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Guilt plea in metal theft
Christopher Cook, 28, an ex-Marine, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday to stealing nearly 30 tons of aluminum helicopter-landing pads when he was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Willow Grove.
Cook, of Michigan, is to be sentenced in May.
Prosecutors said that between August 2010 and February 2011, Cook took the 12-foot pads to a Huntingdon Valley scrap-metal dealer and got almost $51,000.
Cook enlisted a friend and rented a U-Haul truck on 10 occasions to drive to the base and move the aluminum pads to Sullivan's Scrap Metals, the plea memo said.
Alleged bribe by auditor
New Jersey officials said that an auditor with the state Division of Taxation demanded a bribe from a Gloucester County convenience-store owner in return for not initiating an audit.
Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said that Jerry Moore, 33, of Mays Landing, was arrested Friday, after accepting a $900 bribe from the owner of the Washington Township store.
Chiesa said that Moore allegedly visited the store Feb. 2 and told the owner that he had to pay $1,000 to avoid an audit. Moore then repeated the demand during a subsequent phone call, but eventually agreed to accept $900.
Moore, an auditor since 2000, was suspended after being charged with bribery. He faces up to 10 years in state prison if convicted.
Poll: Santorum's No. 1
Rick Santorum is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, one poll shows.
Santorum leads Mitt Romney among Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, 30 percent to 28 percent, in a Pew Research Center Poll conducted Feb. 8-12 and released yesterday.
President Obama leads both candidates in a theoretical general-election matchup.
- Staff and wire reports
