Chesco

Former Pennsylvania Environmental Secretary Kathleen McGinty said Tuesday that she was considering entering the potentially crowded Democratic race for governor in 2014. "I'm very serious about it," McGinty said during a visit to the state Capitol. "I think having a centrist, pro-jobs, pro-growth, and pro-environment approach is something that Pennsylvania needs and will respond positively to. " A Chester County resident, McGinty, 49, said she would take a leave from her job as an executive with West Chester-based Weston Solutions Inc. to concentrate on the prospective campaign.

The underage drinking party was one complaint. Then there were the two fathers out on the lawn who could not contact their daughters, thought to be at the Saturday night party inside the East Goshen Township, Chester County, house. And then there were the hosts of the party, who allegedly refused to let police see what was happening inside the house in the 1600 block of Bow Tree Drive. After finding what was inside - including several teenagers hiding in a basement crawl space - the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department arrested Raymond Bonnett, 46, and his son Elliott, 18, and charged them with hosting a party at their home for 19 underage drinkers on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. The most serious charges were not for hosting the party, but two felony counts of "interference with custody of children.

Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan has promoted four longtime staffers to newly created deputy district attorney positions. One of the appointees, Michelle Frei, was part of the prosecution team that recently won the first-degree murder conviction of Laquanta Chapman in the slaying of a high school student. Frei is a Gettysburg College and Villanova Law School graduate and a 12-year veteran of the office. She heads domestic-violence prosecutions. The others are Mark Conte, a Millersville University and Widener Law School graduate, who has been a prosecutor for 13 years and is assigned to the courtroom of President Judge James P. MacElree II; Renee Merion, a 19-year veteran who heads the juvenile unit; and Thomas Ost-Prisco, a prosecutor for the last 15 years, who is in charge of arson and explosives investigations.

A longtime Chester County magistrate judge claims that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court violated his constitutional rights when it suspended him without pay because he was charged with fixing tickets at Philadelphia Traffic Court. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia, District Judge Mark A. Bruno describes himself as "an extremely hardworking" and respected jurist who has been unable to pay bills or find work since being removed Feb. 1, when federal prosecutors announced charges against him and eight other former or current Traffic Court judges.

A North Philadelphia man pleaded guilty on Monday in Chester County Court to two robberies, in New Garden and West Grove, both in July 2012, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday. Timothy T. Harris, 33, was convicted of felony robbery for a July 3 theft of $1,819 from a cellphone store in New Garden Township and robbery and conspiracy for a July 13 theft of $2,225 from a Citizens Bank office in West Grove, First Assistant District Attorney Michael G. Noone said Tuesday.

A Chester County couple paid hospital workers to steal patients' personal information, then used it in a scheme to steal $1.7 million in tax refunds, prosecutors said Tuesday. Rafael Henriquez Polanco and Yanira Lopez pilfered the identities of at least 144 people, including patients at Community Hospital in Chester and Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, between 2008 and 2011, according to charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. Prosecutors said Polanco, 30, and Lopez, 27, paid hospital workers to steal confidential forms that listed patients' names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, then used the information to file fraudulent returns.

Amy Shenk had never joined a protest movement, never organized neighbors, never passed around petitions or printed signs. And then last year, a man from a gas company came knocking at the door of Shenk's home in Warwick Township, in the rural north end of Chester County. What he showed her was a tentative map of a proposal from three companies to run a "Commonwealth pipeline" right through Hopewell Big Woods, a 73,000-acre forest that local residents fought hard for years to preserve.

A Downingtown High School East senior and a Cherry Hill High School East ninth grader - earned "honorable mention" in C-SPAN's national StudentCam competition, contest officials announced today. For this year's contest, students were asked to answer the question: "What's the most important issue the President should consider in 2013?" Alexander Merker of Downingtown High East asked President Obama to address the issue of Iran and nuclear weapons in his documentary video, "Iran and America NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

When a Chester County man shot and killed his neighbors' Bernese mountain dogs, which he said were threatening his sheep, the uproar led to criminal charges against the farmer. And the case also could lead to changes in state law. State Sen. Andrew Dinniman (D., Chester) plans to introduce bills that would fine-tune legal language to address the question of when deadly force against domestic pets is justified. Dinniman said one of the bills, which would be introduced before the end of next week, was directly inspired by the Chester Springs shootings, in which FedEx driver and sheep farmer Gabriel Pilotti shot and killed dogs belonging to his neighbors Mary and William Bock.