INQUIRER: She married young and badly. She bounced checks at Pizza Hut and the grocery. She hit the bottle to excess sometimes, talked to her cats, and once attempted suicide. And, as “JihadJane,” she spewed violent-sounding vitriol online for all the world – including law enforcement – to see. From what’s known about her so far, Colleen Renee LaRose is not coming off as the sharpest jihadist in the suburbs. The life of the Pennsburg woman who is due in federal court a week from today on terrorism charges is sounding ever more sad than scary. “She’s had a hard […]
JUDGE: Defunding Of ACORN Is Unconstitutional
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn’t blocked. In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it. The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. […]
STEAL THIS MUSIC: Dr. Dog Is Giving It Away
Dr. Dog is offering a free download of their first single, STRANGER, from their upcoming album, SHAME, SHAME, set for release April 6th on Anti. The Dog will perform on the Jimmy Fallon show that night. Tour dates after the jump. DOWNLOAD: Stranger [mp3] PREVIOUSLY: LET ME COUNT THE WAYS: Why Pitchfork’s Review Of The New Dr. Dog Album Has Its Head Up Its Ass
BEER WARS: Microbrew Taliban Strikes Again
DAILY NEWS: Pennsylvania State Police have staged another beer raid, confiscating about a dozen cases from a leading distributor in Northeast Philadelphia and ordering it to stop selling several well-known imports, including Duvel, a popular Belgian beer sold throughout the Philadelphia region. Agents from the State Police Department’s Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement (BLCE) descended Monday night on Origlio’s Beverage, a wholesale distributor in the Far Northeast whose primary brands include Coors and Yuengling. The police seized about a dozen cases from a small California beermaker, Russian River Brewing Co., and ordered Origlio’s to stop selling Duvel and other beers, […]
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: Catholic Church’s Chief Exorcist Warns That The Devil Is Inside The Vatican
TIMES ONLINE: Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”. He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope […]
RIP: 80s Teen Hearthrob Corey Haim Dead At 38
MTV: The news that actor Corey Haim, 38, was found dead on Wednesday morning (March 10) of an apparent drug overdose has left the late Hollywood icon’s family, friends and fans in mourning. Although Haim’s career had been relatively quiet in recent years, the actor was a steady presence on the big screen throughout the 1980s, starring alongside talents such as Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and longtime friend and collaborator Corey Feldman. In memory of the late actor, MTV News has compiled a timeline of Corey Haim’s career in Hollywood from his first roles in “Firstborn” and “Silver Bullet” to […]
NOT SAFE AT ANY SPEED: The Out-Of-Control Prius
NEW YORK TIMES: Two drivers of Toyota Priuses reported that their cars had sped out of control, one of them ending in a crash. Toyota already has said it was recalling the popular hybrid car for the 2004 to 2009 model years, but only to fix a problem in which the carmaker says a floor mat could trap the accelerator pedal. In a separate recall, Toyota is modifying accelerator pedals it says could stick in 4.5 million vehicles. But a man whose 2008 Prius raced along 30 miles of Interstate in California at up to 94 miles an hour before […]
JIHAD JANE: Suburban Montco Housewife Arrested In Plot To Kill Swedish Cartoonist Who Offended Islam
ABC NEWS: A suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias “Jihad Jane” has been arrested and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and for plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today. Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., described by neighbors as an average “housewife,” is better known to federal authorities as “Fatima Rose” or “Jihad Jane.” The indictment, obtained by ABC News, charges LaRose with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country. She is also accused of […]
GLENN BECK: What Wouldn’t Jesus Do?
POLITICS DAILY: On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice. MORE GLENN BECK: I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you […]
SPORTO: March Mildness
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY With less than a week to go before the NCAA Tournament field is announced, lets take a look at how the local basketball programs are positioned. [The NIT, CBI and CIT are secondary, tertiary and gawd-awful tournaments, respectively, for teams that don’t make the NCAA Tournament]. LaSalle The Explorers will miss the Atlantic 10 Tournament after finishing 13th in the conference. Only the top 12 make the field. Saturday’s loss to Saint Joe’s sealed their fate. Season Highlight: Um, lets see…snapping their 8-game losing streak by beating UMass? Or maybe the 19-point […]
Sunoco Considering Sending Center City Jobs Overseas
PHILLY DEALS: Sunoco Inc., the Philadelphia-based oil company, says it’s paying EquaTerra Inc., a Houston consulting firm, to recommend whether Sunoco should “outsource” information technology, accounting, personnel, and procurement jobs from its Center City headquarters, home to 750 of Sunoco’s 10,000 employees. “We have hired EquaTerra to advise us as we explore potentially outsourcing some functions,” Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski told me yesterday. Workers learned Friday of the possible job moves. EquaTerra didn’t return calls for comment late yesterday. Sunoco expects EquaTerra to report later this year on which jobs could be profitably outsourced to cheap labor markets in Asia […]
SMITH: The Last Temptation Of Allen Iverson
STEPHEN A. SMITH: Allen Iverson is in trouble, folks, deep trouble. The combination of alcohol and gambling – and a once-promising career in tatters because of the first two – won’t culminate in anything short of disaster if help does not arrive in short order. If numerous NBA sources are telling the truth – and there’s no reason to believe they’d do otherwise in a situation of this magnitude – Iverson will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away. Moore, ever the protector, would never admit as much, of course. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t […]
WORTH REPEATING: Trying To Break Your Heart
President Barack Obama at Arcadia University by FIREFIGHTERSDAUGHTER PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: After the event, Trisha Urban, 33, of Hamburg, hurried out to her car, in a race to get there before her daughter, Cora, 13 months, began to cry. “My husband died on the day she was born,” said Urban, who had been invited to attend by Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.). She and her husband, Andrew Urban, had insurance, she said, but when he was diagnosed with a heart condition and started needing regular medical care, their coverage was dropped. They struggled to keep paying the bills, but Andrew Urban […]