Bristol

Plavix, the brand name for the blood-thinning drug taken by millions of people with heart disease to avoid heart attacks and strokes, will soon be on pharmacy shelves in generic form. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave approval to the generic versions this week. Plavix, whose generic name is clopidogrel, was made and marketed through a partnership of Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. It had U.S. sales of about $6.7 billion for the 12 months ending March 31, 2012, according to IMS Health.

The Pathmark supermarkets in Broomall and Bristol will close around Oct. 13, putting all employees at each store out of work, Pathmark's parent company, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co, Inc., told Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry in letters dated Aug. 13. There are 108 employees in Broomall and 109 in Bristol, the letters said. The Montvale, N.J.-based company had announced last week that it would close 25 of its 429 stores, affecting an estimated 2,000 employees, as it attempts to turn around its business.

Steve Wilgus drove in three runs and John Brue hit a two-run, first-inning homer Friday night to send Brooklawn to a 9-5 victory over host Boyertown in American Legion Baseball's Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament. Earlier Friday, Bristol eliminated Bordentown from the double-elimination tournament, taking a 9-4 win. Steve Arthur pitched a complete game for Bristol.

On his team's first play from scrimmage, less than four minutes into a nonleague game against Bristol, Imhotep Charter's Christopher Lewis took a quick two-step drop and lofted a pass up the right sideline to senior wideout Devin Sanders for a 47-yard touchdown. That play ignited a prolific day through the air for Lewis and the Panthers, who steamrolled a smaller Bristol squad, 38-14, in the teams' season opener Friday afternoon at Benjamin L. Johnston Field in Germantown. Lewis, a senior and three-year starter, finished the game with 215 yards passing, three touchdowns, and two interceptions.

Bristol topped Avon Grove last night, 78-70, at Ursinus College to win the boys' District I AA championship. Both teams will advance to the AA state championship tournament, which will begin next week. The key to the victory by the Warriors (22-6) was a swarming, pressing defense that forced 25 turnovers by Avon Grove (17-10). "We're a small team; our center (Tony Devine) is only 6-1," Bristol coach Tom Kaczor said. "So the idea is to pressure the other team, and eventually somebody will break.

Forget that they were blown away by a stronger St. Augustine Prep team, 28-12. What could have been the toughest loss for Bristol came with just over a minute left in the first half Saturday afternoon. That's when Warriors star running back Dan Smyth twisted his right knee in a pile-up after a 1-yard carry. The injury knocked the centerpiece of Bristol's attack out of the game for the rest of the first half and most of the third quarter. "I thought I was done," Smyth said.

Bristol finished the Bicentennial League season with a flourish and made good on its coach's challenge. The Warriors' three victories last week made them the third seed in the PIAA Class AA District 1 boys' basketball tournament. The district's top three teams advance to the state tournament. "After we weren't in competiton for the league title," coach Steve Cullen said, "I said to the team, 'Let's win our next four games so we can have some momentum going into the districts.

Sooner or later, it figured that the law of averages would finally catch up with Bristol's basketball team. Either the Warriors were due to play a clunker, or they were bound to run into a team that was every bit their equal. So you had a feeling it wasn't going to be Bristol's game when both possibilities became reality on the same afternoon. The Warriors (26-4), who had beaten their last five opponents by an average of almost 27 points, lost the PIAA Class A title to District 10 champ Kennedy Christian (29-1)

Bristol basketball coach Tom Kaczor stood against a bank of lockers as the writers surrounded him at Reading High. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. His hair was tousled, his jacket had been discarded long ago, his tie was simply an afterthought. Somebody asked him whether the 68-67 overtime loss in the PIAA Class AA state semifinal to Delone Catholic on Wednesday was tougher than his team's loss in the Class A final last year. "Sure this was tougher," he mumbled.

Mike Lalli, whose softball teams at Bristol won the Bicentennial League title in 13 out of his 14 years, has resigned as coach to become vice principal of the school. Lalli, 35, steps down after coaching his teams to a stellar 206-42 record, seven district titles, and a Class AA state championship in 1990. He said he had mixed emotions. "I love coaching, and I haven't ruled out a return," Lalli said. "This will give me more of an opportunity to coach my own kids. By the time each season ended and the summer came around, I was so burned out. It took a lot of time away from some more important things.

Bristol Riverside Theatre's current production of Rent marks the fifth I've reviewed, more than any other show, including Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Since the second Clinton presidency, Philly has hosted the original national tour, many local productions, and a 2009 reboot featuring its original Broadway leading men, Adam Rapp and Anthony Pascal, and "Seasons of Love" soloist Gwen Stewart. Bristol's entry isn't the best Rent I've seen, but it might be the best production I've seen there, and that's not meant as a backhanded compliment.

A Bristol Township construction worker who threatened to kill his wife or himself about a year and a half ago shot her in the head Thursday night and then committed suicide, according to a police spokesman and court documents. The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. as the couple's daughter fled the home with her young son "fearing for their lives," Police Lt. Terry Hughes said. Mary Todd, 51, of Hazel Avenue, was listed in critical condition Friday in a medically induced coma at Aria Health-Torresdale Campus, Hughes and a hospital spokeswoman said.

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Brad Keselowski used Bristol Motor Speedway last fall to cement his spot in NASCAR's championship race. Back at the track Sunday, Keselowski again made his way to Victory Lane. And he again began to think about a Sprint Cup title. Keselowski led a career-best and race-high 231 laps, then held off Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth on a late restart to cruise to his first victory of the season. "What can I say? I love Bristol and Bristol loves me," said Keselowski, who immediately began taking pictures in Victory Lane to send to Twitter.

Of all the people who witnessed Pete Cimino's historic 114-point game for Bristol High School, it is the one person who was not there who stokes memories. On Jan. 22, 1960, the 6-foot-2 Cimino, who would later be signed as a baseball pitcher out of high school by the Washington Senators, poured in 114 points as Bristol beat visiting Palisades, 134-86. Philomena Cimino, the mother of Pete, had been a fixture at her son's games, along with her husband, Peter. On this night, she decided not to go. "My mother never missed a game - and that was the only one she ever missed," said Dave Cimino, Pete's brother, who still lives in the Bristol area.

Bristol Township police are looking for the driver of a car that stuck and killed a 36-year-old Levittown man early Sunday morning. Eric Beck, of Wild Rose Lane, who had been at a party at a bar on New Falls Road in Bristol Township, was hit by a black Audi about 12:30 a.m. as he walked home, according to police Sgt. Chuck Burns. Police found him dead at the scene at New Falls Road and Holly Drive. The Audi, which suffered some damage, did not stop, Burns said. The driver of a second vehicle that hit Beck did stop and is cooperating with police.

TRENTON - A generic-drug maker has paid nearly $445 million to end a decadelong patent-infringement battle with two pharmaceutical heavyweights over the blood thinner Plavix. Apotex Corp., Canada's biggest drugmaker, has paid Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Sanofi SA, the brand-name drugmakers that jointly sell Plavix, $442.2 million in damages ordered over its improper sales of a generic version of Plavix in 2006. Apotex also paid $1.26 million in interest on that judgment and $900,000 in legal costs.

Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol emerged from bankruptcy Thursday, two years after the 186-bed facility filed for protection from creditors. Bondholders, still owed $24.9 million, are expected to receive 35 percent of their claims, according to Moody's Investors Service. The hospital's bankruptcy plan was approved last month. Key to the bankruptcy plan was a $14 million loan, secured by the hospital's campus, through the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority. The hospital said it employs more than 900. - Harold Brubaker

A Falls Township woman was killed late Friday when her car was rear-ended at the intersection of Bristol Pike and Edgely Road in Bristol Township. John Fitzgibbon, driving a van, struck Monica Lynn Presley's car and then hit an electric pole, a traffic-signal pole, and a parked car, police said. A passenger in Presley's car was not hurt. Fitzgibbon, also of Falls Township, was taken to St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne. Information on his injuries was not available. - Harold Brubaker