Fliers

For Millie Wintz and Trevor Vogt, designing a kite was serious business at the Pennypack Watershed Association workshop. Owls are the design of the day at Saturday's kite-making workshop for children 9-12.

That young man you've seen pestering people outside the The Ritz Five these past few weekends wants you to know he is not a panhandler. He's rookie director M. Night Shyamalan, passing out fliers, shaking hands, and talking up the release his debut picture, "Praying with Anger. " Shyamalan, who grew up in Wynnewood and attended the Waldron Academy before studying film at NYU, is aware that he's made some people a little apprehensive. "Unless they've seen the trailer, people don't know who I am. They think I'm handing out information about a furniture moving company, or the Hare Krishnas.

I AM IN complete agreement with Jill Porter's column (Sept. 18) on a flier distributed in the Northeast by the Republicans. I've been a Democrat since I began voting, and my distaste for Republican ideas was only heightened by this flier, which promotes a black-vs.-white stance in issues of our city. Blight and crime is a class issue, not a racial one, and the fact that the GOP would try to influence my political affiliation because I am white and my mayor is black is insulting and moronic.

Camden County Republicans, who have been touting themselves as the honest alternative, have drawn fire for circulating what opponents say are racist and false campaign fliers. The Democrats have called the GOP racist for distributing material that they said could play upon the prejudice of white suburban voters against blacks in Camden city, who have supplied vital electoral support to the Democrats in the past. The Democrats have faulted a mailing distributed by Republican Freeholder Richard L. Wooster in which he urged voters to re-elect him. The mailing showed only one of the three Democratic candidates for freeholder, Gary Brown, who is the only black candidate on either party's freeholder ticket.

With the flag wrapped in controversy this Fourth of July, Chester Countians seemed more eager than ever to fly the red, white and blue over the holiday. Old Glory cropped up in store windows and at flower shops. And many homeowners showed their true colors by displaying the stars and stripes.

Rescuers today called off the search for two U.S. Air Force fliers missing since Monday's raid on Libya. Adm. William Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was his "best judgment" the two fliers were killed when their F-111F crashed during a bombing run against targets near Tripoli. "We don't have anything to indicate they ejected," said Pentagon spokesman Robert Sims. He identified the men as Capt. Fernando L. Ribas- Dominicci, 33, of Utuado, Puerto Rico, and Capt.

The state Bureau of Elections is looking into the legality of a labor- sponsored flier distributed yesterday in Northwest Philadelphia that called for the re-election of Democratic state Sen. M. Joseph Rocks. The flier was paid for by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education. The COPE fund is not registered as a political action committee with the state and thus is not eligible to make contributions of cash or anything of value to political candidates unless the contribution is valued at less than $250.

John Slavish says he can speak for most of his Plymouth Township neighbors when he complains about the fliers from Bradlees and Shop Rite thrown on his Valley Creek Road driveway. "It annoys the hell out of me," he said in a recent interview. Slavish had resorted, without much success, to stopping drivers and telling them he doesn't want the advertising fliers, most of which are from Bradlees and Shop Rite. He finally found a receptive ear at the Plymouth Township Council.

The distribution of racist fliers to more than 800 East Vineland residents has outraged city officials, who said yesterday that they plan to investigate the incident. "We're dealing with the unknown here," said Mayor Joseph Romano. "We've got to be on top of it. " He plans to hold a news conference on the fliers at 11 a.m. today. Romano said he also will meet today with the city's human rights commission, the postmaster, the chief of police and at least two of the residents who received fliers.

Don Meloney recalls that when he was 13 years old, he hooked his 1-year-old brother to a kite and flew him "as high as the treetops. " "I couldn't figure out why my mother was so mad," he recalled in an interview over the weekend. "My brother enjoyed it," he said, laughing. That was many years ago. But Meloney, a retired crane operator from Springfield, hasn't lost his enthusiasm for kite flying. That was evident Sunday when Meloney participated with dozens of other fliers in the seventh annual Delaware County Kite Fly at Rose Tree Park in Media.

The federal budget ax that is known as the sequester is starting to hurt the airline industry. While flights have not yet been canceled in response to the cuts, and there are not long lines at security screening in airports, including Philadelphia International, US Airways Group and Delta Air Lines said the federal spending cuts reduced March revenue due to fewer last-minute bookings. US Airways said that passenger revenue for each "seat mile" flown was flat in March compared with March 2012.

Question: My 16-year-old son and I have had our US Airways miles taken away from us. He had 27,893 miles and I had 829 miles. They expired a few days ago. I'm a single mom and recently lost my job. I've been overwhelmed and did not notice the e-mail that warned me about the expiration of the miles. I called US Airways, but a representative said I was too late. I've been a loyal US Airways customer for years, but didn't sign up for US Airways' loyalty program until recently.

Mayor Nutter has been getting lots of national attention lately as an Obama surrogate, while battling at home with one of the party's biggest constituencies - labor unions. Last week, we got our hands on a flier titled "Mike Wants To Be Like Mitt," with head shots of Nutter and GOP nominee Mitt Romney. The flier states both men "think it's better to have the middle class pay up, not the rich," and "think it's OK to disrespect working men and women," and "put profits ahead of our neighborhoods.

D EAR HARRY: I have written to you before concerning my reason for having more than two credit cards: I get a lot of frequent-flier miles by opening new credit cards. But this has now had an interesting twist. My accountant just informed me that those miles (really, their cash value) are going to be taxed by the high muckety-mucks at IRS. He said he'd get back to me when he got more info on just what I have to do. Is he on the ball here, or is he just setting me up for an additional fee?

THE FLIERS have been landing in mailboxes since last week in West Philly's 188th state House District, attacking Rep. James Roebuck for the many problems in the city's public schools. One flier gives Roebuck failing grades on school dropouts, violence, overcrowded classrooms and alleged cheating on standardized tests. Another notes that he has been in office for 25 years but "failed to fight to educate" the city's children. Roebuck calls it dirty politics and accuses a fellow West Philly politician, state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, of engineering the attacks.

The fliers have been landing in mailboxes since last week in West Philadelphia's 188th House District, attacking State Rep. James Roebuck for the many problems in the city's public schools. One flier gives Roebuck failing grades on school dropouts, violence, overcrowded classrooms, and alleged cheating on standardized tests. Another notes that he has been in office for 25 years but says he "failed to fight to educate" the city's children. Roebuck calls it dirty politics and accuses a fellow West Philly Democrat, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, of engineering the attacks.

A Northeast Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport for attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane was released on bail Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, on $25,000 personal-recognizance bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Hey said Picklo tested positive for an unspecified substance and was also ordered to undergo drug testing by Pre-Trial Services.

THE Philadelphia Board of Ethics yesterday fined Michael Quintero Moore, communications director for Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, $3,800 for using City Hall office equipment and staff for political purposes. The board also fined Kacy Nickens, another Miller staffer, $300. Both staffers must resign their jobs and are prohibited from working for the city for one year. The board's staff in October accused Moore of 16 ethics violations, including producing on City Hall stationery an endorsement letter from Miller for Verna Tyner in the Democratic primary election and a news release about that endorsement.

Ticket prices charged by US Airways Group Inc. to fly nonstop from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh are going up - way up - the day after competitor Southwest Airlines Co. stops flying there next month. Airfares are also rising to three other cities - Providence, R.I., Manchester, N.H., and Jacksonville, Fla. - where Southwest is eliminating nonstop service Jan. 8. Philadelphia-to-Boston flights will more than double in cost after Feb. 11, the last day Southwest flies nonstop from here to there.

A campaign flier endorsing an independent candidate in the race for the Gloucester Township Council is drawing accusations of political subterfuge. Darren Gladden, an unemployed stay-at-home dad who is running as a "conservative independent," said he was shocked to see a mailer promoting his campaign with the name of a well-known local Democratic political action committee at the bottom. "I coach a youth football team, and one of my coaches said, 'Yo, I got your mailer.' I said I didn't have a mailer; I can barely pay my mortgage," Gladden said Thursday evening.