Results tagged “newsnational”

It's 11:15PM, and fifteen minutes ago, all of the major news agencies called the election for Barack Obama. The presumptive president-elect will be the United States' first minority leader—and, whether he was your candidate or not, you can't deny the historic significance of that. Thanks, Pennsylvania, for voting, no matter who you voted for.

On July 17th, Michael Vick (among others) was indicted on myriad charges, including illegal dog fighting. You also shouldn't forget his weak attempt to "smuggle" a bong through airport security in January – a charge which was dropped because all tests on the confiscated substances came back negative. You'll also remember that in 2005, Vick was sued by a woman alleging that he passed herpes onto her while using the alias "Ron Mexico."

We mentioned this in the news yesterday, but this is a problem that needs to be addressed as frequently as possible. Leave a comment and let us know how you think the city might address the problem of gun violence.

The times they are a changing. A quick sweep of the web now brings back incredible results. Check out these barnacles we found floating around:

On the one hand, we can really appreciate that the Office of Homeland Security is doing their best to keep suspected terrorists as far away from us as possible.

The good news is that several -ist cities were named amongst the country's most walkable.

Yes, the rumors you've heard are true: as of yesterday, gay couples can now register to get married in that land of promise that borders us to the east, just over the bridges. Well, they can register to get a civil union anyway, which is the same thing, but just under a name that the NJ Legislature hopes will upset fewer people. This came about due to a lawsuit filed a while back by seven couples who thought it might be cool if they had the same rights as straight people. The New Jersey Supreme Court thought about it and decided it would be cool, too.

Editor's Note: We just posted a quick note about this, but staff writer Pencopal had her own thoughts on the subject that she wanted to share with you.

We learned via our friends at Bostonist and Gothamist that the whole city of Boston was freaking out yesterday due to some electronic signs that had been planted around the city (Bostonist even dug up a video of one being hung up). To anybody in the know, they are obviously ads for Aqua Teen Hunger Force (they've got Mooninites on them and everything!), but to everybody else they appeared to be mysterious bomb-like blinking packages with wires sticking out of them. Cops and other officials are not very happy. Perhaps the funniest/scariest bit is that the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston and other cities around the nation - including Philadelphia!

As you've no doubt heard by now, our illustrious Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has resigned, probably at least partially as a result of the outcome of yesterday's elections, and what that outcome signifies: an obvious national dissatisfaction, not only with how Iraq has been handled, but with Bush and his administration in general. Judging by the latest tip in our contribute section, at least some folks in the Philly area are pretty pleased to see the other side of Mr. Rumsfeld. In honor of his departure, we present you with one of our favorite links about him: a pictorial index of his various fighting techniques. Despite how it appears, his kung fu was really not all that strong after all.

The Nintendo Wii is available for pre-sale orders today for $50 down at GameStops around the nation, including the one in the Gallery in Philly, which is where we snapped this photo around 8:30 this morning. Yep, it's a line to pre-order the Wii; click it for the full version on Flickr, and check after the jump for another photo. As you can see, some folks were getting into the spirit of things and were passing the time by playing their Nintendo DSs. The expectation is that the Wii will pre-sell out within minutes, so if you want to get in on this action, we suggest you run; we believe the GameStop opens at 10.

As our parent site, Gothamist, reported yesterday in a detailed and oft-updated news post, former Phillies pitcher (and more recently, Yankee player) Cory Lidle crashed his single-engine private plane into the 30th floor of a high-rise on East 72nd Street in New York yesterday afternoon. Lidle and his passenger - apparently flying instructor Tyler Stanger - both died in the crash. Thankfully the only other injuries - sustained by firefighters and some people within the building - were not serious.