Hatchet

Beneath a slate sky, the last of the season's golden leaves drifted down like confetti upon the thousands gathered yesterday to watch state and local politicians literally bury the hatchet in a Delaware tradition known as Return Day. About 15,000 people lined the streets in this town of 1,800 to watch party leaders bury a hatchet in a clear plastic box full of sand. "Let us split no more hairs," intoned town crier Ronald Dodd as state Republican Chairman Francis A. DiMondi, state Democratic Chairman Samuel L. Shipley and Sussex County American Party Chairman David S. DeRiemer jointly poured a bucket of sand over the hatchet.

A 40-year-old Camden man was killed with a hatchet in his Cramer Hill home early today, authorities said. Police responding to a 911 call found Josue Rivera mortally wounded in his residence on the 2700 block of Tyler Avenue in Cramer Hill at about 4 a.m., said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. No one is in custody. Rivera's wife and stepson were in the home, where they also live, at the time of the killing, said Luis Rivera, the victim's brother-in-law.

World cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell was arrested over the weekend after a sparring partner claimed he heaved a hatchet at him during a training run through the woods, authorities said in Big Bear City, Calif. Bell, 32, was booked Sunday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to a statement by the San Bernardino County sheriff's department. Deputies responding to a possible fight off Highway 38 found Bell's sparring partner, 37-year-old Larry Slayton, afraid for his life with cuts from running through the brush, sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said Monday.

AN UPPER DARBY man who called 9-1-1 Monday and threatened to kill himself and his family busted out of a closet with a hatchet and swung "wildly" at police, one of whom shot him in return, according to Upper Darby Superintendent Michael Chitwood. "The cops described it as something out of 'Friday the 13th,' " Chitwood said. Joshua Bruno, 19, remained in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania but was expected to survive the gunshot wound, Chitwood said.

Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent have had run-ins before - only this time they did it in view of a television camera. Tuesday night's scrum in the San Francisco dugout appeared to begin with Kent yelling at third baseman David Bell. Bonds became involved and as the argument escalated, he shoved Kent. Bonds and Kent had to be separated, and TV replays showed trainer Stan Conte holding back manager Dusty Baker. "You expect the competitive adrenaline to be flowing on a good team," Kent said.

Charles E. Reddish Jr. was arraigned yesterday in Camden County Superior Court in the murder of Yeda Sharon Rosenthal in 1991. Judge Isaiah Steinberg set bail at $500,000 and ordered Reddish held. During the three-minute hearing, James Conley, an assistant county prosecutor, told the court that Reddish, a maintenance man at the Somerset Apartments, on Cooper Landing Road, had given a statement to police. In the statement, Conley said, Reddish said he had lowered himself from a roof to the seventh-floor balcony and entered Rosenthal's apartment in the Somerset complex through an unlocked sliding-glass door.

Dozens of neighborhood children were dancing in the narrow North Philadelphia street at his 7-year-old daughter Jahimya's birthday block party on Saturday afternoon when a black Volvo suddenly came speeding toward them, Jerome Conquest told the Daily News yesterday. The car took the front end off a parked car being used to block off North Myrtlewood Street near Huntingdon, crashed through food tables and a moon bounce, then plowed into the dancers, running over Conquest's 8-year-old nephew, Andre Clark.

A 40-year-old Camden man was killed with a hatchet in his Cramer Hill home early Thursday, authorities said. Police responding to a 911 call from Josue Rivera's wife found him dead in their residence on the 2700 block of Tyler Avenue about 4 a.m., said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Rivera's stepson, who lives with the couple, was home at the time of the killing, according to Luis Rivera, the victim's brother-in-law. Standing outside the home, where he also lives, Luis Rivera said family members were trying to find the stepson.

In one short year, thousands of rowing crews - high school crews, college crews, Olympic crews, international crews - have phoned, faxed and even driven to Morrisville, Vt., up Route 100 about 10 miles north of Stowe, to buy a $250 oar. The oar has a blade shaped like a meat cleaver and nicknamed the "hatchet. " It's an ugly, squat-looking thing, but it goes through the water like a power motor. And it makes boats go faster. It's become like an "Air Jordan" sneaker. Get it now because, in rowing, "it's the blade.

Delaware's Republicans and Democrats buried the hatchet yesterday - literally - in honor of Return Day, the traditional ceremony marking the end of months of speechmaking, mudslinging, and pontificating. Political speeches are forbidden during this statewide post-election party, which clogged Georgetown's streets with a parade of antique carriages and filled the air with marching music. And it is considered bad form for politicians to miss the fun. The gatherings have been held at the Sussex County seat since 1792, when the town crier first announced the official election results and politicians and their supporters tried to make peace among themselves.

AN UPPER DARBY man who called 9-1-1 Monday and threatened to kill himself and his family busted out of a closet with a hatchet and swung "wildly" at police, one of whom shot him in return, according to Upper Darby Superintendent Michael Chitwood. "The cops described it as something out of 'Friday the 13th,' " Chitwood said. Joshua Bruno, 19, remained in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania but was expected to survive the gunshot wound, Chitwood said.

A 40-year-old Camden man was killed with a hatchet in his Cramer Hill home early Thursday, authorities said. Police responding to a 911 call from Josue Rivera's wife found him dead in their residence on the 2700 block of Tyler Avenue about 4 a.m., said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Rivera's stepson, who lives with the couple, was home at the time of the killing, according to Luis Rivera, the victim's brother-in-law. Standing outside the home, where he also lives, Luis Rivera said family members were trying to find the stepson.

A 40-year-old Camden man was killed with a hatchet in his Cramer Hill home early today, authorities said. Police responding to a 911 call found Josue Rivera mortally wounded in his residence on the 2700 block of Tyler Avenue in Cramer Hill at about 4 a.m., said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. No one is in custody. Rivera's wife and stepson were in the home, where they also live, at the time of the killing, said Luis Rivera, the victim's brother-in-law.

TATTLE HAS GONE on record numerous times about there being too many darn awards, but here's a new one we can get behind. The Hatchet Job of the Year Award honors "the angriest, funniest, most trenchant" review published in a newspaper or magazine in 2011. Eight finalists for the prize were announced yesterday. They include classicist Mary Beard 's dismissal of Robert Hughes ' Rome - "little short of a disgrace" - and Leo Robson 's verdict on Rachel Bradford 's Martin Amis: The Biography.

On Jan. 2, when Mayor Nutter begins his second term with Darrell L. Clarke likely presiding over Council, the entire city will have a stake in whether the two can build a relationship - or at least work together without antagonizing each other. If the past is any indication, they have a long road to transform their arranged marriage into a happy union. This spring, when Nutter and Clarke were backing competing ideas to fill a huge shortfall in the school district's budget, their interactions were "at best, awkward," said Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.

Dozens of neighborhood children were dancing in the narrow North Philadelphia street at his 7-year-old daughter Jahimya's birthday block party on Saturday afternoon when a black Volvo suddenly came speeding toward them, Jerome Conquest told the Daily News yesterday. The car took the front end off a parked car being used to block off North Myrtlewood Street near Huntingdon, crashed through food tables and a moon bounce, then plowed into the dancers, running over Conquest's 8-year-old nephew, Andre Clark.

ECONOMISTS SAY Americans are "de-leveraging," an academic way of saying that the Great Recession has bulldozed millions of lives. We get an up-close and personal look at the process in the well-made "The Company Men," a movie that follows a quartet of corporate lifers as downsizing takes their jobs, their savings, their stuff and, finally, a little bit of their souls. The movie opens as the camera prowls their posh suburban homes, and we see the material expression of the good times - the big-screen TVs, game consoles, the Porsche two-seater in the two-car garage.

JASON REITMAN'S "Up in the Air" had me thinking that I haven't seen a young filmmaker with such astute command of Hollywood craft since Steven Spielberg. Reitman, you probably know, is the son of producer-director Ivan Reitman ("Meatballs," "Ghostbusters"). He grew up on movie sets and around movie stars and, instead of ogling them, he apparently studied them. He knows how they work, and, in particular, he knows how their work reads to audiences. One of Reitman's particular skills is to put the right actor in the right role - I remember watching "Juno" and being struck by how shrewdly cast it was. And Aaron Eckhart was perfect for Reitman's "Thank You For Smoking.

IN THE LATE 1980s, a young actress named Julia Roberts turned a string of mediocre movies into hits with a dazzling smile and star quality. Hollywood's been looking for a replacement ever since, and may have found one in Katherine Heigl. The "Grey's Anatomy" star, who has her own righteous set of choppers, moved to movies with an eye-catching starring debut in "Knocked Up," then brought her audience (like Roberts', it's largely female) to the so-so "27 Dresses. " If her new showcase, "The Ugly Truth," finds an audience, you can thank Heigl and not the script, which pushes what might have been a grown-up movie into territory only slightly less vulgar than "Bruno.

World cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell was arrested over the weekend after a sparring partner claimed he heaved a hatchet at him during a training run through the woods, authorities said in Big Bear City, Calif. Bell, 32, was booked Sunday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to a statement by the San Bernardino County sheriff's department. Deputies responding to a possible fight off Highway 38 found Bell's sparring partner, 37-year-old Larry Slayton, afraid for his life with cuts from running through the brush, sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said Monday.