We don't usually like to talk about competitors, but we will this time, because Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman will be blogging regularly for the online Huffington Post. Her latest posting was Wednesday and was about cell phone safety with your children. Here are the first couple of paragraphs:
"Mom, when can I have a cell phone? I need a cell phone! Everyone has one!!"
SEPTA reports these changes effective Sunday to the Manayunk-Norristown and Lansdale-Doylestown regional rail lines:
Lansdale/Doylestown-Due to overhead wire replacement work, shuttle buses will operate in place
of train service between Doylestown and Colmar Stations, mid-day, Mondays through Fridays
from April 8, 2013 until August 9, 2013.
Inbound: Shuttle buses will substitute for trains 525 through 551 from 9:45 a.m. until 2:45 p.m.
Buses will depart from Doylestown Station approximately 12 minutes earlier than scheduled train
times to connect with trains departing from Colmar Station.
They packed it all up - the wagon wheels and stagecoaches, the carriages and cars, the big-box stores that sell everything from kitchenware to computers. Not the actual items, of course.
The images and memories and records, loaded into 600 boxes and trucked out of Jenkintown to spacious new quarters in Abington. FULL STORY
And in Business news:
- Merck says its Montgomery County R&D hub is safe for now
- Corbett spikes contract with firm implicated in Turnpike scandal
- Radnor company acquires 19,000 in Texas for shale-gas exploration
- Bryn Mawr resident Ali Velshi dumps CNN for Al Jazeera America
- Bryn Mawr College loses its third administrator in less than a month
The historic Fetters Mill bridge reopened to traffic this morning, with little fanfare but much to the delight of Bryn Athyn residents.
"Isn't this exciting!" a man shouted out his truck window before driving over.
The bridge had been closed since November, when PennDot inspectors deemed it unsafe. Without the bridge, getting from Bryn Athyn to Willow Grove required a detour around Terwood Road, Welsh Road and Huntingdon Pike.
Montgomery County has set up free drop-off sites for residents to dispose of old or unwanted prescription drugs.
District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said prescription drug abuse is rising, "particularly among our youth."
"We have seen time and again that addiction often begins with minors stealing powerful narcotics from their parents’ medicine cabinets. This includes Oxycontin, Percocet and many other highly addictive prescription medications. We have seen many teens turn from underage drinking parties to 'pharm parties,' where they collect whatever pills they can steal from home medicine cabinets and share them with their friends," Ferman said.
- FrackNation backers dare 'Gasland' director to Main Line showdown
- Fired Arcadia president says he was exiled from campus
- Sen. Daylin Leach announces campaign staff for congressional run
- Testimony sealed in Norristown double-murder trial
- Obituary: Edward Gormley, of Fort Washington, was executive at Susquehanna Bank
- Obituary: Rodman B. Finkbiner, Bryn Mawr gastroenterologist
- Public garden opens in Wayne
- Upper Moreland woman charged in boyfriend's death
- Merion Golf Club preparing for U.S. Open
State Rep. Mary Jo Daley (D., Montgomery) announced today that she has been appointed to the House Select Committee on School Safety, which will look at security issues at public and private schools in Pennsylvania.
The committee will study school safety and security procedures and will have the authority to call witnesses and get documents. It has a September 30 deadline for submitting a report that includes recommendations.
Some of the items committee members will examine are security policies and procedures in primary, soecondary and higher education schools; state laws and regulations; early detection possibilities.
It's always nice to get extra money — especially in tight economic times and especially-especially when it comes as part of a settlement to a major bid-rigging scheme that authorities said victimized government units, schools and organizations.
Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane recently announced that settlements reached over the past year with Union Bank of Switzerland, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Bank of America, and GE Funding Capital Market Services will send more than $1.9 million to the scheme's Pennsylvania victims. Montgomery County will get $220,046.88, the second-largest in the state. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency will get $749,326.66. Others sharing the settlement in Pennsylvania include Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Swarthmore College, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
As a bipartisan congressional panel puts pen to paper on a comprehensive immigration reform package, members of a regional labor union will rally in Norristown in support of the effort.
SEIU 32BJ -- which represents 120,000 janitors, window-washers, doormen, security guards and other "property services workers" -- is planning a rally Saturday at 11 a.m. in front of St. Patrick's Church at 714 DeKalb Street. Afterward, the group will march down DeKalb to the borough hall.
Business and labor leaders announced last week that they had agreed on a broad framework for reform, and passed the package to the Gang of Eight -- four Republican and four Democratic senators -- to hammer out the details. They expect to introduce the legislation after Congress returns from recess April 8.
It's April Fools' Day. Have you been pranked yet?
- Montco resident took helm of gun-safety group at a pivotal time
- New Pa. Turnpike chief says he's ready to face down corruption
- Williamsburg tailors to study George Washington's Valley Forge tent
- Allyson Schwartz's political baggage worries some Dems
- In hearing at beer distributor, few cheer liquor privatization
- Conshohocken debates Wawa plan
- Development bet was right on Target for King of Prussia
- Union angry over U.S. Open shutout
- Well-dressed man robs Ambler bank
Not from Montco, but fascinating for anyone approaching the college-admissions process:
Contact Davis at cdavis@phillynews.com or 610-313-8109.
Contact Parks at 610-313-8117, jparks@philly.com, or https://twitter.com/JS_Parks.
