Coalition

Formation of a coalition to stop construction of Bucks County's controversial Point Pleasant pump project was announced yesterday by 16 local, regional and national environmental groups that historically have opposed the pump. The coalition's "sole purpose" is "litigating the Point Pleasant Water Diversion Project," said a statement handed out at a news conference in Doylestown. Coalition members have, individually, either appealed or sought to intervene in the granting of certain permits for the project, according to Robert J. Sugarman, an attorney who has for several years represented pump opponents and who now represents the coalition.

Gilbert A. Wetzel, former president and chief executive of Bell of Pennsylvania, yesterday was named executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Economic Development Coalition, effective July 1. Walter D'Alessio, coalition chairman and president and chief executive of Latimer & Buck, said he was pleased to have Wetzel, a "high visibility, high quality, proven executive," join the coalition. "We are delighted that Gil has agreed to be drafted and will lend his considerable management and executive talents to the coalition for this interim period," he said.

While vowing to continue its fight against the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District's reorganization plans, the Coalition for Neighborhood Schools has offered the board a compromise. Rather than accept the board's recent decision to reorganize all the district's elementary schools, coalition members have voted to accept some reorganization and redistricting to preserve neighborhood schools. The vote to compromise came during a meeting of more than 300 coalition members Wednesday.

African-Americans spend $8.6 billion annually on gas and motor oil, according to Target Market News, a Chicago-based publication which tracks black spending. Of that, $175 million is spent in Philadelphia. Today, a coalition of local groups plans to discuss how it can make corporations such as Texaco more responsive to minority workers and communities. "Our fight is not with the African-American or local gas station owners. It is with Texaco as a whole," said David J. Warren, development director for the Black United Fund of Pennsylvania.

What do 100 area civic, business and political leaders all joined in a common cause sound like? To John Miller, chief executive officer and chairman of Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. and one of the leaders who traveled to Harrisburg on Tuesday to argue for more money for SEPTA, they sound like three million people. "I told the legislators that as they listened to us, that they were really hearing the footsteps of three million people," Miller said. "That is the kind of broad-based coalition that we had out there.

A coalition of civic groups has asked East Whiteland Township officials to develop soccer, football and other sports fields on a 10-acre site across from the township building, on the north side of Route 401. The presidents of two civic organizations told the supervisors at their meeting Monday that the environmentally sensitive site was deeded to the township with the intention that it be used for ball fields, but that it has been used as...

Enforcement of existing laws, rather than new legislation, is the way to protect Pennsylvania's wetlands, a coalition of sportsmen and environmentalists said yesterday. Members of the coalition, speaking at a Capitol news conference, said they supported an administration plan and other steps to better protect the state's wetlands from development. Coalition members are concerned about dwindling bogs, marshes and other wetlands, which provide flood control and help filter agricultural pollutants from runoff before it reaches rivers and streams.

The 23 women and two men representing various Philadelphia constituencies said they grew increasingly angry as, hour by hour, they watched the Senate Judiciary Committee probe Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Yesterday, they acted. During a City Hall news conference, the ad hoc coalition denounced the all-white, all-male panel's handling of the charges made by Hill, a black University of Oklahoma law professor, and urged voters to make their displeasure known to the commonwealth's two senators and the committee chairman.

The Krewstown Homeowners Coalition has appealed a decision by the Zoning Board of Adjustment permitting the construction of 46 condominiums on Krewstown Road off Bustleton Avenue. Attorney Stanley R. Krakower, who was recently hired by the coalition, filed the appeal in Common Pleas Court on Monday. Krakower, who specializes in zoning law, has represented about a dozen civic associations throughout the city, including those in Burholme and Bridesburg in the Northeast. Stanley Kress, one of the coalition organizers, said the group had spent the last few weeks trying to raise money and community support for the appeal.

A coalition of community and civil rights groups has criticized the Police Study Task Force report for touching too lightly on the problem of police abuse of citizens, and urged that the city inspector general's office be authorized to investigate charges against the police. David Kairys, spokesman for the Coalition for Police Accountability, said yesterday that current procedures for dealing with police abuse are "totally inadequate," and that the subject was barely touched on in the March 11 report that recommended extensive changes in the way the police deal with the community.

BELGRADE, Serbia - A pro-European Union candidate and a nationalist opponent are headed for a runoff in Serbia's presidential elections, while the ruling pro-Western party is likely to form the next coalition government, independent pollsters said Sunday. The Center for Free Elections and Democracy said its unofficial complete count showed the previous president, Boris Tadic of the Democratic Party, taking 26.7 percent of the votes, while populist Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic has 25.5 percent.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - A coalition of at least 70 countries pledged several million dollars a month and communications equipment Sunday for Syrian rebels and opposition activists, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone cannot end the regime's repression. The shift by the United States and its Western and Arab allies toward seeking to sway the military balance in Syria, where heavily armed regime forces overmatch rebels, carries regional risks because the crisis there increasingly resembles a proxy conflict that could exacerbate sectarian tensions.

WASHINGTON - An Afghan soldier shot to death a 22-year-old Marine at an outpost in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a previously undisclosed case of apparent Afghan treachery that marked at least the seventh killing of an American military member by his supposed ally in the last six weeks, Marine officials said. Lance Cpl. Edward J. Dycus of Greenville, Miss., was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 1 while standing guard at an Afghan-U.S. base in the Marja district of Helmand province.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced the unwelcome possibility of a coalition crisis on Wednesday after Israel's Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, overturned a law that has helped ultra-Orthodox Jewish men avoid military service. The ruling addresses an issue that is at the center of a simmering cultural war between religious and secular Jews, and adds to Netanyahu's headaches as he prepares to travel to the White House for critical talks about Iran's nuclear program.

Think Globally - Act Locally is a widely recognized slogan, but is it an effective course of action? Cary Beckwith of West Philadelphia says a recent change of policy by Trader Joe's stores offers proof positive. Here's the long story, shortened. Across the country and in Philadelphia, food and human-rights activists were poised to demonstrate on Feb. 11 outside 33 Trader Joe's stores, among them the Market Street location. The demonstrators were demanding fair wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers organized under the banner of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group of Latino, Haitian, and Mayan workers formed in 1993.

Christine Carlson was tired of watching friends leave Philadelphia in search of a decent education for their children. As mother of a boy and girl at Greenfield Elementary in Center City, she knew there were good schools here. She also knew they needed help. Her solution: Create an organization for a dozen Center City schools to do what the School District struggles to do - raise money, save programs, improve curriculum, and fix facilities - and in doing so, anchor those parents to their neighborhoods.

NEWARK, N.J. - A coalition of New Jersey-based Muslim and civil rights groups is asking Gov. Christie to investigate reports that the New York Police Department conducted secret surveillance of Muslim communities in New Jersey. Sixteen organizations have signed a letter asking the governor to investigate the extent of the surveillance in New Jersey and whether local law enforcement agencies were involved. Christie suggested Thursday through a spokesman that it would not be "appropriate" for his office to conduct an investigation and he would instead forward the request to the state Attorney General's Office.

BEIRUT - The United States proposed an international coalition to support Syria's opposition Sunday after Russia and China blocked a U.N. attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed, raising fears that violence will escalate. Rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown. The threat of both sides' turning to greater force after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution raises the potential for Syria's turmoil to move into a more dangerous phase that could degenerate into civil war. The uprising inspired by other Arab Spring revolts began in March with peaceful protests against Assad's regime, sparking a fierce crackdown by government forces.

TOPEKA, Kan. - A coalition of business groups will propose that Kansas start a program to help some illegal immigrants remain in the state so they can work in agriculture and other industries with labor shortages, coalition representatives disclosed Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Washington-based Immigration Policy Council called the proposal "unprecedented" and questioned whether the federal government would allow such a program, though she was sympathetic to supporters' goals. Utah has set up a guest-worker program, but it doesn't take effect until 2013 and was part of a broader package of immigration initiatives.

HARRISBURG - At least two challenges to Pennsylvania's new legislative redistricting plan are in the works, people involved in the efforts said Thursday. State Senate Democrats and a Chester County coalition that includes the county Democratic Party said they planned to file petitions with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by early next week. Wednesday is the deadline for filing appeals. The state's high court, which has the final say on the new district maps for the 203-seat House of Representatives and the 50-seat Senate, has scheduled a Jan. 23 hearing in Harrisburg to consider appeals arguments.