Bulletin

HARRISBURG ? Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he was "appalled" and "embarrassed" that his administration's Office of Homeland Security has been tracking and circulating information about legitimate protests by activist groups that do not pose a threat to public safety. Rendell said he did not know that the state Office of Homeland Security had been paying an outside company to track a long list of activists, including groups that oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale, animal-rights advocates, and peace activists.

HARRISBURG ? Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he was "appalled" and "embarrassed" that his administration's Office of Homeland Security has been tracking and circulating information about legitimate protests by activist groups that do not pose a threat to public safety. Rendell said he did not know that the state Office of Homeland Security had been paying an outside company to track a long list of activists, including groups that oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale, animal-rights advocates, and peace activists.

Eleanor Bushnell McLean, wife of the late William L. McLean Jr., former vice president and treasurer of the old Bulletin, died May 25. She was 86 and lived in Gladwyne. She was basically a private woman who put her time, effort and loyalties behind such selected projects as fund-raisers for Lankenau Hospital and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Hers was a world oriented toward personal friendships and family, rather than social glitter or frenetic club activities. Her husband, William L. Jr., whom she married in 1925, was vice president and treasurer of the Bulletin from 1931 until his death of a cerebral hemmorrhage in 1954 at the age of 58. His father, William L. McLean, had bought the 6,000-circulation paper in 1895 when Philadelphia boasted 13 daily newspapers.

May 14, 2006 DEAR WILSON: Congratulations on receiving your First Holy Communion today. It brought a tear to my eye to stand with you as you accepted the sacrament, and it was obvious to your mother and me that you have taken your religious education very seriously. I saved a copy of the church bulletin distributed at Mass today as a keepsake, and I'm writing this letter in the hope that you'll keep it attached to the bulletin as an explanation. You see, my name appears in an insert to the bulletin distributed throughout the archdiocese on the day you received communion, and not in a favorable light.

The boycott of the Daily News by the group calling itself Communities United is something I have seen before. I have a copy of a leaflet given out by the Negro Preachers of Philadelphia and Vicinity in 1962, stating all the wonderful things they would do for the betterment of our children. Near the bottom of the flyer, however, were these words: "No more nickels for the prejudiced. Opportunity for our children is more important than reading the Bulletin. " This boycott was by 400 Negro ministers who believed they could not remain silent while members of their congregations patronized a newspaper that discriminated in employment.

Former newspaperman John Malone, a lifelong Philadelphian who headed an informal club of retired newspaper reporters who met once a month to reminisce in a South Philly restaurant, died Friday. He was 80. Known for his loyalty to a cadre of longtime friends, Malone was the center of a club dubbed "The Joe Van Hart Club" after one of its members, a retired assistant city editor. The group of 20 to 25 men - some from newspapers, some from radio, some from public relations and most retired - met for lunch once a month at Palumbo's Restaurant at 8th and Catharine streets.

So are you ready to take a dive into the computer underground? To get wired into what you need to access a computer bulletin board system and operate one, Fresh Ink talked to Ron Brandt, system manager of The Datamax/Satalink Connection BBS in Ivyland, Bucks County. With 21 phone lines, the board is the largest in Pennsylvania. WHAT YOU NEED TO ACCESS A BBS A COMPUTER. Brandt says most boards are set up for IBM or IBM-compatible computers, though some cater to Apple, Amiga and Atari machines.

Maria Tumolo was relaxing, watching a late-night movie in her Wallingford home early Monday morning, when a television news bulletin made her sit bolt upright. "The bulletin said (Mikhail S.) Gorbachev was ill and had been replaced by the vice president," Tumolo said. "I was floored. I couldn't believe it. I went upstairs to tell my husband, and I was just a mess with worry for the next three days. " Tumolo's fear was for her 14-year-old son, Matthew, who had left the previous day to attend an international soccer tournament in Moscow.

He lives in Austin, Texas, and, not surprisingly, doesn't want his name used. That's because the man - an elderly retiree - feels a bit foolish. He sent $10,000 to a complete stranger and never saw it again. The recipient of the 10 grand was a person with the self-appointed title of "skilled money manager. " "Send me a check," the manager said. "I'll invest it for you in a mutual fund, and you'll get rich. " Or something to that effect. According to Texas securities officials, the offer was a scam.

On a bulletin board in a hallway at the township's Central Elementary School are thumbnail genealogies - family shrubs - of some of the young students. "Theresa," one says, "came from Ireland. " Jonathan V. and Jose came from Spain. And Jordan and Siedah came from Africa. The bulletin board reflects a new strategy for teaching about cultural diversity in the 5,200-student district: sharing information about cultural backgrounds. Superintendent Harold Kurtz said that instead of relying on teachers to tell students about different cultures, principals at the district's 11 schools are drafting plans to have students learn about diversity from one another.