Sr. Editor, Investigations @phillyinquirer. Ex-Knight Ridder Berlin buro chief, @northwesternu clips: danielrubinphl.wordpress.com Signal: drubi.36

Daniel Rubin’s Journalist Portfolio

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A Look That Is Part Of Sinatra's Legacy The Singer Followed His Own Code. And His '50s Fashion Co...

A Look That Is Part Of Sinatra's Legacy The Singer Followed His Own Code. And His '50s Fashion Co...

Philadelphia Inquirer — What Sinatra left with his death Thursday night was a legacy not only of song stylings, but of personal artistry. He had a code of behavior with its own vocabulary - a tight, somewhat threatening world of pallies and Harveys, gassers and bunters. You were in or you were out. Most were out, but if you were in, you were golden. Sinatra didn't suffer tightwads or teetotalers. He duked the maitre d' on the way out, not the way in, with a couple of big bills folded thrice into small squares.

Differences, yet a bond in reserve

Differences, yet a bond in reserve

danrubinrez.wordpress.com — I'm not sure what possessed my father to want to drive 26 hours with me, sitting shotgun as I retrieve a son from college in Kalamazoo , Mich. But I am grateful for the company.

Daniel Rubin: An infuriating search at Philadelphia International Airport

Daniel Rubin: An infuriating search at Philadelphia International Airport

Philadelphia Inquirer — A female Transportation Security Administration officer wanded her and patted her down, she says. Then she was walked over to where other TSA officers were searching her bags. "Everything in my purse was out, including my wallet and my checkbook. I had two prescriptions in there. One was diet pills. This was embarrassing. A TSA officer said, 'Hey, I've always been curious about these. Do they work?' "I was just so taken aback, I said, 'Yeah.' " What happened next, she says, was more than embarrassing. It was infuriating.

Daniel Rubin: Let convict take a DNA test

Daniel Rubin: Let convict take a DNA test

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News & Philly.com — The prisons are filled with guilty people who profess their innocence, but what if Anthony Wright is right? At the time, DNA testing wasn't sophisticated enough to pin him to the crime. But it is now. Or it could exonerate him, and point to someone else. Should he be entitled to the best evidence available? Shouldn't we?

Daniel Rubin: It was no joke at security gate

Daniel Rubin: It was no joke at security gate

Philadelphia Inquirer — In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile. The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.

Daniel Rubin: Internet cat sensation Nora draws composer to Philly from Europe

Daniel Rubin: Internet cat sensation Nora draws composer to Philly from Europe

The Philadelphia Inquirer — A composer travels across the Atlantic to meet his muse, who isn't particularly interesting in performing for him.

ART in the midst of HELL Terezin ushered Jews to their death. But culture thrived there.

ART in the midst of HELL Terezin ushered Jews to their death. But culture thrived there.

Philadelphia Inquirer — Zdenka Fantlova remembers Terezin as the best of the Nazi hells: a ghetto with a swing band, a concentration camp with shoe stores and cafes. Here she wore her own clothes; here her family was still alive. Called Terezin by the Czechs and Theresienstadt by the Germans, this fortified town held World War II's most improbable collection of artists, musicians, scientists and scholars.

NPR's Edwards will soon sleep in

NPR's Edwards will soon sleep in

The Philadelphia Inquirer — One week from now Bob Edwards will graduate from the lobster shift, the 6 p.m. bedtimes and 1 a.m. alarms. No longer will he slip around his Arlington, Va., house, eat, grab a second cup of coffee, and drink it while driving to NPR, where his steady delivery has made it easier for people to greet the day for almost 25 years.

Refugees Return To A Hard Life In Kosovo For The Baby Boy Named Amerikan, An Unclear Future.

Refugees Return To A Hard Life In Kosovo For The Baby Boy Named Amerikan, An Unclear Future.

The Philadelphia Inquirer — He arrived in the world to great fanfare, delivered from war and named for his new country. Fourteen months later, Baby Amerikan is back home, in this heavily policed farming village about 20 miles south of Pristina. His father is out of work. His mother is seven months pregnant. And there is no more space in the four-room house that the toddling Kosovar shares with 14 relatives.

Daniel Rubin: A little longer with an old friend

Daniel Rubin: A little longer with an old friend

Philadelphia Inquirer — To me, Tom was the guy I could be myself with, my brother's old buddy from California, a wild-haired savant in flip-flops and shorts who never took himself too seriously. He died last week. Cancer. Quick and unexpected, two weeks after surgery. Since he loved obituaries - he'd read them aloud in the kitchen - I thought I'd write him one, because it's a way to hang on just a little longer. During our lunches we'd talk about manly things - grilling, football, why the woman I love doesn't love Neil Young.

The right books can open the world

The right books can open the world

Philadelphia Inquirer — The addition at the back of our 1949 ranch house in the woods is no longer the bedroom I had to share with my older brother. It's Dad's office now, as he's been retired from the hardware store for a couple of decades. He sits at my brother's old Formica desk to pay the bills, check AOL, curse the printer, and occasionally add a golf tee or a fresh calendar to shelves that are otherwise a shrine dedicated to the Rubin boys, circa 1970. "We're boxing up your books," my dad said. "You're kidding? "They're mostly paperbacks."

Local Survivors Of The Titanic Recall The Horror The Ship Carried 38 People From The Area, Most O...

Local Survivors Of The Titanic Recall The Horror The Ship Carried 38 People From The Area, Most O...

The Philadelphia Inquirer — The family's holiday over, Thayer would be returning to the Haverford School that spring. Then, according to designs laid by his father, it would be Princeton and apprenticeships in banking houses throughout the capitals of Europe. ``It was planned,'' he wrote nearly 30 years after that chilly night, April 14, 1912. ``It was a certainty.'' As certain as the word that the great ship, Titanic, was unsinkable. He was about to climb into bed at 11:40 p.m. when he felt the ship sway slightly to port, ``as though she had been gently pushed.'' Nearby, in another first-class stateroom, Richard Norris Williams, 21, sensed it as well.

Daniel Rubin: Phila. crime victims have tough time selling the city

Daniel Rubin: Phila. crime victims have tough time selling the city

Philadelphia Inquirer — She screamed. Broad daylight, lunch hour in the 2400 block of Pine Street in Center City, who thinks they're going to get attacked by a man waving a knife the size of a machete? Street crime is down in Center City compared with many other areas, statistics show. "Much safer than it's been in any number of years," said Mayor Nutter. But of course numbers mean nothing to someone who becomes a victim, as Margaux Pelegrin will tell you. So will her colleague Fred Manfred, who was attacked in Bella Vista.

Radio Waves Take Over Their Homes Poltergeists? No, Just Blasts From The Past.

Radio Waves Take Over Their Homes Poltergeists? No, Just Blasts From The Past.

Philadelphia Inquirer — If your idea of hell is living with someone else's music, pity the people of Harmon Road in Roxborough. There they sit, in the shadow of three WPGR-AM towers and under the spell of all-day oldies from Jerry Blavat's station - Geator Gold Radio - which bleeds through copper pipes, telephone lines, downspouts, Nintendo games and all sorts of electronic equipment gone haywire.

Daniel Rubin | Their love for Phila. was too much of a gamble

Daniel Rubin | Their love for Phila. was too much of a gamble

Philadelphia Inquirer — Bob Sola can pinpoint the moment he started falling out of love. It was Dec. 19, 2006, and his girlfriend, Maureen Duffy, called him on the cell phone as he drove home from work to Fishtown. "You're not going to believe this," she began. The state Gaming Control Board had granted licenses to two casinos on the Delaware River. One, called SugarHouse, would be built six blocks from his house. The other, Foxwoods, would be six blocks from her house. What were the odds on that?

A Glass Is Hoisted, An Era Ends Last Call For A Taproom Full Of Tradition

A Glass Is Hoisted, An Era Ends Last Call For A Taproom Full Of Tradition

Philadelphia Inquirer — The corner tappy had an austere charm. The bar, running the length of the rectangular room, was solid mahogany, built in 1938 by Friel Bernheim Co., then of East Ontario Street. It was dark and well-burnished, save for the lip, which was worn like driftwood by a heavy tide of working men's elbows.