Barracks

A federal judge ruled yesterday that if Shannon Faulkner becomes the first woman in The Citadel's cadet corps, she should live in the barracks and get the same type of discipline as other cadets. U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck rejected the state military college's plan to house Faulkner separately in the infirmary and protect her from the intense shouting and confrontational discipline other cadets receive. "I see no reason why the admission of Ms. Faulkner should cause any changes," Houck ruled.

The law enforcement version of Extreme Home Makeover will unfold Saturday at the Avondale barracks of the state police from noon to 3 p.m., and the public is invited to attend. After months of renovations, the Chester County station will host "Community Day. " Activities will include behind-the-scenes tours of the renovated digs, K-9 demonstrations, and light refreshments. The barracks, which serves southern Chester County, is at 2 Moxley Lane in Avondale, near the intersection of Routes 1 and 41 in London Grove Township.

I didn't have to imagine the scene at the Dhahran barracks where 28 American soldiers were killed by a Scud missile Monday night: I've seen it. I've seen the smoking debris, seen the victims in a daze, been roughly jostled by rescue workers in the chaotic aftermath, struggled to comprehend the destruction - and marveled that more people weren't killed. I've seen it at the scene of Scud attacks in Israel and knew it was only a miracle that the casualties were so minimal in Saddam Hussein's missile attacks.

A long-awaited boost in Chester County's state police presence is on the way, a response to the county's staggering growth and dramatic pleas for help from residents. Nearly half of the 35 cadets from this year's graduating class at the state police academy will be assigned to Chester County to shore up the severely understaffed forces at the Embreeville and Avondale barracks. "This does not solve the problem, but it is a big step toward getting more troopers on station," State Sen. Robert Thompson (R., Chester)

Fire seriously damaged a barracks housing an exhibition on Jews killed at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II, police said yesterday. Authorities throughout Germany, meanwhile, reported another series of overnight attacks on refugees and other foreigners, and one demonstration against the right-wing extremism. Police made no direct link between the early morning fire at Sachsenhausen and the wave of xenophobic attacks that has rocked Germany for five weeks.

Instead of moving the state police barracks 25 miles to the north, the police may soon pack their bags and move across the street to the soon-to-be- vacated Eastern State School and Hospital. Last year, state police officials considered consolidating the 20 troopers in the Trevose barracks with police from the Dublin barracks in northern Bucks County. The move was suggested because of a decline in serious crime in the lower part of the county along with the continued deterioration of the nearly 40- year-old barracks that houses the troopers.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons appears close to a go-ahead on a plan to house white-collar criminals in unused Fort Dix barracks, according to Fort Dix spokeswoman Dianne Felder. The bureau, a division of the Justice Department, has been evaluating some of the red brick buildings around Doughboy Loop for at least six months as a potential site for a minimum-security prison. The Justice Department and the Department of the Army signed a "memorandum of understanding" on Tuesday afternoon, Felder said her superiors in the Department of the Army had told her. The memorandum, she said, serves as an interim agreement between the agencies, allowing the bureau to take control of barracks 5700 and 5800.

A 50-year-old man who went to the State Police barracks in Trevose, Bucks County, to pick up a friend was arrested and charged with driving there drunk. Terry Clark Jones, of Penndel, was released after submitting to a chemical breath test and being processed at the barracks, State Police said. They said Jones had been asked to pick up a friend in custody at the barrack and was intoxicated when he arrived about 10:25 p.m. A news release does not indicate if the friend who was in custody also had been arrested on a DUI charge.

Luke J. Heller, a Pennsylvania trooper assigned to a Bucks County barracks, allegedly threatened to kill himself, his estranged wife, her lawyer, and a judge during a contentious divorce case that ended last year. In August 2003, Heller allegedly phoned his wife and said, "I am going to do it tonight," according to court documents. State police responded, taking two guns from Heller's home. "Mr. Heller is suffering from a mental disorder which I consider serious, and is in need of medication and psychological treatment," psychologist Robert M. Gordon wrote in a 2004 court-ordered evaluation of Heller.

A fire burns out of control at a house on Meng Road in Lower Frederick. Before firefighters arrived last night, Troopers Derrick Watford and Richard Schroeter of the Limerick state police barracks pulled a woman to safety from inside the front door, as smoke and flames shot out the back of the house.

WARSAW, Poland - Polish and U.S. officials are engaged in intense talks to determine the fate of a sensitive object: a barrack that once housed doomed prisoners at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp and is now on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Poland is demanding the return of the artifact, which has been on loan to the Washington museum for more than 20 years and is an important object in its permanent exhibition. But the U.S. museum says the valuable object shouldn't be moved, partly because it is too fragile.

LOS ANGELES - It was an unusual job even for the Seabees, the U.S. Navy's construction forces trained to hold a hammer in one hand and a Beretta M9 in the other. But they took it on. Military officials say they are the first all-female construction team to take on a construction job from start to finish in the Seabees' 70-year history. First, the team selected to build barracks high in the mountains of Afghanistan consisted of eight women, who are all stationed at Naval Base Ventura County in California.

LIKE FATHER, like son. Or in this case, like son, like father. A Chadds Ford man was arrested for driving under the influence this weekend after showing up drunk at the State Police barracks in Media to pick up his son, who had been arrested earlier in the night for the same offense, according to a news release. Police said Timothy Smith arrived at the barracks about 10:45 p.m. Saturday and told troopers that he was there to pick up his son, who'd been arrested for drunk driving.

A Glen Mills woman who slammed into a stationary state police car on Dec. 29 - pinning a trooper inside with severe injuries - had a blood-alcohol level of 0.199 at the time, more than double the legal limit, a Chester County prosecutor said Friday. Assistant District Attorney Priya T. De Souza cited the number as a reason to keep the $500,000 cash bail set for Heather DeLong, a 47-year-old mother who has been incarcerated since the 1 p.m. crash on Rt. 1 in New Garden Township.

A state trooper whose patrol car was rammed last week, allegedly by a drunk driver, will be hospitalized for several more weeks, police said Tuesday. Police said Trooper Chad Burgwald, 24, suffered stained serious injuries on Thursday when Heather DeLong, 47, of Glen Mills, lost control of her gold Chrysler Pacific on northbound Route 1 in New Garden Township, veering into the driver's side of Burgwald's marked patrol vehicle. The trooper, who had been stationed in the median monitoring traffic along Route 1 near Bancroft Road just before 1 p.m., was pinned in the car, police said.

A 50-year-old man who went to the State Police barracks in Trevose, Bucks County, to pick up a friend was arrested and charged with driving there drunk. Terry Clark Jones, of Penndel, was released after submitting to a chemical breath test and being processed at the barracks, State Police said. They said Jones had been asked to pick up a friend in custody at the barrack and was intoxicated when he arrived about 10:25 p.m. A news release does not indicate if the friend who was in custody also had been arrested on a DUI charge.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Suicide bombers attacked a military base, a car bomb exploded outside a barracks and explosives detonated Friday around northeast Nigeria, a region under siege from a radical Muslim sect, officials said. While casualties weren't immediately clear, one blast struck outside a school where parents had arrived to pick up the children. There was no claim of responsibility, but blame immediately fell to the sect known as Boko Haram, which has staged targeted assassinations and bombings in the region, killing more than 240 people this year across Nigeria's Muslim north, according to a count by the Associated Press.

The story of George Washington and his colonial troops crossing the Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and routing the Hessians the next day has all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster - action, intrigue, suspense. Even sex. That's why Robert Child, an award-winning director of historical documentaries, is gearing up to film America's First D-Day - Washington Crossing in Bucks County. "There are several aspects that most people don't know," Child said this week. "There actually were three crossings, in the middle of a nor'easter.

A woman was fatally injured early Sunday when she was hit by cars while walking in a northbound lane of Route 42 in Gloucester Township, New Jersey state police said. "She entered the left lane of travel from the median," Sgt. Steve Horsey of the Bellmawr barracks said. "It is unknown why she was out there, what she was trying to do. " The woman's identity also was unknown. Horsey said the matter was reported at 1:19 a.m. Sunday. - Walter F. Naedele

A woman was fatally injured early Sunday when hit by cars while walking in the northbound lanes of Route 42 in Gloucester Township, Camden County, New Jersey state police said on Sunday. "She entered the left lane of travel from the median," State Police Sgt. Steve Horsey of the Bellmawr barracks said. "It is unknown why she was out there, what she was trying to do. " Her identity was also unkown. Sgt. Horsey said the incident was reported at 1:19 a.m. Sunday. - Walter F. Naedele.