Basement

Police are investigating the shooting death of a man whose body was found this morning in a basement in East Germantown. There is no word yet from police on who discovered the body, but they say the man was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:18 a.m. The victim is described as being between 40 and 50 years old and police said he had been shot twice in the back. The body was found in the basement of a home on the 800 block of East Price Street, police said. Police in the meantime identified a man who was shot and killed in Olney early Thursday as Willie Lee Withers, 32. Withers lived on the 800 block of South 58th Street in West Philadelphia, police said.

Homeownership can make us crazy and crazed, often at the same time. Just ask Larry Benjamin and his longtime partner, Stanley Willauer Jr. — they will admit to having felt as much, and having acted as such. To elucidate: Benjamin and Willauer spent eight years renovating a sweet rowhouse in East Falls. The rehab, occurring in the early 2000s, went beyond the typical kitchen redo and new roof. In this neighborhood, many houses still have radiator heat, so central air-conditioning isn't common.

Mercifully, the most horrific, all-consuming child-sex-abuse trial this state has ever seen is over. Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was revealed for what he is - not a concerned father figure/mentor who only wanted the best for young people, but a serial pedophile. Finally, his victims can begin the healing process. Hopefully find closure. If that's really possible. Yet for me, Dottie Sandusky remains a troubling lingering question. Ever since the sad, sordid scandal broke last year, I've watched Jerry Sandusky's wife of 44 years with a kind of incredulous fascination.

Minutes after the school day began at Germantown High School, police said, a 15-year-old male student who was supposed to be in class slipped down a stairwell into the basement - an area off limits to students. He beckoned a female, also a freshman, to follow. She did, and it was there, the girl told police, that the boy violently raped her. Police have not disclosed how long the May 4 attack went on, but one local television station reported that the girl told police she screamed for help and no one heard her. While details of this case appear especially severe, crime in stairwells and other little-used areas of the sprawling school building has been a significant problem in recent years.

  A student at Germantown High School was in police custody Tuesday after he allegedly raped a fellow student in the basement of the school early Friday morning. Special Victims Unit Capt. John Darby said the students, two freshmen who'd known each other a few weeks, had been hanging out talking in a stairwell around 7:45 a.m. Friday when the boy ran down the stairs into a basement area, prompting the girl to follow. "The initial contact on that particular day was conversational," Darby said.

Hercules was barely a dog anymore, confined and forgotten in a Gloucester County basement like a box of dusty, old toys. Meanwhile, upstairs, Roxanne Notaro's chocolate Lab "Little" had food, warmth, and love. Officials with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say it's a miracle Hercules, an American bulldog, is alive after police officers found him locked in a small crate, covered in feces, urine and fleas in the basement of Notaro's home on Vassar Road in the Wenonah last week.

The trial for Linda Ann Weston and her alleged accomplices, accused of imprisoning four mentally disabled adults in a Tacony basement last fall, has been set for January 2013. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 28. The trial, which could last up to 10 weeks, would be scheduled to run for four days out of each week, attorneys said. Weston, 52, described by authorities as the ringleader of the group, is charged with kidnapping and assault, among other offenses. Also charged are Gregory Thomas, 48, Weston's boyfriend; Jean McIntosh, Weston's 32-year-old daughter, and Eddie Wright, 51. Prosecutors have alleged that they kidnapped the adults to steal their Social Security checks, then moved them around the country to escape detection by authorities.

Question: I am a victim of my own creativity. Several years ago I put a faux marble finish on my basement floor and covered it with a polyurethane. I would like to repaint it. I tried just floor paint. The paint never dried. I mopped it off several days later. The paint adviser at Lowe's recommended paint remover or sanding. Do you think epoxy paint would cover it? All other options seem like a lot of work. Answer: On the one hand, I like to hear that a product - in this case, the polyurethane - is doing its job by protecting your faux floor.

A Burlington County grand jury has indicted a 34-year-old man for growing marijuana in his basement last year, authorities announced Wednesday. David J. Stanton of Fieldsboro used a false wall to conceal 80 marijuana plants he was growing in two areas with the use of indoor-gardening lights, Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said. Acting on a tip, state police arrested Stanton on June 28, with assistance from the Prosecutor's Office. The street value of his operation was $156,000, officials said.

GARY HEIDNIK is Philadelphia's most infamous murderer. Between November 1986 and March 1987, he tortured and raped six young women in the basement of his home on North Marshall Street, in Franklinville. He kept the young sex slaves captive in a dirt hole, tethered to chains. Heidnik, 43, killed two of the women - Sandra Lindsay and Deborah Dudley. He cooked Lindsay's body parts and mixed them with dog food to feed his prisoners. He dumped Dudley's body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.