Eggs

HARRISBURG - That "Do you know who I am?" line? He never said it. So insists Gov. Corbett's secretary of health, Eli Avila, in legal papers filed this week in the federal lawsuit against him by a Harrisburg diner owner. The response marks the first time Avila has given his side of the story on the dispute over an egg sandwich that has come to be known around the Capitol as "egg-gate. " Avila's side goes something like this: None of the allegations that he got into a heated argument over the freshness of the eggs in his egg sandwich is true.

Being the nation's third-largest egg producer means Pennsylvania should pay close attention to a proposal in Congress to improve the living conditions of egg-laying chickens. The state, though, has not yet joined the movement to ban so-called battery cages, which can house as many as 11 hens in a space little bigger than a microwave oven. That's an image that should spoil your breakfast. Ohio, Michigan, and California, where voters in a 2008 referendum mandated hens have enough room to stretch their wings, have banned new battery cages.

The which-came-first question is a tough one, but we can agree that eggs tend to produce chickens and other things. And thanks to one imperious state cabinet official, a few eggs from Harrisburg are still hatching - long after they were supposed to have ended their life cycle in the form of a sandwich. The eggs at issue are the ones that Pennsylvania Health Secretary Eli Avila deemed insufficiently fresh after he ordered them up with all haste at a diner near the Capitol a year ago. Their progeny now includes a lawsuit by the diner's owner, who charges that Avila abused his rather limited authority in a quest to exact revenge over the impudent sandwich.

HARRISBURG - The owner of a popular diner near the Capitol is suing state Health Secretary Eli Avila, claiming that the secretary tried to block him from receiving a lucrative state contract in retaliation for a dispute over an egg sandwich. Richard Hanna, owner of Roxy's Café, said Avila attempted to block him from being awarded the contract to run the cafeteria - this shortly after he and Avila had an argument one morning over the freshness of the eggs in a sandwich that Hanna had served him. In the suit, Hanna says he believes Avila "abused his power as a public official in a personal vendetta based upon personal animus.

Here is an excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen. " Sometimes, especially after a long day, the most satisfying meal is one that doesn't require a trip to the store. Indeed, everyone needs a few recipes that can be pulled together, even when it seems that there is nothing in the fridge. Or when the few ingredients on hand are nearing their expiration dates. As a lovely package of Baby Bella mushrooms stood out in my nearly empty refrigerator, I thought to myself: frittata.

Justin Williams drained an eight-foot jumper with 1 second remaining in regulation, giving host Egg Harbor Township a 59-57 win over Mainland on Wednesday in a Cape-Atlantic League boys' basketball thriller. Williams finished with 15 points in the Eagles' balanced attack, which also featured Rahim Bunch with 17 points and Tyler Dixon's 11 points. Mainland overcame a slow start, with Ted Mazzeio scoring 12 and Darius Jerkins and Pat Kugel netting 11 apiece. In other Cape-Atlantic action: Matt Bosch capped his 27-point performance by scoring 11 in the fourth quarter, enabling Ocean City to put away host Hammonton, 45-32.

BEIRUT - Syrian protesters pelted a group of rival opposition leaders with eggs Wednesday outside Arab League headquarters in Cairo, accusing them of playing along with President Bashar Assad's government instead of working to overthrow the regime. The attack highlights the growing fault lines in the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to overcome infighting in the face of a brutal government crackdown that has persisted even after Damascus agreed last week to an Arab League plan to stop the violence.

A 19-year-old Burlington County woman died Sunday from injuries sustained in a single-car crash in Egg Harbor, Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel announced Monday. Ashley Adams of Southampton was thrown from a Jeep Cherokee driven by Kevin Dilks, 20, of Chatsworth, sometime before 1:30 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Dilks lost control of the SUV in the southbound lanes of Clarks Landing Road, causing it to leave the road and overturn before crashing into trees. Adams was pronounced dead around 7 a.m. Sunday at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, authorities said.