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
If you can't control the weather, try controlling television weather forecasters.
Drew Becher, president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, recently blasted television and radio "snowmaggedon" scenarios that proved false, yet shriveled the Philadelphia Flower Show's ticket sales like an early frost. The venerable event, the society's principal fund-raiser, suffered a 17 percent drop in attendance in March and lost $1.2 million. Now, PHS is scurrying to make up the difference.
We're in budget season, which means the city school district is experiencing yet another round of asking for money from local and state governments that have grown inured to the perpetual crisis, as common a sign of spring as azaleas.
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Memo to Harrisburg: Hurry up already
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Karen Heller: Perennial candidate Warren Bloom pulled the top ballot position for Philadelphia Traffic Court in Tuesday's primary.
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When a city plague goes viral
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Rats happen. And when they happen in public places, and people have camera phones, rats go viral. They scurry through social media. They're the Kardashians of pests.
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Tiny church unintimidated by hate
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The sign adjacent to historic Mount Zion A.M.E. Church in Woolwich Township, a one-story white frame building, usually reads, "All Are Welcome." But on Sunday, parishioners discovered vandals had scrambled the letters.
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Abu-Jamal movie gives unbridled voice to far left
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The latest documentary about Pennsylvania's most famous inmate is called Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abu-Jamal. Which is fitting. Because the longer the distance from Philadelphia, the deeper the convicted cop killer's support tends to be.
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From silent Gosnell, a gathering storm
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For six weeks, Dr. Kermit Gosnell sat largely impassive, like an invited guest at his murder trial, offering an occasional smile while taking prodigious notes with a spring-green pen.
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The marvels my mother missed
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This weekend is my mother's birthday. A big one: 80. We will do little to celebrate. She has been gone for an eternity, 16 years. My daughter was then in diapers, scampering over the hospital bed, giving my mother her last moments of unbridled bliss.
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In Philly, the fast track to the cyber-school bottom
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Karen Heller: Americans are overwhelmed by choices, not all of them good. In response to struggling public schools, Philadelphia parents have a staggering menu of public and charter options, many offering no improvement in educating children.
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Look but don't touch at the Barnes
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Karen Heller: We know the ladies are luscious, but please do not touch the Renoirs. Or sit on an 18th-century Windsor chair, no matter how welcoming. Or pat the Modigliani limestone head.
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Again, Gosnell horrors drop off national radar
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Karen Heller: Prosecutors packed the courtroom with Dr. Kermit Gosnell's battered equipment, placed directly before the jury, the detritus of his ghastly practice.
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'Mr. Shutt' guides Masterman team to chess champs
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The champions gathered in the basement, their haunt, huddled over vinyl chess mats, plastic pieces, and rickety clocks. On a spring day, the place was a sweaty, smelly, noisy, airless, sunless cell. Winter, too. In June? Worse.
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