Morning Headlines: WIP’s Innes Calls Eagles’ Kelce “House Negro”

Innes apologizes for the racial slur, but is it enough? Plus the rest of today's top stories.

kelce innes

Jason Kelce, left, photo by Jeff Fusco. Josh Innes, right, photo from Facebook.

Good morning Philadelphia. Here’s what you need to know today.

WIP’s Josh Innes, always a magnet for controversy, is under fire after calling an Eagles player a “house negro.”

Crossing Broad captured the audio, where Innes describes the Eagles’ Jason Kelce: “the house negro is the guy who’s gonna tell you like, oh he gets to live in the big house with the boss and every time he refers to something that happens in the house it’s ‘our house’ and ‘we’ and everything like that. … Essentially what you’re getting here is Jason Kelce is the house negro is what I’m trying to convey to you.” Deadspin notes: “Kelce is white. This is probably the least serious problem with Innes’s analogy.” Innes apologized by the end of the show, but that may not be the end of his problem: NBC10 reports that station officials declined comment on any possible discipline. Now might be a good time to re-read Philly Mag’s profile from last fall: “Is Josh Innes Destroying Philly Sports Radio?” Kelce offered the following response via Twitter:

A massive blaze Tuesday night in Center City injured two firefighters and left some residents homeless.

Philly Mag reports: Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer told reporters that the first alarm for the fire came at 5:30 p.m.: A fire crew found a fire in the basement and quickly extinguished it. But minutes later, a fire on an upper floor was discovered, and additional units called in. At its height, 120 firefighters were involved. Two were taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. The fire was brought under control in about two hours. “We don’t know if it was two separate fires, or if it started in the basement and spread to the roof,” Sawyer said. “We need to do an investigation.” There were no other injuries; Philly.com reports that 21 residents of the four-story building were evacuated; they are being assisted by the American Red Cross.

[UPDATED] Don’t have Comcast? Love the Phillies? We have good news for you.

Editor’s Note: Our original story, which said that the settlement of a lawsuit involving Major League Baseball, Comcast and DirecTV would allow non-Comcast subscribers to stream Phillies games on mobile devices and TV players like Roku, was incorrect. For more on this, read this article at Consumerist.

New Jersey’s teen smokers can breathe (ahem) free: Chris Christie has vetoed a bill raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21.

The current minimum age is 19. NewsWorks reports the bill’s sponsor is disappointed. “This means more of our young people will take up a very, very bad habit that can do no good for them except bad health in the future,” said Sen. Dick Codey, D-Essex. He said he would re-introduce the bill. Christie vetoed other bills Tuesday: He also nixed a “smart gun” bill. “For a governor who believes in reaching across the aisle and in compromising to get things done, this is another act to prove that all those words were empty,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Union.

How bad will this weekend’s expected snow be? Pretty bad. Maybe.

The Weather Channel says the upper East Coast could take a heavy blow: “Some or all of the largest cities in the Northeast – Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston – could be significantly impacted by this storm with heavy snow and strong winds, bringing travel to a grinding halt, between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.” Local forecasters say it’s too early to say just how intense it could get, but the National Weather Service is predicting a “major winter storm” with flooding to be expected in coastal areas. Probably better get to the store and stock up on food to get you through the weekends.

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