Philly Loves Hump Day

Restaurants sober up as patrons drink earlier to save money

(NEWSER) - There’s a recession on, and that’s forcing drinkers everywhere to change their schedules. These days bars are filling up in the late afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reports, as patrons pinch pennies by slurping happy hour specials. “We don’t see a change in what people are drinking,” said the beverage director for one bar chain, “as much as the time they are drinking.” More»

(NEWSER) - Britain may make "happy hour" specials illegal and force companies to put cigarette-style health warnings on booze bottles, the Telegraph reports. With alcohol taking more lives and costing the nation up to $37 billion a year in health bills, the government is also planning a public awareness campaign. Officials will decide on the happy hour ban early next month. More»

Idea is to help people pick locales, but critics see it as a stalker app

(NEWSER) - A new app designed to enhance a user's bar-hopping has tipplers raising a stink over privacy concerns, and the Week offers an overview: SceneTap works by syncing up with cameras installed inside bars in various cities. The cameras use facial-detection software to scan the crowd, determine the genders and ages of the patrons, and report back to the app. In theory, this would allow the app user to figure out the best bar to head to, but many people are slamming SceneTap as creepy and an invasion of privacy. More»

She kept $2,300 after it fell out of another customer's pocket

(NEWSER) - Finder, keepers does not apply here. Police nabbed a Philadelphia woman who picked up $2,300 in cash off the floor in a convenience store and kept it. The problem, police say, is that she knew it fell out of the pocket of the customer in front of her and thus had a legal responsibility to return it. Instead, the 28-year-old quickly left the store with the loot, as surveillance video shows, and now faces misdemeanor charges of theft and receiving stolen property. (See the surveillance video at NBC10 in Philadelphia .) More»

Last-minute guilty plea sends defense's strategy into disarray

(NEWSER) - Two Catholic priests are set to go on trial in Philadelphia for charges related to alleged child sexual abuse today, and their chances of victory look a lot lower than they did last week. Monsignor William Lynn is the first church official charged with child endangerment for failing to remove two alleged abusers from their posts, the AP reports. One of those alleged abusers, Rev. James Brennan, is on trial alongside him, charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996. But the other, Edward Avery, submitted a last-minute guilty plea. More»