BY AMY Z QUINN Look, this whole midweek holiday thing is messing me up. PW came out a day early this week, who knew, and besides, the Philly alt-weeklies are tough to come by down in Cape May. Oh right, you can read them online. Sssshhh, don’t tell the Boss. Anyway, I would have loved a nice light read this week, fortunately/unfortunately both weeklies’ cover stories are thick and juicy like that yardbird you chowed down on at your cousin’s barbecue. OUT FRONT Philadelphia Weekly: Steven Wells has the cover with a feature on a powerhouse girl’s soccer team, the […]
Miss NJ Defies Blackmailer Threats To Expose Photos
Miss New Jersey says someone is threatening to make some personal photographs of her public if she does not give up her crown. But Amy Polumbo [NOT pictured, that’s actually Vanessa Williams] is not just Miss New Jersey, she’s also a Jersey girl, and says she has no intention of giving in. “It would certainly be easier for me to simply succumb to these unlawful and immoral threats, and quietly disappear,” Polumbo said today at a news conference she called in Asbury Park. Polumbo, a 22-year-old Howell resident and a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, won the Miss […]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]
EDITORIAL: What I Did On My Summer Vacation
BY DAN BUSKIRK CONCERNED AMERICAN When President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence on four felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, he waited till the eve of a national holiday, presumably hoping that everybody would go to the beach or the mountains, get drunk and spend most of Thursday grumbling to co-workers about having to come back to work instead of the double standard of justice for rich, white, politically-connected males. But for some of us, the Fourth Of July isn’t just about barbecues, fireworks and bumper-to-bumper traffic — some of us actually take the time to reflect […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Yiddish Policeman’s Secret Ball
BY MAVIS LINNEMANN BOOK CRITIC Michael Chabon throws down metaphors like a deejay dropping beats, skillfully teasing out the intersections of character and the circumstance that bend, break and, eventually, make them. As author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay and the critically acclaimed book-turned-movie Wonder Boys, Chabon has proven himself time and time again as a master storyteller. His new novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, is no exception. Lovers of film noir will appreciate Chabon’s protagonist, Detective Meyer Landsman, for his Bogart-like qualities. Like Bogey in The Big Sleep, Landsman is at once a ruthless, […]
Rendell To Sign Public Breastfeeding Bill Into Law
Governor Rendell says he’ll sign a bill on the way to his desk that would ensure a woman’s ability to breast feed her baby in public. Before the state House gave final approval to the bill, it removed an amendment that would have allowed breast-feeding women to sue if they are interfered with. Montgomery County House Democrat Daylin Leach said removing the amendment would speed the bill’s passage and said he believed women had recourse under existing law. KYW: Got Milk?
Nanny Basher Tan And Well-Rested After Prison Stay
Tepper seemed untroubled as she appeared in court Tuesday, having arrived on a standard prisoner bus from the Montgomery County jail in Norristown. She appeared relaxed and comfortable in a cranberry jacket and black pants, answering questions about her guilty plea in a clear voice. Her attorney noted that sometimes jail life is less stressful than coping with life’s daily pressures. “She found the prison to be very well run,” Steinberg said. “She said she thought that the people were very nice and she thought it was very well-organized and run.” DAILY NEWS: It’s The Little Things That Mean A […]
Obama In Town, Minus Knife-Wielding Stalker
DES MOINES, Iowa – A man with a large knife was arrested Wednesday outside presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s hotel in southeast Iowa, police said. Davit Zakaryan, 24, was searched and apprehended after Obama’s security crew allegedly saw him loitering outside a Fairfield Inn in Ottumwa before the Illinois senator was about to leave for a busy day of campaigning. Zakaryan was arrested after 8:30 a.m. and charged with possessing an illegal weapon and driving without a license. Police said the knife was longer than 8 inches, which exceeds the state limit. Zakaryan was being held Wednesday night at the Wapello […]
GUNCRAZY: 12-Year-Old Shot Dead, Repeatedly
A 12-year-old boy was shot to death last night in Camden while sitting in a car parked in the Branch Village Public Housing complex. The boy, who has not been identified, was shot multiple times shortly before midnight and died at the scene. It was unclear whether anyone else was in the car or whether the boy was the killer’s intended target. INQUIRER: How Many Bullets Does It Take To Snuff Out A 12-Year-Old? KILLADELPHIA: Holiday Mayhem Raises Murder Toll To 208
HEAR YE: ‘4th Of July On A Rainy Wednesday SUCKS!’
In Philadelphia, people who had gathered for several hours on the Parkway for a parade and concert were told to go home and not wait for fireworks at 10:45 p.m. because of the rain and possible lightning. About 40 minutes later, however, the fireworks began. INQUIRER: When Thursday Feels Like Monday [photo by DAVID SWANSON/INQUIRER PHOTOGRAPHER]
We The People…
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that […]