5 GOP challengers in debate

HERE'S WHAT WILL make news in Philly this week:

The five men seeking the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. in the general election will debate Wednesday evening at the Union League.

The candidates in the April 24 primary are Steve Welch, a Malvern venture capitalist and the state party's endorsed candidate; Sam Rohrer, a former state representative from Berks County who ran for governor in 2010; Tom Smith, an Armstrong County coal company owner; Marc Scaringi, a former staffer to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum; and David Christian, a Bucks County businessman.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll last week found that four of five registered Republicans in Pennsylvania don't know enough about the five candidates to support one.

A plea hearing is scheduled on Tuesday for Hugh Clark, a founder and board president of the New Media Technology Charter School in northwest Philadelphia.

Last spring, federal prosecutors charged that Clark and Ina Walker, the CEO of the school, stole $522,000 from New Media to pay expenses at Lotus Academy, a small private school in West Oak Lane they controlled, to fund personal businesses including the Black Olive restaurant in West Mount Airy and a nearby health-food store, and for personal expenses, including meals and credit-card bills.

Walker pleaded guilty to theft and fraud charges in January and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and to testify against Clark.

Also Tuesday, sentencing is set for Alexander "Reds" Rivera, the ringleader of a violent North Philadelphia drug gang that operated in and around Indiana Avenue and Lawrence Street between February 2006 and September 2010. Rivera was convicted in December of multiple drug distribution and possession counts.

Frank Tepper, the ex-cop convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting William Panas Jr., 21, will be formally sentenced on Tuesday. Because of his conviction, he will receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Tepper was off duty and drunk when he shot Panas, his Port Richmond neighbor, during a 2009 street brawl. Tepper had emerged from his home with a handgun as Panas and some of his friends from the same neighborhood were fighting some of Tepper's friends and relatives.

Tepper shot the unarmed Panas Jr. in the chest after the younger man bruised Tepper's ego by daring him to shoot, prosecutors said at trial.

- Chris Brennan, Jan Ransom

and Michael Hinkelman