Briefly... CITY/REGION

Hearing on housing laws

Mayor Nutter was expected to testify today before the state House Urban Affairs Committee that the law governing housing authorities is not working. In the wake of the scandals surrounding the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the panel is holding a hearing on the 1937 law.

The PHA board fired former Executive Director Carl R. Greene two weeks ago, after learning he had secretly settled three sexual-harassment claims against him.

'Green' training for teachers

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society will sponsor "Green City Teachers Basic Training" to encourage horticulture and environmental education.

Sessions will be Thursdays, Oct. 21 and 28, Nov. 4 and 11, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the society, 100 N. 20th St. Registration is $20.

Police graduation

The graduation of Police Academy Class 357 will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Baptist Temple at Temple University, Broad and Berks streets. A badge-pinning will begin at 8 a.m. Class 357 is composed of 137 city police recruits, 12 SEPTA police recruits and four Temple police recruits.

More jurors in cop-slay trial

Four more jurors - three women and one man - were selected yesterday for the Common Pleas jury in the trial of accused cop-killer Rasheed Scrugs, bringing to seven those chosen.

Scrugs, 35, could be sentenced to death if convicted of first-degree murder in the Feb. 13, 2009, shooting of police Officer John Pawlowski, 25. Selection is to resume this morning.

Medical pot due next July

The state Department of Health says that medical marijuana should be available to approved patients by July. Doctors will be able to register with the department later this month, and patients whose names have been submitted by their physicians will be able to register beginning in November.

They'll be issued photo IDs by the end of the year.

She's held on '84 charge

A woman accused of abducting her 6-year-old daughter during a break in a custody hearing in Somerville, Somerset County, in August 1984 was arrested this week near Lake Tahoe.

Nancy Dunsavage Fielder was arrested in Washoe County, Nev.

Authorities were tipped off to Fielder's identity after her daughter, now 31, sought to change her name to Eva Reed to get married.

- Staff and wire reports