Bucks County

Pam Chandler decided to accompany her husband, Bob, to the extraordinary auction of an Ocean City, N.J., mansion Saturday to keep him from "going overboard. " But an hour after she toured the 7,000-square-foot Victorian-style house on the Great Bay, she was the one prodding him to stay in the frenzied bidding on the breezy bayside veranda. The Chandlers, who live in Rumson, Monmouth County, with their three children, won the auction, ultimately paying $3.9 million for a property that was listed at about $6.5 million two years ago. It is assessed at $5 million.

Terms of office are four years, unless otherwise indicated. Nominating one per office in each party, unless otherwise indicated. Judge of Court of Common Pleas (10-year term) Jahn S. Chesnov. . . 1,135 Diane Gibbons. . . 15,759 Gary Gilman. . . 10,737 Jahn S. Chesnov. . . 1,804 Diane Gibbons. . . 23,900 Gary Gilman. . . 6,599 County Commissioner Diane Marseglia. . . 16,240 Sandra A. Miller. . . 10,017 Steve Santarsiero. . . 12,529 Andrew L. Warren.

Dr. Jorge "George" F. Schuster, 65, of Newtown Township, Bucks County, a former agricultural economist for an international organization, died Friday at Temple University Hospital of complications from heart surgery. From 1972 to 1990, Dr. Schuster worked for a food and agricultural organization supported by the World Bank, with headquarters in Rome. "He was fluent in five languages - Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and English - and led missions to numerous economic development [efforts]

A hot time at the Red Ball Gala helped bring down Bucks Fever Saturday night in Doylestown. The finale involved more than dining and dancing, though: There was a dramatic reading of Pearl S. Buck's "The New Year" on Sunday, hosted by David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower. All of which led chairman Ron Watson to conclude that "there is something hot about Bucks County beyond the real estate market. "

In lower Bucks County's redrawn Sixth Senate District, three-term incumbent Sen. H. Craig Lewis is facing a vigorous primary challenge in the May 20 election from state Rep. John F. Cordisco for the Democratic nomination. Jim O'Brien is unopposed for the Republican nomination. The Democratic campaign has been more than simply lively; it has become intensely personal, dripping with charges and countercharges over residence, district loyalty, character and integrity. After sorting through those charges - and because of his distinquished record of representation in the Senate - The Inquirer heartily recommends the nomination of Sen. Lewis.

Joseph Mannello, 57, of Lower Makefield Township, a well-known Bucks County restaurateur, died Sunday at Delaware Valley Medical Center in Falls Township of an apparent heart attack. Since January, he had owned and operated Mannello's Italian Garden Restaurant on Bustleton Pike in Feasterville. Before that, he owned and operated the Anchor Inn, a historic restaurant in Wrightstown, and the Red Lion Inn in Bensalem. Mr. Mannello was born in the Italian province of Calabria and came to the United States at 15 with his family.

Anthony Orazi, 78, a retired stonemason, former Bucks County employee, and church leader, died Tuesday at his Morrisville home. He served as deputy recorder of deeds for the county in the 1970s and as supervisor of roads and bridges in the 1980s. Mr. Orazi was born in Bristol Borough and graduated from Bristol High School. During World War II, he served with the Army in Europe and the Pacific and took part in the invasion of Normandy Beach. He moved to Morrisville from Yardley 46 years ago. He had been active in Republican Party politics for many years and served as a committeeman during three decades.

Vacationing families from outside southeastern Pennsylvania typically flock to see the sights within a two-mile radius of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, then perhaps take a jaunt to Bucks County. The Bucks County Tourist Commission is working to reverse their itinerary. "We're now selling the idea of 'Come to Bucks County.' It's a reasonable place to stay and take a side trip into Philadelphia," says the commission's president, Albert Giagnacova. The nonprofit agency over the weekend conducted a complimentary tour for a dozen travel writers from outside Bucks and their families emphasizing "family fun" at several of the county's attractions.

Like rain running off an open umbrella, the people of the Philadelphia region for decades have moved out toward its edges. Now, regional planners say, the pattern has been reversed. The rural northern edge of Bucks County is being invaded, not from inside the region, but from outside. Homeowners in central New Jersey have been crossing the Delaware River into Bucks, fleeing from towns where corporate office headquarters have been growing - depending on one's prejudice - like wild roses or like weeds in an untended graveyard.

Mary Ann DeSantis Kulka, 77, a former public elementary school teacher in Bucks County, died of heart failure Friday, March 23, at her home in Barnegat, N.J. Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Kulka graduated from Little Flower High School in 1952 and after years of evening classes earned her a bachelor's in 1958 at what is now St. Joseph's University, her husband, John, said in a interview Monday. She was among the first women to graduate from St. Joseph's, became editor of The Nighthawk, the evening school's newsletter, and played on the women's basketball team, he said.

Who would want a 25-foot cell pole fronting their yard? Not Ed Bendzlowicz, Beth-Ann Wolfson, Janet Swenson, or several other Bucks County residents who are surprised and shocked that the black metal poles are about to be erected along their plush, green lawns. They are demanding answers and warning unsuspecting homeowners that they could be next. Not just in Northampton Township, but around the Philadelphia area and across the state. "This should concern everyone in Pennsylvania," says Bendzlowicz, one of the leaders of hundreds of Northampton residents opposing the poles.

The Bucks County street was choked with cars and a TV news van Friday. Police cordoned off the end of the block. But inside the colonial on the cul de sac in Feasterville, it was just another calm morning for Stacey and Brendan Carey and their 11-month-old sextuplets and 2-year-old daughter. Bam went the front door. Brendan Carey asked Stacey to get it. Emeril Lagasse stood there in a white chef's coat. Behind him was a camera crew from ABC's Good Morning America, along with Warminster's William Tennent High marching band, neighbors, and friends.

A man suspected of making three pipe bombs was arrested Thursday in Bucks County. John Grzyminski, 50, was taken into custody after a Solebury Township police officer spotted his black pickup truck. Grzyminski was charged with multiple counts of risking catastrophe and unlawful possession or manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, and other offenses. Wednesday afternoon, his mother called authorities after finding a pipe bomb in the kitchen of her home in the 1800 block of Saddle Drive in Warrington.

JOHN GRZYMINSKI's life has gone from bad to worse. Clad in a yellow prison jumpsuit, the 50-year-old appeared before a federal magistrate Friday, after being charged with knowingly possessing unauthorized destructive devices, just a few days after cops found three pipe bombs in his Warrington home. The magistrate ordered him to remain behind bars until a hearing Tuesday to determine if should be eligible for bail. According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in the eastern district of Pennsylvania, Grzyminski allegedly argued with his mother, Catherine Wilson, and his brother, Michael Grzyminski, when Wilson returned home Wednesday from a hospital stay for surgery.

Since 1943, Joyce Block says, she has voted in every election - even the two times she left hospital beds to get to the polls. "That's how important it was for me to vote," the 89-year-old Doylestown Township woman says. And that's why she called the ACLU a few weeks ago to join the civil liberties group's fight against Pennsylvania's new law requiring voters to produce photo identification. Block is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Tuesday. She says she also raised a "ruckus" at the state Department of Transportation office in Dublin until she got her temporary photo ID, with a little help from State Sen. Chuck McIlhenny (R., Bucks)

Down-on-their-luck residents of Tent City, a homeless enclave in a wooded area in Bristol Borough, have next to nothing — a few tarps, blankets, and clothes. Some have a heater to warm their shelter and a chair to sit outside. There's no electricity, no running water. By Monday, they'll need to pack up their meager belongings and find another place to call home. Their refuge is about to be leveled for a warehouse. "I have nowhere else to go," 46-year-old John Haacke said Monday as eviction loomed.

The outcry over the state's new voter-ID bill is not limited to the big cities. It has been dominating the public comment at Bucks County Board of Commissioners meetings, and it escalated last week when Det Ansinn, the Borough Council president in Doylestown, told of taking his wife's 91-year-old grandmother to a PennDot office, looking for a photo ID so she could keep her 70-year voting record intact. Joyce Block of Doylestown Township is such a dedicated voter that Ansinn took her from the hospital in a wheelchair to vote in 2010 because she couldn't get an absentee ballot.

Members of the Perkasie Borough Council violated the state Sunshine Act last month because of "an innocent mistake," a Bucks County grand jury concluded in a report released Thursday. The elected officials will not be held liable for the violation because they had been advised incorrectly by Borough Manager Daniel Olpere and Solicitor Nathan Fox, county District Attorney David Heckler said. "This was nothing but an innocent mistake," Heckler said, although "the solicitor and a manager as experienced as Mr. Olpere should have known better," Only elected officials can be penalized for violations, with fines of $100 to $1,000 per person for a first offense, Heckler said at a news conference in his Doylestown office.

In a cozy corner of a third-grade classroom at Holland Elementary School in Bucks County's Council Rock School District, 9-year-old Conner Weinberg confidently read to a companion, glancing up once in a while for approval. In return, his listener offered a soulful gaze and, occasionally, a slight wag of a tail. Which is about what you can expect when your audience is a 140-pound Rhodesian ridgeback named Kicho. "Sometimes, I get jittery inside when I read [aloud], but not with Kicho," Conner said.

Mary Ann DeSantis Kulka, 77, a former public elementary school teacher in Bucks County, died of heart failure Friday, March 23, at her home in Barnegat, N.J. Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Kulka graduated from Little Flower High School in 1952 and after years of evening classes earned her a bachelor's in 1958 at what is now St. Joseph's University, her husband, John, said in a interview Monday. She was among the first women to graduate from St. Joseph's, became editor of The Nighthawk, the evening school's newsletter, and played on the women's basketball team, he said.