Fax

Philadelphians be warned. Do not be afraid. An urban legend is making its way through the country and arrived in Philadelphia via fax yesterday. The fax says there is a national alert this weekend in police departments across the nation because "Bloods" gang members are holding an initiation rite. The fax says gang members will ride around at night with their headlights off, and any motorist who gives them a courtesy flash - to tell the driver to turn on the headlights - will be shot.

MADRID - Spanish police say they have arrested a man who twice escaped from custody by having his wife send fake faxes ordering his release. Jose Carlos Serna, 57, was arrested yesterday at his home in a suburb north of Madrid after being found hiding in a hollowed-out sofa, police said. In December, he was in a cell at a courthouse awaiting trial when officers got a fax purportedly from a regional court. It was followed by a phone call purportedly from a court official, corroborating the release order.

The good news is that last fall's report that the new Air Force fax machines would cost $421,000 each, including spare parts, is wrong. The bad news is that they'll cost $668,000 apiece, once the expense of development and required communications gear is added, Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) said yesterday. Levin denounced the purchase on the Senate floor after an investigation by a subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that he heads. "I have concluded that the fax purchase wasn't as bad as it seemed at first blush," he said.

The Flyers are hoping there's no "home-ice advantage" in NHL hearings. Since NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was already scheduled to be in Chicago today on league business, that city was chosen as the site of this afternoon's hearing into the Chicago Blackhawks' claim that they consummated a deal for the rights to Tampa Bay free-agent forward Chris Gratton last Tuesday night, before the Flyers faxed a signed offer sheet to the Lightning. Details of this part of the Gratton drama remain fuzzier than the fax the Lightning unsuccessfully tried to get the NHL to declare illegible.

Even the appearance of movement in the impasse between Eric Lindros and the Quebec Nordiques, the team this especially gifted 18-year-old says he will never play for, creates a stir in the National Hockey League. Pierre Page, Quebec's general manager and coach, said after Wednesday night's game in Buffalo that any team interested in acquiring Lindros should fax its offer to him. "If someone makes a proposition, then we'll listen," Page said Thursday night in Boston. "But it has to be one that makes us think.

Online con artists are always coming up with something new. Now they're phishing for private information via fax - while pretending to be the IRS. The phony e-mail arrives, pretending to be from "Internal Revenue Service," with a subject line such as "please see the attachment. " One e-mail still circulating yesterday had two attachments. One looks like a letter on official IRS stationery, saying: "Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. " The other is a copy of an actual IRS form.

The case of the Flyers fax will be decided today in Toronto and, along with it, the fate of Tampa Bay center Chris Gratton. Arbitrator John Sands heard testimony yesterday on whether the Flyers' five-year, $16.5 million offer sheet to Gratton was legible. Tampa Bay general manager Phil Esposito argued that the document faxed to him Tuesday night was illegible because the financial breakdown of the deal had a dark line running through the middle of it that distorted the salary figures.

Hairstylist Glenn Culley remembers a time, not so long ago, when customers who came to get their hair cut also came to relax and hang out. Now, instead of just chatting, they check their e-mail and send faxes. At least they do at Salon Metropolis, Culley's new shop in the Morrisville Shopping Center. There, in a small room with modern office equipment, customers stay productive as they wait to get their hair done. "Twelve years ago, people were really laid-back," said Culley, 50. "The salon used to be a real social place.

Buddy Ryan is halfway across the continent, but he still keeps track of what is happening in Philadelphia. He has friends who are thoughtful enough to send him newspaper clippings. "They fax 'em to me," Ryan said with a grin. "I guess they can't wait for the mail. They want me to get the stories right away. There has been a lot to read lately. "I saw a line that somebody wrote: 'The best team (Norman) Braman built is the one in Miami.' That was a good line. " Ryan was standing on the practice field at Trinity University, having just concluded a morning workout with the Houston Oilers.

The Flyers won yesterday's round in the pursuit of forward Chris Gratton. But the fight for the talented center is not over. An NHL arbitrator in Toronto ruled that a copy of the Flyers' contract offer to Gratton, sent by fax from the Flyers to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, was legible and thus valid. The next move is up to the Lightning, who will have seven days to match the offer to the restricted free agent. But the decision left unclear the status of a trade between Tampa Bay and Chicago, which would send Gratton to the Blackhawks for three players.

MADRID - Spanish police say they have arrested a man who twice escaped from custody by having his wife send fake faxes ordering his release. Jose Carlos Serna, 57, was arrested yesterday at his home in a suburb north of Madrid after being found hiding in a hollowed-out sofa, police said. In December, he was in a cell at a courthouse awaiting trial when officers got a fax purportedly from a regional court. It was followed by a phone call purportedly from a court official, corroborating the release order.

A would-be novelist yearned for an electric typewriter like the one Angela Lansbury used in Murder, She Wrote . A 90-year-old Lambertville lady needed a ribbon for her beloved manual - and someone to change it, too. And a Hollywood set decorator sought an office full of sleek late '60s IBM Selectric 1 machines for a Manhattan movie shoot. "We had 'em," says Rick Dutczak (pronounced dew-chack ), the 51-year-old proprietor of Karl Business Machines in Hamilton Township, Mercer County.

WE NEED TO educate the parents, athletes and athletic departments of the Southeastern Conference on the proper use and etiquette for social networks. Wednesday night, unhappy after a loss to Alabama, Mississippi State's Ravern Johnson posted on Twitter: "Starting to see why people Transfer you can play the minutes but not getting your talents shown because u watching someone else wit the ball the whole game," according to the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. Johnson, who averages 17.7 points a game, had just 10 points vs. 'Bama.

PHILLYCLOUT doesn't usually issue orders but today we make an exception: Al Schmidt should go buy some lottery tickets while his lucky streak lasts. Schmidt, the Republican candidate for city controller last year and recently a senior adviser to the state GOP, spent weeks using public-records requests to collect faxes that he says demonstrate a "culture of corruption" in Philadelphia politics. He distributed the documents yesterday as he announced his candidacy in the May primary election for the Philadelphia City Commission.

Did a travel experience move you, change you, give you a new take on life or just great memories? Tell us how, in 500 words or fewer. And send us a photo, with caption information. Include a daytime phone number. If we publish your piece, we'll pay you $25. ( Response volume prohibits our returning or acknowledging your manuscripts or photos. ) By e-mail, to: inquirer. travel@phillynews.com . Please put "Personal Journey" in the subject line. By fax, to 215-854-4795.

Oh, sure, you've posted all your deductions for the year. You used the latest tax software. You filed your local, state, and federal returns. You consulted C.P.A.s, M.B.A.s, Ph.D.s, and LMNOPs to make sure you took advantage of every line of the 1040, Schedules A through Z, and AA through ZZ. Gave to charities. Gave to friends and relatives up to the taxable limit. Figured out the alternative minimum tax and the alternative maximum tax to boot. You hit the send button with the expectation of an instantaneous refund.

LAST WEEK, the city lost an important resource when Ed Goppelt closed his Hallwatch.org Web site. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Goppelt was one of the founding fathers of citizen journalism. His Web site was devoted to making information accessible to the public, and to giving citizens more and better access to elected officials and people in power. Neither group exactly welcomed his efforts - especially those whose offices became flooded with faxes, enabled by Hallwatch's fax bank.

Online con artists are always coming up with something new. Now they're phishing for private information via fax - while pretending to be the IRS. The phony e-mail arrives, pretending to be from "Internal Revenue Service," with a subject line such as "please see the attachment. " One e-mail still circulating yesterday had two attachments. One looks like a letter on official IRS stationery, saying: "Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. " The other is a copy of an actual IRS form.

Struck by her beauty but ultimately unfit to commit, the many suitors who have expressed interest in the century-old mansion on the Delaware River in Delanco have time and again proved to be rakes. There was the cheap man who offered just $7. There was the rich man who would have taken it - but for the fact that the river was too shallow to dock his yacht. There was the potential swindler whose business address was found to be a vacant lot in North Philadelphia. And there were the guys who abruptly backed out after months of talks.

A prominent researcher who reviewed a critical study on the diabetes drug Avandia for a major medical journal leaked the findings before publication to the drug's maker, GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., according to the journal Nature. The reviewer, Steven M. Haffner, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, breached confidentiality rules of the New England Journal of Medicine by faxing the study to a friend working for GlaxoSmithKline, in Upper Merion.