Barrels

The wheel was already in place. Ernie Kovacs invented the engine and the transmission and the windshield wipers and that little Hawaiian hula dancer that sticks to the dashboard and jumps around whenever the car turns or hits a bump. Commercial TV had been kicking around for about five years when Kovacs came along and laid the foundation for just about every comedy-show host and TV sketch style that would follow. Without Kovacs, it's difficult to imagine Monty Python or Saturday Night Live, Johnny Carson or David Letterman.

MILWAUKEE - Nyjer Morgan jarred the ball loose in a crash at home to give Milwaukee the lead in the second inning Thursday as the Brewers went on to beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2, for their third straight win. Ryan Braun hit his third home run of the season for the Brewers, who have recovered nicely from a four-game losing streak to start the year. Milwaukee rallied to take three of four games from the Braves after losing Monday's home opener at Miller Park. Martin Prado had a two-run single for Atlanta, which will hold its home opener Friday night against the Phillies after playing its first seven games on the road.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's statistics on Marcellus Shale natural gas activity contain serious flaws and inconsistencies, and do not accurately report the volume of wastewater being reused in the industry's much-touted recycling efforts. The DEP's most recent statewide statistics on wastewater production overstate by nearly two times the amount of wastewater produced during the last six months of 2010 largely because one the 39 operators who filed reports last month inadvertently entered the wrong data in its forms.

THE FREE-enterprise system is broken. Stupidity reigns. What's the root of today's economic distress? Does it have anything to do with the financial recklesness of Wall Street and our banking system bringing the economy to its knees? Certainly! Warren Buffet described the "financial weapons of mass destruction. " You make loans on the borrowers ability to repay, not on Wall Street repackaging them and passing the risk of default on to someone else. But the real prime mover of today's financial mess is rooted in the oil condition of the country.

As the song goes, "In heaven there is no beer," but East Falls has plenty at Fork and Barrel, the 6-week-old European beer haven. Fork and Barrel is the latest creation of Matt Scheller and Matt and Colleen Swartz, the Lehigh Valley trio who own and operate the Tap and Table and the Bookstore Speakeasy. They've ventured into Philadelphia with the concept of pairing a wide array of lesser-known European beers with dishes that are classically inspired farmhouse fare. Scheller heads up the beverage program that is so beer-centric, there's no wine or spirits.

The legislature's failure to enact a tax on natural-gas production is a direct result of Pennsylvania's broken campaign-finance system. Back in June, leaders in the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, pledged in writing to approve a tax on methane production by Oct. 1. Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state without the tax, and the revenue would help communities pay for the environmental impact of the drilling boom. It's almost November, and legislators have adjourned without enacting the tax. The gas industry got what it paid for in Harrisburg.

Jeanette J. Barrell-Weislow, 71, a longtime Wynnewood resident and sales manager for a Philadelphia real estate company, died Tuesday, Oct. 5, of complications from a stroke at her home in the Watermark in Logan Square. Mrs. Barrell-Weislow was born in London, and in the late 1950s she worked as an administrative assistant for Hillier, Parker, May & Rowden, a commercial-property services firm in Britain. She met Owen Weislow, an American serving abroad in the Air Force, on a blind date, and they married in 1959.

TRAFFIC SLOWED to a halt and a bagpiper belted out Irish melodies, while a procession of police motorcycle club members circled in front of the Merriam Theater last night, where a long-awaited documentary on the 1981 murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner premiered. Among the crowd gathered for Tigre Hill's "The Barrel of a Gun" were Hugh Gallagher and his daughter, who were close friends of Faulkner, whom Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing. Gallagher, a former Philadelphia highway patrolman who was the best man at Faulkner's wedding, spoke out passionately against those who have come to Abu-Jamal's defense and turned his case into a cause celebre.

After four years of work, personal attacks, and hours of interviews that stretched from Center City to Hollywood to St. Denis, France, filmmaker Tigre Hill is ready to unveil The Barrel of a Gun , his documentary about the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. And, not surprisingly, supporters of convicted killer and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal - who has become a worldwide cause celebre for anti-death row activists - are right on Hill's tail. With Faulkner's widow, Maureen, in attendance, protests expected, and security provided by members of the city's Fraternal Order of Police, which has endorsed his film, Hill will premiere The Barrel of a Gun at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Merriam Theater, around the corner from where Faulkner was shot on Dec. 9, 1981.

AS THE PREMIERE nears of Tigre Hill 's "The Barrel of a Gun," about the controversy surrounding the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and his killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal , rival filmmakers are seeking funds to complete "Mumia 101. " Hill has said that his movie contains new insights suggesting that Abu-Jamal's murder of Faulkner was premeditated. The Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal calls Hill's film "a slick work of propaganda posing as documentary, thin on facts and thick with emotional manipulation.