Philadelphia Daily News

Having spent three years working for the Philadelphia Daily News (and having learned more about journalism from its former editor Zach Stalberg than just about anyone), I read about the paper's sale today with hope. I have to admit my heart sank a little when I saw that the lead owner is one of the Toll brothers. Memo to the glossy shelter books: The Toll Brothers are the builders who are helping to transform America, they are the demigods of sprawl, specializing in McMansions, those little big monsters with atriums, simulated divided light windows, polished granite countertops, unablock driveways for the SUVs and brick-veneer foundations. Ugh.

I suppose the lesson is something I heard my wife saying on the phone to a friend the other day, when the friend was complaining about noise in her Westchester neighborhood. We are all now part of this awful sprawl, no one has immunity, we all must come to terms with it. Though $4 gas will do something.

Every time a person keels over and dies, one presumes it’s a tragic event.  read more »

We don't quite know what to make of this vaguely sourced Philadelphia Daily News story, which leads with the news that "The Rev. Al Sharpton is the subject of a federal criminal investigation."

In the next breath, the story tells us that it's not the Philadelphia corruption investigation in which Sharpton briefly figured as a bit player.  read more »

And if it's a criminal investigation, that means it can't be the ongoing Federal Elections Commission probe. Hmm.