By Lauren Wilson

CHADDS FORD, Pa. - August 26, 2008 (WPVI) — A 17-year-old Delaware County girl was the victim of a violent road rage attack.

Only from the shadows did the mother of a 17-year-old girl dare to talk about what happened to her daughter on the quiet country road yesterday.

Delaware State Police are calling it an extreme case of road rage.

This mother saying an irate 55 to 60-year-old man got out of his vehicle and completely lost control of his temper after the teen made the mistake of cutting the driver off.

Areas listed for mosquito spraying tonight, tomorrow

By Lita Prout

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Department of Environmental Protection will spray portions of Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties today and tomorrow to control mosquitoes that can carry the West Nile virus.

The virus, which can result in an inflamation of the brain when transmitted to people, has been confirmed this year in a Montgomery County woman.

Spraying an area is recommended when at least five out of every 1,000 mosquitoes test positive for the virus, or there is a significant population of mosquito species that could become infected.

While Philadelphia and three of its neighboring counties met the criteria for spraying, Chester County did not. “Infectious rates and the potential of any species of mosquitoes susceptible to the virus weren’t present (in Chester County),” said Michael Smith, a Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson.

Spraying will be conducted tonight or tomorrow in these areas, said the DEP:

Philadelphia County: Pennypack Park, near the band concert stage, and the area surrounding the Mann Music Center in Fairmount Park.

Also, these Philadelphia County zip codes: 19111, 19114, 19115, 19142, 19153, 19131, 19136.

Bucks County: The townships of Wrightstown, Newtown, Northampton, Warminster, Middletown, Falls, Upper Southampton, Lower Southampton, Bristol, and Bensalem; the boroughs of Langhorne, Langhorne Manor, Penndel, Tullytown, Hulmeville and Bristol.

Delaware County: The townships of Radnor, Newtown, Haverford, Marple, Upper Darby, Springfield and Darby; the boroughs of Millbourne, Lansdowne, East Lansdowne, Yeadon, Clifton Heights, Aldan, Darby, Collingdale, Colwyn, Sharon Hill and Folcroft.

Montgomery County: The townships of Upper Moreland, East Norriton, Lower Moreland, West Norriton, Whitemarsh, Plymouth, Upper Merion and Lower Merion; the boroughs of Hatfield, Bryn Athyn, Norristown, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Rock Ledge, West Conshohocken and Narberth.

Weather permitting, aerial spraying of Resmethrin, which is considered safe and a has a low risk of toxicity, will be between 8 p.m. and midnight tonight and tomorrow.

Alleged Delaware County drug trafficker is arrested, charged

By Mari A. Schaefer

Inquirer Staff Writer
A notorious alleged Delaware County drug trafficker who authorities say put his Mexican cocaine suppliers up in a Chadds Ford apartment was arrested yesterday on two separate federal indictments outlining drug and money-laundering charges.

Alfonso “Fonnie” Caldwell, 37, was taken into custody at 5:30 a.m. at his home in Bear, Del., without incident, according to authorities. He is on parole for a 1990 murder, authorities said.

“Mr. Caldwell is out of business,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid at a news conference announcing the grand-jury indictments.

The charges stem from transactions between October 2005 and September 2006, authorities said, when Caldwell allegedly distributed more than 24 pounds of cocaine and laundered more than $1 million. If convicted of all charges, Caldwell, who remains in federal custody, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison.

“This investigation deals a major blow to a drug-trafficking organization which operated primarily out of the city of Chester,” said G. Michael Green, Delaware County district attorney. “It drives a stake through the heart of an organization which has plagued the community with the scourge of illegal narcotics for a number of years.”

Green said the investigation began in September 2006, when state police pulled over a car on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County and found eight pounds of cocaine. The driver allegedly admitted purchasing the drugs from Caldwell.

Yesterday, authorities said that Caldwell was getting large shipments of cocaine and marijuana delivered in tractor-trailer trucks from Mexican suppliers.

At times, police said, Caldwell paid the drivers for the cocaine, and other times the suppliers traveled from Mexico to collect from Caldwell. When in town, the suppliers would stay at an apartment leased by Caldwell at the Camden/Summit Valleybrook Apartments at 7200 Johnson Farm Rd. in Chadds Ford, authorities said.

In August 2006, police watched as the Mexican suppliers mailed a large box from the Federal Express/Kinko’s office on Concord Pike in Delaware. Authorities found more than $110,000 in cash hidden in a coffeepot inside the package, and police dogs detected the presence of a “narcotics residue” on the money, according to the indictment.

Between 2003 and 2006, police said, more than $500,000 passed though bank accounts in Caldwell’s name, while he reported only “modest income” on his taxes. During an interview in January 2008, Caldwell admitted to federal authorities he paid the Mexican suppliers up to $1.5 million, according to federal documents.

Caldwell maintained packaging and distribution facilities in Philadelphia and Chester, according to the documents.

Authorities said numerous attempts had been made on Caldwell’s life. In 2001, he was shot in the shoulder as he fled the scene of a shooting near the Chester High School athletic field. A man with Caldwell was killed.

Contact staff writer Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149 or mschaefer@phillynews.com.

Suspect Arrested In Pa. Co-Worker Stabbing
HAVERTOWN (CBS 3) ? A suspect is in police custody after allegedly stabbing a co-worker in Delaware County.

An officer on patrol at The Colonial Meat Market in the Manoa Shopping Center in Havertown was approached by a male victim at about 11:45 a.m. on Monday.

The victim told the officer a co-worker, identified as John Falcone, had stabbed him in the back. Approximately five minutes later, officers took Falcone into custody without incident as he was walking back to his home.

The unidentified victim was transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with non-life threatening injuries.

Falcone is facing numerous charges, including aggravated assault.

The incident remains under investigation.

Next U.S. census could show more poverty in Phila. area

By Alfred Lubrano,

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Americans enjoyed a small bump in income last year, while the nation’s poverty rate stayed virtually the same - 12.5 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday.

Among the seven counties surrounding Philadelphia, some got richer and some got poorer, while Philadelphia held its spot as the ninth-poorest big city in America - with nearly one in four people living in poverty.

Once again, New Jersey trailed Maryland as the wealthiest state in median household income. Pennsylvania ranked 26th.

But this year-old snapshot has already been superceded by rough and powerful economic times - a tsunami swamping the relative good news about rising income and steady poverty.

When the Census Bureau eventually crunches 2008 numbers, analysts say it will see what many already know: Life is getting tougher.

“The year 2008 will be drastically worse than ‘06 or ‘07,” said Carey Morgan, director of Philadelphia’s Coalition Against Hunger.

“The numbers for this year will see a rise in poverty,” said Mark Price, labor economist with the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg.

“I have to be honest with you: 2006 and 2007 were bad, but not as bad as this year,” said Alice Peterson, executive administrator of Today’s Child Learning Center, a daycare facility in Sharon Hill, Delaware County. “People are struggling more than in ‘06. They’re struggling double.”

Nowhere is that more true than in Camden, where 38.2 percent of people lived in poverty in 2007. The census ranked it the second poorest among the nation’s mid-size cities, though it cautioned that there was a statistical dead heat among the list’s four most impoverished.

Residents offered a laundry list of reasons they believe they are struggling: higher food and gas prices, a lack of affordable housing, people illegally in the country taking jobs, and a bias against hiring people with criminal records.

Grace Maldonado, 30, who supports five children on her Wal-Mart salary and whose husband is in jail, says she cannot always buy birthday presents for them.

“They understand as long as they get the birthday cake,” she said. “I’m making it work.”

The census data cover 2007, and evidence suggests that things in Camden are worse in 2008. Cathedral Kitchen, the largest soup kitchen in the city, is serving 1,000 more meals a month, said executive director Karen Talarico. More visitors stop by on their way to work.

“They’re coming here to save some money to pay their bus pass, to fill their gas tank,” she said.

If past is prologue, it helps to see how things were just last year.

The median household income in America (adjusted for inflation) had risen 1.3 percent over that of 2006, reaching $50,233, according to the census’ Current Population Survey. For blacks and non-Hispanic white households, this represented “the first measured real increase” in annual household income since 1999, the census reported.

Perhaps one harbinger of bad times was among poor children. The number of children under 18 living in poverty nationally jumped from 12.8 million in 2006 to 13.3 million in 2007.

Closer to home, the number of people living in poverty in Philadelphia decreased - from 354,135 to 333,142, according to the census’ American Community Survey.

Similarly, poverty rates decreased in Chester, Montgomery, Burlington and Camden Counties, while they increased in Bucks, Gloucester and Delaware Counties.

In Delaware County especially, poverty jumped - from 8.5 percent to 9.8 percent, even as median income climbed from $55,000 to $60,000, evidence of a growing gap between rich and poor.

In Gloucester County, there was also a paradoxical increase in both median income and the poverty rate.

More food stamps are being issued, said Ed Smith, superintendent of the Gloucester County Division of Social Services, even as younger families with higher incomes move into the county.

He called Gloucester County a “microcosm of the nation.”

“The gap between the rich and poor will become bigger,” said Morgan, of the Coalition Against Hunger.

Don’t expect anything to close the gap soon, said Price, of Keystone Research Center.

In Pennsylvania, the top 1 percent of families received 79 percent of income growth in recent years, he said. “And we expect the inequality numbers in Pennsylvania to get worse,” he said.

“I expect poverty will go up in every one of Philadelphia’s suburban counties when 2008 numbers are calculated,” said David Elesh, principal investigator of Temple University’s Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project. “The decrease in Philadelphia’s poverty seen between 2006 and 2007 will be erased.”

Peterson, of Today’s Child in hard-hit Delaware County, said that this year, half the families who use her day-care center are behind in payments, something she had never seen before.

Some parents get government subsidies and pay only $5 a week in copayments.

“They are behind, and their children may be terminated from the program because they can’t pay $20 a month for day care,” Peterson said. “That’s how bad it’s gotten.”

Happily for 25-year-old Kadi Schenk, 2008 is looking better. In 2007, she was laid off from her job managing a cell-phone store, and was unable to get child-care subsidies for her children, ages 4 and 2. Her parents have jobs and cannot look after the children.

“Oh, it was so hard,” she said. “I’d go on interview after interview. . . . A resume without a college degree didn’t help.” Now she works for an insurance agency.

“And,” she announced joyfully, “I can move out of my parents’ house soon.”

Contact staff writer Alfred Lubrano at 215-854-4969 or alubrano@phillynews.com.

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]]> http://goodmorningdelco.com/highly-recommended/if-you-could-change-one-thing-about-your-life-what-would-it-be/feed http://goodmorningdelco.com/delco-news/responsible-dog-ownership-can-be-walk-in-the-park http://goodmorningdelco.com/delco-news/responsible-dog-ownership-can-be-walk-in-the-park#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:43:02 +0000 seanh http://goodmorningdelco.com/?p=674 But there’s no doubt about the fact that Bowser has friends in the place where Pennsylvania began.
This Friday, canines will be able to cavort unbridled beneath the Lindbergh Bridge in Upper Darby. It will be the official opening of Delaware County’s first dog park.
Situated in Kent Park, the tetrapod’s terrain is among 10 acres rehabilitated by a committee determined to transform the rundown recreation area into a reputable realm of relaxation.
One of 11 parks in the Delaware County park system, Kent Park is operated by both the Delaware County Department of Parks and Recreation and Upper Darby township.
It also includes a playground and a place for fans of fishing to cast their lines into Darby Creek.
But the dog park is one of its more distinctive assets.
Not only can canines be leash-free when they frolic, petite Senora Chihuahua need not worry about being trampled by the formidable Master Great Dane. Large and small breeds each have their own, fenced-in areas.
In order to utilize the dog park, pet owners must pay $20 per household - $10 for senior citizens - when they register at the Delaware County Government Center in Media, the Upper Darby municipal building or at Leedom House in Rose Tree Park, Upper Providence. They will each receive a key to unlock the gate to poochie paradise.
However, there are rules in the woofers’ world.
Only two dogs per human are allowed and the animals must have had rabies shots, be disease-free and not be in heat. They also must not be wearing prong or choke collars. One of the most important dog park rules is that owners must clean up after their animals. It is a rule that needs to be enforced both inside and outside the dog park.
While there are many responsible owners among the estimated 76,751 Delaware County households with dogs, it is amazing to see how many don’t think twice about letting their pets pee and poop anywhere, including on other people’s pavements, lawns and gardens.
Even worse, they often leave behind dog droppings for other people to smell and step in, not to mention, to pollute the environment. What do they think those plastic bags that cover newspapers are really for?
One wonders if the pet owners who treat public areas and other people’s property as their personal dog toilet are as irresponsible when it comes to their own backyards.
The opening of Delaware County’s first dog park, perhaps, will trigger a new mindset among local pet owners, one that has been embraced for years by New Yorkers.
In the Big Apple, dog parks are a way of life just as religiously picking up after pets is. Dog owners who leave droppings behind, in fact, face hefty fines.
Responsible pet ownership seems a fair exchange for giving furry children a place to play peacefully.

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The search for a top cop in Fort Myers, Fla., has generated a bit of interest from some area police.

Florida TV and newspaper Web sites have published the entire list of applicants - all 95 of them - for anyone to see, and it includes a half dozen familiar names from the Philadelphia area, including Upper Darby Superintendent Michael J. Chitwood and Chief Inspector William A. Colarulo of the Philadelphia Police.

“What a group,” said another candidate, Pennsylvania State Police Capt. Steven M. Johnson, from Troop L in Reading. “Wow. I know half these guys.” Johnson is looking at second career opportunities.

Under Florida’s open-records law, resumes are considered public documents and available to the media.

“Everything we get, all the resumes we get, are public,” said Robert E. Slavin, president of Slavin Management Consultants, which is conducting the search to replace retiring Fort Myers Police Chief Hilton Daniels.

The publicity can affect the search, Salvin said. Some good candidates who don’t want their names made public will not apply. But this time that was not the case.

“Not only do we have quantity, we have quality,” said Slavin.

Other familiar names from the area include Albert L. DiGiacomo, the chief of county detectives in Chester County; Inspector Aaron Horne, a commanding officer with the Philadelphia police; Capt. Christopher M. Werner of the Philadelphia police; and City of York Police Commissioner Mark L. Whitman.

The job posting on the Web site of the International Association of Chiefs of Police caught Johnson’s eye. In the past, departments have looked locally for candidates, he said. Now, with online applications, it is easy to conduct national searches.

Chitwood said he received a call from a consultant suggesting he look at the job.

“I sent a resume in. Period,” said Chitwood, adding he was “happy” in his current position, which he has held for almost three years.

Chitwood said his son, Michael J. Chitwood Jr., the police chief in Daytona Beach since 2006, gave him the scoop on Fort Myers. “He said it was an up and growing area and they were looking for someone from outside.”

Philadelphia’s Colarulo, who has also applied for a job in Marco Island, Fla., as well as Fort Myers, said he is “always looking” but mostly out of curiosity.

Colarulo said he was not in any rush to leave his job or the city.

“This is my home,” said Colarulo, who has been a Philly cop for 27 years. “It would have to be a very appealing offer for me to leave.”

The candidates hail from around the United States, and from law enforcement in France and Iraq. They come from police and sheriff departments, the Department of Homeland Security, Interpol, prisons, the U.S. Army, government agencies, and the private sector.

Slavin said there were about 30 more candidates than they expected and they expect more applications.

Fort Myers has a population of 67,851 and is located along South Florida’s western coast. The police department has 200 officers, 90 civilians and operates with a budget of $26 million. Daniels received a salary of $133,910, according to the news-press.com Web site.

Contact staff writer Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149 or mschaefer@phillynews.com.

MIDDLETOWN - The wife of a Ridley Township police officer testified she was so terrified of Nickelous Della Polla that she took her two children and left her home fearing for their safety.

“I don’t feel safe in my home,” said an emotional Mandy McDevitt during Della Polla’s preliminary hearing Tuesday. “I took my kids to my parent’s house because I didn’t feel safe there.”

Della Polla was arrested around 1 a.m. June 13 while sitting in his 1998 Lincoln Navigator, radio blasting, in front of Officer Jason McDevitt’s home. It was the fourth time in two days he had allegedly been spotted outside of the officer’s home.

“I was scared. This isn’t the first time he’s been outside of my house blaring his music,” said Mandy McDevitt. “I was afraid he was going to hurt me or my family.”

Jason McDevitt testified he was feeding his newborn son at about 8 p.m. June 10 when he first spotted Della Polla driving past his home in the Navigator.

“Mr. Della Polla drove up the street with his radio extremely loud,” the officer testified. “My windows were almost shaking.”

According to McDevitt’s testimony, the 1998 Lincoln Navigator had, at one time, sported a painted image of a man, resembling Della Polla, armed with an assault weapon trained on a red police car. Ridley is the only police department in the area that has red patrol cars.

“I took our infant son into the kitchen because I didn’t know what he was going to do,” said McDevitt, who has arrested Della Polla in the past. “I know the defendant. I know his history. I know he’s known to carry a weapon.”

McDevitt testified he tried to hide the incident from his wife, who had given birth 10 days earlier. She overheard him speaking on the phone with his supervisor, however, and became very upset.

“My wife was absolutely devastated,” the officer testified.

McDevitt added that because of previous run-ins with Della Polla, he and his wife had installed an alarm system with security cameras at their home. The cameras allegedly caught Della Polla driving past their home on four occasions, he said.

“I have this all on video,” McDevitt said.

Lt. Francis Bascelli testified that shortly before 1 a.m. June 13, he saw Della Polla’s car turn into the cul-de-sac where the McDevitts live. Bascelli said he followed him and parked his patrol car so that Della Polla’s path was blocked. When asked why he was in front of the McDevitts’ home, Della Polla allegedly said he had made a wrong turn. Bascelli, however, didn’t buy that story, as Della Polla had been seen at least three times in the same cul-de-sac a few nights earlier, he testified.

The 27-year-old Della Polla, wearing prison blue and silver-toned shackles, appeared almost disinterested in the court proceeding. He kept his eyes focused on the desk in front of him, giving the three witnesses only an occasional glance. Several of his supporters, however, appeared to hang on every word from their spot in the back of the tiny courtroom.

Della Polla’s attorney, Raymond Driscoll, argued that the allegations, if true, don’t prove his client is guilty of stalking or harassment. “He was trying to be a pain in the neck,” Driscoll said.

Jennifer Bergin, an intern with the district attorney’s office, disagreed.

“You don’t make a wrong turn three or four times,” Bergin said. “There was no reason for this defendant to be on the cul-de-sac other than to cause nonverbal communication to these victims.”

Magisterial District Judge Walter A. Strohl found there was enough evidence to hold Della Polla for trial on all charges, including stalking and harassment.
Della Polla has been in Delaware County prison since his arrest. He is being held on a detainer for allegedly violating his probation from a previous assault conviction.

Vehicle device thwarts DUI offenders

By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225
LAST YEAR IN Pennsylvania, more than 28,000 cases of drunken driving were prevented by a device installed in the vehicles of repeat DUI offenders.

The ignition-interlock system, similar to a Breathalyzer, requires a person with two or more DUI offenses to blow into a device that detects the amount of alcohol on his or her breath.

If the system detects a breath-alcohol content of more than .025, or one drink for a person who is about 160 pounds, the car will not start, said Stephen Ernie, executive director of the state’s DUI Association, a nonprofit organization contracted by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to do ignition-interlock quality assurance.

The devices became state law in 2001. Under the law, those with two or more DUIs are required to serve one year of license suspension, after which time they are required to put the interlock device in place for another year at their own expense.

“We’ve never really tried separating the drinker from his or her car,” Ernie said. “That’s where the ignition interlock comes in. It’s also a behavioral modification tool, a reminder that they have to be sober when they are driving.”

Last year, 4,192 people statewide had the device in their cars, with 275 of them in Bucks County, 171 in Montgomery County, 160 in Chester County, 98 in Delaware County and 62 in Philadelphia County, Ernie said.

He admitted that the low-device count in Philadelphia did seem “odd,” but he declined to speculate why.

Out of the 4,192 interlock users last year, there were 28,161 instances in which people attempted to drive and were prevented from doing so, Alison Wenger, PennDOT spokeswoman, said. The total number of sober miles clocked by those same users was about 45 million, she said.

When an interlock system is in place, drivers are not only required to blow in it to start the car, but also the device requires rolling road tests every five to 45 minutes. If drivers fail a test while driving, a “really annoying beeping sound” emits and drivers are locked out of their car the next time they attempt to operate it, Ernie said.

Although purchasing the device when not required to do so under law is rare, Ernie said he has heard of people who have bought or leased the device voluntarily.

There are six interlock manufacturers in the state and the devices are sold everywhere from auto-service centers to electronic shops like Circuit City, Ernie said.

The devices cost about $1,000 a year, or about $3 a day, he said. They require service every 60 days, at which time data about the operator’s driving habits are downloaded from the system.

Ernie said that there are no similar devices on the market to test drug intoxication, but with saliva testing becoming more refined, he said that there is potential for an interlock system for drugs.

“We will never be able to arrest our way out of this problem,” he said. “So we have to keep trying a holistic approach - a combination of proper treatment, a stiff dose of the law and behavioral modification.” *