HARRISBURG – The state Senate wrote loopholes into a proposed statewide smoking ban last night and approved language that would strike down Philadelphia’s more restrictive rules against lighting up in public places. All of the action came in a sweeping amendment, which passed, 29-21, after two hours of debate over the balance between public health and individual liberties. The amendment — which exempts casinos, private clubs, cigar bars and some taverns from the proposed ban — also bars municipalities from enacting any smoking ban tougher than the state’s. INQUIRER: Smoking In The Boys’ Room Still Allowed
PORTER WAGONER & DOLLY PARTON:
“Last Thing On My Mind” circa 1967, when Miss Parton was all of 21.
DNA: Cops Say There’s Now TWO Toe Suckers
(CBS) PHILADELPHIA Police are searching for two suspects in connection to a series of attacks on woman in which their toes are fondled, sources have said. The sources have told CBS Philadelphia that DNA tests now reveal not just one, but two separate predators are targeting women. Beginning last November through January, seven women were victimized by an attacker who sexually assaulted the women and fondled their toes. In the latest attack, a woman in her 20s was walking in the 1700 block of Panama Street at about 2:45 a.m. when she was attacked by an unknown male armed with […]
REVEALED: Vince Fumo’s Private Dick
At the same hearing, Fumo’s private eye, Frank D. Wallace, spoke in public for the first time and said his sleuthing for Fumo had been “one-third Senate business, one-third political, and one-third personal.” Wallace also revealed that he had performed electronic “sweeps” of Fumo’s legislative offices and home, as well as of offices and homes of Fumo allies, but had balked at continuing to do them once he became aware that a federal investigation was under way. He said he told a top Fumo aide, “I thought it would be obstruction of justice” to continue. INQUIRER: Riddle Me This Batman […]
OK, Then Is THIS Your Alligator?
[This] gator is not to be confused with the nearly five-footer that Mullen helped bag Thursday in Pennypack Creek, less than a mile downstream in Bryn Athyn. That gator was taken to the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown. Mullen, Warminster Township’s public-works director, said he believed that both gators were “dumped” by the same pet owner, who had tired of them. INQUIRER: I Call The Big One Bitey PREVIOUSLY: Now Be Honest — Is This Your Alligator?
REVIEW: Porter Wagoner, THE WAGONMASTER
BY ED KING ROCK CONNOISSEUR My in-laws live in a rural part of Pennsylvania. They’re not what I’d call “country folk,” but they live around more country folk than I ever met growing up in Port Richmond. Driving up their street, I always appreciate that ranch house with shutters in the shape of fiddles surrounded by musical notes. “That’s gotta be one serious country fan’s home!” I’d think to myself, but never shared the thought with anyone but my wife. Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, my father-in-law said, “Let’s take a walk. I want you to meet […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Jarvis Cocker founded “Arabacus Pulp” (named after a tradeable commodity seen by Cocker in an economics class) at the age of 15 while he was still at The City School. After numerous line-up changes, and a shortening of the name to just “Pulp,” they eventually found fame in the 1990s with the success of the albums His ‘n’ Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995). Cocker invaded the stage at the 1996 BRIT Awards to protest against Michael Jackson‘s performance. Jackson performed surrounded by children and a rabbi, while making ‘Christ-like’ poses and performing his then-recent hit, “Earth Song“. […]
NHL DRAFT: The Weak Shall Inherit The Earth
BY MIKE WOLVERTON The Flyers sucked last year. Credit them for consistency, though, as they sucked early on, sucked in the middle and sucked straight on through to the end. Hey, it saved all of us the pain of watching them take a dirtnap in the playoffs. The fact is, the Flyers have been a flawed team ever since The Strike Season, and ever since then they’ve been too big and slow to deal with the escalating metabolism of the “New Faster, More Agile NHL.” Mercifully, the makeover has already begun. Ever since Messier brought the Stanley Cup to NYC, the […]
GAMBLOR: The Donald Trumped?
BY SUZETTE PARMLEY INQUIRER STAFF WRITER ATLANTIC CITY — As his image flashed on video screens in his casino’s nightclub recently, Donald J. Trump surveyed the mostly young crowd. Many were too young to remember his history of financial difficulties here, or to care. They came to celebrate with The Donald on his 61st birthday at his flagship casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, and he relished the attention.With his gambling halls still struggling and his casino company reviewing bids from possible buyers, this could be the end of the show for Trump in Atlantic City. People familiar with negotiations to […]
KILLADELPHIA: 2 More Dead Since U Went To Bed
Two homicides overnight brought the city’s total to 197.The first deadly shooting happened Sunday night … in Overbrook near 63rd Street and Columbia Avenue in West Philadelphia. Numerous gunshots rang out around 8pm. Two young men, ages 18 and 19, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene of a head wound. The second victim was in extremely critical condition on life support at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, battling for his life. Police had no suspects in connection with the double shooting as of 8am Monday. … The second fatal shooting occurred around […]
MIA: Boyz
From the new album Kala set to be released August 21. Mysteriously no longer available, replaced by this ‘making of’ video. Not sure why or what this means…
VEEP: Absolute Power Or Absolute Incompetence?
“One thing I’ve been puzzling over is the lack of commentary or reporting on the fact that even with these unprecedented secret extra-legal powers he has seized for himself and the White House, Cheney has been so singularly unsuccessful on any of the national security fronts he in effect commands. His failures in Iraq, his failures to finish bin Laden and al Qaeda in a serious way in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the exponential growth of terrorism and al Qaeda in Iraq. These are facts. There are urgent, deeply compelling legal/philosophical/Constitutional issues raised by Cheney’s actions and those of his enablers […]
RANTS: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetarians
BY S. FITZGERALD LODWICK On Friday evening, Jello Biafra strafed the Trocadero with a five-hour (!) rant-cum-lecture on societal ills, political shams, global cons, and what we citizens can do to right these wrongs. The session was a blend of spoken-word poems, such as the classic “Die For Oil, Sucker,” general rants, and charming anecdotes from the days in the life of former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. In the first half of the spoken word session, wherein Biafra recited the laundry list government scandal and corporate shame — from “The War Against Terror,” (reduced to the shorthand acronym […]