Complaints

Up in arms over a cost-cutting plan by two Chester County townships to get rid of their joint police department, the police officers' union said Tuesday it would file an unfair labor practice complaint with the state. Saying that East Goshen and Westtown Townships have failed to bargain in good faith, union attorney Joseph Chupein called their conduct "unlawful" and said the union would consider "additional legal action. " In announcing the plan Monday, the supervisors said the current labor contract with the Westtown-East Goshen Police Association, which expires next year, was "unsustainable.

In trying to halt the Philadelphia School District's process for closing schools, a group of parents and others say they are filing a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights. The parents, who include members of the community group ACTION UNITED, say that school closings disproportionately affect African American students. The group hopes to win a moratorium on school closings, and it wants an investigation into the school closings, which it says were discriminatory. The group says that at six of the eight schools that closed or began the closing process, at least 13 percent more African American students are enrolled than the district average.

DOES the Philadelphia Police Department have a double standard for how it deals with cops who get in trouble? That question was raised Wednesday by the civilian-run Police Advisory Commission in the wake of a Daily News article on Capt. Anthony Washington, who is slated to be promoted to the rank of inspector despite a career filled with lawsuits, civilian-abuse complaints and sexual-harassment allegations from female cops. "I want to make a comparison between how commanders are dealt with in a disciplinary sense, and how their promotions work, and how discipline is meted out to line officers, and how their promotions work as well," said Kelvyn Anderson, the interim-executive director of the commission.

WENDY DUCKSWORTH, a Temple University student, sat in the 39th Police District's roll-call room for what she thought would be a professional interview with then-Lt. Anthony Washington for a school project. Washington ogled her, his eyes roving from her face to her feet before he fixated on her breasts that day in February 2006, said Ducksworth, then 37. "I'm sorry for staring, but you look good ," he told her, his eyes widening, said Ducksworth. "You're my type. You're the size I like.

"Anti-immigrant sentiments have unleashed a wave of hate on our communities, and Norristown is no exception," community organizer Carmen Guerrero told residents at a public meeting Wednesday, decrying what she said were worsening relations between the town's Latino population and local police. The gathering of about 50 people at an East Main Street community center was attended by municipal Councilwoman Linda Christian, town administrator David Forrest, and representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice, the NAACP, and the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON - So much for silence from telemarketers at the cherished dinner hour, or any other hour of the day. Complaints to the government are up sharply about unwanted phone solicitations, raising questions about how well the federal "do-not-call" registry is working. The biggest category of complaint: those annoying prerecorded pitches called robocalls that hawk everything from lower credit-card interest rates to new windows for your home. Robert Madison, 43, of Shawnee, Kan., says he gets automated calls almost daily from "Ann, with credit services," offering to lower his interest rates.

The United States and China filed dueling complaints at the World Trade Organization on Monday, sharpening what has become a steady trade skirmish even as the nations' leaders pledge to expand economic cooperation between the world's two largest economies. U.S. officials accuse China of giving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in subsidies to its auto parts makers in order to boost its own exports. "Export subsidies are prohibited under WTO rules because they are unfair and severely distort international trade," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Opening up the first-ever public-comment session at Pennsylvania State University's board of trustees meeting Friday, Patty Kirschner got straight to the point. Kirschner, a Penn State donor, wanted to know if trustees planned to vet the internal investigation compiled by former FBI Director Louis Freeh. That report implicated longtime football coach Joe Paterno and former president Graham B. Spanier, along with two university officials who were charged in the Jerry Sandusky child-sex-abuse scandal, and recommended a host of universitywide changes.

Several city Republican leaders filed a complaint Thursday with the city Board of Ethics about Mayor Nutter's taking two aides with him to the Democratic National Convention. Rick Hellberg, who leads a faction of the local GOP, joined Republican ward leaders Michael Cibik and J. Matthew Wolfe in alleging that the two aides, Lauren Walker and Tumar Alexander, violated political-activity restrictions based on the City Charter. The Nutter administration says that neither of the city workers engaged in politics.