Agreement

WASHINGTON - President Obama spent a highly unusual three days on Capitol Hill trying to generate some goodwill among rank-and-file lawmakers, but at the conclusion of the closed-door huddles it remained unclear whether face time over lobster salad and blueberry pie would do anything to repair Washington's long-simmering rifts. "I think we've had good conversations," Obama said as he left the Capitol on Thursday. "But ultimately it's a matter of the House and Senate, both caucuses, getting together and being willing to compromise.

A developer seeking a 20-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement for 175 low-income properties it plans to rehabilitate in Camden's Lanning Square and Bergen Square neighborhoods cleared the first hurdle Tuesday. Camden City Council approved an ordinance on first reading to grant Broadway Townhouses, owned by Roizman Development of Plymouth Meeting, a so-called PILOT agreement, which the company said would put at least $175,000 a year in city coffers. The company pays city taxes estimated at a little less than half that amount.

With just three days before jury selection is to begin in the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, the 72-year-old West Philadelphia abortion doctor was brought to court Thursday to meet with his lawyer, wife, and two children to weigh an apparent plea offer. Gosnell never appeared in court at the city's Criminal Justice Center. Instead, he was in a prisoner interview booth attached to the courtroom. There he spent about two hours as defense attorney Jack McMahon shuttled between the booth and Assistant District Attorneys Edward Cameron and Joanne Pescatore in a nearby waiting room.

WASHINGTON - Labor and business leaders announced Thursday that they have agreed in principle to terms that would establish a new guest-worker program for foreigners, but they cautioned that details of the program are still being negotiated. In a joint statement, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue expressed optimism over talks on how to make it easier for companies to hire foreign nationals when Americans are not available. "We have found common ground in several important areas and have committed to continue to work together," the two leaders said.

Faculty at Pennsylvania's 14 state-run universities would receive minimal raises but face higher medical co-pays under a tentative four-year contract agreement unanimously approved Monday by the union's negotiating committee. Faculty and coaches would get no raise the first year, 1 percent the second, 1 percent the third, and 2 percent the fourth - the same as recently given to other statewide unions. "By reaching a fair agreement, faculty can now focus on what they love to do: teach.

MOSCOW - The Kremlin said Thursday that an adoption deal with the United States will remain valid until 2014 despite a new Russian law banning the practice, but it's unclear whether it would keep the door open for more adoptions or allow the completion of adoptions that were under way before the ban was passed. Last month, President Vladimir V. Putin signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be violating human rights.

NHL owners will gather in New York on Wednesday to vote on the tentative labor agreement reached with the union last weekend. If a majority approves, as expected, the NHL will move one step closer toward the official end of the lockout. A majority of the 700 players also must approve the deal for hockey to return to the ice. A 48-game regular season would then be expected to begin Jan. 19. The NHL has yet to release a schedule. According to TSN in Canada, teams will play two division opponents four times each, two other division opponents five times each, and the other 10 conference foes three times each.

At 5:30 Sunday morning, Flyers winger Scott Hartnell texted the good news to his teammates. "Deal done, boys. " When Jody Shelley read Hartnell's text that the NHL's 113-day labor dispute had ended, he did a double take. "I didn't know whether to believe him," Shelley, the Flyers' enforcer, said Sunday afternoon. "I was like, 'Yeah, right.' And then I did a little research on Twitter, and it was blowing up. " Hartnell wasn't fibbing. The NHL and the players' union reached a tentative agreement at around 5 a.m. on a 10-year collective bargaining agreement, putting an end to a work stoppage that lasted almost four months.

Former house cleaner Andrea Lawton changed her plea to guilty in federal court Tuesday as part of a plea agreement on charges involving the theft of a rare bust of Benjamin Franklin from a Bryn Mawr home. In exchange for her pleading guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, federal prosecutors will recommend to U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II that the second count against her, concealing stolen property, be dismissed. The bust is said to be valued at $3 million.

Cathedral Village, a retirement community in Philadelphia's Andorra section, last month reached what experts called a "unique" agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia to enhance care in its nursing home, especially for Alzheimer's and dementia patients. The joint agreement grew out of complaints by Barry Vernick, whose wife, suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia, died following a brief stay at Cathedral Village in late 2008. The agreement mentions no allegations of wrongdoing by the nonprofit Cathedral Village.