Chester County

A Newtown Square man was sentenced Monday to 40 to 80 years in prison in the murder of the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair. Stephen Shappell, 24, had pleaded guilty earlier in Chester County to third-degree murder in the June 2010 bludgeoning death of Kevin Mengel, 33. - AP

A Tredyffrin Township man has been cleared of charges that he used software to spy on his wife. While the couple were divorcing, Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, allegedly installed the program Web Watcher on her computer to read her e-mails. His attorney, Ellen Brotman, argued that prosecutors could not prove why Ciccarone used the software. At a pretrial proceeding last Friday, Chester County Judge James P. MacElree II dismissed charges of unlawful use of a computer, intercepting communications - both felonies - and unlawfully accessing stored communications, a misdemeanor.

For two centuries, give or take a few years, an enormous stone barn has occupied a patch of land now at the end of a winding Main Line driveway on Waterloo Road in Easttown Township. In the township's historic archives, it is known as the Kennedy Barn. For residents in the area, it's Mrs. Rossi's barn; for years, it was part of the estate of Rose Rossi, one of the cofounders of ANRO Inc., a printing company. But lately, it has been the central figure in the Battle of the Barn, pitting longtime Main Line residents against a builder of some of the region's largest and most luxurious residences.

  The University of Pennsylvania Health System's tentative deal to acquire Chester County Hospital in West Chester may be a move to block competitors from gaining control of a lucrative patient market, health-care experts say. "I suspect that part of the reason was they didn't want it to fall into somebody else's hands," said Mark V. Pauly, a health-care economist at the University of Pennsylvania. Pauly said he had no inside information. The two organizations said Friday that they had signed a nonbinding letter of intent, allowing Penn to delve more deeply into Chester County Hospital's weakened financial condition and work more broadly with the hospital community on a merger agreement.

  The Chester County Hospital and Health System said Friday that it will join the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Chester County announced in August that it would search for a partner after management decided that the $150 million to $275 million needed over the next decade to fulfill its vision for the institution was more than it could get on its own. "Throughout this process we spoke with many excellent organizations, but...

Delaware County pet owners can breathe a little easier. The countywide Animal Protection Board has negotiated an arrangement with the Chester County SPCA to house strays until the end of 2017. County residents will still have to travel to Chester County to find their lost pets. The need for a shelter arose when the privately run Delaware County SPCA gave the county's 49 municipalities notice that it would no longer accept stray animals and would become a no-kill facility. It still accepts pets turned in by owners.

Unofficial tallies for Saturday's snowstorm show how heavily some places were blanketed, while other parts of the area were largely spared. In Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, the highest totals were in Chester County, with 5.0 inches in East Coventry Township, 4.5 inches in Spring City, 4.3 in Glenmoore, and 4.1 in Elverson, and 4.0 in Chester Springs, Lionville and East Nantmeal. The three other suburban counties also had a third of a foot in spots: 4.1 inches in West Rockhill and 4.0 in Quakertown, both in Bucks County; 4.0 in Montgomeryville, Montgomery County; and 4.0 in Wayne, Delaware County.

* April 24, 1970: Terry Bowers, a sixth-grader at Blessed Virgin Mary school in Darby Borough, goes camping with Boy Scout Troop 275 on the property of St. Basil the Great Church in East Pikeland Township, Chester County. * April 26, 1970: Bowers' body is found about 7:30 a.m. as the Scouts awoke. Police believe he had been stabbed about an hour earlier. The autopsy reveals no signs of sexual abuse or drugs in his system. * July 1970: Boy Scouts post $5,000 reward for information leading to those responsible for the "dastardly crime.

We've heard plenty about the repopulation of big-city downtowns by postcollege singles, empty-nesters, and determined young families, all eager to live in neighborhoods where they can walk to work, restaurants, and culture. What hasn't gotten much attention - yet - is how compact small towns are starting to sample from the same demographic pot. The Philadelphia region is peppered with towns that resemble mini versions of the city (save for the skyline, of course), but surely one of the most dynamic is West Chester, in Chester County.