UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA: The benefits of marijuana in tempering or reversing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease have been challenged in a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. The findings, published in the current issue of the journal Current Alzheimer Research, could lower expectations about the benefits of medical marijuana in combating various cognitive diseases and help redirect future research to more promising therapeutics. Previous studies using animal models showed that HU210, a synthetic form of the compounds found in marijuana, reduced the toxicity of plaques and promoted the growth of new neurons. Those studies used rats carrying amyloid protein, the toxin that forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims.

The new study, led by Dr. Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease and a professor of psychiatry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine, was the first to test those findings using mice carrying human genetic mutations that cause Alzheimer’s disease – widely considered to be a more accurate model for the disease in humans. “As scientists, we begin every study hoping to be able to confirm beneficial effects of potential therapies, and we hoped to confirm this for the use of medical marijuana in treating Alzheimer’s disease,” says Song, a member of the Brain Research Centre at UBC and VCH Research Institute and Director of Townsend Family Laboratories at UBC. “But we didn’t see any benefit at all. Instead, our study pointed to some detrimental effects.”

Over a period of several weeks, some of the Alzheimer’s-afflicted mice were given varying doses of HU210 – also known as cannabinoids – which is 100 to 800 times more potent than the marijuana compounds. Their memory was then tested. The mice treated with HU210 did no better than untreated mice, with those given low doses of HU210 performing the worst. The researchers also found that HU210-treated mice had just as much plaque formation and the same density of neurons as the control group. The group given higher doses actually had fewer brain cells. “Our study shows that HU210 has no biological or behavioural effect on the established Alzheimer’s disease model,” says Song, the Jack Brown and Family Professor and Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease. “More studies should be done before we place much hope in marijuana’s benefits for Alzheimer’s patients.” MORE

Just try and watch this for more than 10 seconds without laughing, even though, deep down, you know it’s wrong. Anybody that can resist this should seriously consider seeing a doctor and getting checked out for the zombie virus.

[Photo by JEFF FUSCO]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77 […] In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. One of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending. Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha’s growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. “The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion,” he said. Murtha’s opposition to the Iraq war rattled Washington, where the tall, gruff-mannered congressman enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. On Capitol Hill, Murtha was seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters. MORE.

POTUS: Michelle and I were deeply saddened today to hear about the passing of Congressman John Murtha.  Jack was a devoted husband, a loving father and a steadfast advocate for the people of Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years. His passion for service was born during his decorated career in the United States Marine Corps, and he went on to earn the distinction of being the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress.  Jack’s tough-as-nails reputation carried over to Congress, where he became a respected voice on issues of national security.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife of nearly 55 years, Joyce, their three children, and the entire Murtha family.

WIKIPEDIA: Murtha has been targeted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress.^{[23] [24][25]}In September 2006 the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) listed Murtha under Five Members to Watch in its Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report. The report cited Murtha’s steering of defense appropriations to clients of KSA Consulting, which employed his brother Robert, and the PMA Group, founded by Paul Magliocchetti, a former senior staffer on the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense.^[26]

In 2008, Esquire Magazine named him one of the 10 worst members of Congress because of his opposition to ethics reform and the $100 million a year he brings in earmarks to his district.^[27] The Wall Street Journal has called him “one of Congress’s most unapologetic earmarkers.”^[28] According to the Pennsylvania Report, Murtha is one of “Pennsylvania’s most powerful congressman” and a “master of crossing the aisle and bringing pork into his district.”^[29]

In February 2009, CQ Politics reported that Murtha was one of 104 U.S. representatives to earmark funds in the 2008 Defense appropriations spending bill for a lobbying group that had contributed to his past election campaigns. The spending bill, which was managed by Murtha in his capacity as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, secured $38.1 million for clients of the PMA Group in the single fiscal law.^[30] The PMA Group is currently under investigation by the FBI.^[31] In March 2009, the Washington Post reported that a Pennsylvania defense research center regularly consulted with two “handlers” close to Murtha while it received nearly $250 million in federal funding via Murtha’s earmarks. The center then channeled a significant portion of the funding to companies that were among Murtha’s campaign supporters.^{[32] MORE}

RELATED: In 1980, during his fourth term as a Congressman, Murtha became embroiled in the Abscam investigation, which targeted dozens of congressmen. The investigation entailed FBI operatives posing as intermediaries for Saudi nationals hoping to bribe their way through the immigration process into the United States. Murtha met with these operatives and was videotaped. He did agree to testify against Frank Thompson (D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY), the two Congressmen mentioned as participants in the deal at the same meeting and who were later video taped placing the cash bribes in their trousers. The FBI videotaped Murtha responding to an offer of $50,000, with Murtha saying, “I’m not interested… at this point. [If] we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t”, right after Murtha had offered to provide names of businesses and banks in his district where money could be invested legally.^[5] The U.S. Attorneys Office reasoned that Murtha’s intent was to obtain investment in his district. Full length viewing of the tape shows Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return “500 or 1000″ miners to work. MORE

INQUIRER: “If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district,” he said in a 2009 interview. The remark was intended to illustrate his argument that he never personally profited from his deals to force defense contractors to set up shop in the 12th District. Critics seized on it as a paradigm of congressional cynicism. Never once did he offer even a hint of apology for his methods and the billions in earmarks that became, in effect, a de facto industrial policy in the 12th District. In a classic Murtha moment, in 1993, he attended the ribbon-cutting for the National Drug Intelligence Center. Ordinarily, such a facility would be somewhere inside the Washington Beltway. Instead, it sits in the building that housed Penn Traffic Co., a Johnstown department store that closed after a 1977 flood. Why, Rep. Murtha was asked, was such a center sitting in Johnstown? “Because this is where I wanted it,” he snapped. MORE

ALSO: The Haditha incident occurred on 19 November, 2005, and since then there have been differing accounts of exactly what took place. In November 2005 Murtha announced that a military investigation into the Haditha killings concluded U.S. Marines had intentionally killed innocent civilians.^[42] Referring to the first report about Haditha^[43] that appeared in Time magazine, Murtha said:^[44] “It’s much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that’s what the report is going to tell.” The Marine Corps responded to Murtha’s announcement by stating that “there is an ongoing investigation; therefore, any comment at this time would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process.”^[45] Murtha was criticized by conservatives for presenting a version of events as simple fact before an official investigation had been concluded.^[46] In August 2006, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich filed a lawsuit against Murtha for character defamation during an ongoing investigation into the Haditha incident. In April 2009 this suit was dismissed by a federal appeals court, while ruled that Murtha could not be sued because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker when he made the statements.^[47] On December 21, 2006, the US military charged Wuterich with 12 counts of unpremeditated murder against individuals and one count of the murder of six people “while engaged in an act inherently dangerous to others”.^[48] Charges were subsequently dropped against seven of the eight Marines involved: Capt. Lucas McConnell^[49], Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani^[50], Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz^[51], Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum^[52], Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, Capt. Randy Stone and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson. Only Sergeant Frank Wuterich is still facing trial on 9 counts of involuntary manslaughter.^[53] MORE

PHAWKER: John Murtha, may God have mercy on your soul. You served your country bravely in Vietnam, [salutes] and then you milked her like a barroom ATM. And then, in her hour of need, when she needed you more than she needed you in Vietnam,  you stood up and said what needed to be said, when nobody else had the courage or the conviction or the clout: That the emperor had no clothes, that the Iraq war it was a fiasco wrapped in a fantasy. And then you went back to milking her like a barroom ATM. This much I will give you, sir, you were a fucking piece of work. Goodnight and good luck.

[Portrait of Murtha with baby via ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL]

INQUIRER: The off-duty police officer who shot and killed an unarmed in November has 24 hours to turn himself in after being charged with this morning murder, said District Attorney Seth Williams. Frank Tepper, 43, allegedly opened fire on William “Billy” Panas, Jr., 21, during a late night melee in the Port Richmond neighborhood where they both lived. Police initially said Tepper was trying to break up the fight and fired his gun after he was assaulted. Witnesses disputed that, saying Tepper appeared drunk and Panas never threatened him. Tepper, a 16-year veteran of the force, was stripped of his badge last month after an investigation found Tepper committed “numerous violations” of Police Department procedures on the night of the shooting. In December, then D.A. Lynne M. Abraham announced a grand-jury probe into the case. Since Williams assumed office there have not been any new witnesses presented to the Grand Jury. MORE

BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY So the Saints won. That was cool and all. Tracy Porter’s 4^th-quarter interception return might have been the biggest “We Just Won The Super Bowl” moment ever. From totally in doubt to virtually assured in four seconds. Congrats, NOLA. I’ve always wanted to write a Super Bowl Commercial Review, because the one in the USA Today is shit. So here goes. A true Super Bowl Ad can only air while the game is being played. Pregame and Halftime ads are out. Forget the “straight” ones too…the car commercials (3), Movie trailers (5), TV Promos (21) and others that just aren’t going for a laugh (13). The rest were trying to be funny, and I’ve given them a ranking from 0-10. Anything that scored a five or higher I considered funny. And by that tally, unfunny was the winner, 28-21. You can check them all out HERE. And now, the blow-by-blow:

Bud Light Beer House: 4. Had potential

Snickers pickup football: 8. Yes. Betty White is funny. Abe Vigoda is still alive? I originally gave this one a 7, but had to adjust the curve upwards after the dreck that followed.

Tim Tebow with mom: 0. Awful. Back-to-back women getting tackled ads? I liked Tim Tebow until now

Boost Mobile Shuffle: 5. Not bad. Or should I say, That’s Fresh

Doritos Bark Collar: 2. Poor. Dogs cannot operate clasp-locks

Doritos Keep your hands off my mama: 4. Almost funny. That kid is too young to be saying that

Bud Light Asteroid Party: 5. Just cut it. Smart casting the Dharma Initiative guy

NCIS Head Slap: 3. Maybe it would be funnier if I’d ever seen that show

Coke Monty Burns Bankrupt: 3. Love the Simpsons, but this ad blew

Go Daddy Girl: 2. If I have to go to the Internet to see more, I’ll go somewhere other than Go Daddy and really see something.

Doritos in the casket: 3. Oh-for-three for Doritos.

Bud Light with T-Pain: 5. Not quite sure why I found this funny. And now I know who T-Pain is.

Monster Beaver Violinist. 2. I get it. Beavers don’t play violin. Ha

Bridgestone Orca: 5. Should be lower, but saved by the “It’s in my mouth!” line

Cars.com guy saves the cheerleaders: 3. Not into that whole premise

Budweiser Truck Human Bridge: 5. I was on the fence until the last line

Late Show Letterman/Oprah/Leno: 5. I laughed, so there was something funny in there. Why is Leno doing a self-deprecating ad on CBS?

Career builder Casual Friday: 6. Lumpy bodies in underwear = funny

Dockers “Wear no pants”: 1. Back-to-back underwear commercials?

Hyundai Brett Favre: 6. Football-related and sorta funny. Qualifies as a winner among this crop.

Bud Light “Lost”: 4. Not quite.

Dove for Men: 5 “Honey open this jar” struck a nerve.

Dodge Charger: 5. Again, I’m married, so they got me with “I will watch your Vampire TV shows with you”.

TeleFlora Flowers in a Box: 3. She looked like a pain in the ass

Dr. Pepper Mini Kiss: 2. I grant you Mini Kiss is funny, but not in this ad

TruTV Punxsutawney Polamalu: 3. Back-to-back midget ads?

FloTV Spine Removed: 4. Should have gotten there, don’t know what happened.

Intel Robot: 4. Cute. Not funny

Halftime show: Daltrey looks older than Townshend. What a coup getting Nigel Tufnel to play drums. And I never knew Paul Shaffer was in The Who. Now I do.

Motorola girl in tub: 6. Gotta give it to any ad that plays the “boy in bathroom masturbating” card. Was I supposed to know who that woman was?

Volkswagon punch buggy: 4. Even Stevie Wonder couldn’t make this a winner.

Denny’s free Grand Slam: 4. I wanted to like this ad, especially after the shot of the chicken playing pool. But that was all it had.

Homeaway.com with the Griswolds: 7. “Complementary with an e. It complements the room. It’s not free.” Good stuff.

Bridgestone or your wife: 4. How does a 4^th-rate tire company afford these ads?

KGB Sumo wrestler: 4. Almost funny, but if you are giving me Sumo wresting, then I want a fat fucking yokozuna, not a 255 pounder.

Coke African sleepwalker: 3. Not buying it

Etrade talking baby: 2. Talking babies are creepy. Especially those who are gettin’ some on the side

2010Census.gov: 6. I laughed

Kia with toys come to life: 6. I have kids so any Yo Gabba Gabba tie-in works for me. As long as it isn’t Foofa or Toodie.

Vizio Internet Aps: 7. Perhaps this ad should be filed under “not trying to be funny”, but it did throw in the Numa Numa guy. One of the most interesting of the night.

Emerald + Pop Secret Human Dolphins: 6. This ad is trying hard to be the funniest one in the room. Still, pretty good.

Budweiser Clydesdale with bull: 0. Just fucking stupid. The majesty of the Clydesdales dumbed down another notch.

Denny’s chickens Part II: 5. Likeable enough. Its Denny’s, I have to cut them some slack.

Audi Green Police: 6. Tough to pull off a funny car ad. Well done.

Taco Bell Charles Barkley: 7. I love Taco Bell, so I was already sold. Add in Charles Barkley rhyming Dr. Seuss-style and cool set design and I’m running for the border for lunch tomorrow.

Doritos Ninja Gym Warrior: 7. Doritos tries to save their night but is it too late? This was funny.

Bud Light Book Club: 0. What?

Etrade Crying Babies: 1. A bad trend that each add has successively more talking babies.

Go Daddy Talk Show: 2. Tired.

Denny’s Birthday Grand Slam: 2. No more slack for Denny’s.

And the winner is….Snickers. The funniest thing I saw all night was Betty White in the huddle, face covered in mud, saying, “C’mon man, you been ridin’ me all day”. The second funniest was Betty White yelling, “That’s not what your girlfriend says!” Loser: the Clydesdales. I expect Bud Light ads to be dumb, but the Clydesdales? When those horses saw that script, they must have thought, “Why don’t you just put me in a taxi to the glue factory instead.”

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978). The Peace Corps (J.F.K.’s Bold Legacy), 1966. Story illustration for Look, June 14, 1966. Oil on canvas. 45 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (115.6 x 92.7 cm). From the permanent collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH Well folks, by the time you read this I will be gone. This morning I left the U.S. on a jet plane and began a two-year stretch in the Peace Corps in (very) sunny Paraguay. Although I’m from Boston, I will dearly miss the city of not-always-so-brotherly-love that I have called home for the last two years. I arrived in Philadelphia after deciding to transfer out of Case Western University. It’s a long story, but I’d taken most of Case’s journalism classes, Penn had kick-ass professors, Philly had a good couple of papers, it was closer to home – you get the picture. That was 2007. It was crazy couple of years – during the tail end of Street’s tenure as mayor, when the murder rate skyrocketed, and cops seemed to be dying left and right. And then 2008 became a very big year. Nutter and Obama got elected, and liberals around the city crossed themselves in the hope of new leadership.

In ’08, I published my first major article during a summer internship with Philadelphia Weekly, under the instructive abuse and tutelage of Steven Wells. Philly, you get all the cred. Of course, not long after, everything started imploding. There was the bank crisis, the housing crisis, the health care reform crisis, the Great Recession, the madness over the libraries, a abso-fricking-huge deficit the city had to make up, and no one was willing to give. Careerwise, the situation was equally bleak. The Inquirer and the Daily News went bankrupt, and the rest of the journalism industry started going into seizures. Seriously, reading Romenesko became an unending tale of woe; a daily routine of media heads saying they were “doing just fine,” and “this is the most exciting time to be a journalist,” while their peers got laid off by the thousands and ad-revenue seemed to plummet another 20% every quarter. But in spite of it ALL, I can’t help but feel like Philadelphia’s better-positioned then almost any other city in the country.

Over the last several years, the city’s sprouted a bunch of skyscrapers. In ’07, the Cira Centre was the coolest, newest thing on the horizon, until the Radian and the Comcast Tower  shot into the sky. The Drexel Shaft has long since toppled, and ground’s been broken for the new Barnes building. There’s other signs of progress — most notably the startling transformation of Norther Liberties. The murder rate is down, an end to the city’s budget woes is kinda-sorta within sight. And Philly, a city that has shrunk every 10 years since the 1950s, seems likely to grow in the 2010 Census. And no matter how you feel about newspapers, you’ve gotta hand it to both the Daily News and the Inky – both papers are turning out some cracking journalism, despite bankruptcy, a very lean staff, and a mob of yammering critics. (Full disclosure – I worked at both papers over the last year.) Whether it’s the Daily News’ Tainted Justice series , or the Inquirer courts series, or literally dozens of other stories I could mention, those papers are doing their job.

It’s an incredibly exciting city, and I will be sorry to be away from it.

I began applying to the Peace Corps around this time last year, back when I was sans-job, sans-clue about the future other than that I knew I was interested in journalism. There were lots of reasons it made sense. I wanted to travel, I wanted to live in a foreign culture, I had never studied abroad, wanted to help the less fortunate, etc, etc. So now, what seems like an eon later, I am en route to Paraguay where I will live and work for the next 27 months. While there, I will be serving as a health-and-sanitation extensionist in a rural part of the country – hellooooo bucket baths, latrines, stifling heat, no air conditioning and swarms of mosquitoes. It’s gonna be great.

[via MARRIED TO THE SEA]

[Illustration by ALEX FINE]

ANDREW SULLIVAN: There is no question in my mind that Palin is the leader of the opposition in this country. And there is no question in my mind that she is the leader of the Tea Party movement. Listening to her completely content-free rehash of every Fox News truism, underlined with the classic claim that Obama is on the side of the terrorists and is incapable of being commander-in-chief. Cheneyism is behind her. MORE

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT: Nodding at the much-discussed question of whether this speech would make Palin the “leader” of the Tea Party movement, she said that the activists did not have a “king or queen.” At the same time, she called for “contested primaries,” calling them a strength of democracy — nodding at her fairly controversial endorsements of Hoffman and Rand Paul. Palin swung quickly and heavily to foreign policy, with a litany of attacks on Obama — from his “personality”-based diplomacy to giving “Constitutional rights” to “homicide bombers,” using a term that’s rarely heard outside of Fox News, where she is a contributor. When she moved back to domestic policy, Palin delved again and again into stories that are familiar to political junkies and Tea Party activists. “How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?” said Palin, paraphrasing a slogan made popular on Tea Party t-shirts.” She mocked the stimulus package — the speech was heavy on mockery — by leaning slightly down and saying “nobody messes with Joe,” quoting a comment President Obama made that has been more or less forgotten outside of Tea Party circles. MORE

NEW YORK TIMES: Without leaving home, Sarah Palin will be able to reach much of her political base, courtesy of a soon-to-be-built television studio in her living room paid for by her newest media patron, Fox News. From her house in Wasilla, Alaska, Ms. Palin also sends missives to 1.3 million Facebook “fans,” writes newspaper columns, Tweets and signs copies of her book for donors. She reads daily e-mail briefings on domestic and foreign policy from a small group of advisers who remained loyal after her tumultuous vice presidential campaign in 2008. And though she has fashioned an image as an antiestablishment conservative, she also speaks regularly to a bipartisan nobility of Washington insiders who have helped enrich her financially and position her on the national political stage. Ms. Palin is becoming increasingly vocal and visible, with a series of events scheduled this weekend: delivering a paid speech to the Salina, Kan., Chamber of Commerce on Friday night, headlining a national Tea Party convention in Nashville on Saturday and appearing on behalf of the re-election campaign of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas in Houston on Sunday. This latest foray “Outside” (Alaskan slang for the rest of the country) culminates a week in which she achieved a typical run of multimedia ubiquity from Wasilla: She e-mailed a high-profile endorsement of Dr. Rand Paul in a Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. She called — via Facebook — for the resignation of the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, for using the term “retarded,” and announced — via a column in USA Today — that she would attend a Tea Party gathering next month in Searchlight, Nev., the hometown of the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid. MORE

HUFFINGTON POST: Crib Notes? This potential presidential candidate and “movement” leader was using crib notes to answer basic questions? This would mean: A) That she knew the questions beforehand and the whole thing was a farce. (Likely.) B) That she still couldn’t answer the previously agreed-upon questions without a little extra help. If true, this is supremely rich coming immediately after a speech in which Palin took a shot at President Obama for using a teleprompter to read his prepared speeches. You can bet that the President wasn’t reading scribbles off his extremities while he sparred with Republicans and Democrats in an unscripted format in his recent Q&As.Palin, on the other hand, seems to need a cheat-sheet just to get through a contrived lovefest with a smitten interviewer and an adoring audience.

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT: NASHVILLE — The National Tea Party Convention’s early reluctance to give credentials to reporters — a decision that came after some negative commentary on the event’s cost and critics — was short-lived. Reporters are swarming the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and, with little exception, getting press passes. When I checked it around 11 a.m., more than 150 reporters had been credentialed. While there are around 600 paying attendees, the scene in the hall outside of the banquet and meeting rooms is basically one-to-one reporter-to-attendee. Inside the breakout sessions, at least three cameras are filming at any one time. One of the credentialed reporters is no less than Joseph Basel, one of the four activists who was arrested — and let out on bail — for the mysterious botched sting of Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office. “I’m here for myself,” Basel told me, after chatting with Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Andrew Breitbart of Big Government. MORE

TALKING POINTS MEMO: Landrieu phone-tampering defendant Joseph Basel isn’t letting a little thing like felony charges hang over his head and prevent him from achieving professional goals. With a week until he’s due in federal court in New Orleans for a Feb. 12 hearing, Basel has been spotted at the national tea party convention in Nashville by the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel. Weigel reports that Basel is at the convention as a credential reporter though he says that he’s “here for myself.” Basel was ordered by the judge in the Landrieu case to stay in his home state of Minnesota. He is allowed to travel only with the permission of his pretrial supervision officer, according to the conditions of his release on $10,000 bond. MORE

PREVIOUSLY: ‘Pimp’ From ACORN Sting Videos Arrested By FBI For Wiretapping Senator’s Phone

PREVIOUSLY: Last Night I Sneaked Into The Tea Party

PREVIOUSLY: Why I Love Wing Bowl

DAILY NEWS: Pennsylvania residents who are denied a license to carry a concealed weapon, or have theirs revoked, have found a loophole that allows them to get a license from another state that must be honored here. “They could be disapproved here and they could apply in Florida and we are not notified,” said Philadelphia Police Lt. Lisa King, commander of the Gun Permit Unit. “So if we are not giving them a permit to carry, how is Florida allowed to override our decision?” District Attorney Seth Williams said that the loophole defeats local efforts to keep streets safe. Police and prosecutors are furious about the loophole, but gun-rights advocates say that it’s the Philadelphia Police Department that has put a loophole in the process by requiring far more of applicants seeking permits for concealed weapons than the other counties in the state, where permits are issued by their sheriff’s departments. “You can purchase a firearm but you can’t get a permit in Philadelphia to save your life,” said Richard Oliver, a firearms instructor in Northeast Philadelphia who teaches safety courses for those seeking permits out of Florida and Utah. “That’s what causes people to go to other states to get the permits.” Pennsylvania’s firearms reciprocity agreements require the state to recognize permits from 24 other states that have permit laws as strict or stricter than its own and that those states, in turn, recognize Pennsylvania weapons permits. Among the states covered, there are three - Florida, Utah and New Hampshire - that allow out-of-state residents to get permits even if they don’t qualify or apply for permits in their home state. Locally, though, it’s become known as the “Florida loophole” because that’s where most of the out-of-state permits are coming from, according to police and prosecutors. MORE

PREVIOUSLY: Wingbowl, It’s Like Jersey Shore On Ice