Bucks County

When writer Pearl S. Buck marched to the farm next door to her Bucks County home carrying a squirming baby in her arms, David Yoder became a first. Yoder, then 1 year old, was fresh from a Rochester orphanage. He was a biracial child, the son of an unmarried 17-year-old American girl who got pregnant while her family lived in India. In the 1940s, that meant ostracism and shame. No adoption agency could place him. Buck would have none of that. So, as she succinctly put it in an interview before her death, "I founded my own damned agency.

OPENING TAP . . . the Philly Beer Week Garden . . . the International Great Beer Expo . . . Craft Beer Day on East Passyunk . . . the Haddon Pub Fest . . . the Varga Pin Up Block Party . . . Throwdown in Franklintown . . . the London Grill Dunk Tank . . . Philly Beer Geek . . . Fishtown FestivALE . . . whatever incredibly exotic beer dinner Monk's Café cooks up . . . These are among the can't-miss events of Philly Beer Week, the traditional, signature...

Thomas E. Mellon Jr., 65, of Doylestown, a prominent Bucks County lawyer and former federal prosecutor, died Tuesday, Jan. 15, at his home after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. Mr. Mellon won a $6 billion judgment in federal court against al-Qaeda for relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also had leading roles in litigation against the tobacco industry and the makers of fen-phen, the weight-loss drug combination that was found to cause heart-valve damage.

Morris Rosenfeld (left) leaves a poll at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Holland, Bucks County, where candidates' campaign signs cover a wall.

Francesca Ruscio, 19, of Jamison, Bucks County, a student at Temple University, was named Miss Philadelphia during a pageant Saturday night at the Prince Music Theater in Center City. After auditions, she was selected from a field of 17 contestants. - Bonnie Cook Check back for a full profile of Ruscio later today

POLICE in Warrington, Bucks County, say that a secretary for a Bucks County ambulance company stole $642,000 from the nonprofit over four years, allegedly to support a gambling habit. The Bucks County Courier Times reports that Danette Lewchick, 56, was sent to Bucks County prison Monday after being unable to post $25,000 bail on theft and related charges. Authorities say she became the Warrington Community Ambulance's financial secretary in 2008. She allegedly took money from the company's account and put it toward her personal use. Her attorney, Jeffrey Solar, says she has "a severe gambling addiction.

THERE WAS THE bride, all dressed in white, and there was the buck-naked guy from Bucks County, exposing himself to the wedding party. Police in Charleston, S.C., say that Samuel James Dengel, 20, of Chalfont, was not a guest at a wedding Saturday at the DoubleTree Hotel but that his room overlooked a courtyard where the ceremony was taking place. The mother of the bride told police that Dengel was watching the wedding from his room, naked, with his genitals pressed against the window.

Every Tuesday, the Delaware Valley Woodcarvers Club meets at the Churchville Nature Center in Churchville, Bucks County. Members come prepared - with anecdotes to relate, and, of course, with wood to carve.

Gov. Casey yesterday nominated John J. Rufe, a former Bucks County assistant district attorney, to be a Bucks County Common Pleas Court judge. If confirmed by the state Senate, Rufe, 49, would serve on a bench that already includes his brother, William H. Rufe 3d, and eight other judges. John Rufe would replace Paul R. Beckert, who resigned July 31. Rufe would serve in the interim position until January 1992. The Casey administration said Rufe was selected from among five candidates whose names were submitted to the governor by the Bucks County Trial Court Nominating Commission, a body established by Casey in August to recommend candidates for the vacancy.

What's that they say about taxation without representation? More than 800 Telford property owners got a shock yesterday when blue-and-white notices landed in their mailboxes informing them of their new assessments and an estimate of taxes owed to Montgomery County in 1998. All of this would be fine except these property owners are residents of Bucks County. Such are the hassles of living on the edge. Telford straddles both counties. About 800 of the borough's 1,500 properties lie in Bucks.