Delaware

HARRISBURG - Reports of suspected child abuse rose 9 percent last year in Pennsylvania, reaching the highest number since the state began collecting such reports a decade ago. The percentage of child abuse reports that were substantiated fell slightly - from 14 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2012, according to a newly released annual report by the state Department of Public Welfare. Reports increased across the state, with upticks noted in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

Delaware at Villanova When: Saturday at 3:30 p.m., PPL Park. TV/Radio: Comcast Network/ESPN-AM (950) Records: Delaware, 6-4 overall, 4-3 Colonial Athletic Association; Villanova, 2-8, 1-6. Coaches: Delaware, K.C. Keeler (10th season, 80-46); Villanova, Andy Talley (27th season, 190-115-1). Series: The Wildcats lead, 23-20-1. Last season, Villanova needed overtime to win, 28-21. Delaware hasn't defeated the Wildcats since 2005.

BETHANY BEACH, Del. - Perched on a counter stool, Lisa Cunningham was flipping through dozens of vacation food photos on her iPhone while she waited for lunch at Matt's Fish Camp restaurant. Dressed for the beach, the Virginia resident recalled each dish with such zeal, one would assume she had just returned from a gastronomic tour of Provence. But this digestible anthology was compiled in - wait for it - Delaware. Delaware? It turns out that a respectable number of good restaurants have sprouted in the towns that line Delaware's coast in recent years.

Roman Catholic's Kasseim Everett orally committed to Delaware for football in August. A few months later, wishing to keep his options open, he decommitted from the Blue Hens. Now, after strongly giving consideration to Temple, Everett, a quick-footed two-way back, has committed again to Delaware. "Temple and Delaware were similar in many ways," Everett said, "but I think Delaware's interest was a little bit stronger. " The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Everett, an Inquirer second-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania selection as a defensive back last season, also had scholarship offers from Maine and Stony Brook.

Dave Nelson, a backfield mate of 1940 Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon, was a 1942 graduate of the University of Michigan who loved his alma mater so much that, upon becoming head football coach and athletic director at the University of Delaware in 1951, he adopted Michigan's distinctive maize-and- blue helmet and uniform. But the Delaware football program was to take on its own identity, shaped largely by Nelson, who compiled an 84-42-2 record in 15 seasons as coach and served as athletic director from 1951 through 1984.

Given all the social problems associated with gambling, it was a welcome and right decision by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia to block Delaware's attempt to expand legalized betting on sports. Despite the setback, the First State is wrong to continue with a plan to skirt the law by allowing bets on multiple games. Delaware lawmakers, like those in Pennsylvania and other states, are addicted to gambling as a way to solve budget woes. The gaming arms race remains a bad policy on several fronts.

Greg Miller of Rancocas Valley has made an oral commitment to play basketball at the University of Delaware. Miller, a 6-foot-4 swingman, said he committed to the Blue Hens after making a campus visit over the weekend. He plans to sign Nov. 8, the first day of the NCAA early signing period. Miller said he chose Delaware over Boston University and Drexel. He had made unofficial visits to both of those schools. Last season, Miller averaged 10 points a game for Rancocas Valley, which won the South Jersey Group 3 title.

Several hundred shivering spectators turned out for last night's championship game of the inaugural Liberty Bell Classic college baseball tournament at Veterans Stadium. But while the fans in the stands huddled under blankets and sipped hot chocolate, the red-hot University of Delaware team put on a clinic of exceptional pitching, hitting and fielding. The Blue Hens (22-7) sparkled from start to finish, taking the title with a convincing 6-2 victory over Villanova. Four Delaware players made the all-tournament team - led by Brian Lesher, who batted .583, drove in six runs in three games and was voted the Classic's most valuable player.

Scott Rodgers made both ends of a one-and-one free throw with 19 seconds remaining to nail down a 62-60 Drexel win over Delaware yesterday at the Bob Carpenter Center. The Dragons (11-16, 4-11 Colonial Athletic Association) did not take the lead for good until Randy Oveneke hit a jumper with one minute to play in the game. Brian Johnson sank two free throws for Delaware (11-14, 8-7) with 10.1 seconds remaining, and the Blue Hens got one last chance when Rodgers missed the front end of a one-and-one with 8.7 seconds left.

William and Mary placekicker Brian Shallcross picked a good time to redeem himself. After missing from 20 and 25 yards in regulation, Shallcross nailed a 42-yard field goal in overtime that just cleared the crossbar, giving the Tribe a 10-7 Yankee Conference victory over Delaware yesterday at Zable Stadium. Delaware (7-2 overall, 5-2 conference), ranked sixth in Division I-AA, had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Sean Leach's 35-yard field-goal attempt with six seconds left was blocked.

NEW CASTLE, Del. - A cattle truck traveling on I-495 in Delaware overturned on Saturday afternoon, setting two or three cows loose along the roadway, state police said. The accident happened shortly after 2 p.m. on the ramp from I-495 northbound to Terminal Avenue at the Port of Wilmington. Two or three cows escaped and walked onto I-495, Delaware State Police spokesman Cpl. John Day said. No people were injured. Day said he didn't know how many cows were in the truck or if any of them were injured.

The U.S. Energy Department on Tuesday launched an online tool to promote electric vehicles by comparing the costs of fueling an EV vs. driving on gasoline. According to the state-by-state comparison, the eGallon price in Pennsylvania is about $1.21, meaning that a typical electric vehicle could travel as far on $1.21 of electricity as a similar vehicle could travel on a gallon of gas. In Delaware, an eGallon is $1.29 and in New Jersey, where electricity is more expensive, an eGallon is $1.51.

HARRISBURG - Reports of suspected child abuse rose 9 percent last year in Pennsylvania, reaching the highest number since the state began collecting such reports a decade ago. The percentage of child abuse reports that were substantiated fell slightly - from 14 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2012, according to a newly released annual report by the state Department of Public Welfare. Reports increased across the state, with upticks noted in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

Several of Delaware's corporate citizens have been busy planning new factories, expanding old ones, and splitting up. Earlier this year, DuPont Co. sold off its Performance Coatings business to the Carlyle Group Inc. for $4.9 billion. That business, which makes paint for automobile manufacturers and remains based in Wilmington, said Monday it would spend more than $50 million to build a factory in Shanghai to supply the fast-growing Chinese auto industry. Quite an investment for the company now called Axalta Coating Systems just 100 days after separating from DuPont.

REESE MURRAY loved the water. When he wasn't piloting his 25-foot boat off the coast of Atlantic City, he and his wife were on cruises through the Caribbean. "Anything to be close to the water," said his wife, the former Lisa Miller. "That's why we had a house in Atlantic City, to be near the ocean. We could see it from our deck. "When he couldn't keep up maintenance on the boat, we took cruises to keep that feel of water running through his veins. " Unfortunately, the interior of their Shore house was badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy last October.

What an opportunity: When the University of Delaware took over a shuttered Chrysler plant in 2008, it gained enough space to double its academic campus in Newark, Del. Dreamers dusted off old plans and projected them onto the flattened 272-acre site, which sprawls amid I-95, the Northeast Corridor railroad, and UD's brick heart. Some thought: A law school! Maybe a medical school! Massive growth! But the university, though privately run, is also state-supported. The $24.5 million purchase went through in a howling recession, amid plant closings and bank layoffs.

THE LAST MOMENT of an elimination game in the Colonial Athletic Association baseball tournament yesterday came down to one Catholic League product vs. another. William Dougherty (Roman) used a classic slide to score the game-winner as Northeastern edged Delaware, 7-6, in Harrisonburg, Va. The throw came from rightfielder Nick Ferdinand (Ryan). Dougherty's RBI single had drawn Northeastern within 6-5. Ferdinand posted a two-run homer among three hits.

A rare shorebird that has defied all the odds was spotted yet again last week on Delaware Bay. He's a small thing - no bigger than a robin, weighing only as much as a stick of butter. But he has one of the longest migrations on the planet. And a lot of renown. Scientists refer to him as B95, after the number on his leg band. But his fans, which apparently are legion, call him the Moonbird because in his lifetime, researchers figure, he has flown the equivalent of the distance to the moon and at least halfway back.

John Lynch was a relative late arrival to the world of U.S. Open qualifying. Before Thursday, he had come close but never once advanced out of the local stage. Lynch, 37, a teaching professional at the Peninsula Club in southern Delaware, possessed no such worries on a beautiful day for golf at Applebrook Golf Club in Malvern, firing a 1-under-par 70 to win medalist honors. Eight players out of the field of 124 advanced to next month's sectional qualifying, where they will seek out a place in the field for the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club.

The Newark Police Department made an arrest Monday in connection with the Sunday morning stabbing of Delaware senior quarterback Trevor Sasek. Michael J. Creed, 25 and a Newark resident, was charged with first-degree assault and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony. Sasek, a graduate of Spring-Ford High in Royersford, suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen during the fight. He underwent surgery and is in stable condition. "For privacy reasons, we're not confirming the identity of the victim," University of Delaware spokeswoman Andrea Boyle said Monday afternoon.