ASSOCIATED PRESS: The charges of theft, conspiracy, conflict of interest and obstruction of justice, and an elaborately detailed grand jury report, were released one day before the defendants were scheduled to turn themselves in at a Dauphin County district judge’s office. The most prominent defendant is state Rep. John M. Perzel, R-Philadelphia, who served as speaker for about four years and as majority leader for nearly a decade before that. Corbett described Perzel as “aggressive in the acquisition and retention of power” and accused him of punishing fellow Republicans who voted against him on legislation with “dirty tricks” that included […]
SEX IN THE CITY: Men I Have Dated
BY GLORIA MARIS “I’m on a first-name basis,” he said, “with vodka.” On a recent cross-country flight I was reading a paperback collection of short stories that I’d put away, half-read, some years ago. Stuck to the inside back cover was a Post-It note with a name, a phone number, and an Art Museum area address on it. “Vodka, she speaks to me, and I speak to her. We get along well, except when we don’t.” “When is that?” I asked. “When I don’t respect her,” he said, and he refilled my glass. When we met, he was updating one […]
20 YEARS AGO: The More Fiends Vs. The Berlin Wall
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Philly punk band More Fiends was founded by Allen and Elizabeth Fiend (host of BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living) . BY ELIZABETH FIEND It was November 9th 1989 and More Fiends had been on tour already for a grueling seven weeks. I was lying on an old mattress on the floor of a narrow bedroom watching Happy Days which had turned incredibly funny because in the German dubbed version The Fonz had a whiney, high pitched voice. Plus, come on, Fonzie was speaking German. The program was interrupted by what seemed like some sort of special news […]
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 […]
Jon Stewart Catches Sean Hannity With Pants On Fire
MEDIA MATTERS: Citing no evidence, Sean Hannity twice stated that 20,000 people gathered to protest health care reform at a GOP rally on Capitol Hill — a claim he later walked back drastically — while MSNBC reported that Capitol police estimated the crowd at only 4,000; prior to the rally, Hannity said crowds at the event — which he and other Fox News figures heavily promoted — would be “massive.” Conservative media previously inflated crowd estimates for the 9-12 March on Washington. MORE
NOBAMA: Top Afghanistan Envoy Cables White House That None Of The Plans On The Table Are Workable
WASHINGTON POST: Karl W. Eikenberry’s memos, sent as President Obama enters the final stages of his deliberations over a new Afghanistan strategy, illustrated both the difficulty of the decision and the deepening divisions within the administration’s national security team. After a top-level meeting on the issue Wednesday afternoon — Obama’s eighth since early last month — the White House issued a statement that appeared to reflect Eikenberry’s concerns. “The President believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended,” the statement said. “After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance […]
TRAGIC: Cops Seize 600 Primo Pot Plants In North Philly, Say They Have No Plans To Sell It To You Or Me
INQUIRER: Officers responded to a 911 call reporting “a strong odor of weed” on the 3000 block of North 7th Street and found the front windows of the dwelling “completely masked and the strong scent of marijuana,” said Capt. Debra Frazier, of the narcotics unit. Inside, police discovered a .38 caliber handgun and 600 plants [NOT pictured, above], “from seedlings to plants well over 6-feet-tall,” Frazier said. “There was no furniture, no sources of entertainment, nothing but marijuana plants” growing hydroponically under large lights. Frazier estimated the seized pot had a street value of $5 million. MORE PHAWKER: Seriously, $5 […]
STROKE: Dad Vail Regatta Threatens To Row To NJ
DAILY NEWS: Thousands of rowers descend on the banks of the Schuylkill every year to participate in the Dad Vail Regatta – the country’s largest college regatta, which has been held in Philadelphia since 1953. But in 2010, rowers might find themselves competing in Rumson, N.J., on the Navesink River. Increased operating costs and the weak economy’s impact on the regatta’s corporate sponsors mean that last May’s regatta may have been its last in Philadelphia. “The regatta, due to several unforeseeable contributing factors, is facing discontinuation as a Philadelphia-based event,” warned a Nov. 2 letter from the Dad Vail Regatta […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: Scrapple TV News
All the news that shits. With your host, A.P. Ticker.
SEXUAL PERSONAE: BoysWhoLikeGirlsWhoLikeBoys
NEW YORK TIMES: In recent years, a growing number of teenagers have been dressing to articulate — or confound — gender identity and sexual orientation. Certainly they have been confounding school officials, whose responses have ranged from indifference to applause to bans. Last week, a cross-dressing Houston senior was sent home because his wig violated the school’s dress code rule that a boy’s hair may not be “longer than the bottom of a regular shirt collar.” In October, officials at a high school in Cobb County, Ga., sent home a boy who favored wigs, makeup and skinny jeans. In August, […]
PEAK OIL: It’s Later Than You Think
[“Operation Oil Freedom” by SHEPARD FAIREY] TREEHUGGER: World oil reserves are far lower than officially reported, the situation far more serious than publicly admitted, and we’re already past peak oil. That’s the word from two anonymous IEA whistleblowers, The Guardian reports. To add insult to industry, the figures were deliberately massaged, at least in part, to appease the United States: Apparently the IEA was concerned that reporting the true reserve numbers — and keep in mind that determining oil reserves is as much art as science — it would trigger a buying panic. The US enters the picture encouraging the […]
TV: Shit My Dad Says Twitterer Gets CBS Deal
THRFEED: Twitter sensation Shit My Dad Says is headed to television. CBS has picked up a comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 700,000 followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern [NOT pictured, above], an Internet star. “Will & Grace” creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are on board to executive produce and supervise the writing for the multicamera family comedy, which Halpern will co-pen with Patrick Schumacker. Halpern and Schumacker will also co-exec produce the Warner Bros. TV-produced project, which has received a script commitment. The comedy’s title will […]
STUDY: 2,266 Vets Died Of No Insurance In 2008
PNHP: A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001. The researchers, who released their analysis today [Tuesday], pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture. […]