Public-safety $ hearings

HERE'S WHAT will be making news in Philly this week:

Public safety will be in the hot seat at City Council budget hearings on Wednesday. Police, fire and prison officials are all scheduled to testify on their budgets during the day.

Mayor Nutter's budget plan includes money for new hires for police and fire. Council plans to take public testimony after those hearings, so if you want to sound off, come to City Hall at 5:30 p.m.

Trash, graffiti and potholes could soon be reported via an iPhone application created by freshman City Councilman Bobby Henon.

After downloading the CityHall App, residents will be able to make complaints and take photos that go to Henon's office, which will then forward the info to the proper city departments.

Henon, whose district covers parts of Northeast Philly, also will forward complaints from other districts to their respective district Council members. Residents also will receive updates on the status of their complaints.

It takes a week for Apple to review and release an app into its store. According to Henon's staff, the app could be available as early as Tuesday.

It's not clear how much the app costs, but a staff member said that it was "fairly inexpensive" because it was developed by a staff member. Next, Henon will roll out a program that will allow residents who do not have smartphones to submit their issues via text. An Android app is also in the works.

Rapper Beanie Sigel is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Thursday for failing to file tax returns.

The rapper, whose real name is Dwight Grant, pleaded guilty in August to three counts of failing to file federal tax returns for the years 2003 through 2005. The government says that Sigel owed at least $348,000 on taxable income of $1 million.

Sigel's attorney said at the plea hearing that he would contest the government's calculation of taxes owed when Sigel appears for sentencing. The rapper faces up to three years in prison.

Brandon Timmons was so friendly with Valerie Marie Angeline that she even introduced him to her father last month.

A week later, Timmons, 22, shot and repeatedly stabbed Angeline, 31, in her West Philadelphia apartment, according to police.

The alleged motive for the killing may come out at Timmons' preliminary hearing, scheduled for Wednesday in Common Pleas Court.

Timmons, of Overbrook, has a history of drug arrests, including one for marijuana possession on March 14.

Angeline, formerly of Bryn Mawr, had moved to the city in October.

A Manheim husband and wife are scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in federal court, charged in a massive $53 million loan-fraud scheme involving a Lancaster County company, Equipment Finance LLC, that provided funding for the purchase of forestry and land-clearing equipment.

Curtis and Misty Kroesen were employees of the company, whose supervisors allegedly encouraged them to make false entries in the company's books, create false documents and undermine the audit process.

Court papers filed by federal prosecutors say that both Kroesens gave statements at their home to federal agents on June 25, 2007, in which they admitted they knew that the company's chief operating officer, Joseph Brass, a co-defendant who has pleaded guilty in the case, was creating bogus loans as early as 2002. Both Kroesens also admitted knowing about the deception directed at auditors and participating in it, the court papers said.

- Mensah Dean, Chris Brennan, Catherine Lucey, Jan Ransom

and Michael Hinkelman