By John Finnerty
Online news desk
Sun, May 18 2008
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I don’t follow rap music news that closely. But I do love to read stories alleging that reporters messed up. And The Smoking Gun Web site has just such a story out now. And as an added bonus, the star of the story lives in Allenwood.
The story is actually very long. The short version is thus: The LA Times ran a story based on what are supposed to FBI documents. But The Smoking Gun people suggest (pretty convincingly) that the documents were forged by a guy who now lives in “the high-security penitentiary in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains).”
And apparently, The Smoking Gun is on to something. The LA Times has apologized for getting hoodwinked and suggesting that Sean “Diddy” Combs was somehow aware of an attack on Tupac Shakur before it happened.
“Reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, issued statements of apology Wednesday afternoon,” according to a story on the LA Times Web site. Ouch.
It’s always nice to see local residents making waves.
-- You’ll probaby like this. A judge in Luzerne County has ruled that three guys can avoid jail if they learn English, get their GEDs and get full-time jobs.
The guys all required the services of translators in court. They were arrested for allegedly asking two others guys for marijuana, robbing them and then threatening the victims to “stay off the block.”
I don’t know if the threatening and such transpired in English or not.
Frankly, one suspects the getting a job requirement may prove more onerous than the “learn English” requirement.
The story tells us: “Olszewski is known for outside-the-box sentencing.
“He has ordered young defendants who are school dropouts to finish school. He often orders defendants to get full-time employment. But he also has his staff coordinate with an employment agency to help them find the jobs.
“In this case, Olszewski said, ‘There’s no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language.’”
-- You also might like this. The AP tells us that ultimate fighting is “often derided as ‘human cockfighting.’”
Um, I’d never heard it called that. And I doubt that participants would consider “human cockfighting” a derogatory term.
Neverthless, youngsters (as young as 6) are now learning to participate.
Which is all very scandalous. Except looking at the pictures, it is difficult to see how it is much different from wrestling or traditional martial arts. The kids are wearing padding, for pete’s sake. (They probably waited for the reporter to leave before giving the kids chairs to hit each other with.)
“We’re not training them for dog fighting,” said one dad, a 34-year-old construction contractor. “As a parent, I’d much rather have my kids here learning how to defend themselves and getting positive reinforcement than out on the streets.”
-- There was word earlier this week that Wegmans’ is getting close to selling beer in several stores. But we do not have any Wegmans in the Central Susquehanna Valley.
But, we do have a couple Weis stores.
And there is word today that Weis is getting closer to adding beer sales at another one of its stores. This one in Lackawanna County.
South Abington Township supervisors OK’d the transfer of a restaurant liquor license to a Weis Markets.
“Weis attorney Mark Kozar said the company plans to invest between $100,000 and $150,000 to turn the store’s Chinese food area into a 30-seat cafe, where beer will be sold for both on-site and off-site consumption,” the story tells us. “State liquor regulations restrict customers to buying a maximum of two six-packs of beer, which will be sold at a register in the cafe separated by a gate from the rest of the grocery store.”
The LCB must still say OK. And the beer distributors association will probably sue. But, still it’s progress. Maybe.
http://www.dailyitem.com/0101_business/local_story_087110403.html
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