the store owners closed up shop in fear of riots and looting, as happened a few weeks earlier with another, much smaller “flash mob” in Center City. Overall, everyone was pretty […]
RIP: Man’s Man Actor Robert Culp Dead At 79
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Robert Culp, the veteran actor best known for starring with Bill Cosby in the classic 1960s espionage-adventure series “I Spy” and for playing Bob in the 1969 movie “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” died Wednesday morning. He was 79. Culp fell and hit his head while taking a walk outside his Hollywood Hills home. He was found by a jogger who called 911 and was pronounced dead at Hollywood-Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said LAPD Lt. Bob Binder. An autopsy is pending. “My mind wants to flow into sadness, but I want to stay […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In February, the Senate Armed Services Committee discovered that the private security firm Blackwater had diverted hundreds of AK-47s and pistols from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan to Afghan policemen. Whoever signed for the weapons from Blackwater did so under a fake name: Eric Cartman. Cartman is, of course, one of the characters on Comedy Central’s South Park, the animated sitcom that’s been satirizing everything in the news and pop culture for the past 14 years. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park follows the adventures of grade-schoolers Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski and Kenny […]
HEALTH CARE REFORM: Signed, Sealed, Delivered
[Via FLICKR] TALKING POINTS MEMO: Now that President Obama has signed health-care reform into law, opponents of the bill are pinning their hopes of stopping it on a last-ditch legal strategy. A group of 13 state attorneys general has filed suit (pdf), arguing that the law is unconstitutional. The bid seems far-fetched at first. But the Roberts Court has recently shown a willingness to strike down landmark legislation — charges of judicial activism be damned. So, given the stakes, it’s worth asking: Could health-care reform have made it through the congressional gauntlet, only to end up dying in the courts? […]
GAMBLE & HUFF: Philly International Records Museum May Emerge From The Ashes Of Arson
DAILY NEWS: Sometimes, out of destruction, comes creation. Just hours after the man who allegedly torched Philadelphia International Records in a drunken haze was held for trial, owners Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff said yesterday that they may create a museum in the building as part of its rehabilitation. In an interview inside PIR’s gift store, producing duo Gamble and Huff said that they’ve spoken with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady about the idea, and that the Smithsonian Institution has shown interest. “It’s all premature right now, but that’s the kind of interest we’re getting,” Gamble said. “You can’t beat the […]
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 […]
INSTA-REVIEW: Robyn Hitchcock Propellor Time
BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3’s Propellor Time is an understated release that was recorded, mostly live, in a week’s time in 2006, between the recordings for two prior Venus 3 releases, Ole Tarantula! and Goodnight Oslo. Never having been the world’s greatest Robyn Hitchcock fan, I can’t be sure of the pulse of his fans today, but if anyone’s expecting a collection of jangly songs about the sexual lives of insects and fishes, prepare for a letdown. Hitchcock does not abandon all his patented silly, creepy crawly motifs, such as the verse in “Afterlife” […]
THE PEACE CORPS DIARIES: Letter From Paraguay
EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker South American Bureau chief St. John Barned-Smith just started a two year hitch in the Peace Corps teaching English in rural Paraguay. BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH Paraguay’s hot. Not deal-breaking hot, but definitely toasty. It’s frequently around 35-38C, which means its frequently in the mid 80s-90s. So how to deal with the heat and humidity? Some genius long ago came up with Terere. Terere is the iced version of Mate. Whenever Paraguayans gather, they end up forming a circle, and passing around the stuff. Here’s how it works: you take a guampa, which holds the yerba. Guampas […]