LOS ANGELES TIMES: Reporting from Atlanta – In a ruling that could leave the government open to billions of dollars in claims from Hurricane Katrina victims, a federal judge said late Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had displayed “gross negligence” in failing to maintain a navigation channel — resulting in levee breaches that flooded large swaths of greater New Orleans. U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval peppered his 156-page decision, issued in New Orleans, with harsh criticism of the Army corps, at one point citing its “insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness” in failing to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf […]
RUH-ROH: Did Ramsey Perjure Himself In Sworn Testimony About The Pershing Park Mass Arrest?
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER: An affidavit filed today in U.S. District Court raises questions as to whether former D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey may have committed perjury in his sworn testimony about the Pershing Park fiasco. Ramsey had repeatedly stated in depositions that he had not ordered the mass arrest of approximately 400 people during the Sept. 27, 2002, World Bank/IMF protests. Yet the affidavit, by Det. Paul Hustler, a 22-year D.C. Police veteran, maintains that Ramsey indeed ordered the arrests. Hustler’s affidavit, taken Nov. 16, [PDF] is just the latest shock in a pair of Pershing Park class-action civil […]
MUST SEE TV: Pigeon Impossible
Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase. The film took nearly 5 years to complete and is the first attempt at animation by writer/director Lucas Martell. MORE
Councilmen Vow To Thwart The Deadly Bicycle Menace
INQUIRER: Two Philadelphia city councilmen want bicycle riders to start getting the same treatment as motorists, and tomorrow they plan to introduce bills that would require cyclists to get license plates for their bikes and increase fines against bikers who violate traffic laws. The legislation from Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco will be proposed during a scheduled session, after which hearings on the bills are expected to be set. “Overall, it’s a good thing that so many people are riding bikes,” Kenney said today. “And I think it’s possible for all of us to share the roads and sidewalks […]
Q&A: With Fleet Foxes Drummer J. Tillman
BY JAMIE DAVIS J. Tillman, or Josh as he prefers to be called, is most widely known as the drummer for popular indie-folk rockers the Fleet Foxes. However, since 2005, Tillman has been steadily releasing a steady stream of solo albums that traffic in the same kind of woodsy, peaceful easy feeling that has made the Foxes so beloved by the skinny jeans crowd. He has released six albums in four years, and is currently touring his most recent release, Year in the Kingdom — yet another gorgeously somber acoustic affair, with heartbreaking lyrics and immensely sad instrumentation and arrangements. […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, A.P. Ticker.
LETTER FROM TOKYO: 65 Reasons Why I Love Living Here, Why Japan is Better Than America, And Why Tokyo Is One Of The Greatest Cities In The World
BY EVA LIAO TOKYO CORRESPONDENT A few weeks ago I wrote a post disclosing all the things I dislike about Tokyo and peeps be acting like I was ready to jump off the deep end. My incredibly considerate, but mislead roommate actually gave me a hug after reading the post because he thought I was depressed. Three other people had the same reaction. People! Beefs with Tokyo does not equate to unhappiness. Not in my book, anyway. Rather, I saw my “beef” as a coming to terms with reality, an acceptance of sorts that allowed me to simply appreciate things […]
WHY WE LOVE ABE: The $60,000 Letter Lincoln Sent To Kid’s School Teacher Who Accused Kid Of Lying About Having Met The Commander & Chief
BBC: A letter written by former US President Abraham Lincoln to a schoolboy nearly 150 years ago is to go on sale for $60,000 (£36,000) in Philadelphia. George Patten was with his journalist father when both met the commander-in-chief. The American Civil War leader wrote after the eight-year-old was mocked by his disbelieving classmates. The handwritten signed note confirms the pair met and was sent two weeks after the president’s inauguration. The letter reads: “Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln.” Lincoln put pen to […]
REVIEW: Julian Casablancas Phrazes For The Young
BY JAMIE DAVIS The cover of Phrazes for the Young shows singer The Strokes’s singer Julian Casablancas sitting in the middle of a room, surrounded by various objects designed to show the combination of antiques with modern technology. There’s an old arch-top guitar with a guitar hero neck, a phonograph with a digital console etc… You get the point. He’s taken the ’80s, and seeing what would happen if all that synthy nonsense was going on in the ’60s. His band, The Strokes was widely credited with kicking off the New Rock Revolution of the early 2000s, which was […]
BIG BROTHERLY LOVE: Philly Admin. Of Indymedia Bucks Spooky Fed Fishing Expedition, Lives To Tell
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY On January 30th, 2009 Kristina Clair — a Linux administrator living in Philadelphia, who just happens to share server space with Indymedia.us, a left-leaning online news aggregator — received a subpoena from a federal prosecutor in Indiana demanding the web site’s visitor logs in conjunction with an undisclosed grand jury investigation. Specifically, the visitor log for June 25th, 2008. The subpoena did not just ask for specific names or IP addresses; instead it demanded the names and IP addresses of all 10,000-plus people who visited the site on that day, where they came […]
SMELL YA LATER: Dad Vail Regatta Sails To Jersey
DAILY NEWS: The Dad Vail Regatta — held in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill since 1953 — is officially moving the 2010 race to North Jersey. Regatta spokesman Harry Stinger confirmed last night that the event would be moving about 90 miles northeast to Rumson, N.J. “We are thrilled that the Dad Vail Regatta has decided to relocate to Rumson,” said John Ekdahl, mayor of the Monmouth County town. “We think the event will have a tremendous economic impact not only for Rumson but for all of the surrounding Two River towns,” he said, referring to the area along the Navesink […]
HOT DOC: City To Invest 500K In ‘Creative Economy’
PHILADELPHIA, November 17, 2009 — The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, in partnership with the Department of Commerce announces a new grant program to support job creation in Philadelphia’s creative sector. Grants will be available to nonprofit and for profit creative businesses for facility projects linked to job creation such as renovated office space, mixed-use facilities, artist workspace and creative industry incubators. The total funding allocated for the program is $500,000, funded from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. “We are thrilled about this program – the first […]
INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT: Timothy Geithner Held The Door While Wall Street Robbed The Store
[Artwork by STEVE BRODNER] HUFFINGTON POST: A brutal report issued Monday by a government watchdog holds Timothy Geithner — then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now the nation’s Treasury Secretary — responsible for overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs. The authoritative new narrative describes how, while bailing out insurance giant AIG last fall, a team led by Geithner failed nearly every step of the way. Instead of bargaining with AIG’s numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring […]