Widener Student Critical But Stable After Shooting

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Delaware County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The lockdown has been lifted at Widener University, where a gunman last night shot a student who was sitting in a car near the Chester campus’  athletic facility.

The injured student remains in critical but stable condition at Crozer-Chester Medical Center this morning, university spokesman Dan Hanson said. Hanson declined to release further information about the student or his injuries today, saying the family asked for privacy.

The student was ambushed about 8:40 p.m. as he sat in a car near the Schwartz Athletic Center, prompting campus officials to urge students to “seek shelter and remain indoors.” That alert ended and classes continued as scheduled this morning.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/delco/Widener-student-critical-but-stable-after-shooting.html#9uEGvwv25YsmgAaQ.99

Study: Deep Poverty On The Rise In Delaware And Camden Counties

English: Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Camden suffers from unemployment, urban decay, poverty, and many other social issues. Much of the city of Camden, New Jersey suffers from urban decay. 日本語: ニュージャージー州カムデンのスラム. Svenska: Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Kiswahili: Camden, New Jersey ni moja ya mataifa maskini zaidi katika miji ya Marekani. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Deep poverty appears to be accelerating in Delaware and Camden Counties, as the poorest of the poor scramble for rent, heat, and food.

In the city of Chester, Donald Grover, 47, and his wife, Melissa Zirilli, 43, can’t do their jobs – he because the home-remodeling firm he works for cut his time from 60 hours a week to nearly nothing, she because debilitating seizures keep her from being a nurse’s aide.

In the city of Camden, Mark Woodall, 49, once a construction worker and a trained cook, now makes $10 an hour in a soup kitchen as he and his out-of-work fiancee are forced to live on a street he says is thronged with armed teenagers “without morals.”

“Lack of work is really, really hurting us,” said Zirilli, who lives with her husband and three children on about $6,000 a year.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131025_Study__Deep_poverty_on_the_rise_in_Delaware_and_Camden_Counties.html#GSyaLqbobqbX9VUX.99

First Nonprofit Supermarket Opens In Chester

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Delaware County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CHESTER, PA. — In Chester, a city where hard times often plow under shiny promises, a hunger-relief agency’s pledge to build America’s first nonprofit supermarket was greeted skeptically at first.

But Philabundance may be confounding local doubters. Its Fare & Square grocery store, seven years in the making, is ready to open its doors this morning, a rare oasis in what has been called a food desert.

“No one believed this was coming,” said Denina Hood, a Chester native and an employee of the store that will become the first supermarket in town since 2001. “But this store isn’t going anywhere.”

Usually in the business of distributing donated food to pantries in the Delaware Valley, Philabundance, a nonprofit, has augmented its mission and become a store owner, charging prices 8 percent to 10 percent lower than small urban grocers.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/first-nonprofit-supermarket-opens-in-struggling-pa-city-705230/#ixzz2gCesc07x

Chester Rite Aid Manager Shot And Killed, Patrons Hear Loud Bang

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Delaware County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Patrons fled after a store manager hoping to get out in time to watch the Eagles-Chiefs game was shot and killed inside a Chester City Rite Aid late last night. Police are seeking a man and woman in connection with the homicide.

Chester police say they were dispatched shortly before 10 p.m. to the Rite Aid on the 2000 block of West 9th Street, near Highland Avenue. Upon arrival, they found the store manager suffering from a fatal gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced at the scene, according a police department press release.

The release said that, just prior to closing, patrons and employees heard a loud bang and rushed outside.

Police are seeking a white or light skinned woman in her mid to late twenties, wearing a red hooded jacket with white stripes down the sleeves, blue jeans and grey sneakers.  She was accompanied by a black male in his late twenties to mid thirties wearing a white tee shirt over a black long sleeve top, rolled up blue jeans and black boots.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Chester_Rite_Aid_employee_shot_and_killed.html#7O1tzfQFoBDHZAWS.99

Chester Mayor Shakes Up Police Department

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Delaware County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  This will never happen in Pottstown, sigh…..

In something of a leadership shake-up, Chester Mayor John Linder has replaced three of his highest level police officers with three formerly lower-ranking lawmen.

In addition, the mayor announced Tuesday that he has created a police narcotics task force and beefed up highway patrol.

Linder, who also is the city’s public safety director, said the personnel moves are part of the changes and on-going assessment he vowed when he took office last year.

“I saw some areas I wanted to change, and the only way to change things was to move (personnel) around,” Linder said Tuesday.

Read more:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130402_Chester_mayor_shakes_up_police_department.html

Norristown Makes FBI’s 100 Most Dangerous Cities List

Location of Norristown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our research reveals the 100 most dangerous cities in America with 25,000 or more people, based on the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault.  Data used for this research are 1) the number of violent crimes reported to the FBI to have occurred in each city, and 2) the population of each city. See our FAQ on how we rank the most dangerous cities

Norristown ranked number 68

Other Pennsylvania cities on list list include:

Philadelphia at number 50

Harrisburg at number 30

Chester at number 19

York at number 18

Nearby New Jersey cities:  Camden was number 2, Atlantic City was number 7, and Trenton was number 29

To see the entire list, click here:   http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/

Crime Stats For Reading Give Some Solace

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A week before a summit to address crime in Reading and Berks County, District Attorney John T. Adams pointed out that Reading is not on a list of the 100 most dangerous cities in the nation.

“This is good news,” Adams said Friday. “We are happy that we are not on the list of the most dangerous cities. I believe this is a result of the cooperative effort among law enforcement agencies.”

But officials said that does not lessen the need for next week’s meeting because the report from NeighborhoodScout.com indicates that 89 percent of the cities are safer than Reading.

“I do not see this as any great win,” Reading Police Chief William M. Heim said.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=443204

Chester To Get First Supermarket In A Decade

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CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A southeastern Pennsylvania city will soon be getting its first supermarket in more than a decade, the project of a nonprofit organization best known for collecting and distributing emergency food aid, officials said.

Philabundance announced Friday that it had purchased a mostly vacant building in Chester that housed the city’s last supermarket before it closed in 2001.

In about a year, the organization says it hopes to open a new 13,000-square-foot “Fare and Square” grocery store. Bill Clark, the group’s president, says it is believed to be the first supermarket in the country operated by a food aid group as a nonprofit venture.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20120301/NEWS01/120309982/se-pa-city-to-get-first-supermarket-in-decade

Chester-Upland School District May Run Out Of Cash

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CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Nearly two decades after being declared financially distressed, the school system in this struggling Philadelphia suburb faces a new and even more daunting crisis: It may run out of cash.

Administrators in the Chester Upland School District, one of Pennsylvania’s poorest systems and once the center of a failed experiment in school privatization, say they won’t be able to make payroll Wednesday unless the state advances the district $18.7 million in expected funding. While teachers and staff have vowed to continue working, the situation has thrown the system into new turmoil and has parents scrambling for other options.

Hoping to avoid a shutdown, the school filed a lawsuit Thursday, declaring a “cash-flow crisis” and asking a judge to tell state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis that he must act to provide students in the district with a “thorough and efficient educational system.” Meanwhile, anxious parents are looking at other options for their children, such as sending them to private schools or having them live with relatives and go to other public schools.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120115/NEWS03/120119722

Community Building In The City Of Chester – An Interview With Delco DA Michael Green

Watch a short but inspiring video with Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green regarding what the DA’s office feels is needed to bring Chester back.