NEWS
May 21, 2013 | BY SEAN COLLINS WALSH, Daily News Staff Writer walshse@phillynews.com, 215-854-4172
TOMORROW, a tiny sliver of the city's residents will look at a scroll of names you've probably never heard and grant to a few the power to sentence criminals, negotiate divorces and adjudicate lawsuits for years to come. "This is what I call a committeeman's election," said 33rd Ward Democratic Leader Donna Aument, of Kensington, referring to the power that members of the city's Democratic committees wield in off-year elections. Her daughter, Marnie Aument Loughrey, is running for Traffic Court.
NEWS
May 19, 2013 | By Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The firestorm buffeting the IRS intensified Friday as lawmakers began what they promised would be an extensive effort to learn whether there was any political motivation or White House involvement in the agency's recently acknowledged misdeeds. Fueling those concerns, J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's top tax watchdog, said Friday that he had informed top Treasury officials last summer about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status.
NEWS
May 19, 2013 | By Karl Ritter, Associated Press
PETARE, Venezuela - Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas. Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons. He's clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela's notoriously crime-infested capital.
NEWS
May 13, 2013 | By John Timpane, Inquirer Staff Writer
Got a minute? I've got 10 people you should meet. Exactly a minute. Six seconds for each. You can do it on Vine, Twitter's mobile app that lets people make and share six-second video loops known as "vines. " You could get a superfast introduction to the glories of this video-looping app via some of its budding auteurs, people like: Pete Heacock, proprietor of First Capital Pictures in North Philadelphia. His vines are suspense stories, jokes, self-portraits in the windows of passing trains . Three of his vines were nominated for awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.
NEWS
May 11, 2013 | By Donna Cassata and Julie Pace, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Political considerations influenced the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used five days after the deadly Sept. 11 assault in Benghazi, Libya, with State Department and other senior administration officials asking that references to terror groups and prior warnings be deleted, according to department e-mails. The latest disclosures Friday raised new questions about whether the Obama administration tried to play down any terrorist factor in the attack on a diplomatic compound just weeks before the November presidential election.
NEWS
May 10, 2013 | By David Porter and Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press
KEARNY, N.J. - On Wednesday, the topic was drug treatment and his Democratic costar was former Gov. Jim McGreevey. But the scene was familiar. In an election year, Republican Gov. Christie has been appearing regularly with prominent Democrats in a move that analysts say backs up his campaign boast that he can find common ground with political adversaries. Since last week, he has had joint appearances with Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star who played at Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine's campaign kickoff event four years ago; with the powerful Democratic leaders in their stronghold Essex and Camden Counties; and with the leaders of both chambers of the Democratic-led Legislature.
NEWS
May 9, 2013 | By Matt Katz and Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau
NEWARK, N.J. - Answering questions about weight-loss surgery he had kept secret for 12 weeks, Gov. Christie on Tuesday rejected a political motivation but squelched most other inquiries about the details. He declined to say how much he weighs now and how much weight he has lost. It's none of anyone's business, he said. He conceded he used an alias at the hospital, but declined to say what it was. "I turned 50 years old, and it made me think - [you get] confronted with your own mortality as you start to age," Christie said.
NEWS
May 8, 2013 | By Zaheer Babar and Munir Ahmed, Associated Press
LAHORE, Pakistan - One of Pakistan's most prominent politicians, former cricket star Imran Khan, fell at a political rally Tuesday, leaving him with two hairline skull fractures and knocking him off the campaign trail ahead of Saturday's general election. Khan has emerged as a wild-card candidate, and it is unclear how much his widespread personal popularity will translate into votes at the polls. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, however, is considered one of the top three parties in the country.
NEWS
May 8, 2013 | By Bruce Smith, Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Former Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford revived a scandal-scarred political career by winning back his old congressional seat Tuesday in a district that had not elected a Democrat in three decades. The comeback was complete when he defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert. With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Sanford had 54 percent of the vote. Sanford, who turns 53 later this month, has never lost a race in three runs for Congress and two for governor.