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Wednesday, May 15, 2013
 
Seen this movie before? I know I have. The Philadelphia school system is broke, in a financial crisis even worst than the last one, and, with the clock counting down on fiscal Armageddon, we have to figure out a rescue plan. More »
 
John McDaniel, the former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown who was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to a job at the airport, got a one-year prison sentence late Tuesday -- and none of the More »
 
The Obama administration now supports a national shield law that would perhaps have prevented them from secretly seizing phone records of reporters at the Associated Press, searching for evidence of leaks.  "Stop me before More »
 
Any baseball fan knows a day at the ball park is not just about box scores and home runs. In Philadelphia, there's the smell of roasted peppers, the grooves of buskers and the familiar calls of vendors. More »
 
Midterm elections, which typically draw only one-third of the electorate, tend to be dominated by the most ideologically impassioned voters; traditionally, the NRA's constituents have been the most passionate about casting More »
Thursday, May 16, 2013
 
Gee, what a surprise! Republicans are targeting Obamacare again, not only by staging yet another House repeal vote (the 37th, destined to fail like the other 36), but by invoking the dark specter of a runaway IRS. As we shall More »
Sunday, May 12, 2013
 
I celebrated Mother's Day as I do every year — by celebrating the women who shaped me. More »
 
At 8:30 on a sun splashed Sunday morning, some 40,000 runners made their way down Philadelphia's main thoroughfare. As in years past, the annual Blue Cross Broad Street Run was a mixture of chutzpah and determination, pride More »
 
Who says you have to be old-fashioned to be classic? Heck, who says you need to be classic to be ... classic? More »
 
"North of the Boulevard," the new drama by prolific Philadelphia-based playwright Bruce Graham, is gritty – but is it true grit? More »
 
On a Saturday morning in the off season at Cape May Point, a lone bicyclist stops and pulls out his smart phone to capture the spectacle before him: Four birdwatchers have abandoned their Prius in the middle of the street to More »
 
John Stokely has known about his vocation ever since his religion teacher, Sister Patricia, asked every student in the first-grade class what he or she wanted to be when they grew up. A priest, he answered. "I didn't know More »
 
If they ever make hypocrisy an Olympic sport, I think Philadelphia City Council has a real shot at the gold. More »
 
It has been a stressful, tragic couple of weeks for national breaking news. So a lot of us, me included, have spent an unusual amount of time watching network television news, hungering for updates. And this just in: Man, has More »
 
I've been a holdout, declining to join the progressive movement to abolish the death penalty everywhere in the United States and the world. I've thought that in an open, democratic society with a fully developed modern legal More »
 
Rutgers men's basketball head coach Mike Rice was fired on April 3, after video of his physical and homophobic verbal abuse of his players was broadcast on ESPN, setting off a growing scandal over who knew what and when, that More »
 
Stella is getting ready for her big day. As Joanne Dhody brushes Stella's teeth, a pink tongue searches for a random smear of beef-flavored toothpaste. Stella is Dhody's 13-year-old Jack Russell terrier, a registered therapy More »
 
On Tuesday, Minnesota became the 12th state in the union to legally recognize same-sex marriage — and the first Midwestern state to do so through legislative means. And I couldn't be more annoyed. More »
 
Some are baffled and others saddened by the fact that humans put footprints on the moon more than 40 years ago and have not ventured a fraction of that distance from home since. Have we lost our sprit of exploration? More »
 
Shock and outrage were bound to follow when the famous biologist-writer E.O. Wilson proclaimed that many scientists are at best "semiliterate" in math. When this heresy appeared in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, More »
 
It's been a long time coming, but 3rd Ward is now open in Philadelphia. For now, it's arguably the prettiest coworking space in town. In a few weeks, it'll be, in essence, a DIY trade school for the curious at heart. More »
 
You've heard of hackathons where web developers scheme up new apps in a matter of a few caffeine-soaked hours. But what about a hackathon for music? More »
 
Celebrate books with wonderful events and author meet and greets from The Big Blue Marble Bookstore, and this year, a partnership with the Color Book Gallery. Lots of fabulous activities for your little bibliophiles! More »
Friday, May 17, 2013
 
It's been a lovely spring; the dogwood and azalea flowers held on longer than usual so there hasn't been the typical fifteen minute intermission between the first and second acts in the garden. Now the iris are blooming, the More »
 
May is considered the most beautiful month for Philadelphia gardens, and it's no surprise that it's also the most popular month for horticultural events of every kind. From plant sales to garden tours to educational symposia, More »
 
Top Stories
New skate park opens in late May for freestylers and Sunday strollers
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May 17 - Peter Crimmins, @petercrimmins

Ten years in the making, $4.6 million spent, and over 70,000 square feet of skateable surface: Paine's Park is unique among American skate parks in that it is designed to solve multiple programming challenges: move More »

Reporter's Roundtable
On the Gosnell conviction and Philadelphia school budget woes
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May 17 - Shai Ben-Yaacov

Convicted West Philadelphia abortion provider Dr. Kermit Gosnell will spend the remainder of his life in prison; and as the city's budget deadline looms, Philadelphia City Council's efforts to craft a budget blueprint are complicated More »

Charter schools accused of ignoring Pa. Right to Know Law
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May 17 - Mary Wilson

The head of Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records is pointing a finger at public charter schools for being the biggest violators of the commonwealth's Right-to-Know law, now 5 years old.  More »

What many Philly kids experience can hurt them as adults
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May 17 - Maiken Scott, @maikenscott