Beer Store

Only six more drinking days until Christmas. That means you'll have to double up on Joe Sixpack's annual 12 Beers of Christmas. Cooked up by happy brewers as a gift to beer fans, these holiday beers typically contain added malt and spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. Each is a satisfying alternative to eggnog and hot toddies, perfect for a cozy evening in front of the fireplace or 'neath the mistletoe. Hurry to your local specialty beer store or tavern, because most will be gone by next month.

Ten lawmakers want more ammunition in the war on what they call "beer store blight" in Philadelphia - including a reduction in the number of liquor licenses in the city. The lawmakers, all Philadelphia members of the House of Representatives, have introduced a series of bills that would give state liquor law officials full police powers, give neighbors more legal tools to fight nuisance bars, and cut down on the number of liquor licenses in the city. Democratic Rep. Andrew Carn calls the city's ratio of one license for every 750 residents an "outrage," noting state law mandates one license for every 3,000 people.

A 22-year-old Chester County woman has been charged with furnishing alcohol to minors who were involved hours later in a fatal crash, state police said. Jessica Lynn Copeland, of Honey Brook, faces misdemeanor charges, including furnishing alcohol to minors and corruption of minors. Copeland, who was charged Wednesday, was not taken into custody and will be arraigned later. Police said tests showed that Montgomery "Monte" Wood, 16, was under the influence of alcohol when he crashed a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution on Beaver Dam Road in Honey Brook Township on July 16. Wood and his front-seat passenger, Brittany Leger, 15, were killed.

A University of Pennsylvania fraternity has agreed that a deficient stairway railing at the frat house contributed to the death of a man who fell about 30 feet over it after a New Year's Eve party in 2011. Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity Inc. agreed to pay over $3 million to the plaintiffs prior to the start of a wrongful death negligence trial. It also agreed to pay $375,000 to Suds Beer Store in Trevose, Bucks County. Matthew Crozier, a 20-year-old John Carrol University student and former LaSalle College High School basketball standout, died in an apparent accidental fall from the second to the first floor during the party at the frat house at 3539 Locust Walk.

GOING TO GREAT HEIGHTS FOR A COLD BOTTLE OF BREW Felix Rivera's late-night craving for a cold brew bought him a ticket to the cooler. Rivera, 33, greased his body with used cooking oil, then tried to slide through a two-foot-wide rooftop air vent into Pik Nik, a San Antonio, Texas, convenience store where he's a regular customer, police said. He tripped the burglar alarm early Friday when his upper body became wedged in the vent with his legs dangling inside. It took eight firefighters an hour to free him. "He walked up to me and said: 'Sorry, man. All I wanted was a beer,' " store manager Joe Castellano said.

Maybe it was only the first round, but the victory went to the neighborhood. No, the city Zoning Board of Adjustment members said, one after another. No. No. No and No. No zoning variance for a takeout beer and food store in a vacant warehouse at 60th Street and Springfield Avenue. It was a victory that felt good to residents of this Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, still recovering from the July 1988 shooting death of 5-year-old Marcus Yates, inside a now-closed variety store on the same corner.

A long-needed road-construction project on Germantown Avenue in Mount Airy is taking a heavy toll on some small businesses along the historic roadway. Outside the Trolley Car Diner on Germantown Avenue on a recent afternoon, a noisy construction crew worked in an area where auto traffic has been banned since Jan. 21 - Martin Luther King's Birthday. Just four customers were having lunch in the normally busy, vintage diner, which can seat 150. "We've been here for eight years," said Ken Weinstein, the owner.

All night long and into the next afternoon, the pair was locked together in the same room, unwilling participants in a drama that had already claimed one life. One of them, a woman, was wincing in pain, her arm fractured by a gunshot wound. The other, a man who had witnessed the shooting, was uninjured but was being held against his will. They were trapped inside the single-room, beer store in Brewerytown by the operator, who had locked himself and the others inside after the shooting early yesterday, police said.

A group of state legislators, responding to persistent complaints from community groups about nuisance bars, yesterday announced the creation of a task force that will rewrite the state's liquor code. The rewrite could challenge the existence of some places that sell liquor around the city, and fuel efforts of community groups struggling to protect their neighborhoods. "It became clear to me that the present liquor code is archaic and does not address many of the circumstances that our communities face today," said state Rep. Andrew Carn, D-Phila.

As Steve Pennington sees it, there's no need to worry about the new neighbor. "We won't be a problem," said Pennington, president of Jumpers Teen Club, which is scheduled to open in the township next month. The club owner spoke at a township supervisors' meeting Wednesday, hoping to calm residents' concerns that rowdy teenage patrons would filter into their neighborhood. The club will be in the Lansdale Village Shoppes at Oak Park Boulevard and Main Street and will cater to those ages 15 through 20. Like most clubs for teenagers, it will have music, a sports entertainment center and a snack area, Pennington said.