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Archive for “Headline News” news
Montgomery County Traffic Slows For Duckling Rescue
By Joel Mathis 5/20/2013
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CBS Philly reports that traffic came to a standstill today in Upper Gwynedd, when police received a report that a mother duck was standing guard over a storm drain at n the North Penn Market Place Shopping Center, where nine of her ducklings were trapped.
Public Works employees John Maguire and Howard “Peanut” Quinn are being hailed heroes after they successfully lifted the grate cover off, blocked the pipe and jumped inside the drain before placing the ducklings into a bucket and releasing them to their very appreciative mother.
Police say officers stopped traffic to allow the mother to lead her ducklings across
Bear Roaming Philly Suburbs, Looking For Romance
By Joel Mathis 5/20/2013
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AP reports:
Police and wildlife officers are trying to track down a black bear that’s been spotted wandering around several residential areas in suburban Philadelphia for days.
Bucks County residents most recently spied the animal roaming a soccer field in Bensalem. It was initially spotted in Solebury Township on May 7 and was then reported in nearby Hulmeville on Thursday.
Officials say the bear is probably looking to mate, yet for some reason didn't make it into Old City on Saturday night. If he's going to stick to the suburbs—a perfectly legitimate choice!—he might want to try Match.com instead.
Investigators: Seizures, Not Bullying, Killed Delco Boy
By Joel Mathis 5/14/2013
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Turns out that Bailey O'Neill, the Delco boy who died in March, might have passed from natural causes instead of injuries from a schoolyard fight. His family had attributed O'Neill's death to bullying, but the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office now says it finds no evidence that any sort of "trauma" produced the boy's illness.
The Inky reports:
The death was the result of epileptic seizures, District Attorney Jack Whelan said. He said his office did plan to file juvenile-level simple-assault charges.
Robert O'Neill said he heard that about a week before the fight his son had bullying problems with the boy who allegedly
Do You Have Powerball’s Unclaimed $1 Million Ticket?
By Joel Mathis 4/03/2013
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6ABC reports that a $1 million winning Powerball ticket, sold last year in South Brunswick, N.J., is about to expire on May 17, with the winnings unclaimed. "Lottery officials recommend that the ticketholder sign the ticket and contact state lottery headquarters or a lottery retailer to validate the ticket and file their claim," the station reports. The winning numbers were 3, 7, 21, 28 and 43 and the Red Ball number was 2. Which, come to think of it, sounds just like the ticket laying around the living room somewhere here...
Rendell Writes Pro-Fracking Op-Ed, Fails to Mention Enormous Conflict of Interests
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 3/28/2013
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Yesterday, Ed Rendell wrote a big pro-fracking op-ed for the new New York Daily News, in an attempt to sway on-the-fence-and-has-presidential-ambitions Andrew Cuomo to approve fracking in the Empire State. And there was much cheering in gasworld. The Daily News, after learning that Rendell failed to disclose his own ties to the natural gas industry, was less pleased. Rendell is paid $30,000 a year by Element Partners, a private equity firm that invests in natural gas.
“Had I known, I certainly would have disclosed that and conceivably would have made a different judgment on the piece,” Daily News op-ed page editor Josh Greenman
Punxsutawney Phil Evades Criminal Charges
By Joel Mathis 3/26/2013
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Well, that's a relief. AP reports that the Ohio prosecutor who (playfully) filed a fraud charge against Punxsutawney Phil for predicting an early spring on Feb. 2 has now withdrawn the complaint. Prosecutor Mike Gmoser "says the tongue-in-cheek indictment generated a lot of attention, but he has a lot of “really serious work” to do and wanted to end things on a positive note." "The Tooth Fairy isn't going to investigate himself for criminally underpricing kids on the value of their lost teeth," he grumbled, probably.
Clownfest Moves From Jersey to Amish Country
By Joel Mathis 3/21/2013
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Newsworks reports:
This is no joke: The annual clown convention that has called New Jersey home for nearly a quarter of a century is taking its red noses, floppy shoes and baggy pants to Pennsylvania.
Finances forced Clownfest to move from Seaside Heights to Lancaster, Pa., during the third weekend in September.
Organizer Vincent "Vappo the Clown" Pagliano tells The Star-Ledger of Newark people are "pinging" him in the head. But he says the move dramatically cuts expenses.
Seems like there's definitely a movie to be made, sometime around 1989, about a hardbitten New Jersey clown who takes refuge among the good Amish people of Lancaster—something
Penn Researchers’ Shocking News: Electric Shock Makes Your Brain More Creative
By Joel Mathis 3/18/2013
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The Atlantic reports on a Penn research experiment that suggests an electric shock can boost "out-of-the-box" thinking. Researchers hooked up 48 subjects to electrodes, then sent pulses through the patients' right and left prefrontal cortexes—the latter of which is associated with "self-editing."
Both people who had current sent through their right prefrontal cortex, and those who didn't receive any electrical charge, were stumped by an average of 15 of the 60 objects. Those whose left prefrontal cortexes were deactivated, on the other hand, missed an average of only 8. They were also about a second faster in their responses.
"It was surprising to me
Roach Infestation Brings Quick End To Atlantic City Bus Ride
By Joel Mathis 3/15/2013
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Hey, remember that scene in the early 1980s movie Creepshow, where the old man who loved cleanliness and hated bugs ended up being killed by thousands and thousands of roaches, his body filled with them in a final ironic denouement to his sad, overly sterile life? Why do we mention this?
No reason:
A Greyhound bus bound for New York City and believed to be infested with roaches had to pull over and evacuate Friday.
The bus was carrying 48 people, and an unknown number of roaches when it left Atlantic City at 10 a.m., according to Greyhound.
"Once the driver became aware of
Who Killed Philly Boxer Tony Martin?
By Joel Mathis 3/12/2013
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AP: "Retired boxer Tony Martin was fatally shot in an altercation with a visitor at one of his rental properties and police are searching for a suspect, authorities said Monday. The 52-year-old Martin, a former welterweight, was shot during an argument at the home in the city's Hunting Park section on Friday, police said. Martin's niece, Robyn Peete, said her uncle had gone to the home to collect rent and found a person who wasn't supposed to be there. … A native of St. Louis, Martin was 34-6-1 in his boxing career, with 12 knockouts. He lost his last fight
