What's The Greatest Newspaper Crime Movie Ever Made? Newsman Keith Roysdon Investigates A Favorite Sub-Genre Of Crime.

As a writer who has covered the crime beat for newspapers for a good number of years, as well as a life-long film buff, I’m naturally drawn to newspaper crime films. 

Ace in the Hole, His Gal Friday, The Front Page and – 30 – are some of my favorites, and Keith Roysdon, a veteran newspaper reporter, mentions them and other films in his piece on newspaper crime films for CrimeReads.com. 

As Roysdon notes in his piece, newspapers and crime are a natural fit for film.  

You can read the piece via the below link:

What’s the Greatest Newspaper Crime Movie Ever Made? ‹ CrimeReads

Note: Above and below are photos of Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole. 

Also below are photos of Cary Grant from His Gal Friday, Jack Webb from – 30 – and Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon in The Front Page.

          

National Slam The Scam Day

Rebecca Rose, the press officer for the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, offers tips on how to avoid being scammed on “Slam the Scam Day” during National Consumer Protection Week.

Chances are someone you know has received a call or message from someone pretending to be a government employee. These calls often allege that your information has been compromised or they demand immediate payment. Ignore it. This is just one of the tips that Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General (SSA OIG) is sharing to warn consumers about these scams through our National Slam the Scam Day initiative on March 10, 2022.

Slam the Scam Day is an initiative to raise public awareness of the pervasive scams that continue to plague the nation and is part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) National Consumer Protection Week, happening March 6-12, 2022. The initiative, which began in 2020 to combat Social Security-related scams, is now expanding to include other government imposter scams. In a government imposter scam, someone claims to be an SSA, or another government employee, and may ask for personal information, demand payment, or make threats. These scams primarily use the telephone, but scammers may also use email, text messages, social media, or U.S. mail.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

National Slam the Scam Day Approaching on March 10Social Security Matters (ssa.gov) 

Stu Bykofsky: Philadelphia Weekly Reinvents The Wheel

Stu Bykofsky (seen in the below photo), the former Philadelphia Daily News columnist, was until recently, like me, a contributor to Philadelphia Weekly.

My Crime Beat column ran in Philadelphia Weekly for a year and four months.

Then a new publisher and new editor decided to take the weekly newspaper in a new direction. And like me, Stu Bykofsky was dropped without so much as an email notification. 

Stu Bykofsky addresses this in his blog at: 

https://stubykofsky.com/philadelphia-weekly-reinvents-the-wheel/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-last-newsletter-total-posts-from-our-blog_1

Note: I moved my Crime Beat column over to broadandliberty.com.

U.S. Defense Official Says Russians Reportedly Recruiting Syrian Mercenaries

 The U.S. Defense Department offers a piece on the Russians recruiting Syrian mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. 

The Russians are reportedly trying to recruit Syrians to sign up and fight in Ukraine, a senior defense official said today. 

"We find that noteworthy that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] believes that he needs to rely on foreign fighters to supplement what is a very significant commitment of combat power inside Ukraine as it is," the official said, noting that Putin has now committed nearly 100% of his combat power into Ukraine, which had been amassed along the border at the start of the war.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Defense Official Says Russians Reportedly Recruiting Syrian Mercenaries  > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

Note: The above is a photo of Putin from the satirical Tv series Spitting Image.  

Writers Getting Philadelphia Right

 Patrick Rapa, writing a monthly round up of books for the Philadelphia Inquirer, notes that he appreciates writers who get Philly right.

Most of the time, authenticity in art is a nebulous sort of thing, better settled by a smell test than a Google search. Of course, some stuff is going to be made up — it’s fiction. The story only needs to feel real.

But then there are those irksome bits: The details that don’t ring true because you know better. Because the author just didn’t do the homework.

Ever read a book about Philly that mentions a mom-and-pop liquor store? Or a 14th Street? Infuriating. I saw a movie five years ago that referred to Broad Street as Broadway and I’m still mad about it. Some of that comes from that little-brother chip on our shoulder we’re all born with around here. How dare CNN not label us on their hurricane maps? How dare Independence Day destroy us off screen? 

But when an author gets it right, when their Philly feels like the real Philly, all is right with the world. Happily, I’ve read a couple locally set novels that pass this test, both by authors who have spent some time here. 

One is Temple professor Liz Moore’s powerful Long Bright River from 2020, about a cop searching for her opioid-using sister on the darkest stretches of Kensington Avenue. We see the old boy’s club police precinct, the scared citizens, the lost souls wandering the streets in a stupor, and we recognize our city and its shortcomings. It doesn’t surprise me that a film adaptation is in the works; I am delighted to hear that Moore herself will be writing the screenplay. Long Bright River doesn’t need a Hollywood ending. 

Patrick Rapa notes that he becomes annoyed when writers and film makers get Philly wrong, such as mentioning 14th Street.   

I too become annoyed when writers get Philly wrong, such as when Mr. Rapa writes about a Philadelphia police precinct.  

New York City has police precincts; Philadelphia has police districts.  

A minor error, but a bit ironic, and a bit amusing, considering Mr. Rapa's comments. 

Note: I wish Frank Wilson, my former editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, was still the books editor.

Congratulations, You’re Already Boycotting Russian Vodka

When I was younger, I drank a good bit of "Stoli" on the Rocks. I still have one on occasion, but I'm more likely to have a glass of Sambuca with my cigar these days.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a good number of Americans are boycotting Russian vodka, including Stolichnaya, my old drink. But as Victorino Matus at the Washington Free Beacon points out, Stolichnaya is made in Latvia, a NATO member, and not in Russia. 

And Smirnoff vodka is made right here in the USA. 

You can read Matus' piece via the below link:

 Congratulations, You’re Already Boycotting Russian Vodka (freebeacon.com)       

The New York Post: Yes, Vladimir Putin Is A War Criminal

 The New York Post Editorial Board called Putin a war criminal in an editorial.

“What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday. 

A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said he was investigating possible war crimes, examining missile strikes on residential buildings in Kharkiv and other cities. 

President Biden said “it’s clear” that Russian forces are targeting civilians. He stopped short of accusing Putin of war crimes, but there’s certainly a case against the Russian dictator.

You can read the rest of the editorial via the below link:

The Post says: Yes, Vladimir Putin is a war criminal (nypost.com)