Complaints

Black correspondents, producers and associate producers for ABC News recently attended a meeting with News president Roone Arledge to air several long-standing complaints. The complaints included the fact that there are no minorities on the division's editorial board. The group also complained about the way minorities are portrayed on the news, and how correspondents are being used to present the news. George Strait, ABC medical reporter and former Washington correspondent for Channel 6, is spokesman for the disgruntled employees.

When community affairs director Lawrence C. Smith was given the additional duties of investigating complaints of police abuse here, he was also handed an office near the mayor and a longer title. What the job amounts to is anyone's guess. As civilian complaints officer, Smith is responsible for policing the police when residents choose not to take complaints of official misconduct through the usual channels - the department's own internal affairs division. But in his three weeks on the job, no one has brought him any complaints.

The Sadsbury Township supervisors will announce at their Aug. 25 work session whether they intend to hold a hearing on complaints from residents about township police Officer Lewis Wilson, according to Ronald Agulnick, township solicitor. About a dozen residents of Pomeroy, an area in the southeastern corner of the township, attended the supervisors' Monday meeting to press their complaints. Larelda Lowery, who described herself as a spokeswoman for the group, complained of the manner in which "Wilson represents himself in our area.

In a township that covers only three square miles, an abandoned or inoperative car is sure to be noticed and, after a few sightings, is sure to draw some complaints. In the last few months, the Hainesport Township Committee has been barraged by complaints about more than 25 abandoned cars in township streets, yards and driveways. In response to those complaints, the committee is preparing an ordinance that would allow the township to levy fines of up to $500 and 90-day jail terms on owners of such vehicles.

Philadelphia Electric Co. could face fines totaling $216,000 because of complaints that the company violated state rules on customer service, the Public Utility Commission's consumer-service bureau said yesterday. The PUC's consumer-service bureau has charged PE with 216 violations involving meter readings, billing and shutoffs of electric or gas service to homes, according to Kevin Cadden, a supervisor with the division. The bureau is to present its complaint to the three-member PUC this morning.

Woodland Drive in West Caln Township is as steep as a ski slope and as hazardous as an obstacle course. And those are only some of the problems with the street, according to one local resident. At a township meeting Monday night, Woodland Drive resident Elizabeth Weaver told the Board of Supervisors that there was no speed limit posted on the 500-yard stretch of road wedged between Sandy Hill and Cambridge Roads, just north of Route 340. "Cars come racing down this short-cut route, and police say they can't do anything about it because there is no sign posted," said Weaver.

Immaculata University officials yesterday agreed to let student leaders air their complaints about graduation to the school's commencement committee on Feb. 20, a university spokeswoman said. The move came after a four-hour demonstration Thursday in the school's cafeteria building, Nazareth Hall. Student leaders met yesterday afternoon with Stephen Pugliese, the school's vice president for student affairs. The spokeswoman, Marie Moughan, said the meeting was a step forward for resolving whether the final classes of the Women's College could be grouped by school at graduation.

What do you do when one of your neighbors tinkers with cars until the wee hours of the morning, spills oil on your driveway, then spray-paints in his garage until the fumes seep into your child's bedroom? Calling police is not the answer, according to a group of Folcroft residents who lodged complaints at Monday night's Borough Council meeting. The neighbor has a scanner, they said, which alerts him before the police arrive. Area residents identified the alleged offender as George Custodio, who was not at the meeting and could not be reached for comment.

IN THE DARKNESS of night, the complaints were etched in chalk up and down the walkways of Swarthmore College, a 399-acre oasis of green quads and liberal student activism southwest of Philadelphia. "Welcome to Swarthmore," said one of the scribblings that recently confronted students - and administrators - when the sun rose. "Home of my rapist. " The so-called chalkings, which infuriated Swarthmore's president, were a turning point in a controversy that has rattled one of America's top-ranked liberal-arts schools.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has begun to take complaints about student loans, it said Monday. The bureau will assist all borrowers experiencing problems taking out or repaying a private loan or managing one in default and referred to a debt collector. Complaints may be submitted through 1-855-411-2372; at www.consumerfinance.gov ; faxed at 1-855-237-2392, or mailed to the bureau at P.O. Box 4503, Iowa City, Iowa 52244.    - Alan J. Heavens

THE EXPOSED rebar, crumbling concrete pillars and steady drips of water that turn potholes into puddles - even on sunny days - stretch for more than a mile under the elevated train tracks along 25th Street in South Philly. As mile-long trains rumble overhead, the street shakes and small pieces of concrete fall to the sidewalk, a daily routine that for years has been eating away at the residents who have become all but complacent with the dangers from the tracks above. Yesterday, quarter-sized nuggets of concrete littered the ground.

A SPANISH prosecutor filed a fraud complaint yesterday against Lionel Messi, alleging the Barcelona and Argentina soccer star owes $5.3 million in back taxes. The complaint names Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi. Both are accused of defrauding millions on income-tax returns for 2007, 2008 and 2009. "We are surprised," Messi said on his Facebook account, "because we have never committed any infringement. We have always fulfilled all our tax obligations, following the advice of our tax consultants who will take care of clarifying this situation.

Despite multiple complaints, shoddy demolition work at 22d and Market Streets went uninspected for more than three weeks before the deadly collapse of a building Wednesday, raising basic questions about the city's competence regulating demolition projects. Six people were killed and 14 injured when a four-story brick wall fell onto an adjoining single-story Salvation Army thrift shop. Mayor Nutter and Licenses and Inspections Commissioner Carlton Williams acknowledged Thursday that the city had granted a demolition permit for that project without any inquiry into the contractor's qualifications for demolition work.

WASHINGTON - Officers with a finger on the trigger of the Air Force's most powerful nuclear missiles are complaining of a wide array of morale-sapping pressures, according to internal e-mails obtained by the Associated Press. The complaints shed fresh light on dissatisfactions roiling this critical arm of the Air Force, an undercurrent that has captured the attention of the service's leaders. Key themes among the complaints include working under "poor leadership" and being stuck in "dead-end careers" in nuclear weapons, one e-mail said.

POLICE Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said yesterday that he has ordered Internal Affairs to reopen the 18 complaints civilians filed against disgraced narcotics cop Jeffrey Walker during his 24-year career. Walker, 44, was caught after allegedly stealing $15,000 from a Philadelphia Housing Authority-owned rowhouse in Kingsessing Tuesday in an FBI sting. Ramsey suspended him from the force with the intent to dismiss. The Daily News found that none of the previous Internal Affairs complaints, which accused Walker of misdeeds ranging from physical assaults to theft, was ever sustained.

JEFFREY WALKER, the veteran Philly narcotics cop who was federally charged yesterday with allegedly robbing a drug dealer, has been the subject of 18 Internal Affairs complaints during his career. The civilian complaints - none of which was sustained - included accusations of theft, physical and verbal abuse, and illegal searches. Walker, 44, joined the police force in 1989 and was assigned to the Narcotics Field Unit South 10 years later. Walker has worked with some of the six narcotics cops who were transferred to different assignments in December after the District Attorney's Office said that the officers would no longer be called to testify in drug cases.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office did not pursue criminal charges in early 2012 against former Police Officer Richard DeCoatsworth - once hailed as a hero, now charged over the weekend with rape - because the complainant, Steven Kocher, was not considered a credible witness, according to First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann. McCann and Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said that Kocher told prosecutors and police different stories about an incident in January 2012 in which Kocher accused DeCoatsworth of assaulting him over a debt, and that the disparities were enough to dissuade prosecutors from pursuing criminal charges.

IN THE DARKNESS of night, the complaints were etched in chalk up and down the walkways of Swarthmore College, a 399-acre oasis of green quads and liberal student activism southwest of Philadelphia. "Welcome to Swarthmore," said one of the scribblings that recently confronted students - and administrators - when the sun rose. "Home of my rapist. " The so-called chalkings, which infuriated Swarthmore's president, were a turning point in a controversy that has rattled one of America's top-ranked liberal-arts schools.

THE FEDERAL Occupational Health & Safety Administration has launched an inspection into working conditions at Philadelphia International Airport in response to a series of complaints filed last week on behalf of subcontracted baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants. The inspection, which can take up to six months, is a standard response to work-condition complaints, OSHA spokeswoman Leni Fortson said. The complaints allege that some airport workers employed by the subcontractor PrimeFlight Aviation Services, which does business in Philly with US Airways, United and Southwest, do not receive training on how to help handicapped passengers, are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids without protection and are forced to use faulty equipment.

Workers who push passengers in wheelchairs at Philadelphia International Airport filed complaints with the U.S. Transportation Department and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) alleging that their employer, PrimeFlight Aviation Services, and three airlines that contract with it failed to provide proper training and equipment to safely do their jobs. The complaints, filed Thursday, allege violations of the federal Air Carrier Access Act and ask the Transportation Department to impose fines and order US Airways, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines to force PrimeFlight to correct the problems.