Six Montgomery County Townships Ranked As Safest Places In Pennsylvania

Lower Salford Township, Franconia Township, Upper Gwynedd Township and Towamencin Township are among the safest municipalities in Pennsylvania, according to a real estate company that examined recent crime statistics in the state.

The 2015 edition of Movoto Real Estate’s annual “Safest Places in Pennsylvania” list names Lower Salford as the sixth-safest area, with Franconia at #15, Upper Gwynedd at #31, Upper Dublin at #36, Towamencin at #41 and Upper Providence (Montco) at #49.

Those rankings are based on numbers taken from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2013 Uniform Crime Report — the most recent statistics available — indicating the amount of murders, violent crimes and property crimes for places in Pennsylvania with populations over 10,000 that reported data to the FBI that year, according to Movoto.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20150127/six-montgomery-county-townships-ranked-as-safest-places-in-pennsylvania

Teen Charged As Adult With Attempted Abduction And Rape In Lansdale Park Headed For Trial

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

LANSDALE, PA — A 16-year-old El Salvadoran citizen charged as an adult with the attempted knifepoint abduction and rape of a woman in front of her three young children at a Lansdale park earlier this month waived his preliminary hearing Tuesday, while prosecutors added another charge to the long list of criminal counts he’s facing and Lansdale detectives revealed more information about the teen.

Handcuffed, clad in a red prison jumpsuit and wearing a sullen expression, Gerson Portillo-Guardado was led by Lansdale police into District Judge Harold Borek’s Lansdale court early Tuesday morning, and after conferring briefly with Ayla O’Brien, his public defender, with the help of a translator — as he does not speak English, police said — Portillo-Guardado waived all charges filed against him for trial in connection with the alleged Jan. 13 incident.

Just prior to the hearing, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office charged Portillo-Guardado with felony attempted kidnapping on top of the 10 charges already filed against him at his Jan. 13 preliminary arraignment — a list that includes felony attempted rape and felony attempted sexual assault, as well as misdemeanor charges of simple assault, unlawful restraint, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and more.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20140128/teen-charged-as-adult-with-attempted-abduction-and-rape-in-lansdale-park-headed-for-trial

Merck To Cut Costs By $2.5 Billion, Eliminating 8,500 Jobs

Location of Upper Gwynedd Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Merck & Co, taking a cue from other drugmakers that have slashed research spending to bolster earnings, on Tuesday said it plans to slash 8,500 jobs and cut annual operating costs by $2.5 billion by the end of 2015.

The job cuts announced Tuesday, representing more than 10 percent of the company’s global workforce of 81,000 employees, would be in addition to previously announced cuts of 7,500 positions.

Merck has 11,700 employees at seven sites in Pennsylvania, including those working in West Point and Upper Gwynedd in Montgomery County.  Spokeswoman Lainie Keller said the job cuts are companywide and could not say how many would affect the Pennsylvania sites.

By slimming down, Merck aims to narrow its focus to products with the best chance of winning regulatory approval and achieving substantial sales, while jettisoning research products with less likelihood of success.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-merck-cuts-jobs-20131001,0,511705.story#ixzz2gVN0aY3m
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