A New Groundbreaking Series

Oh, thank you, Public Record, for this week’s cover story: The “first in a series” about what is cheaper: The Italian Market or ShopRite. (Spoiler alert: It’s the Italian Market!) Also commended: The use of an exclamation point in a headline on the front page.

YIKES!!!! Wachovia Sued For… Something

Hey, so little underdog financial services company Wachovia is apparently in a little bit of trouble. No, it’s not that confusing slavery thing; the company is alleged to have let telemarketers steal millions of dollars from its customers!

According to the lawsuit, filed last month in Philly, oh… this is super confusing, too:

The plaintiffs accused Wachovia of allowing some “payment processors” to create authorized, unsigned checks on behalf of telemarketers to withdraw funds from customer accounts between 2003 and 2006, court papers show.

They also accused Wachovia of trying to win or retain business from companies that it knew were accused of telemarketing fraud, despite being alerted by other banks about the deceptive activity, the papers show.

More »

Abridged ‘Daily News’ Columnists

Ronnie Polaneczky: Hey, there’s a vaccine for cervical cancer. But some conservative groups are against it, because cervical cancer is sometimes caused by an STD. Then again, the the Pope — the freakin’ Pope — does things like go to Africa and look at AIDS-ravaged countries and says, “Don’t use condoms, the Lord hates it!” Hooray for religion! Here’s a link. And fuck you, Focus on the Family.

Elmer Smith: Members of Congress think they’re better than everyone else? No way!

John Baer: READER MAIL COLUMN! ALERT THE PULITZER COMMITTEE!

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it

One of the hard things about working in a new medium — i.e. The Internet — is that you’re not really sure how to convey things. For newspapers, it’s pretty simple: it’s still writing, it’s presentation that’s more of an issue. For local television stations with websites, they have the big question: How do we convey our sense of excitement at every car chase, fire or shooting?

As usual, Action News shows us how:

A chase! A shooting! One dead! Two officers injured! All of this on tonight’s episode of Action News! Stay tuned for Lost tonight!

6 ABC

Rick Mariano is angry!!!

I’m not quite sure how I missed this last week during my Thursday perusal of the Northeast Times, but I just noticed it now: Indicted City Councilman Rick Mariano wrote a letter to the Times. In it, he alludes to his, uhm, indictment on 26-counts of corruption but doesn’t quite mention it.

Some excerpts are below:

During the last several weeks, I’ve been blessed to receive many encouraging notes and phone calls urging me to “keep the faith.”

My life has been complicated by an appendectomy, knee surgery and follow-up rehabilitation of that knee. But, I’ll be “100 percent” before long.

In the meantime, my faith in God and the support of my neighborhood will see me through all troubled waters. And, I will “keep the faith.”

As a first step in keeping the faith, I have hired a former deputy managing director to be my new chief of staff and a young fellow with a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania to be my director of legislative affairs. These new hires will make my office the most professional of all the City Council offices.

• Community values: My office appears before the zoning board six to eight times per week and always opposes nuisance bars and any other applicant who lacks community support. [...]

• Scanlon ice rink: As one of only five ice rinks in the city, Scanlon is a vital resource for the city of Philadelphia as well as our own neighborhood. I fought the Recreation Department when Scanlon was on their “hit list.” Now, through poor planning and poor maintenance, the Recreation Department has allowed Scanlon to close. This is totally unacceptable!!! [...]

• Keeping the faith: For 10 years, I have been blessed to serve my neighborhood as a member of City Council. Together with community groups, I have brought money, housing development and the demolition of dangerous buildings to our area. [...]
Rick Mariano
Councilman, 7th District
Editor’s note: A federal grand jury in October handed Councilman Mariano a 26-count indictment on corruption charges. He is free on bail. A trial is set for March.

Extra exclamation points most certainly not added by me. Go check; I’m serious. Ricky Mariano — or his aide, perhaps — is quite the typer.

Councilman Mariano: I’m keeping the faith [Northeast Times]