ROLLING STONE: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that law enforcement and city officials have confirmed that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died today after suffering what has been reported as cardiac arrest. Jackson was 50. According to reports, Jackson was not breathing when paramedics were called to his Los Angeles home this afternoon, June 25th. Paramedics at the scene performed CPR on the singer, who was then transported to the UCLA Medical Center. Jackson arrived at the hospital in a deep coma, and attempts to resuscitate Jackson failed as he was completely unresponsive. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: As […]
RIP: Farrah Fawcett Dead At 62
WASHINGTON POST: Farrah Fawcett, 62, golden-haired sex symbol of the late 1970s most remembered for her appearance on bedroom posters and the detective series “Charlie’s Angels” and who later found a niche portraying troubled women in made-for-television dramas, died today from cancer. Ms. Fawcett was a Texas-born college dropout who parlayed success as a model for toiletries such as Ultra Brite toothpaste and Wella Balsam shampoo into a viable acting career. Still a relative unknown, she achieved two iconic roles at the same time in 1976. On Wednesday nights, she was Jill Munroe, the blond Angel on the ABC detective […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR According to the National Cancer Institute, the number of people who have developed melanoma has more than doubled over the past 30 years. Dermatologist Darrell Rigel joins Fresh Air to explain the sun’s effects on the skin, what “SPF” means and why skin cancer rates are going up. A clinical professor at New York University Medical Center, Rigel has tested sunscreen efficacy for Johnson & Johnson and the Procter & Gamble Company. He is the lead editor of Cancer of the Skin, the major textbook in his field. Rigel maintains a private practice in Manhattan. ALSO, journalist Bradley […]
Q&A: Novelist & Ex-NPR Host Farai Chideya
BY DIANCA POTTS Who says there are no second acts in American Life? (OK, F. Scott Fitzgerald said it, but that doesn’t mean it’s true) Scratch an NPR host and find a budding novelist. In advance of her appearance tonight at the Free Library, we called up former News And Notes host Farai Chideya to discuss just about everything under the sun: Obama, NPR, blogging, goth rock, the state of race relations in America, the Smiths, mixtapes and, most importantly her new book. Chideya is currently on the road in support of her debut novel, Kiss the Sky, which captures […]
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 […]
GOODNIGHT MR. WELLS: PW Writer Extraordinaire Steven Wells Loses Long, Public Battle With Cancer
Damn. Steven Wells was THE funniest, ballsiest, take-no-prisoners writer to grace the pages of Philadelphia print media in recent memory. His long, tragic battle with cancer was no secret, he wrote about it with the same unflinching honesty, hair-on-fire rage, savage wit and gallows humor he wrote about everything. Sir, it was a privilege and an honor. You will be sorely missed. Good night Mr. Wells, wherever you are. PW: Steven Wells Farewell Column WIKIPEDIA: Steven Wells is was a British journalist and author currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Swindon, England in 1960, Wells moved to the […]
Cop Testifies About Pre-Beatdown Shooting
INQUIRER: “I saw the muzzle flash . . . and heard 8 to 10 shots in rapid succession,” Buitrago said. Despite the late hour, the undercover officer said he could clearly see the gunman and his friends, lit by a streetlamp. “I could see their faces and the whites of their eyes and their lips moving,” he said. Dyches, Hall, and Hopkins ran back to the parked Marquis as two other men darted into a nearby alleyway, he said. Buitrago said he immediately sent out a radio “flash” alerting nearby officers to the shooting and the descriptions of the men. […]
Sugar House Clears Last Hurdle To Groundbreaking
FOX 29: “We believe that this enhanced design is consistent with a number of the city’s planning and urban design objectives, and will support the rapid construction and opening of the SugarHouse casino on North Delaware Avenue,” says SugarHouse architect Ian Cope. “Do not call this proposal anything but what it is, which is a scaled back, strip mall, cut-rate version of a casino that will at least, at one phase, put about 1500 surface parking spaces on the river in direct violation of the most basic principles of waterfront planning, development and design,” says anti-casino activist Matt Ruben. MORE
Jay Bennett Death Ruled An ‘Accidental Overdose’
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Former Wilco member Jay Bennett died of an overdose of a painkiller, the Champaign County coroner said Tuesday, and his office is investigating Bennett’s death as an accident. Tests showed Bennett died from fentanyl, a drug often prescribed to treat chronic pain, said the coroner, Duane Northrup. Bennett, who died May 24 at his home in Urbana, had posted a few weeks earlier on his MySpace site that he would need hip-replacement surgery. “A decade plus of multiple nightly stage jumps and various other rock and roll theatrics had finally taken a toll that I could no longer […]
MYSTERY SOLVED: Turns Out Missing South Carolina Governor Was In Argentina Cheating On His Wife
NEW YORK TIMES: Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, apologized in a rambling news conference on Wednesday for having an extra-marital affair with a woman in Argentina, ending a mystery over his week-long disappearance that had infuriated lawmakers and seemed to put his rising political career in jeopardy. Governor Sanford admitted he had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since Thursday, not hiking on the Appalachian Trail as he told his staff. In revealing an affair that had gone on for about a year — and which he had disclosed to his wife, Jenny, five months ago, he said: “This […]
Last Summer’s Televised Cop Beatdown Goes On Trial
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The lawyer for a man accused of shooting three people on a North Philadelphia street corner last year says the only eyewitness has changed details of what he saw in the course of five statements. Defense lawyer Mary Maran, representing Pete Hopkins Jr., says police want to get a conviction in order to justify the actions of police officers who pummeled her client and his co-defendants. The beating was captured on video by a TV news helicopter and resulted in four officers getting fired. Assistant District Attorney Carol Meehan Sweeney acknowledges that the videotape overshadows the case. But […]
PRESIDENT ARCHIE BUNKER: Secret Tapes Reveal Nixon Was Pro-Abortion For Interracial Pregnancies
NEW YORK TIMES: On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down state criminal abortion laws in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence. Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies. “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.” Nine months […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Bloody protests in the streets of Iran following that nation’s June 12 presidential election have captivated the world’s attention, but what does it all mean? Political analyst Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace joins Fresh Air to discuss this unprecedented moment in the country’s political history. Before joining Carnegie, Sadjadpour was the chief Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, based in Tehran and Washington, D.C. A regular contributor to BBC World TV and radio, CNN, National Public Radio and PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Sadjadpour has written for The Washington Post, The New York […]