Crime: It's the Unemploment Rate, Stupid

I've been pretty tough on my once-upon-a-time employer, the Philadelphia Daily News, for its dead-on-arrival website. But to give credit where it's due, the paper has put together a fabulous package of stories that offer an obvious but nevertheless somehow startling solution to the city's outrageous violent crime rate, which so far has defied solution through more conventional means like cops cracking down and politicians mouthing off:

Find jobs for Philadelphia's unemployed youths, some of whom are whiling away their days using their neighborhoods for target practice.

You can read the series here. And click here for my take on why Philadelphia's murder rate has been going up while New York City's has been going down.