Cars

A block party just isn't the same when the U.S. Open is in the neighborhood. Don't bother setting up a volleyball net or wheeling the old grill around to the front of the house - that could fritter away as much as $100 a day that can be earned from drivers wanting to park near the Merion Golf Club. These are days not only of golfing glory, but also of ordinary people in scruffy shorts and wrinkled T-shirts making a buck off this 113th national golf championship. It's not just the U.S. Open.

More than 39,000 people piled into the Philadelphia International Auto Show in its first two days Saturday and yesterday at its new home at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Saul Kun, chairman of the auto show, sponsored by the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia, said yesterday's total of 19,902 paid admissions was 4,000 more than last year's first Sunday of the show. Kun and Robert Butera, executive director of the Convention Center, said parking and traffic problems did not materialize despite the crowded, Center City environs of the Convention Center.

George Dunning of Oreland looks over a 1962 MG Model A at a show of British cars held Saturday at the Hope Lodge in Fort Washington. The cars were displayed by the Delaware Valley Triumph Club, the Philadelphia MG Club, the Philadelphia Austin Healey Club and the Delaware Valley Jaguar Club.

Motorists who call the West Goshen police for help when they lock their keys in their cars will find their requests low on the department's list of emergency priorities. Police Chief Michael Dunn told township supervisors Tuesday night that "an astounding number of calls received in the past year" had forced his department to review its policy of assisting motorists who need their cars unlocked. Dunn said the 18-member department received 974 calls since September 1986. Most of the calls were from township residents who had locked their keys in cars or trucks.

Detectives here are investigating the smashing of eight cars' windows in the Pennypacker, Buckingham and Millbrook Park neighborhoods Tuesday night. The first report of a broken window was at 9:50 p.m., when the driver's side window of a 1973 Ford truck parked on the 100 block of Melbourne Lane was smashed. Within the next hour, the windows of five more cars were reported smashed: a 1989 Mercury Tracer parked in the 100 block of Buckingham Way; a 1988 Ford Escort and an Oldsmobile Cutlass, both parked in the 200 block of Pheasant Lane; and a 1990 Buick Century and a 1984 Ford Tempo, both on the 100 block of Marshall Lane.

Police have issued another alert to borough residents after the second rash of overnight thefts from automobiles in less than a month. Overnight on Feb. 5 and 6, 41 vehicles were entered in the northwest sector of the borough. Ten more incidents were reported overnight Monday, this time in the northeast sector. All of the cars were unlocked, police said. One victim reported that $150 in two bills had been taken from the glove compartment. The owner of another car reported $80 missing.

It began as a simple neighborhood cleanup effort yesterday in West Kensington. But by day's end, some streets were strewn with overturned and abandoned cars, some of which had been set on fire. After city trash trucks drove by without picking up the garbage, police say, some angry residents took to the streets in a frenzy of protest. For several hours, they rode through the neighborhood, pushing abandoned cars into the middle of the streets, heaving them over onto their roofs and setting some of them on fire.

The two mayoral candidates sparred over the issue of abandoned cars yesterday as Republican Sam Katz came out with his plan for getting rid of the estimated 47,000 heaps dumped along Philadelphia streets. Posed in front of an abandoned car parked outside the John B. Stetson Middle School on Allegheny Avenue, Katz came out with a detailed plan that combines up to $500,000 in more state money with streamlined city procedures. "Burned out, rusted and vandalized vehicles are more than just eyesores," Katz said.

The gravel lot tucked into a remote area of Gloucester County once housed a fleet of 100 yellow school buses that would rumble back and forth on weekdays. But when Hurricane Sandy hit in the fall - soon after the bus company moved out - the empty lot in Glassboro was assigned a new purpose: More than 300 vehicles that were damaged by raging rivers of saltwater were hauled to the five-acre property, Glassboro officials said. In New Jersey, lots like these have been tapped to temporarily hold an estimated 72,000 devastated cars, trucks, boats, and jet skis while they are processed for resale or salvaged parts.

The headline over Sandra Thompson's Sept. 11 Letter to the Editor was reversed. It should have read, "Motorists create danger on River Dr. " Drivers have a lot of gall driving their cars through what is essentially a city park and demanding that bicycle riders be ruled off the roadways. The problem of course is that the recreational nature of Fairmount Park, like most other things in our society, has been subjugated to insatiable demands of an ever-growing army of motor vehicles. This motorization of the environment, a process that is virtually complete in the suburbs, has already ruined most American cities and is eating away at Philadelphia bit by bit. If Philadelphia does not find a way to grow and prosper without succumbing to this process, most of the things that make this city more livable than most American cities will eventually be lost.

An unoccupied patrol vehicle rolled backwards into a Goodyear Service Store in the 2300 block of Welsh Road in Northeast Philadelphia early Sunday morning, a police spokeswoman reported. The driver, an Eighth District officer, had left the vehicle unattended at about 2:30 a.m. to run after a man wanted for aggravated assault. No further details were reported. – Walter F. Naedele  

Cameras have become so common in public places that motorists might assume they are headed straight to video any time police make a traffic stop. That's not always true, but perhaps it should be. A video record of what took place could be good for the motorist, as well as the officer, to combat false accusations. That's why a bill that would make video-recording devices standard equipment for all municipal police patrol cars in New Jersey makes sense. The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D., Gloucester)

The cars were used, but they were fine. A silver 2009 Mercedes-Benz GL550. A black 2008 Mercedes S550. A brown 2010 Range Rover - all bound for the Tin Can Island port in Nigeria via Newark and Elizabeth, N.J., and Florida. They were also stolen, from homes and car lots, in North Jersey, part of what federal prosecutors say was an international stolen-automobile smuggling ring - headed, they say, by a 43-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., woman known on the streets of Jersey City and Newark as "the Lady.

A city panel Tuesday approved a Philadelphia Gas Works request to buy 24 natural-gas vehicles, even though the utility acknowledges it would cost less to buy conventional gasoline cars. The Philadelphia Gas Commission voted to tack $438,000 onto the utility's $3.1 million budget next year for new vehicles to pay for the higher cost of the sedans, along with a compressed-natural-gas fueling station. Despite a huge price advantage, natural gas is only slowly moving into the motor-fuel market because of high up-front costs.

A block party just isn't the same when the U.S. Open is in the neighborhood. Don't bother setting up a volleyball net or wheeling the old grill around to the front of the house - that could fritter away as much as $100 a day that can be earned from drivers wanting to park near the Merion Golf Club. These are days not only of golfing glory, but also of ordinary people in scruffy shorts and wrinkled T-shirts making a buck off this 113th national golf championship. It's not just the U.S. Open.

CLEVELAND - Cleveland police fired a sergeant and meted out demotions and suspensions Tuesday for a car chase last year that involved five dozen cruisers, 137 rounds of ammunition fired by 13 officers, and the death of two people who, it turned out, were probably unarmed. A captain and lieutenant were demoted, and nine sergeants got suspensions ranging from one day to 30 days. They and the fired sergeant will appeal their punishment, according to Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8, which represents police supervisors.

Not many students go to Wharton to get their MBAs and become used-car salesmen. Jean-Mathieu "Jim" Chabas and Venkat Jonnala did, but then again, they aren't working a weedy lot wearing plaid jackets. They used their previous business expertise to start ZenKars L.L.C. , an online retailer of used cars that has an inventory, but not actual possession of any vehicles. Rather, ZenKars taps the cars and trucks owned by fleet-management companies that are constantly culling their holdings via the auction circuit.

Benson loves to play with toy cars and proudly shows off his racing track, which he builds into different shapes. The 9-year-old has many other interests, including playing basketball, soccer, and dodgeball. When he is indoors, he spends many happy hours playing video games and watching television. Outdoors, he delights in running around and riding his bike and scooter. Although he is shy when meeting new people, he soon warms up. Benson does very well in school, where he receives special-education services.

DOVER, Del. - Jimmie Johnson appeared to be cruising to his record eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup victory at Dover International Speedway. Johnson led 143 laps of the 400-lap race. Then, on a restart with 19 laps to go, Johnson was caught surging ahead of leader Juan Pablo Montoya. With Johnson serving a pass-through penalty on pit road, Montoya tried to hold off Tony Stewart. Montoya was seeking his first oval victory in seven Cup series seasons. Stewart, off to the worst start in his Cup career, seized the lead with three laps remaining and went on to gain his first win of the season yesterday.

BAGHDAD - Officials in Iraq are growing increasingly concerned over an unabated spike in violence that claimed at least 33 more lives on Thursday and is reviving fears of a return to widespread sectarian fighting. Authorities announced plans to impose a sweeping ban on many cars across the Iraqi capital starting early Friday in an apparent effort to thwart car bombings, as the United Nations envoy to Iraq warned that "systemic violence is ready to explode. " Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, was shown on state television visiting security checkpoints around Baghdad the previous night as part of a three-hour inspection tour, underscoring the government's efforts to show it is acting to curtail the bloodshed.