Bus Station

John J. "Marty" Connors, 75, a former manager of the Trailways Bus Terminal in Camden and an actor who played extra roles in numerous films, including 12 Monkeys, died Wednesday at Greenbriar West Nursing Home in Woodbury. A West Deptford resident, he was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Roman Catholic High School. Mr. Connors managed the Trailways Bus Terminal in Camden for more than five years before retiring in the mid-1960s. A member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Announcers, he got into acting after retiring.

Look across the street from the post office parking lot on the 100 block of Fifth Street, and you'll see a sight that is all too common here: With the exception of one isolated storefront business, all the buildings in the block are empty. One of those buildings is a two-story brick bus station that was left vacant when Greyhound and Trailways stopped providing service here more than a decade ago, its front door chained and padlocked and its interior showing age and neglect. But unlock the door and walk into the former bus station with Chester residents Karolyn Funches and Yvonne Carrington, and you might be able to catch a glimpse of a building transformed, as they describe the changes that will take place there over the next few months.

The deadly attacks on civilians that have wracked this country took on a new and grisly variation yesterday: A powerful explosion ripped through a crowded Baghdad bus station. As police responded, a second explosion went off. Then, a third bomb devastated the nearby hospital where the wounded had been rushed for treatment. The triple-bombing toll reported by the Ministry of Interior and hospital officials: up to 43 killed and 88 injured, including civilians, medical workers and police, making it the deadliest attack in weeks in the violence-ridden country.

The driver of a Philadelphia-to-Toronto bus was acquitted Tuesday of homicide charges in the deaths of four passengers killed when the Megabus struck an overpass near Syracuse, N.Y. A judge announced the verdict after a non-jury trial for John Tomaszewski, 60, of Yardville, Mercer County. "It was a tragic accident and four people lost their lives," a weary Tomaszewski said as he left court in Syracuse. "It's something I'll have to deal with the rest of my life. " Tomaszewski and the bus company face civil lawsuits from several of the crash victims and their families, which had been on hold during the criminal proceedings.

Indian troops encircled Jaffna and reinforcements poured in yesterday for an assault on Tamil rebels that one official predicted would be their "last- ditch, most ferocious stand" in the city's narrow, high-walled alleys. A senior Sri Lankan official said Indian troops had nearly penetrated two defense perimeters in efforts to link up with a besieged Sri Lankan garrison battling its way out of a Dutch-built fort inside Jaffna. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which have occupied the city, issued a statement saying they were prepared to fight "to the last man. " The Tigers broke a 10-week-old cease-fire Oct. 6 after 12 of their fighters committed suicide in Sri Lankan custody.

The brewery didn't work out in 1994. Last year, an office building was swiftly rejected. But town leaders hope the latest plan for Doylestown's crumbling train station - a theme restaurant-cum-transportation crossroads - will at last further the vision described in the borough's long-term revitalization plan. Nearly 70 residents crowded a borough meeting hall Thursday for an early look at the plan. For years, while the tiny train station remained underresourced and rarely staffed, and while the Victorian-era freight building fell into poor repair, residents wondered what, if anything, would ever be built there.

The governor took the bus to work and the mayor greeted commuters at a bus station yesterday as Denver launched its fifth Better Air Campaign to combat carbon monoxide pollution produced by cars and wood stoves. Last year the campaign included for the first time an oxygenated fuels program for vehicles, and Denver dropped from first to seventh place on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of worst cities for carbon monoxide pollution. This year, the goals have been raised.

Horton Foote won a belated and richly merited Pulitzer Prize this month, and there is no better way to celebrate than catching 1985's The Trip to Bountiful - a film that succeeds because it is anything but a sentimental journey. The Trip to Bountiful brought Geraldine Page the best-actress Oscar for her moving and observant portrait of a Texas widow who feels the closeness of death and wishes to visit the small town where she grew up and raised a family before it comes. This eloquent piece about age and mortality was of a certain vintage itself.

The New Jersey State Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended the law license of Philadelphia lawyer Michael Kwasnik, who was charged in a state grand jury indictment in November with stealing $1.1 million from a Cherry Hill widow. Kwasnik had been under investigation by state bar authorities and law enforcement officials for a variety of alleged ethics code and criminal violations involving his mostly elderly clients. A Cherry Hill based company for which he had served as general counsel, Liberty State Financial Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in July.

Bona Cucina Ristorante is one of those humble little neighborhood eateries that comes with that classic disclaimer usually reserved for fine-dining establishments. Somewhere on the menu you'll find a line about being patient because the food is cooked to order. At Bona Cucina - which means "good kitchen" in Italian - the food is as simple and familiar as a plate of grandma's lasagna. Still, the "patient" statement should be emblazoned on the walls. Yes, everything is custom-made here, including the pasta and homemade soups, but there's also only one chef in the kitchen.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A bus driver was acquitted Tuesday of homicide charges in the deaths of four passengers killed when his double-decker Megabus crashed into a low overpass in upstate New York while en route from Philadelphia to Toronto. A judge announced the verdict after a nonjury trial for 60-year-old John Tomaszewski of Yardville, N.J. Tomaszewski faced up to four years in state prison if convicted on each of four counts of criminally negligent homicide. He sat with his head bowed and showed no reaction as Onondaga County Court Judge Anthony Aloi read the verdict.

The driver of a Philadelphia-to-Toronto bus was acquitted Tuesday of homicide charges in the deaths of four passengers killed when the Megabus struck an overpass near Syracuse, N.Y. A judge announced the verdict after a non-jury trial for John Tomaszewski, 60, of Yardville, Mercer County. "It was a tragic accident and four people lost their lives," a weary Tomaszewski said as he left court in Syracuse. "It's something I'll have to deal with the rest of my life. " Tomaszewski and the bus company face civil lawsuits from several of the crash victims and their families, which had been on hold during the criminal proceedings.

The New Jersey State Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended the law license of Philadelphia lawyer Michael Kwasnik, who was charged in a state grand jury indictment in November with stealing $1.1 million from a Cherry Hill widow. Kwasnik had been under investigation by state bar authorities and law enforcement officials for a variety of alleged ethics code and criminal violations involving his mostly elderly clients. A Cherry Hill based company for which he had served as general counsel, Liberty State Financial Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in July.

From: Gonzalez, John  Sad day here at Page 2 HQ. After 18 months, our MVW, Robert Ford, is taking an indefinite leave of absence from Team Talkin', though he'll continue to write his column for the page that precedes this one. No set topic today: Let's reminisce a little about the way we were and our favorite Talkin' moments of the past.  It is a sad day, indeed. Sad for me in particular, but that's not the point of this, is it? Bobby has been the voice of reason in the storm.

John "Jordan" Lewis' first cousin and a family friend told a Common Pleas jury yesterday of how they were each sucked into the murder saga that Lewis created after he fatally shot a Philadelphia cop on Oct. 31, 2007. On Nov. 3, while police were still hunting for the killer who shot Officer Chuck Cassidy during a holdup of a West Oak Lane Dunkin' Donuts, Lynn Dyches, Lewis' mother, started making frantic phone calls. Dyches, a Philadelphia corrections officer, first called Herbert Hill, a fellow corrections officer whom she had been dating.

Cop took coke? SANTA ANA, Calif. - A California Highway Patrol officer was charged yesterday with stealing more than $1 million worth of cocaine that was in his agency's custody. Authorities allege that Joshua Blackburn broke into an evidence room before dawn Friday and took the drugs. The six-year department veteran was arrested later that day and is being held in lieu of $4 million bail. Louisiana population rebound is post-Katrina bright spot WASHINGTON - Louisiana appears to be rebounding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, gaining 50,000 residents in the year ending July 1, according to Census Bureau population estimates released today.

Down a half-mile of rocky dirt road, past banana groves and cattle swishing their tails through the warm, moist air, Miguel Murillo is pursuing a different breed of agriculture. Every morning, he walks to his six backyard gardens, each flush with eye-popping tropical greenery, and gingerly removes tiny spheres from the leaves. They are eggs, and his "crop" is butterflies. This is a mariposario, a butterfly farm, one of dozens across the Costa Rican countryside. A former Peace Corps volunteer exports their product to museums around the world.

The message that the Rev. Jeff Hulet preaches at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Riverside and Christ Episcopal Church in Palmyra is simple: Spirituality is a process. Nobody knows better than Hulet. Before graduating from the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan last May, the vicar - well into his 50s - was a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department. And he was a Methodist. "I grew up in the Midwest as a Methodist," Hulet said during an interview in his office at St. Stephen's.

The deadly attacks on civilians that have wracked this country took on a new and grisly variation yesterday: A powerful explosion ripped through a crowded Baghdad bus station. As police responded, a second explosion went off. Then, a third bomb devastated the nearby hospital where the wounded had been rushed for treatment. The triple-bombing toll reported by the Ministry of Interior and hospital officials: up to 43 killed and 88 injured, including civilians, medical workers and police, making it the deadliest attack in weeks in the violence-ridden country.

A 19-year-old Feltonville man found lurking behind a woman at a desolate bus station late Thursday is in custody, and police say he is responsible for four of five attacks against women in the area since January. Hours after police announced that they were looking for a man in connection with the attacks - three of which included sexual assaults - two officers from the 25th District spotted a man fitting the description who was following a woman waiting for a SEPTA bus near D Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, authorities said.