"2 ex-Philadelphia officers plead guilty in heroin plot" February 08, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Two former Philadelphia police officers face five years or more of prison after pleading guilty yesterday in a plot to steal heroin from a suspected drug dealer and sell it....
Their arrests last year came in a string of police corruption cases that prompted Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to vow to clean house. He has since beefed up the Internal Affairs unit and proposed stricter hiring requirements, including two years of college.
In May, James Venziale, 32, and Officer Mark Williams staged a traffic stop of suspected dealer Angel Ortiz after Ortiz obtained heroin from a supplier on credit, authorities said.
With the supplier’s courier looking on, the officers appeared to arrest Ortiz, allegedly in on the scheme, and seize the drugs, they said. Ortiz paid the officers $6,000 for their help and an unspecified amount to Christal Snyder, according to an indictment.
The group then tried to sell the heroin through an undercover federal agent, prosecutors say.
Venziale spoke softly yesterday as he pleaded guilty to conspiring with drug dealers and possessing heroin, once near a charter school. Venziale, facing a mandatory five years in prison, admitted he took part in the staged traffic stop and heroin seizure.
Robert Snyder, 30, who is not cooperating with prosecutors, faces a mandatory 10 years in prison on drug and gun charges related to the scheme. His wife, Christal, accused of using her phone to pass information between the officers and suspected dealers, also faces a mandatory 10-year term if convicted....
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"New hearing ordered for Abu-Jamal" April 27, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court yesterday ordered a new sentencing hearing for convicted police killer and death-row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, finding for a second time that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at his 1982 trial were potentially misleading....
District Attorney Seth Williams, the city’s first black district attorney, pledged to mount another appeal to the US Supreme Court at the urging of Faulkner’s widow, Maureen:
“This is not a whodunit.’’
Actually, it is: Ten Reasons Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent
The bullets didn't match the gun?
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Also see:
Trial of Pennsylvania judge in kickbacks case set to begin today
US wraps up kickback case vs. judge
Pa. judge convicted in kickback case
Related: Pennsylvania Frees Child Prisoners
Now free Mumia!
More death penalty:
"Abortion doctor may face death penalty" March 03, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors notified a Philadelphia doctor charged with killing a patient and seven babies at his abortion clinic that they intend to pursue the death penalty against him.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 70, ran a filthy West Philadelphia medical practice that served as a pill mill by day and an abortion mill by night, a grand jury concluded in January after a two-year investigation.
The multiple deaths and tender age of the babies — allegedly killed with scissors after being born alive — are the aggravating circumstances that warrant the death penalty for Gosnell, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said yesterday.
Defense lawyers have suggested that Gosnell, his wife, and eight other defendants who worked at the clinic treated poor women and minorities when no one else would....
And therefore the conduct was justified?
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Related: Pennsylvania overhauls abortion-clinic oversight
You would hope so.
Another type of abortion:
"Couple spared prison in sick son’s death" February 03, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A fundamentalist Christian couple who relied on prayer to cure their dying toddler must take their remaining children for medical checkups as part of their sentence in the boy’s death, a judge ruled yesterday.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible, who belong to First Century Gospel Church in Philadelphia, were previously convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the pneumonia death of their 2-year-old son, Kent.
Common Pleas Court Judge Carolyn Engel Temin said that adults are entitled to follow church teachings shunning medicine, which is seen as a lack of faith in God. But parents, the judge ruled, may not make that decision for their children.
Gee, with all the pharmaceutical$ being $hoved down kids' throats these days who can blame them?
“The welfare of the child is more important than the religious freedom of the parents,’’ Temin said.
So when are the states and federal government going to start taking care of them?
Defense lawyers had argued that the Schaibles did not know how sick Kent was before his death in January 2009. The boy’s symptoms had included coughing, congestion, crankiness, and a loss of appetite. But the parents said that the boy was eating and drinking until the last day, and that they thought he was improving.
Speaking in court, Herbert Schaible asked the judge for leniency to allow the couple to support their family.
Temin sentenced them to 10 years of probation, during which they are required to seek routine and emergency medical care for their seven children, ages 1 through 15.
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So they can grow up to be one of these:
"School chief decries teacher’s critical blog" February 24, 2011|Associated Press
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — It will be “impossible’’ for a suburban Philadelphia teacher suspended for blogging derogatory comments about her students to return to the district after her maternity leave, the district superintendent said.
Hey, someone has to do it!
About 150 people packed a Central Bucks school board meeting on Tuesday.
At the meeting, officials responded to the blog in which high school English teacher Natalie Munroe described her students as “disengaged, lazy whiners’’ — and worse.
Related: Boston Globe School Daze: Kids in Charge of Boston Classrooms
They sure look like them to me.
“Ms. Munroe, by her own actions, has made it impossible for her to teach in this district,’’ Superintendent Robert Laws said.
Who would want to teach these days? If you are not being attacked by politicians you are being disrespected by the kids.
“No student should be subjected to such a hostile educational environment.’’
It was an anonymous blog for God's sake!!
************
Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family.
Now you see why I DO NOT either!
Students at Central Bucks East High School found out it about it recently and told administrators.
The blog has been taken down, but Munroe has said she stands by her comments.
Supporters say she is voicing common classroom frustrations, and her lawyer believes Munroe has a free-speech defense.
Free speech? In AmeriKa?
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What you will never get out of me:
"Pair get 9-year terms in hate-crime death" February 24, 2011|Associated Press
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Two Pennsylvania men were sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday after being convicted of a federal hate crime for beating and kicking an illegal Mexican immigrant who died of his injuries.
Isn't the ACT ITSELF a CRIME?
Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky were among a group of white high school football players in the small town of Shenandoah who attacked 25-year-old Luis Ramirez in 2008. Prosecutors alleged they beat Ramirez because they did not like Hispanics and wanted them out of their town....
But, but, but.... football is a game of heroes and AmeriKa's finest.
The pair were convicted in October. They could have received more than 15 years in prison under federal guidelines, but US District Judge Richard Caputo granted them a reduction because of their personal character and conduct before Ramirez’s beating, as well as the numerous testimonials he received....
Yeah, they are GOOD KIDS!
Federal charges were brought against Piekarsky and Donchak after another all-white jury acquitted them of serious state crimes....
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Related: Around AmeriKa: No Brotherly Love in Pennsylvania
Time to relax at a party:
"1 killed, 8 wounded in shooting at party
CHESTER — Shots rang out in a suburban Philadelphia social hall where a teen party was being held, killing one person and sending eight others to the hospital, authorities said yesterday. Police in Chester, where a state of emergency was declared last summer because of crime concerns, said a suspect was taken into custody after officers were called to Minaret Temple No. 174 about 11:30 p.m. Friday and found “numerous victims.’’ The hall had been rented for a party, police said (AP)."
More fatalities, this time from fire:
"5 dead in fire at Pennsylvania duplex" March 23, 2011|Associated Press
ALTOONA, Pa. — The worst fire in this central Pennsylvania city since the 1970s tore through a second-floor apartment and killed five people early yesterday, producing flames visible across the city, officials said....
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"Seven children perish in a Pennsylvania farmhouse fire; one sibling survives" March 10, 2011|Associated Press
LOYSVILLE, Pa. — The father was making his rounds in his milk truck and the mother was in the barn milking the cows when their 3-year-old daughter smelled smoke and ran for help.
By the time the parents reached their farmhouse, it was too late: Seven of their eight children were killed in a furious blaze Tuesday night. They ranged in age from 7 months to 11 years.
Neighbors in the heavily Amish and Mennonite area converged on the farm to help with the chores yesterday. Even the grieving father, Theodore Clouse, kept busy, perhaps as a way of coping.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation, but the children’s grandfather, Noah Sauder, suspected a propane heater.
The fire left a blackened shell in the rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania. A car parked beside the house was burned to the bare metal....
Just wondering why the metal didn't melt.
I mean, if fire can melt the steel girders of a 110-story Trade Center tower.... ?????
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Also see:
DA in Philadelphia charges priests, teacher with rape
21 Philadelphia priests accused of abuse suspended
Former church aide fights abuse coverup charge
Pennsylvania archdiocese faces new abuse suit
In Philadelphia, fear of predatory priests
Related: The Lucky Priest of Pennsylvania
Updates: Testimony shows Pa. regulators give little scrutiny to gas-drilling outfits
Pa. widens testing for pollutants in water
Pa. woman admits kidnapping her niece
