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.
Email Karen at kheller@phillynews.com
In the summer of 2007, Norristown, the hardscrabble seat of a rich county, dared to dream big. Glamorously, fabulously big. The plan was to build a movie studio on the site of a dreary strip mall.
- Updike at Rest
I once spent a year in Rochester, N.Y., where seven months are committed to snow. Understandably, city leaders paid someone somewhere for a marketing slogan to get people to visit. The winner: "I'd rather be in Rochester - It's got it."
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What everyone remembers about Joaquin Rivera's death is the wristwatch, that three drug-addled miscreants stole it two days after Thanksgiving while he lay slumped in the Aria Health-Frankford Campus emergency room waiting for treatment.
- Jeff Brown is recognized nationally for improving inner-city life in Phila.Jeff Brown strolls near the sweet potato corner where not so long ago a train junkyard stood. He sells dessert where there was once a food desert, few fresh or nutritious products to serve a Philadelphia community of 100,000.
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Karen Heller: The Pa. parade is under way
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After last week's Massachusetts surprise, it's time to turn our attention to the home front. Only 16 more shopping weeks until Pennsylvania's primary for governor, U.S. senator, all U.S. House seats and, I kid not, a cast of thousands vying for lieutenant governor.
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Chris Christie was sworn in on Tuesday as governor of New Jersey, saying, "I stand before you at a historic moment for New Jersey, a state rich in history" but not, as he learned that day, rich in funds.
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Bill Clinton's follies bled Primary Colors. Huey Long inspired All the King's Men. Nixon was the one, a muse of theater, movies, opera. So why not honor our Lear, former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo?
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AdultBasic is Pennsylvania's solution for people needing health coverage whose income is low but not low enough. They fail to qualify for Medicaid.
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Early-childhood education is among the best investments a society can make for the future. Students enrolled in pre-K programs, a time when the mind is especially responsive to learning, perform demonstrably better in school later on.
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College administrators have been acting recently more like parents than educators. Widener University announced an all-campus smoking ban - including outdoors - to be launched this summer. Lincoln University instituted a fitness graduation requirement for obese students, later downgrading the class to a suggestion after being charged with discrimination.
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How best to continue ringing in this fresh year? By attending the inauguration of 28 judges, City Controller Alan Butkovitz, and R. Seth Williams, Philadelphia's first new district attorney in more than 18 years and the only African American D.A. in the commonwealth's history.
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By now, no doubt, you have read scads summing up this decade drawing to a close, little of it good.
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