DAILY INTEL: New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. appears close to announcing that the paper will begin charging for access to its website, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system. The decision to go paid is monumental for the Times, […]
RIP: Kate McGarrigle Dead At 63
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Canadian folk singer and songwriter Kate McGarrigle, best known for performing with her sister Anna, has died of cancer. She was 63. McGarrigle’s brother-in-law, Dane Lanken, said the singer died at her Montreal home Monday night surrounded by her sisters, Jane and Anna, and her children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, also singers. He said McGarrigle had been battling cancer since the summer of 2006. He said the cancer started in her small intestine and spread to her liver. Kate and Anna, known as the McGarrigle Sisters, began their careers performing at Montreal coffeehouses in the 1960s with a […]
SICK AND TIRED: Stock Market Surges At Prospect Of Health Care Reform Derailment If Brown Wins
WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. stocks climbed Tuesday as health care stocks soared on hopes that Congressional legislation may be subject to new compromises following Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 77 points, or 0.7%, at 10687. The Dow’s health-care components led its gainers, with Merck jumping 3% and Pfizer up 2.3%. Tuesday’s rally in health-care stocks came as Massachusetts residents head to the ballot box in a tight special election to replace the late Democratic senator, Edward Kennedy. Democrats stand to lose their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the U.S. Senate if Republican candidate […]
Corzine Signs New Jersey Medical Marijuana Into Law
NJ.COM: Gov. Jon Corzine tonight signed a measure making New Jersey the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, part of a flurry of bills the Democrat penned in his last full day on the job. The governor stayed out of sight in his Newark office as the Statehouse was readied for Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie, who takes office at noon Tuesday. The marijuana bill (S119) is expected to take effect in six months. Only patients with specific illnesses would be permitted to get a prescription: cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, seizure disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Brian Fallon At The Church
BY JAMIE DAVIS The Gaslight Anthem are one of those few bands whose songs are almost always full-on punky rock music, but still manage to sound like they would have absolutely no problem being stripped down to just an acoustic guitar. This is exactly what singer Brian Fallon has been doing on tour for the past few months, and on Sunday night he graced us with his presence at the First Unitarian Church. I have always thought that the greatest strength of The Gaslight Anthem is their lyrics, using tales of jukebox romeos and burning diners to create this Springsteen-esque […]
SPORTO: A Month Of Sundays
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY BOR-RING. Most years at this time the NFL reminds us why it is the only sports league where the regular season is more exciting than the playoffs. The regular season has fantasy football, survivor pools and up to sixteen games per week. Sure there are bad games every week, but with 8 or 9 early games and 4-5 late games, there is plenty to hold your interest throughout regular season Sundays. In the playoffs, we are held captive by one-game-at-a-time. And when the top teams (Colts, Saints, Vikings) are so much better than their opponents, […]
BREAKING: Old City Shooter In Custody
DAILY NEWS: An area grad student is under arrest and a 23-year-old man remains in critical condition following a shooting in front of the Fox 29 studios in Old City early yesterday that was, of course, caught on camera. Officers on club detail heard the gunshots ring out at 2:31 a.m. and rushed to the scene at Market Street near 4th, police said. The victim, whose name has not been released but who is reportedly a student at Villanova, was found with numerous gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, shoulder and hands. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, […]
CELEB: Look What Happened To Dakota Fanning
RIGHT TV: Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning make-out in ‘The Runaways’ and is it ever sexy! Kristen and Dakota got hot and heavy while filming a scene for the much anticipated new movie. The two girls became pretty close friends on set and really close during a scene that the director is saying will be “explosive.” While the movie is not exactly a biopic, it is more a rendering of Joan Jett and Cherie Curry’s characters. “It’s about 15-year-old rock stars, the rise and fall of kids,” producer John Linson said. “We’re trying hard not to let that get taken […]
WORTH REPEATING: Sympathy For The Devil
Dear Pat Robertson, I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth […]
SOURCE: Jay Reatard ‘Not Murdered At All’
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PHAWKER: Just heard back from a trusted and informed source on the ground in Memphis who tells us the “Jay Reatard was murdered” meme is a dog that won’t hunt. It all started when the local Fox News affiliate blared the news that the homicide division of the Memphis police department was investigating Reatard’s death, failing to mention that that is standard procedure for all DOAs. Pitchfork picked it up and ran with it and it went semi-viral. The story has since been pulled from the Fox News affiliate’s web site, Pitchfork still has it up. […]
Tax Returns For Wyclef’s Haiti Fund Raise Red Flags
SMOKING GUN: The Haiti earthquake has already triggered hundreds of thousands of donations to musician Wyclef Jean’s charitable foundation, which expects to raise upwards of $1 million a day in the disaster’s wake. However, Internal Revenue Service records show the group has a lackluster history of accounting for its finances, and that the organization has paid the performer and his business partner at least $410,000 for rent, production services, and Jean’s appearance at a benefit concert. Though the Wyclef Jean Foundation, which does business as Yele Haiti Foundation, was incorporated 12 years ago–and has been active since that time–the group […]
BREAKING: Cop, Student Shot At The Bridge
MYFOXPHILLY: Philadelphia police said two people were shot, one of them an off-duty officer, inside a busy University City movie theater Friday night. Police said it was an off-duty Harrisburg Capitol officer who attempted to stop a box-office robbery around 7 p.m. in the lobby of The Bridge Cinema de Lux, located at South 40th and Walnut streets. That led to an exchange of 12 gunshots, during which the officer was struck in the shoulder. Police said a 20-year-old college student and innocent bystander was hit in the left leg. MORE
WORTH REPEATING: Hell On Earth
PW: When wild pigs and dogs eat a human corpse, they leave the feet. The photo is too gruesome to print here. The torso and head are missing. The pelvic bone, thighs and legs have been licked clean of all skin and muscle, leaving just bones that, without size perspective, could easily be mistaken for well-devoured chicken wings. Except for the left foot, still intact, and the right foot, still wearing a sock. Local immigration lawyer Tom Griffin took the photograph of the dismembered corpse in 2004 on the road leading out of City Soleil, the Haitian neighborhood sometimes called […]