Former CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte is scheduled for a plea hearing at 9:30AM this morning at the federal courthouse at Sixth and Market Streets, where he is expected to plead guilty to hacking into the personal e-mail of onetime colleague Alycia Lane. Lawrence Scott Ward, 65, a former marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, is already serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison for trafficking in child porn, but yesterday new......

Yesterday afternoon in LOVE Park, two homeless women got into a fight over a homeless man's affections which ended in one woman stabbing the other to death. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mayor Nutter's recent press conference in which he angrily criticized DHS left some workers upset. He spent yesterday trying to placate them in a series of closed-door meetings. "A veteran Philadelphia-area Roman Catholic priest's transfer from Florida to Bucks County has been halted after......

Alligators have been showing up in Bucks County ponds and watering holes. So much so, there is a group called upon to handle the situation when it arises: the Gator Wranglers. Recently they picked one up from a pond near a construction site in Northampton. So far they’ve encountered about six gators in the past two years; that’s six too many in Bucks County. Apparently suburbanites think its fun to order a baby gator online......

Some updates on local criminal cases: the Bucks County mother accused of turning a sleepover into a sex party was ordered to stand trial yesterday. Andy Reid's son Garrett Reid was sentenced to two years in a relatively new state corrections program that combines incarceration and intensive drug treatment. Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his latest appeal for a new trial on Monday. Perhaps not surprisingly, the DRPA got an earful from angry commuters yesterday at......

"There will be overnight traffic restrictions on Route 202 at the Route 29 interchange in East Whiteland Township, Chester County, tonight and Monday." Also, I-95 North in Philadelphia will have a lane closure tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday morning for barrier construction. Newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that Philadelphia lost more residents between 2000 and 2007 than any U.S. city except New Orleans. Ouch. High fuel costs are also affecting......

"Two bills aimed at cleaning up commercial breeding kennels in Pennsylvania are slated for committee votes in Harrisburg today." A new veterans cemetery to be known as Washington Crossing National Cemetery is scheduled to start construction in Bucks County next year, with the first burials starting toward the end of the year. The plans for the new cemetery will be available for review tonight during a public briefing by the Department of Veterans Affairs at......

In the wake of last month's devastating earthquake in China, a group of Widener University professors is using video-conferencing to train faculty at East China Normal University in Shanghai to teach psychological first aid. State Rep. Darryl Metcalfe refused to apologize for the comments he made on the floor of the House on Wednesday, wherein he suggested that he was opposing recognizing a Muslim religious organization's convention because "Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as......

Fiery Ghosts! One of the most classic anomalies this strange planet has ever produced is known as "ball lightning." It's a phenomenon that has been suggested to be anything from ghostly activity, to electricity in the air, to a will-o-the-wisp-type effect, to the fiery origin of Spontaneous Human Combustion. Such manifestations have also been connected to phantom hounds, with many such bizarre ghost dogs often appearing at first as balls of fire, or transforming into......

Sixteen men will receive fatherhood awards from the Father's Day Rally Committee at a reception in North Philadelphia tonight. In case you were wondering, no, SEPTA transit police did not strike yesterday. About an hour before the 2PM deadline, negotiations began at SEPTA headquarters in Center City, and continued until about 10 before ending for the night. Nothing has been resolved, but they were scheduled to meet again at 9 this morning, which means they'll......

The Inquirer profiles a Germantown clinic whose services are described as indispensable, but which may shut down soon due to a lack of funds. Suspended Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. testified yesterday in his ecclesiastical trial, trying to explain why he had not told anyone that his brother was sexually abusing a high-school student in the 1970s. A preliminary hearing was held yesterday for the five North Philadelphia teens arrested in the beating and......

"Five men were indicted in New Jersey yesterday on charges of illegally selling guns bought in Bucks County sporting goods stores to buyers in Trenton." Philadelphia Police Officers Sheldon Fitzgerald and Howard Hill III, both five-year veterans who worked in the 25th District in North Philadelphia, were charged with aggravated assault and other offenses for allegedly beating up a graffiti prankster in August 2007. Now police authorities have reopened another Internal Affairs investigation into......

We're having a hard time figuring out how many stores are participating, but the Starbucks in the Gallery at 9th and Market is closed today out of respect for Sean Patrick Conroy, the Starbucks manager who recently lost his life in an attack on a SEPTA platform. A sign at the store says it will reopen tomorrow. The latest on the PA primary race: Barack Obama spoke in Allentown yesterday, criticizing Republican nominee John McCain......

The tiny Bucks County borough of Yardley is home to some of the most frequently flooded properties in the nation, thanks to the Delaware River's chronic deluges. Thus Yardley expects to receive $655,000 from a pilot grant program aimed at stemming federal flood claims in hard-hit towns. Apparently our new soccer club's anthem is "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover." Well it's appropriate for today, anyway. "Handgun-control proponents in the State House are attempting......

Eerie Legends Ghost stories appeal to us all, but there's nothing like a delve into the more sinister side of apparitions and legends rather than your rather run-of-the-mill hauntings, and here are a few for you which'll have you looking over your shoulder for a while. First stop is the bizarre spook said to be of a large white humanoid, often seen holding a baby in the vicinity of Fishtown's Palmer Cemetery. Considering the several......

Police are asking for the public's help in locating the mother of a baby who was found swaddled in a blue and gray blanket and stuffed in a black garbage bag amid shrubs and branches in the front yard of a home on 58th Street near Chestnut yesterday afternoon. The baby, who had been born yesterday morning and whose umbilical cord was still attached, is healthy, and police say they are not looking to......

Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of police shootings in the country. The Daily News takes a look at what's being done about it, and is pretty underwhelmed. Apparently "many of the officers involved in these shootings are back to their regular street beats, even though most incidents are still being investigated without a determination that the officers were justified in firing their weapons." Due to the fact that local schools had received recalled......

Berks County is featured in one the strangest hauntings regarding road-related weirdness. At Hawk Sanctuary Mountain there is a legend that a shining, ten-feet tall apparition spooks drivers travelling along the two-road lane which ascends the mountain. The mountain, situated between Ecksville and Bailey's Crossing, is also allegedly haunted by the spirits of settlers who were killed by Indians during the 1700s. Meanwhile Bristol - located in the extreme south of Bucks County, northeast of......

Whilst the heart of Philly may be bereft of sightings of the hairy humanoid we've come to know and love as Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, history shows that such man-beasts have been evident within the counties which surround. For over a century Pennsylvania has been plagued by all sorts of high strangeness, and reports of hulking, bipedal beings are no exception. During the summer of 1968 a sixteen-year old female camping in Bucks County was cycling......

The Daily News suggests strongly that if the city made use of private ambulances when Fire Department medic units are swamped with calls, it could make the difference between life and death for certain patients. Philadelphia doesn't use nonmunicipal ambulances because of legal issues. Also in the Daily News this morning is an article providing more details on the case of the three North Philadelphia teenagers killed in a car accident on Saturday. Last......

On the last day of 2007, the Daily News takes a look back at the biggest story in Philadelphia this year: the murder rate. A disturbing and surreal faux funeral motorcade took place yesterday, organized to bring attention to the problem. The Daily News asked a bunch of experts what was causing the problem and got a lot of different answers, but it seems to be generally agreed that guns and poverty don't help. Finally,......

We're sure you've heard by now, but as we haven't had a chance to mention it here yet: on Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that "City Council's longstanding failure to vote on SugarHouse's zoning and land-use requests" constituted "deliberate inaction" and therefore "cleared the way for construction to begin on the $550 million SugarHouse casino in Fishtown and Northern Liberties." SugarHouse officials say they expect to start construction in a matter of weeks. The......

The "10,000 men: A Call to Action" campaign will get started in earnest on Saturday when they put the first 200 men on the streets. It'll be a field exercise for squad leaders, and apparently they'll also be doing a door-to-door campaign to alert neighbors of the effort. Then they'll be patrolling in South Philadelphia next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. John Lewis, the suspect in the murder of police officer Chuck Cassidy, was......

The Inquirer has the story of an American soldier from Bucks County who worked hard in Iraq trying to rebuild the country and is now home for the holidays. Princeton University scientists announced yesterday that they'd discovered a way to reproduce the chemical signals that the bacteria that cause cholera use to communicate with each other, which opens up the possibility of a new way to fight bacteria: talking to them in their own......

Mostly what we have for you this morning are election results from all around the area: municipal elections for Bucks County and Montgomery County, School Board elections for Montgomery County, ballot questions in Bucks, and the various suburban races. And of course, as expected, Nutter's position as Mayor has been made official. The Daily News has some more details on John Lewis' flight from police and his eventual capture, and the Inquirer has the......

The Daily News has more on what's happening in the city in the aftermath of the death of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy. The reward for information has been increased, the manhunt has been stepped up, and later today "detectives expect to have a video of the murder that was enhanced at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va." In a lengthy hearing yesterday, more sordid information came out about Andy Reid's sons Garrett and Britt......

"A former lawmaker has returned $79,000 he was paid to serve as litigator for House Republicans." But the state Ethics Commission still has to decide whether his contract violated Pennsylvania law, in which case he might have to pay fines equal to three times that amount. The 90-year-old woman who was beaten and robbed outside her Port Richmond home last month has now died from her injuries. The police are asking for help in......

Sadly, we have a lot of notes about violent crime this morning. First up is the story of a brutal mugging, and the act of a good Samaritan that may very well have saved the victim's life (via Jill). That incident occurred some time ago, but early Saturday morning a gunman fired into a crowd outside Club Polaris, killing two young men and injuring three more. The club has been closed by the city's......

A Philadelphia police officer shot in 1966 while trying to stop a burglary finally died on Sunday from complications of his injuries, and his death has therefore been ruled a murder. Police are now considering whether to charge the shooter (already sentenced to 10 to 20 years for attempted murder) with the crime. Pacifico Ford in Philadelphia and Springfield Ford in Delco have made an agreement with the government to reimburse African African customers who......

Rendell is now supporting the idea, spearheaded by outgoing Philadelphia School Reform Commission Chairman James Nevels, of trying to bring a major league soccer franchise to the city of Chester. While the court battle still rages over whether SEPTA will be able to eliminate transfers or not, Rendell and Fumo announced Tuesday that all seventh-through-12th graders who live more than 1 1/2 miles from their schools will ride for free with a new weekly transit......

Tuesday Join the Bucks County Choral Society for their open Summer Sing of Orff's 'Carmina Burana.' Trinity Episcopal Church (6587 Upper York Rd., Solebury); 7:30 PM; $10 Wednesday The Holy Trinity's brown bag lunch series continues with the Father John D'Amico Jazz Trio. Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square; 12:30 PM; FREE Friday The Haddonfield Players continue their run of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. 957 E Atlantic Ave, Haddonfield, NJ; 8 PM; $18......