Ids

MAKE UP a name, snap a mug shot in front of a blue towel and send it to China with $200. Abracadabra, you're 21. The China-based website www.idchief.com sells IDs that look a lot like Pennsylvania and New Jersey driver's licenses. And police, government agencies and bar owners in both states are seeing red. ID Chief claims it's just a novelty business, selling items like rubber chickens and fake mustaches. Except that the items they acutally sell are more expensive and illegal to use, like a fancy glass bong packed with nontobacco products.

DO YOU REALLY believe that elections in Philadelphia are fair and square - or is it just OK to cheat if you are in a Democratic liberal city like Philly? Everybody in Philadelphia knows that there hasn't been an honest election there in 50 years. How about coming up with some real solutions other than the "stolen elections in 2000" (your words). Get over it, Bush won both times in spite of the cheating that went on in many major Democratic cities. I think there should be some proof of who you are on Election Day, or are you saying that some people aren't capable of obtaining an ID?

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania is home to one of the nation's toughest photo-identification laws for voters, less than eight months before the presidential election. Gov. Corbett signed the bill yesterday, a few hours after the Republican-controlled state House passed it, 104-to-88, largely along partisan lines. The photo-ID requirement would take effect for November's presidential election in Pennsylvania, traditionally a swing state that is expected to be a battleground again this year.

This time, the 7-year-old Southwest Philadelphia boy was sure. He stared at Michael Robinson, 28, in court and said he saw him shoot and kill Don "Rico" Campbell, 30, on Madison Place near Lindbergh Boulevard, on Aug. 24, 1993. It wasn't always that easy. Two months after the killing, during a preliminary hearing, the boy's testimony was so shaky, the case was almost dismissed. When he was asked if he could identify the shooter in the courtroom, the boy looked around and said, "I don't see him. " Robinson sat at the defense table smiling.

The 17-year-old South Philadelphia girl says she wanted her dying 67-year- old father to know who had shot him. But he didn't want to know. As Acquanetta Joyce's father, George, lay dying in a hospital bed on Jan. 30, 21 days after being shot inside his South Philadelphia home by robbers who then spit and stepped on him, he shook his head no. She told him anyway. After first naming Darnell "Woo" Jones, 17, as one of the holdup men, she told him the name of the shooter.

ONE TRIP to PennDOT should now be enough to get that elusive photo ID. After being criticized for its effort to distribute free IDs that will comply with a new strict voter-ID law, the Pennsylvania Department of State announced Tuesday that it is simplifying its process by removing the proof-of-residence requirement for one type of identification. Submitting a name, address, date of birth and Social Security number will now suffice for a voting-only Department of State ID. PennDOT employees are expected to verify that the applicant is registered to vote while he is waiting.

THE Pennsylvania Department of State on Monday ramped up its voter-outreach efforts by enhancing VotesPA.com and launching it on Facebook and Twitter. The effort is part of an ongoing marketing campaign by state officials to inform people about the new voter-ID law that requires voters to show an unexpired photo ID at the polls if they want to cast their ballots in the Nov. 6 general election. VotesPA.com features a new layout to help voters find information about which photo IDs are acceptable and how to obtain a valid ID. The website also has a "resource center" where voters can link to frequently asked questions about the voter-ID law, voter registration, absentee and alternative ballots, and locations of polling places.

In the weekend's three homicides, police have released two of the victims' names and made several arrests. In the most recent case, a domestic dispute led to the stabbing death of a Crescentville man early Sunday morning, police said. Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Shawn Rodgers, 30, was found with a stab wound to the chest inside his residence in the 600 block of East Carver Street in the Northeast neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at 4:21 a.m. at Einstein Medical Center. A woman was arrested, but police this morning could not confirm reports she was his girlfriend.

Three residents of a Port Richmond neighborhood have been advised to see their doctors after high or questionable levels of lead were found in their blood. The city Health Department tested 535 people, including 118 young children, last month as a result of residents' concerns about possible lead contamination from the Anzon plant on Aramingo Avenue. But the department said yesterday that no pattern of high lead levels was found in residents who live near the plant, which manufactures plastics additives and other lead products.

  Show us your face. That's my solution to the online issue of incivility to which Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie recently fell victim at Philly.com. Vitriolic postings about his recent marriage illustrate the need for media-sponsored websites to implement the same rules that apply to a speaker sounding off in the town's square: Say what you want, but the public gets to see who you are. John Featherman, a Philly.com columnist, reported that as soon as word of Lurie's nuptials to a woman of Vietnamese heritage was published, a blogosphere barrage began.

A body found washed ashore Wednesday morning on the beach in Ocean City, N.J., has been identified as a sea tow operator missing since his boat sank last week, authorities said. A spokesman for the New Jersey state police said the deceased had been identified as David McAuliffe, of Egg Harbor Township, whose boat went down off Ocean City on April 23. The body was discovered by Ocean City employees working on the beach about 6 a.m. near 25th Street, about two miles from where the tow boat was recovered Thursday.

State transportation and election officials were ordered Monday to provide data on licensed drivers and registered voters to plaintiffs in the ongoing voter-ID dispute, hoping to answer a question that has baffled state officials for the last year: how many Pennsylvania voters do not already have photo identification cards from PennDot? Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. agreed to a motion from opponents of the state's new voter ID law, saying their data request was relevant.

For the family of Sunil Tripathi, the prolonged and painful vigil ended Thursday. Authorities identified a body found in the Providence River as that of the 22-year-old Brown University student from the Main Line who disappeared in Rhode Island last month. Tripathi, 22, left his Providence apartment on March 16 without his wallet, identification, and cellphone. The Radnor Township native left behind a vague note that hinted at suicidal intent. Members of Brown's crew team found the body in the river Tuesday.

THE FAMILY OF Bryn Mawr native Sunil Tripathi turned yesterday's tragic news into a moment of reflection, hoping "Sunny's" death would make us all a little more aware of one another. "This last month has changed our lives forever, and we hope it will change yours, too," the Tripathi family wrote in a short letter yesterday. "Take care of one another. Be gentle, be compassionate. Be open to letting someone in when it is you who is faltering. Lend your hand. We need it. The world needs it. " A body found Tuesday floating in the Providence River was positively identified as Tripathi yesterday after a forensic-dental examination, said Dara Chadwick, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Department of Health.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - In a tiny room on the fourth floor of Brown University's student center, Sunil Tripathi's family is waiting for him to come home. The Brown student and Radnor native went missing a month ago, and the Tripathis have been plastering the town with photos ever since. Nicknamed "Sunny," the 22-year-old smiles from the windows of campus eateries and downtown businesses. In the student center, his family has been running Facebook and Twitter campaigns, looking for any clues into his disappearance.

Police have identified the disabled woman from Burlington County who died last week after she was found neglected and malnourished in her home. Victoria Hines, 58, of Florence, was found alive but unable to speak after her live-in boyfriend called and asked police what he should do, authorities said. The boyfriend, Harold W. Reed Jr., 55, was charged with neglect of a disabled person after authorities went to the home and found that the woman had been in a recliner for two weeks, unable to care for herself.

This summer, the discussion of the legality of the voter-identification legislation will continue in Commonwealth Court. The key question is whether the state has made it possible for all legal voters to get an ID. The answer to that question is: yes. Free photo identification is available at any of the 71 Department of Transportation driver's license centers across the state for those who sign a form stating that they have no other identification acceptable...

PHOENIX - A prominent GOP lawmaker in Arizona wants to link public bathroom use to birth certificates in what civil rights advocates are calling the nation's toughest anti-transgender measure. The bill would require people to use public restrooms, dressing rooms or locker rooms associated with the sex listed on their birth certificate or face six months in jail. The proposal had been scheduled for a vote Wednesday during a House of Representatives committee. But in an unusual scene for the usually staid halls of state government, men in dresses, women in business suits and other transgender supporters crowded into the committee room and the lobby of the House to protest the legislation.

The remains of a woman found in Burlington County last year revealed little about her life - or death. Officials hope an emerging portrait of what she may have looked like could generate new leads. This week, officials released a sketch that puts a face on the body found by two motorcyclists riding trails in a wooded section of Pemberton Township last summer. After months passed with no significant clues to who she was or how and when she died, forensic experts created what they think she looked like, giving her brown eyes, brown hair, and common features.