Karen Heller has interviewed Philip Roth and Zsa Zsa Gabor, spent time with Pink and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the celebrated and the exemplary unsung. She's covered Miss America and political conventions. She's been a provocative voice at The Inquirer for nearly 20 years, garnering awards for criticism, feature writing and investigative reporting, and was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in commentary.
The problem with Philadelphia City Council - OK, one of many problems - is that it doesn't think big. Except when it comes to summer vacations.
- On the final day: McCain Accepted
The problem with Philadelphia City Council — OK, one of many problems — is that it doesn't think big. Except when it comes to summer vacations. Take the curious case of Christopher Wright, Councilman Jack Kelly's suspended chief of staff. He's charged with taking $16,000 in gifts from the Chawla brothers, real estate developers, including a $1,000 check marked "Happy Holidays 05" complete with smiley face.
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Time to discard the John Nance Garner jokes comparing the vice presidency to "a warm bucket of spit" and calling taking the position "the worst damn fool mistake I ever made." The job matters.
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To heal a wounded city takes more than reform efforts and policy initiatives. Citizens need opportunities for work, education and, equally important, play.
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Karen Heller: Nonprofit spends to defend director's deeds
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Dear friends, it's time for another installment of the continuing soap opera Other People's Money. Please remember at all times that those Other People would be You.
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Karen Heller: The dumbing down of science
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Earlier this year, one of Philadelphia's illustrious cultural institutions underwent cosmetic surgery and had its name reduced. Our largest science institution simply became the Franklin, as if it were some glistening condo development or waterfront casino.
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Karen Heller: A cash machine known as DRPA
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Driving over the Ben Franklin Bridge as the sun slipped behind the city, I wondered where my $3 toll contribution would travel. Would $1 be indirectly kicked toward Chester's soccer complex, another $1 to dredging the Delaware, and the last headed for the National Museum of American Jewish History?
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In recent years, especially during political seasons, elitist has become the ultimate epithet, far worse than racist, sexist or wrong. People are elite or they aren't. It's an absolute, an indelible tattoo.
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Karen Heller: "Elite" label hard to define, hard to shake. B1.
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Karen Heller: The Broad view remains blurry
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The glistening makeover that occurred on Broad Street in recent years largely stopped an inch north of City Hall. Rather than being an Avenue of the Arts, the concrete blight that is North Broad resembles the Boulevard of Parking. Buildings came down at regular intervals with little to replace them.
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Grab an easy chair and a glass of iced tea, and pick up the beach read of the summer. This page-turner has it all: sex, cash, power, politics, motorcycles, sushi and a former Miss Rain Day with decidedly creative research skills, all set in multiple locations including the Sodom on the Susquehanna that is Pennsylvania's state capital.
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Remember the Khian Sea? The cargo ship, dubbed the Flying Dutchman of Debris, spent 14 months in the 1980s sailing the globe with 14,000 tons of Philadelphia's toxic incinerator dust in search of a landfill.
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