SPORTS
April 20, 2013 | By Matt Breen, Inquirer Staff Writer
A month after his release from prison, Hamza Muhammad made a purchase that he hoped would alter his life's path. The package came the next week from an online retailer: an all-black heavy bag and a pair of black and gray punching mitts. Before his one-year prison term in 2004 on gun charges, Muhammad trained as a boxer. But teaching the sport, he thought, would be his way to show youths in his West Philadelphia neighborhood another way. On Tuesday, Muhammad danced around the ring of West Philly's James Shuler Gym as his prized amateur targeted his outstretched punching mitts.
NEWS
April 3, 2013 | BY ALI WATKINS, Daily News Staff Writer watkina@phillynews.com, 215-854-5905
AFTER a national search, Southeastern Pennsylvania's Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter has settled on one of its own to take over as chief executive officer. Marcus Allen, a Temple graduate and former CEO of Philadelphia-based nonprofit ACHIEVEability, will take the helm from interim CEO W. Wilson Goode Sr., the organization announced Monday. Allen's former home, ACHIEVEability, helped encourage self-reliance among underprivileged and impoverished families by providing education, housing and service programs.
SPORTS
April 3, 2013 | By Keith Pompey, Inquirer Staff Writer
Jrue and Justin Holiday have beaten some incredibly long odds as brothers who will play on the same NBA team. The Holidays became 76ers teammates after Justin, 23, was called up this weekend from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League. The Sixers waived guard Jeremy Pargo to make room for Justin on their 15-man roster. The 6-foot-6, 180-pound guard, who practiced with the team on Monday, is signed through the rest of the season. "Now I get to play with [Jrue] at the highest level," Justin Holiday said.
SPORTS
March 31, 2013
We have surveyed what's new and exclusive to the Citizens Bank Park Majestic Clubhouse Store this season. And we can assure you of this: The "Hug-A-Phanatic" plush ($29.99) will be the runaway hit in the Daddy I Need That category. It's big. It's plush. It's the Phanatic. And beyond that, it's interactive. A child puts her hands into the Phanatic's own fuzzy green paws, and whenever she claps he claps. Genius. Our own SportsWeek mascot Jessica Berkery (left in photo), got the hang of it in, oh, a second and was last seen leaving the Daily News premises with the Hug-A-Phanatic glued to her person.
NEWS
March 20, 2013 | By Peter Mucha, Philly.com
Big Brother could be watching you, right here in Philadelphia, come Friday. The CBS reality show - preparing for its 15th season - is holding a series of open casting calls around the country, and Philly's turn happens from 2 to 4 Friday afternoon at the CBS3 Studios, 1555 Hamilton St. (between 15th and 16th, a block south of Spring Garden Street). A producer, looking for "big personalities," will interview applicants, who should explain why they'd make "the ultimate housemate," according to CBS3.com.
NEWS
February 9, 2013 | By Allison Steele, Inquirer Staff Writer
A little more than 24 hours after Shamsiddin "Snap" Sallam shot Greg Jarvis dead in West Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2009, the killer's phone rang. "Yo, Snap, this is Jarvis," said a familiar voice. "I'm still breathing. " Snap stuttered - "Who? Who is this?" - and hung up. In that moment, a trap had been sprung, and Snap Sallam had no idea. Sallam and Jarvis had kept in touch since prison, both still dealing drugs. On the morning of Sept. 7, Labor Day, Sallam told Jarvis he had new connections and would repay a debt owed from a previous deal.
SPORTS
February 1, 2013 | By Sam Donnellon, Daily News Staff Writer
JOHN HARBAUGH told a Baltimore reporter recently that he never teased his brother. This would imply that he also never put his hands on Jim Harbaugh, which we already know from descriptions of their childhood, is simply not true. "I think that brothers both do this and so do sisters," Jackie Harbaugh, the mother of the two Super Bowl coaches, said during a news conference this week. "So everyone out there that has a brother or sister, you all have had your little ins and outs with one another.
NEWS
December 25, 2012 | By Carolyn Hax
While I'm away, readers give the advice. On wanting what everyone else has: I admit I occasionally wish I had someone else's income, legs, job, etc., but the feeling is momentary. When I was 11, I was desperate to change places with Mary K., a beautiful blonde in my class. She had everything I wanted: a big brother, a big house on the lake, a father who was a doctor and thus didn't change jobs and force us to move every year, a bubbly personality. Her 11th birthday party was a sophisticated trip to dinner and the movies; mine was a run-of-the-mill slumber party.
SPORTS
October 11, 2012 | By Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The NHL has had numerous brother acts over the years. Some brothers were bruisers (Bob and Barclay Plager), and some were Hall of Famers at vastly different positions (Phil and Tony Esposito). More recently, Henrik and Daniel Sedin have blossomed into perennial all-stars with the Vancouver Canucks. There are many other sibling combinations, of course, but the brothers who are now shaking the league to its core may not even know how to skate. Meet the Fehrs, Donald and Steve, the NHL Players Association's heavyweights in their feisty labor battle with the league's owners.
NEWS
October 5, 2012 | By Peter Mucha, Inquirer Staff Writer
"Calling all bad girls!" declares an e-mail shout-out for the Oxygen network's highest rated show, Bad Girls Club . On Saturday, Oct. 20, the expletive-laced reality show will host an open casting call for "local feisty females" at McFadden's in Old City. Feisty is right, because although the show officially frowns on violence, well, smackdowns happen, like the slapfest featuring Philly's Aimee Landi in a first-season episode titled "Smack My Beach Up. " (See the video: http://youtu.be/qklr4e_Wy6k .)