Chester County

Chester County reported a case of West Nile virus Monday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. That brings the state total this year to a dozen cases of the mosquito-borne illness, including one each in Philadelphia and Bucks County and two in Delaware County. Two other new cases were reported in Lehigh and Luzerne Counties. West Nile virus can lead to serious illness, such as meningitis or encephalitis, or death. Residents should reduce their exposure by eliminating any standing water in their yards, wearing protective clothing, and using insect repellent.

On a cold night late last month, 666 people in one of the nation's most affluent counties were homeless, Chester County officials said Monday. A report compiled by the Chester County Department of Community Development was derived from the 2012 Point-in-Time Count, a national effort sponsored by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to quantify the homeless. The count was conducted the night of Jan. 25 and morning of Jan. 26, the report said. The homeless included individuals and families in emergency shelters and transitional shelters, as well as unsheltered individuals on the street or in places not meant for sleeping, said Pat Bokovitz, director of the county's Department of Community Development.

Last year, Chester County was a victim of the Jersey Shore in the Carpenter Cup baseball tournament. This year, it was the victor. Chester County responded to every Jersey Shore challenge with aggression on offense and precision on defense for a 9-5 quarterfinal win yesterday at Veterans Stadium. Chester County is looking for its first title since 1996. The tournament continues through the championship game on Sunday. Chester County hopes to return to the championship game of the 16-team, single-elimination tournament, in which it was shut out last year, 5-0, by Jersey Shore.

In a rash moment during the recent contract negotiations, Roger Tauss, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, claimed that SEPTA created the state's tax surplus. Tauss' reasoning is that the surplus came from increased growth in the Philadelphia region and that growth is created by SEPTA. Horsefeathers. In Chester County growth has come despite SEPTA, not because of it. And, growth has come to areas which SEPTA either doesn't serve or serves badly. The fact is that dishwashers in Chester County can't be found, even at the unusually high price of $6 an hour, because there is no public transportation to most of Chester County.

Standing at second base, C.J. Young tracked the ball. He watched it fire off pitcher Anthony Scafidi's right hand, spin through the air, skid off the dirt, and squirt through the catcher's legs. The ball clanked off the chain-link backstop, and Young knew the game was over. Prescott Bliss scored from third on the passed ball. After about five more steps, he fell to the Ashburn Field dirt, the victim of a dog pile as Chester County celebrated a 9-8 victory Thursday against Suburban One National/Bicentennial in the second round of the Carpenter Cup baseball tournament.

Displaying a potent offense, sound defense and overpowering pitching, Chester County cruised to a 14-2 win over Delaware Blue yesterday in the opening round of the ninth annual Carpenter Cup Classic high school tournament at Veterans Stadium. Now comes the hard part. Instead of a postgame congratulatory speech, coach Bob Gottschall spent the moments after the win pleading with his Chester County players to show up for tomorrow's second-round meeting with the New Jersey squad from the Tri-County Conference and Cape-Atlantic League.

The global economy is right at home in Chester County, judging from a new publication listing 225 county business operations that stem from parent corporations abroad. Compare that to the approximately 50 such Chester County enterprises that a similar state survey found in the mid-1980s, and the growing impact of globalization is clear, said Chester County Commissioner Andrew E. Dinniman. "That's the part that I found so intriguing," said Dinniman, the driving force behind the current survey.

The state Attorney General's Office filed charges Wednesday against 25 members of an alleged drug-trafficking ring, based in Chester County, that prosecutors say sold pills at area universities. The group sold prescription pills, including OxyContin and Xanax, as well as cocaine and marijuana around the Philadelphia region and in Delaware, prosecutors said. Thomas Donnelly, 33, of Exton, was a central figure in the organization and made from $2,000 to $3,000 in profit weekly, prosecutors said.

The 2013 annual nationwide count of homeless people, taken on the night of Jan. 30 and 31, found fewer individuals in Chester County and more in Bucks County than were tallied in January 2012. Comparable figures for the nation, as well as for Philadelphia and for Delaware and Montgomery Counties, are not yet available, officials there said this week. The 625 people counted in Chester County this year compared with 666 found there in 2012. But the 476 recorded in Bucks County on the same January night this year were more than the 422 in the 2012 survey, due to a change in how information is gathered.

After a recent Inquirer series pointed out how cavalierly Chester County's court system deals with a big population of Spanish-speaking mushroom workers, the official response could have taken one of two directions - denial and resistance, or a let's-do-better willingness to change. So far, we're happy to report, county authorities are taking the second path. Throughout the county - and especially in the courts around Kennett Square where one in four cases involves a Hispanic as victim or defendant - the top court administrator has ordered district justices to have an interpreter on hand.