Category — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A federal jury’s verdict that four Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employees are liable for $6.5 million in damages stemming from a series of disputed enforcement actions has triggered shock waves in Harrisburg, where officials are voicing concern that they will be held personally liable for efforts to uphold environmental laws.

The city saved $4.2 million last year by rooting out corrupt employees, according to a report to be issued today by Philadelphia’s Office of Inspector General.

Three young women who have grown up amid violence in the Middle East came thousands of miles to deliver a message that didn’t seem foreign to 40 high school girls from Philadelphia.

Fatema Jafari, 15, of Afghanistan , had never walked around the streets of Philadelphia before this week, but she feels as though she has.

A former Bucks County high school teacher who had a five-month sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student - with the apparent knowledge of his peers - was sent to prison yesterday.

In strong terms, a broad coalition of supporters publicly championed controversial South Philadelphia High School principal LaGreta Brown yesterday. Brown also spoke out for the first time, defending her leadership.

Officials believe a skull found in woods behind a motel in the far Northeast belongs to a woman.

GM told Classic Chevrolet it was no longer wanted during the worst of the auto crisis. This week, owner Classic Chevrolet owner Tom Hessert finally got some good news from the Detroit automaker.

For the first time since their arrest seven months ago, the three American hikers imprisoned in Iran for entering the country illegally were permitted brief phone calls to their families.

If New Jersey taxpayers fund your paychecks, you ought to live in the Garden State, too.That’s the thinking behind a bill proposed in the Legislature this week, which already has drawn bipartisan support from Gov. Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), among other political leaders. It also has attracted loud criticism from public employees.

The four juveniles charged in the torture deaths of a Burlington County couple found buried in Camden should be prosecuted as adults, authorities said yesterday.

As Gov. Christie prepares for a budget debate likely to focus heavily on property taxes, he and fellow Republicans are devising steps to control the local levies with a combination of help and force.

The “ugly call” came before 8 that morning, and by early afternoon Kevin Bailey and his wife, Bonnie, were flying to Australia, where their youngest child was fighting to live.

A patrol officer with a sensitive nose was credited yesterday with uprooting what authorities called the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey history.

Police were searching Wednesday for an Upper Darby resident wanted on child-pornography charges.

Maisha Williams Johnson, 61, of Springfield, Delaware County, a retired marketing executive and author, died of cancer March 2 at home.

The food and beverage industry is mobilizing against Mayor Nutter’s proposed tax on sweet drinks, with a rush of activity that has City Hall bracing for a “madhouse.”

Police were searching yesterday for an Upper Darby resident wanted on child-pornography charges.Jose Oyarzun, 40, is accused of possessing and distributing the illicit material after police discovered more than 74 images on his computer, said detective Lisa Carroll of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Task Force.

A patrol cop with a sensitive schnoz was credited today with uprooting what authorities say is the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey’s history.

A Philadelphia Water Department employee was shot coming out of a North Philadelphia auto mechanic’s shop this afternoon.

Two undercover officers were injured this afternoon when a suspect hit them with his car in the parking lot of a Kensington Applebee’s, police said.

Hot rhythms pour from a sidewalk speaker at Centro Musical, a compact-disc shop near Fifth Street and Lehigh Avenue in a heavily Latino part of North Philadelphia. Largely Puerto Rican, the enclave called El Centro de Oro, or Golden Center, has swelled in the last decade with Dominicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, and other Hispanic immigrants.

The civil trial arising from the 2005 crash of a Cessna airplane has come and gone as quietly as the full-scale Cessna P210 - a trial exhibit - that last week drew gawkers to City Hall’s northwest plaza.

The four juveniles charged in the torture murders of a Burlington County couple found buried in Camden should be prosecuted as adults, authorities said today.

Mitchell Rubin, fired a year ago as chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, was charged today with obstructing a federal investigation into his longtime friend, former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo.

If New Jersey taxpayers fund your paychecks, you ought to live in the Garden State, too.

HARRISBURG - After calling two dozen witnesses over three days, the defense in the corruption trial of former State Rep. Mike Veon rested today without Veon or his three codefendants taking the stand.

HARRISBURG - The defense in the corruption trial of former State Rep. Mike Veon could rest later today, depending on whether the judge allows the jury to hear certain testimony and evidence, said Joel Sansone, one of Veon’s lawyers.

The snow is still melting, but Accu-Weather’s annual hurricane forecast says it is going to be an eventful season - and perhaps then some.

A day after filing nomination petitions in a quest to succeed the late Rep. John Murtha , former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer announced this morning that she is withdrawing from the primary race.