Aubrey Whelan
Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced Wednesday that he will seek the death penaty for Gregory Twyman, the East Fallowfield man charged with killing the mother of his child in May.
Twyman is charged with shooting his partner Jamica Woods twice with a shotgun on May 21. Hogan cited Twyman's "significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence" as the "aggravating circumstance" behind his office's decision to seek the death penalty.
Twyman will be arragined on June 20, when the DA's office will formally enter their death penalty request.
Eight area seniors -- three from Berwyn's Conestoga High School alone -- have scored $4,000 college scholarships from the Siemens Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the electronics giant.
Children of Siemens U.S. employees are eligible for the Siemens Merit Scholarship, and winners are selected based on their PSAT scores, academic record and extracurricular activities. Their school must also submit a recommendation on their behalf, and the students must submit a personal essay as well. The foundation itself is geared toward supporting education initiatives in the STEM fields, according to a press release from the company.
The eight winners from the Philadelphia region are Alexander Carrer, Kevin Li and Alexander Teti, all of Conestoga High School; Matthew Owens of Upper Merion Area High School; Sarah Payonk of Spring-Ford High School; Julia Krusen of B. Reed Henderson High School; Lauren Salig of Downington High School East Campus; and Jonathan San Miguel of the University Scholars Program in West Chester.
Aubrey Whelan
An annual drug take-back program run by a state representative more than doubled the amout of drugs collected at last year's event, officials said.
The recycling, shredding and drug take-back event, hosted each year by State Rep. Duane Milne, encourages residents to drop off unwanted appliances and electronics, scrap paper and unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Milne's event this year, held on April 27, yielded nearly 575 pounds of meds -- compared to just 200 pounds last year.
Since prescription medications carry such potential for abuse, events like Milne's help residents dispose of unused or expired drugs safely. Drug Enforcement Administration events held across the country on April 27 -- otherwise known as National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day -- yielded a combined 371 tons of medication.
Aubrey Whelan
For the past 22 years, students from around the state have gathered to compete in the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition -- and for the past four years, the winners have hailed from schools in Chester County.
A team of four students from Conestoga High School in Berwyn snagged the top honor this year; participants must answer questions on world history, literature, American history, science, current events and "potpurri" -- anything and everything. This year's winning question hinged on participants' knowledge of sports: the Conestoga team correctly identified the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans as the two teams who competed in the first World Series in 1903.
Students compete throughout the year to gain entry to the state-wide competition on May 3. The winners get a trophy and $2,000 toward their school's scholarship fund.
Aubrey Whelan
Chester County detectives have arrested a West Vincent man who, they say, was running "a major marijuana grow operation" in his house.
On Tuesday evening, detectives entered the home of Christian Titone, 54, on a search warrant. Inside, they found 188 marijuana plants -- part of what Chester County prosecutors called a "sophisticated hydroponic grow operation" that included lights, ventilation and an irrigation system, according to court documents.
Titone had also set up a high-tech surveillance system that allowed him to monitor everything inside and outside the house from HD monitors, detectives said. The detectives also found processed, ready-to-sell marijuana in 12 different strains -- with names like "Afrodite Mother" and "Ace of Spades," they said.
Aubrey Whelan
After a heated, months-long community debate, Longwood Gardens received the go-ahead from Kennett Township to tear down three historic houses on its sprawing property in southern Chester County.
Kennett Township supervisors voted 2-1 Tuesday to allow Longwood to demolish the houses after tabling the decision several times. The supervisor who voted against granting a demolition permit, township manager Lisa Moore said, had wanted to wait another 15 days before making a final decision.
The three houses date to the 1920s and once housed Longwood employees. Preservationsists say they're prime examples of the work of E. William Martin, who designed a number of buildings in Chester County and Wilmington, Del.
Aubrey Whelan
Sunil Tripathi's family hung photos throughout a chapel on the Brown University campus, welcomed friends and family into the small sanctuary and then simply sat in silence.
It's a tradition in Quaker services -- the idea being that anyone who feels moved to speak should do so. And during the memorial service last Saturday, those who knew and loved the 22-year-old Brown student and Radnor native did just that.
Sunil Tripathi went missing about a month ago in Providence; his family said he had suffered from depression and left a vague note that hinted at suicidal intent. But the Tripathis held out hope, marshaling an extraordinary social media campaign and traveling from Pennsylvania to Providence, R.I. to search for him full-time.
Aubrey Whelan
For the past few months, the Chester County commissioners have been hosting what they call "on-the-road" meetings in various communities around the county. March's was in East Vincent Township, in the northernmost reaches of the county; discussion at that meeting touched on everything from preserving farmland to dealing with the construction of natural gas pipelines in the area.
Commissioners say it's a way to connect with residents in a county with so many different faces -- from Main Line towns like Malvern to rural areas like Cochranville. It's also a way to let residents know exactly what the county government actually does -- with one city, 15 boroughs and a slew of smaller communities in Chester County, it's easy to overdose on local government.
This month's meeting was in Nottingham, home to many, many mushroom farms and the national treasure known as the Herr's potato chip factory. (The meeting itself was actually at the Herr's factory, which meant lots of free chips for attendees -- reason enough to go in my book.) Here's a rundown of what was discussed:
- The Chester County Economic Development Council is hoping to revitalize the area along Route 1 in the southern portion of the county. The aim is to preserve rural land in the area while capitalizing on a potential 3 to 4 million square feet of commercial and industrial property, development adviser Bob Grabus said. The development council is launching a marketing campaign and a bus tour for prospective developers in the near future, he said.
- Oxford Borough is building an affordable housing development comprised mostly of three- and four-bedroom homes to help house farmworkers in southern Chester County, for whom finding affordable housing is sometimes tricky. It will be the third such development in the township.
- Representatives from Westgrove and Oxford talked about the county's community revitalization program, which grants funds to the county's "urban centers" -- Coatesville and the 15 boroughs -- for projects like streetscape improvement and infrastructure repairs, all designed to help attract more residents and businesses to the area. Westgrove alone has recieved seven grants from the program since 2003; Oxford credits a $1.2 million streetscape improvement program for helping keep their small town alive.
Aubrey Whelan
Alexandra Bigelow's trip to El Salvador last summer centered around building a nurse's clinic in a tiny town outside San Salvador -- standard fare for a high-school mission trip.
But Bigelow, a senior at Villa Maria Academy in Malvern, came away from the trip with a different goal in mind.
On her last day in-country, she asked community members in La Delicias -- the small town where she and her classmates had been volunteering for the past 14 days-- how she could help from home. Their answer wasn't one she was expecting: Women in the community, they said, were in dire need of sanitary napkins.
Aubrey Whelan
Human trafficking isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to crime in Pennsylvania -- but two local politicians are aiming to increase awareness and toughen penalities on human traffickers with proposed legislation this session.
State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery) and State Rep. Andy Dinniman (D-Chester) are among the co-sponsors of SB 75, which aims to prevent trafficking and crack down on offenders. Under the bill, "subjecting an individual to involuntary servitude" would become a first-degree felony; johns who knowlingly have sex with a victim of human trafficking would face second-degree felonies. The bill would also make it a third-degree felony to destroy passports or immigration documents in order to keep a trafficking victim from escaping.
The bill was tabled in the Senate in February, but Greenleaf and Dinniman say they are working to schedule a vote soon.
