INQUIRER: The organized act of civil disobedience by Casino-Free Philadelphia came as the casino company announced it planned to have a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 8 for its slots parlor. More than 40 people gathered for the protest on Delaware Avenue about 6 a.m. They carried signs and banners wore red shirts that read “Bankrupt them” on the front and “Before they bankrupt us” on the back. About a dozen chanting volunteers sat down and linked arms in front of the construction gate. MORE
BON IVER: Skinny Love
LOS ANGELES TIMES: In the twilight hours, that liminal space between sunset and sunrise, the eyes and ears are prone to trickery. The imagination takes over; hazy objects resemble ghosts, and faraway sounds evoke werewolves. But on the precipice of Sunday morning, amid Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s tombstones and mausoleums, the misty fog and leaning palm trees, Bon Iver provided an ethereal soundtrack to sunrise. It was dreamlike as indie folkster and Wisconsonite Justin Vernon walked onstage with his band, Bon Iver, around 6 a.m. It was almost completely dark when the band opened with Brian Eno-esque layers of sound — […]
BAD MOTHER: 14-Year-Old Says Mom Lit Him On Fire, Locked Him In A Closet For Four Years
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he’d been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday. A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said. “He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body,” Knight said. “It was very sad.” The boy was taken to a hospital to be […]
THE DODOS: Fables
The Dodos play First Unitarian October 12th
HATEBOOK: Facebook Deletes Poll That Asked ‘Should Obama Be Killed’, Secret Service Investigating
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, officials said Monday. The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances. “We are aware of it and we will take the appropriate investigative steps,” said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. “We take of these things seriously.” MORE PREVIOUSLY: I SEE A DARKNESS: Feds Nab Three Jihadist Bombers In […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR During the first few months of his presidency, Bill Clinton asked his longtime friend and journalist Taylor Branch to assume the role of an in-house historian who would amass material for Clinton’s post-presidential memoir. Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, modified the assignment, suggesting instead a series of recorded interviews in which Clinton could talk about the issues of the day. What followed were 79 confidential conversations between the president and the author. After each session, Branch habitually recorded of his own impressions of the interview, eventually bringing together his observations in the new book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling […]
MORTAL SIN: Glenside Priest Accused Of Sexual Abuse
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Philadelphia archdiocese on Monday announced the allegation against Msgr. Michael Flood [NOT PICTURED, LEFT], who denies wrongdoing. The archdiocese says the alleged victim filed a civil lawsuit last week in Delaware. The plaintiff is not identified by name; he is described as a student at St. John Neumann High School in Philadelphia, where Flood taught in the late 1970s. Church officials say they cannot begin their own investigation because the plaintiff is unnamed. They say the 71-year-old priest will continue serving as pastor at St. Luke the Evangelist parish in Glenside. MORE RELATED: One in every 33 […]
SPORTO: Auto-Tuning CBS’ Eagles Broadcast
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY You saw the Eagles game yesterday, but did you hear it? Maybe you were at the bar and missed out on the insight from the CBS broadcast. Or maybe you heard but couldn’t believe your ears. I’m here to fill you in on what you missed. It’s Week 3, and CBS has sent Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots [PICTURED, BELOW RIGHT] to cover what does not appear to be a marquee matchup. These two are listed as the #4 announcer pairing, not high enough to rate a sideline reporter. Harlan and Wilcots did a good […]
Cat Duct-Taper Confesses; Cop Beats Cow Sex Rap
INQUIRER: Saturday evening, following a tip, Pennsylvania SPCA law enforcement officers arrested James Davis, 19, of the 2100 block of 22d Street in North Philadelphia, according to the Pennsylvania SPCA. If convicted, Davis faces up to two years in prison and a fine of at least $1,000, the PSPCA said. Davis admitted to impulsively taping up the cat after seeing it in the yard of the home where he lives with his parents, Bengal said. Davis left the cat in his yard for a couple of hours, then, because the animal kept screaming, tossed it into a neighbor’s yard, where […]
RIP: Don Fisher, Gap Founder, Dead At 81
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Donald G. Fisher, who launched the Gap clothing chain 40 years ago and helped build it into one of the world’s leading apparel retailers, died Sunday. He was 81. A former real estate developer, Fisher switched to retailing at age 41 after he tried to return a pair of ill-fitting jeans at a local department store. Finding the store messy and its selection of sizes and styles limited, Fisher decided he could do better. With $63,000 in capital, the Fishers came up with a concept for a store that would feature a broad selection of Levi’s, neatly […]
ATTORNEY: Security Tapes Of 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing Released By The FBI Appear To Be Edited
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday. The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said. “Four cameras in four different locations going blank […]
BREAKING: Roman Polanski Arrested; Safire Is Dead
LOS ANGELES TIMES:Roman Polanski’s decision to attend Zurich’s film festival this weekend was a major win for a minor event, but it turned into a bigger coup for Los Angeles County authorities who seized the opportunity to arrange the arrest — three decades in the making — of a Hollywood fugitive. When the 76-year-old Academy Award-winning director of films such as “Chinatown,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Pianist” arrived at the Zurich, Switzerland, airport Saturday night for a well-publicized appearance, Swiss officials armed with a U.S. arrest warrant took him into custody. The arrest touches off extradition proceedings that could return […]
