| Corbett: Open to spending more, but not protesters May 16th 2012, 08:54 GOV. CORBETT sounded open on Tuesday to spending more on the state budget that starts July 1 than the $27.1 billion he first proposed in February. But Corbett dismissed the concerns of those protesting outside the Prince Music Theater, where he had his annual “conversation” with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, saying that the state cannot attract the jobs they clamor for if it increases business taxes. | | New Jersey revenue falls short in April May 16th 2012, 08:50 TRENTON - Tax collections in New Jersey are running $230 million behind Gov. Christie's projections after April revenue came up short, according to a state Treasury report released Tuesday. If the trend continues, Christie and lawmakers may have to revise their plans to cut taxes, or they may have to find other places to trim the budget. | | JPMorgan's big loss: Was it hedging or betting? May 16th 2012, 06:41 Could misdirection over the meaning of a simple, five-letter word - hedge - be at the heart of the roiling controversy over JPMorgan Chase's embarrassing $2 billion loss in European trading? | | Sweeney: Rowan, Rutgers-Camden overhaul legislation coming soon May 16th 2012, 06:26 State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Tuesday he was working on legislation to be ready June 1 for restructuring New Jersey’s public universities. In an interview, he maintained that multiple options remained on the table, even as Rutgers officials suggested they were close to a deal that would keep Rutgers-Camden within the Rutgers university system. | | Penn to team up with KIPP charters May 16th 2012, 06:00 The national network of KIPP charter schools last spring announced plans to more than double the number of its low-income students who graduate from college, by partnering with colleges and universities that encourage KIPP students to apply and support those who enroll. | | Pennsylvania congressman muffs Mideast message May 16th 2012, 06:00 HARRISBURG - Don't sign on the dotted line unless you've read what you're signing. Just ask U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.). He recently relearned that lesson the hard way. | | Obama to meet with Center City high school‘s seniors May 16th 2012, 05:35 At first, Douglas Wallace, a senior at the Science Leadership Academy, thought it was a prank when he heard President Obama plans to meet with the school’s graduating seniors when he comes to the Franklin Institute for a fundraiser on June 12. “We were very excited,” Wallace, 18, said of hearing the news from Frederic Bertley, the vice president of science and innovation at the Franklin Institute. | | Police: Darby man devoted to God, marijuana May 16th 2012, 05:25 WHEN Darby Borough cops found what they said were more than 200 marijuana plants inside Daniel Thomas’ rowhouse Tuesday morning, he told them that he was an out-of-work horticulturalist. Technically, that’s accurate, police say — if by “out of work” Thomas meant that his massive pot-growing operation featured an automated lighting and irrigation system that could function without his daily participation. | | Man gets 37 years for 2 robberies May 16th 2012, 05:25 A PHILADELPHIA man who had avoided conviction in city courts, despite multiple arrests for robbery and other crimes, was sentenced on Tuesday to 37 years in a federal lockup for two gunpoint robberies in the far Northeast in December 2007 and October 2009. U.S. District Judge Anita Brody also ordered John Gassew to pay $7,194 in restitution to two victims. Gassew, 25, was found guilty in February of two robberies and of using a firearm. He was cleared of one robbery and one gun charge. | | A new place for Quakers May 16th 2012, 05:25 Quakers, famous for their modesty, expect worldwide attention when they open their first new Friends meetinghouse in 80 years at 20 E. Mermaid Lane, Chestnut Hill, with a “Skyspace” designed by famed artist (and Quaker) James Turrell. The installation is a luminous chamber with an aperture in the ceiling for visitors to view the sky. Ground was broken Tuesday by members of the Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse, just up the hill from the new location, and by city officials. | | Philly crime lab technicians flunk competency test May 16th 2012, 05:20 THREE TRACE-evidence technicians have flunked a routine test administered to uphold the Philadelphia Police Department crime lab’s accreditation, police brass announced Tuesday. Each technician tests hundreds of pieces of evidence a year for traces of blood and semen, so if investigators determine that the methods are problematic, it could throw countless court cases into question, authorities acknowledged. | | A young boy, a toy gun and ‘insane’ justice May 16th 2012, 05:20 By the time he appears in court on Friday, 12-year-old Gerald McNeal will have been in custody for 10 days for doing what he thought a big brother should do. His little brother, Isaac, 9, meanwhile, has been racked with guilt and feels responsible for the serious criminal charges that his brother faces because of Isaac’s toy gun. | | Was killer trying to silence a witness? May 16th 2012, 05:20 IN A CITY where justice frequently is thwarted by a no-snitching culture, Rodney Ramseur did what others are too scared or too heartless to do: He spoke up and told what he allegedly saw, fingering a former friend at a court hearing last week as the gunman who shot a neighbor in 2010. But Monday night, someone gunned down Ramseur and his girlfriend as they sat in a springtime drizzle on the porch of his Olney home. Now, police are probing whether a retaliation-minded murderer targeted Ramseur for his role in helping authorities prosecute the neighbor’s slaying. | | Trial begins in deadly car chase May 16th 2012, 05:20 Even in Philadelphia, where a murder happens almost every day, the deadly chain of events set in motion by Ivan Rodriguez and Donta Craddock stands out for its sheer devastation: four young people, from the age of 22 years to 11 months, killed by a speeding, out-of-control Pontiac that struck them on a Feltonville sidewalk June 10, 2009. Killed that evening were Remedy Smith, 11 months; Aaliyah Griffin, 6, and Gina Marie Rosario, 7. Remedy’s mother, LaToya Smith, 22, died the next day. | | Slain radio host’s husband retains attorney May 16th 2012, 05:13 The husband of April Kauffman, a South Jersey radio personality and advocate for veterans’ causes who was found fatally shot in her master bedroom last week in Atlantic County, has hired a well-known defense attorney, who said his client had “cooperated fully” with authorities. James Kauffman, an endocrinologist, has retained Edwin Jacobs, the Atlantic City lawyer said in an interview Tuesday. | | Camden school board OKs buyout for Young May 16th 2012, 05:11 The Camden City school board signed off Tuesday night on a $62,000 buyout agreement for Superintendent Bessie LeFra Young, hours before a new school board is put in place and commences the search for a new leader. Young, a former top administrator in the Philadelphia School District who has a year left in her contract, will step down June 30 from her $244,083 job. She is receiving three months’ pay and is requesting an undisclosed amount of expense reimbursements for her nearly five years on the job. The reimbursements are not part of the separation agreement and will be negotiated separately, said the district’s labor attorney, Lou Lessig. | | Grays Ferry community garden wins a reprieve May 16th 2012, 05:10 A COMMUNITY GROUP that has gardened on vacant lots in Grays Ferry for 60 years won court approval on Tuesday to halt the sheriff sale of two lots that were scheduled to be sold Wednesday. “This is a real victory for the community,” said Amy Laura Cahn, a lawyer who represents the Central Club for Boys and Girls. | | A celebration of new jobs, expanded cancer care in Camden May 16th 2012, 05:08 Janet Knowles and Kimberly Fisher are breast cancer survivors. The importance of effective treatment is a subject they know intimately, and it’s what brought them out Tuesday with Gov. Christie and other political and community leaders to mark the formal groundbreaking for the Cooper Cancer Institute in downtown Camden. | | Technological repast at BCIT May 16th 2012, 05:04 Students with Burlington County Institute of Technology’s culinary arts department have been cooking up delicacies for Friday night’s International Food Festival to mark the high school’s 50-year anniversary. | | Hotel doorman lends city style a white-gloved hand May 16th 2012, 04:18 The dapper doorman did not set out to class up the city single-handedly with his blinding-white nylon gloves. But since he has, and since I asked, Leroy Mickens II shares that the key to that gleam is a nightly soak in Dawn detergent, a morning scrub (one gloved hand washing the other), and air drying. “I have eight pairs, so I always have a spare with me if they get dirty,” Mickens says between taking requests from guests at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel across from City Hall. Having been voted the “Neatest” and “Best Dressed” member of the Class of 1961 at Norwayne High in Goldsboro, N.C., Mickens adheres to a sartorial philosophy that defines a life spent serving others: | | School plan widely misunderstood, SRC officials say May 16th 2012, 04:16 Appearing before City Council for another day of grilling on the Philadelphia School District’s budget and proposals to transform operations and close dozens of schools, officials Tuesday said there were widespread misunderstandings about a plan to revamp the district. “Achievement networks” — groups of 20 to 25 schools run either by district staff or by outside nonprofit providers, such as universities or charter organizations — would be the foundation of the plan to decentralize. Those networks’ primary purpose would be to provide services requested by individual schools, School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos said. | | Summer bounty berry, berry early May 16th 2012, 04:15 Snow had fallen by Halloween; in effect, spring arrived by Christmas, and the blossoms were popping by Easter. And despite the atmosphere’s recent flirtations with quasi-normality, the seasonal fast-forwarding trend has continued briskly in the Philadelphia region’s farms and fields, where veteran observers report that the annual bounty of summer fruits and vegetables is a full week to two weeks ahead of schedule. | | Pa. Education Department defends its treatment of Chester Upland May 16th 2012, 04:14 Lawyers for the state Department of Education began their defense Tuesday in a federal special-education lawsuit brought by the Chester Upland School District, saying that no law had been violated and that the district had done too little to solve its own problems. In testimony last week and Monday, Chester Upland’s lawyers sought to show U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson that the district faces a large funding shortfall in providing legally required services for its 735 special-education students. The district may have too little money to open schools in September, they said, much less provide for special-needs children. | | ‘Never admit there are other cases,’ Msgr. Lynn was told May 16th 2012, 04:13 In 1991, Msgr. William J. Lynn wrote a memo outlining his interview with a man who said he had been molested by the Rev. Michael McCarthy, a longtime teacher at Cardinal O’Hara High School. But Lynn made a mistake, at least in the eyes of his boss at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Lynn had told the accuser that his was not the first complaint against McCarthy. | | N.J. revenues fall short in April May 16th 2012, 04:12 TRENTON — Tax collections in New Jersey are running $230 million behind Gov. Christie’s projections after April revenues came up short, according to a state Treasury report released Tuesday. If the trend continues, Christie and lawmakers may have to revise their plans to cut taxes, or they may have to find other places to trim the budget. New Jersey’s economy is growing, but revenues in April — when the state brings in a large haul of its income and corporate tax collection — lagged in New Jersey, down from $3.32 billion last year to $3.26 billion this year, according to the Treasury report. | | W. Philly man charged with assault in hot-coffee tossing incident May 16th 2012, 04:12 David Timbers, the West Philadelphia man wanted for tossing a cup of scalding hot coffee at a doughnut shop cashier, was charged today with aggravated assault and other related charges. Timbers, 52, of the 3700 block of Haverford Avenue, surrendered at Police Headquarters Monday, and was charged this morning. He was released after posting 10 percent of $25,000 bail. | | PATCO ‘quiet car’ program extended May 16th 2012, 04:12 PATCO ‘quiet car’ program extended The PATCO commuter rail line will extend its “quiet car” program past June 1 while agency officials gather customer feedback. The three-month trial run of the program, which bans cellphone talking in the last car of all weekday trains, will be continued until a survey of passengers is completed. | | Bucks Co. man gets 46 months in Medicare scam May 16th 2012, 04:12 A Newtown man who ran the day-to-day operations of an Olney-based private ambulance company for almost seven years was sentenced to 46 months in a federal lockup Tuesday for his role in a scheme to bilk Medicare. U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. also ordered Ivan Tkach, 30, to pay resititution of more than $1.2 million to Medicare. Yohn gave Tkach until June 15 to report to the Bureau of Prisons. | | Whistle-blower principal to be reinstated in Camden May 16th 2012, 04:12 A former Camden principal who last year received an $860,000 settlement from the school district must be reinstated in the district by July 2013, an arbitrator has ruled. In a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in Superior Court in 2007, Joseph Carruth said he was fired for publicly alleging that Camden school officials had pressured him to change test scores at Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High School in 2005. The school district settled Carruth’s civil lawsuit in November. | | Temple University settles with feds in multi-million dollar hospital fraud schemes May 16th 2012, 04:12 Temple University has agreed to pay the U.S. government $412,474 to settles claims stemming from two fraud schemes by a hospital department chairman and a trio of plastic surgeons that netted more than $4.5 million. Dr. Joseph J. Kubacki, former Chairman of Temple’s Ophthalmology Department, was convicted in August on 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of making false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Kubacki, also a professor at the medical school and an attending physician at Temple University Hospital, billed federal agencies more than $1.5 million claiming he had performed services at the hospital performed by residents when he wasn’t there. | | Customer sues Wal-Mart for $1 million for racist intercom prank May 16th 2012, 03:59 An African American shopper who says he suffers emotional distress and mental afflictions caused by a racist intercom announcement he heard two years ago at a Wal-Mart store in Washington Township, Gloucester County, is suing the retail giant for $1 million. Donnell Battie, 35, of Winslow Township, was in the crowded store on Route 42 the evening of March 14, 2010, when a male voice said over the loudspeaker: “Attention Wal-Mart customers, all black people must leave the store.” | | After 44 arrests, a 37-year sentence May 16th 2012, 03:55 A Philadelphia man who had been arrested 44 times for robberies and other crimes but was never convicted in city courts was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 37 years in prison for two armed stickups. The lengthy rap sheet of John Gassew, now 25, was highlighted in a 2009 series published in The Inquirer about how Philadelphia had the highest violent-crime rate among major American cities, but had the lowest conviction rate for those offenses. | | Police: Olney double slaying may have been retaliation for testimony May 16th 2012, 03:30 Latia Jones, a 21-year-old mother, was asked by her GED program to write an essay about her future. She wanted to become a forensic psychologist so she could understand what motivates people to commit crimes and possibly help juveniles in trouble, she wrote. She described her own youth, of being sent to foster homes, group homes, and at least one juvenile facility. She also cited the “outrageous crime rates” in Philadelphia. | | Audit faults Montco over legal fees May 16th 2012, 03:30 The Montgomery County controller said Tuesday he had found “lax oversight” and “the potential for impropriety” in an audit of legal fees paid by the county from 2008 through 2011. Controller Stewart J. Greenleaf Jr., a Republican, applauded steps taken last month by a new Democratic-controlled administration in Norristown to address some of the problems. | | Mother and son were victims in Route 309 accident May 16th 2012, 03:30 A mother and son whose car stalled in the middle of busy Route 309 in Montgomery County were killed when an SUV slammed into their car Monday afternoon. “They never knew what hit them,” said Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman. | | FDA panel recommends rapid home HIV test May 16th 2012, 01:20 A federal advisory committee on Tuesday unanimously approved over-the-counter sale of a rapid HIV test, acknowledging the need for new tools against an epidemic that is driven largely by people who don't know their status and infect others. | | Audit faults Montco over legal fees May 16th 2012, 00:16 The Montgomery County controller said Tuesday he had found "lax oversight" and "the potential for impropriety" in an audit of legal fees paid by the county from 2008 through 2011. | | School plan widely misunderstood, SRC officials say May 15th 2012, 23:51 Appearing before City Council for another day of grilling on the Philadelphia School District's budget and proposals to transform operations and close dozens of schools, officials on Tuesday said there are widespread misunderstandings about a plan to revamp the district. | | Alleged hostage taker now charged in a W. Philly homicide May 15th 2012, 21:01 A man held in a hostage drama earlier this month has been charged with murder in a fatal shooting in West Philadelphia in April. Demetrius Young, 20, was arrested in prison and charged with shooting and killing Marcus Smith, 28, of the 5700 block of Filbert Street, at 60th and Market Streets at 3:45 a.m. on April 1, police said. | |
