Larry Mendte

One thing can be said for certain about the 2005 local Emmys: Channel 3 news anchor Larry Mendte will go home a winner, and also a loser. Mendte is competing against himself for his coverage of two huge events in New Jersey last year that could be described as precipitous - raging floods and the hasty resignation of Gov. Jim McGreevey. Nobody else was nominated in the category of "special live news coverage. " But lots of folks from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have been nominated for many, many other things, from investigative journalism to promotional announcements.

U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin received more than 70 letters from Larry Mendte's family, friends, former media colleagues, and others attesting to the disgraced TV anchor's professionalism, compassion and community spirit. The letters surfaced yesterday as part of the sentencing memorandum. Most were typed; others were written in longhand. Perhaps the most poignant came from Mendte's wife, Dawn Stensland, a news anchor at Fox29. She begged the judge not to impose jail time.

As has been the case for several years, CBS3 led the pack when the nominations for the Mid-Atlantic Emmys were announced last night. Taking the top spot with 55 nominations, CBS3 was followed by NBC10 with 30 nominations, Fox29 with 27, and CN8 with 24. (6ABC traditionally does not participate in the process.) Also garnering double-digit numbers were Comcast SportsNet with 15, and NJN Public Television with 14. Elsewhere in the tri-state region, Pittsburgh's WQED notched 20 nominations and KDKA-TV, 11, while Harri burg's WHTM-TV collected 13, and Lancaster's WGAL-TV, 11. The Mid-Atlantic Emmys, which will celebrate a 25th anniversary during this year's Sept.

THREE MONTHS after he was adjudicated a felon, a shamed and contrite Larry Mendte yesterday arrived at the U.S. District Courthouse to take a seat in the public stocks. Soon, one of Mendte's ankles will be fitted with a snug electronic monitoring device. The disgraced anchor will wear it for the six months of house confinement to which he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin, along with three years of probation and a $5,000 fine for obsessively and illegally reading the e-mails of his former co-anchor, Alycia Lane.

What's next for Larry Mendte and CBS3? Uncertainty surrounds the anchor, two weeks after the FBI confiscated his home computer and visited the station to tell management that he was suspected of peeking at onetime coanchor Alycia Lane's private e-mail and feeding gossip to the media. Mendte was pulled off the air. The station said he was not suspended. Through his attorney, he has declined to comment. TV news professionals interviewed last week said that even if Mendte is not charged, he will not be back at CBS3 because the whiff of an FBI investigation - including the rare step of impounding a computer - impugns his credibility.

The feds were wary. The proposed investigation had a tabloid taste. It was early spring, and Paul Rosen, a lawyer for the disgraced former CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane, had just approached the FBI with sensational suspicions that someone at the station had hacked her e-mail. The alleged victim, poised to sue CBS3, was hardly sympathetic and was alleging only a handful of computer intrusions, people close to the investigation said. To complicate matters, the FBI's prime suspect soon became Lane's former coanchor, Larry Mendte.

IAGREE wholeheartedly with Larry Mendte's op-ed about the city going after the Olympics in 2016. Philadelphia should throw its hat in the ring. If we can handle a million-and-a-half rock, hip-hop, alternative and country music fans for Live 8, we can handle the games. There's no better way to showcase what the city has to offer the world. Jennifer Looney, Philadelphia What an outstanding honor to have Philly host the Olympics in 2016! Larry Mendte's article is timely.

MY, MY! Larry Mendte certainly was the busy little beaver, snooping into Alycia Lane's e-mail account a whopping 537 times in just under five months. Talk about someone who loved his work! The FBI and CIA could take lessons from Larry. Between Alycia the tabloid queen and Larry the snoop, they'd darn sure pull in monster ratings if they were back on the air as a team again. The drama alone would make watching them worth my time. Jeffrey C. Branch, Philadelphia

The campaign slogan was ready - "A New Dawn for Delaware County" - but the possible 7th District congressional candidate simply wasn't. Former Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland told the Daily News yesterday that she would pass on running for office "for family reasons. " "I really wanted to run as an independent," Stensland said. "We were good to go. " Stensland said she had "lined up her ducks in a row. " The 45-year-old Chestnut Hill mother of two said she had financing, a campaign manager, placards and "thousands of volunteers.

Former Fox29 news anchor Dawn Stensland is thinking about running as a Republican for the Seventh District U.S. House seat in suburban Philadelphia, a move that would upset party leaders' efforts to clear the primary field for Pat Meehan. She's well-known from her TV career and as the wife of Larry Mendte, a former anchor for CBS3, who was fired and pleaded guilty to federal wiretapping charges after hacking into the e-mails of his coanchor, Alycia Lane. Meehan was the U.S. attorney when the Mendte probe began but had left by the time the case was prosecuted.

THE STATE Supreme Court has ruled that the much-anticipated trial of Alycia Lane's civil suit against her former co-anchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, will remain in Philadelphia. Lane and her attorney, Paul Rosen, wanted the case to be tried here. CBS had filed an appeal to change the venue to New York, arguing that Lane's contract contained a clause saying that cases against the network should be heard in New York courts. Lane alleges in her lawsuit that Mendte illegally hacked into her email accounts and leaked details to the media.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had stayed the trial of the civil suit by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change-of-venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

SIX WEEKS AGO, when I heard that Curt Weldon and Larry Mendte, the dumb and dumber of politics and the media, had taken it upon themselves to negotiate with Moammar Gadhafi, I knew that Christmas had come early. The very image of these two washed-up wackos traipsing around Tripoli was too good to be true. I could just envision Mendte getting all giddy as they neared the presidential palace: "Curt. That's him! We found him!" "Uh, Larry, that's just a statue. " "I'm gonna ask him about the Phillies.

Curt Weldon, the once-powerful U.S. representative from Delaware County who lost his seat after an FBI corruption probe, splashed back into the international spotlight Wednesday with a visit to Libya and a plea for Moammar Gadhafi to step aside. In an op-ed piece published by the New York Times, Weldon said he had traveled to Libya at the invitation of Gadhafi's chief of staff. "Our purpose," he wrote, "is to meet with Col. Gadhafi today and persuade him to step aside. " Weldon said he had undertaken the trip with the knowledge of the Obama administration and members of Congress from both parties.

Philadelphia Daily News gossip columnist Dan Gross has been dropped as a defendant from a civil lawsuit brought by former CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane after they agreed to a settlement. Common Pleas Court Judge Howland W. Abramson signed an order Tuesday dismissing Lane's claims against Gross in a suit that also names her former CBS3 coanchor Larry Mendte and others as defendants. Gross "was named because he was used as one of the vehicles for Mr. Mendte's unlawful invasion of her privacy," said Lane's attorney, Paul Rosen, of the Center City law firm Spector Gadon & Rosen.

Comment from inYoface: Dom [Brown] is [here]! Are you excited? Gonzo: Finally. I've been calling for this all season. It's a little late, maybe, but I'll take it. Comment from Bron Bron: Are you rooting for my failure like everyone else? Gonzo: Nah. Not really. I don't mind what you did - just how you did it. Calling a nationally televised news conference was a really dumb move. Who's your PR guy these days - Michael Vick? Sorry. Can't help myself.

FOR TWO PEOPLE who claimed to be "friends," former CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane and married NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen exchanged some pretty flirty e-mails in 2006 and 2007, according to documents filed last week in Common Pleas Court by CBS Broadcasting. In one, Lane remembered their night at the Astor Hotel restaurant in Miami and a nearby curb where there was "lots of fun. " In another, Eisen recommends a bar in Los Angeles, where he lives, "especially if I'm the arm candy.

The campaign slogan was ready - "A New Dawn for Delaware County" - but the possible 7th District congressional candidate simply wasn't. Former Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland told the Daily News yesterday that she would pass on running for office "for family reasons. " "I really wanted to run as an independent," Stensland said. "We were good to go. " Stensland said she had "lined up her ducks in a row. " The 45-year-old Chestnut Hill mother of two said she had financing, a campaign manager, placards and "thousands of volunteers.

If Dawn Stensland wants to run for Congress in Delaware County, she'll have to do it as a third-party or independent candidate. The former Fox 29 anchor didn't file nominating petitions in Harrisburg by yesterday's deadline to get on the Republican primary ballot. But Stensland, wife of former CBS 3 anchor Larry Mendte, isn't ruling out running in November, according to sources close to the former Fox anchor. Stensland, 45, who lives in Chestnut Hill, in U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah's district, would be considered a long shot for the open seat in the 7th District, which covers most of Delaware County and parts of Montgomery and Chester counties.

Larry Mendte, who was ousted from his CBS3 news anchor seat for hacking into his colleague's e-mail, will become a full-time commentator for WPIX-TV in New York. After a contract is finalized in the next week or two, commentaries by Mendte will be shown five nights a week during the station's main newscast at 10 p.m., WPIX news director Bill Carey said yesterday. Other stations owned by the Tribune Broadcasting company can pick up his commentaries. "When it comes to television storytelling, I think Larry is top of the craft," Carey said.