“I am not a poor black kid,” writes Philadelphia small business motivational writer-speaker Gene Marks near the beginning of a Forbes screed entitled “If I Was a Poor Black Kid.” Marks writes books with charming titles like “In God We…

Philadelphia magazine certainly aims to please a high-end suburban readership (Top Doctors, Top Dentists, Top Homes! And newsflash: wealthy moms think smoking pot is cool). But they have perhaps never pissed off city-dwellers as much as when they decided to…

If you hated the Sixers Hip-Hop, you’ll hate what the Sixers are proposing to replace what Dan Stamm aptly calls “the Rat-King-like mascot” even more. Meet: Big Ben, B. Franklin Dogg and Phil E. Moose. Big Ben, the only remotely…

Here’s something that’s really important that you probably don’t understand (I sure didn’t): redistricting in Pennsylvania. State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Phila) is accusing right-wing State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) and Republican Majority Leader Mike Turzai of “push[ing] through a Congressional…

It’s not clear why the New York Times feels compelled to offer op-ed space to purveyors of the punditocracy’s conventional wisdom when it has so many—like Bill Keller, Thomas Friedman, and David Brooks—on staff. Today, University of Pennsylvania president Amy…

It’s been six weeks, and Victoria Andrews can’t get her kids out of foster care, where they were placed by Philly’s Department of Human Services (DHS). Because she smoked marijuana. Andrews (not her real name) is no drug dealer or…

Lawyer Matthew Wolfe is the Republican Leader of West Philadelphia’s 47th Ward and a lead activist in the campaign to overthrow Philadelphia Republican Party boss Michael Meehan, whose family has controlled the city’s party for three generations.  You are a…

Who is this person named Al Schmidit? Well, he’s not Al Schmidt, the anti-machine Republican running for City Commissioner. But that’s how recent sample ballots in the Inquirer and Public Record misspelled his name, an error that is sparking accusation…

Montgomery County Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf has announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for president. Yes, of the United States of America. He joins a few dozen other randoms, alongside the dozen “serious” candidates (44 candidates total!) that…