Philadelphia City Paper Archives

The Departed

Even as the Philly Mafia has declined in membership and power over the last three decades, it continues to be sought out by other organized-crime groups and gangsters longing to work with an established criminal network. This helps explain why the cops are still keeping an eye on them. It also helps...

I was an undercover Uber driver

Two good-looking young strangers are having an amazing conversation in the backseat of my car. I’m eavesdropping so hard I nearly run a red light. Her: Then don’t make me sign it. Ugh, it’s like you’re planning for this not to work. Him (stammering): No, I just think that, the idea is...

He says his daughter might be alive if not for school-nurse cuts

STUDENT DEATH: Laporshia Massey, 12, a student at Bryant Elementary School, became ill at school and died later that day. Sixth-grader Laporshia Massey died from asthma complications, according to her father, who says he rushed her to the emergency room soon after she got home from school on the afternoon of Sept....

A million stories, nutter decimation

Last week, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn reaffirmed his decision to issue an injunction against Mayor Nutter’s ban on the serving of meals to the homeless and hungry in city parks. His findings, aired in a 56-page opinion, were in some ways unsurprising given the judge’s initial reaction to the testimony...

A whopping 43 percent of Philly voters may not have voter ID, according to new data

The number of Pennsylvanians who might not have the photo identification necessary to vote this November has more than doubled: at least 1,636,168 registered voters, or 20 percent of Pennsylvania voters, may not have valid PennDOT-issued ID, according to new data obtained by City Paper. In Philadelphia, an enormous 437,237 people, or 43...

WEEKLY CANDY: Kinder Happy Hippos

OK so we don’t really rock this feature on a weekly basis anymore, but we’re gonna keep on calling it Weekly Candy, in the same spirit of Conan O’Brien continuing his “In the Year 2000” bit well after the turn of the century. IN QUESTION: Kinder Happy Hippos. The hippo character was originally...

Pizzelle Partyin’ like it’s 1392

The story goes like this: In the little town of Cocullo, in the province of L’Aquila, Abruzzi, there dwell the serpari. These charmed descendants of Circe may handle the deadly biting vipers of Abruzzi with absolute impunity. Catholic tradition is overlaid onto ancient pagan rites in the annual Procession of San Domenico...

Breaking: In private email, Pa.’s Homeland Security chief pledges “support” to gas drillers, warns against groups “fomenting dissent.”

An email obtained by City Paper suggests collaboration between the state Department of Homeland Security and gas drilling interests. The email, authored by Pennsylvania Homeland Security chief James Powers, was written in apparent error: addressed to a participant in anti-drilling forums, the letter indicates that Powers mistakenly mistook its recipient for someone associated with pro-drilling interests. In the email...

Pay Up – Blogging Business Privilege Tax Philadelphia

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is...

Shooting the Messenger

It’s an impressive document. Compiled by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the action plan is a 618-page list of recommendations for reducing Pennsylvania’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 95.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents by 2020. That’s about the amount of greenhouse gas emitted by 11 billion gallons of...