Mediation

One week before a key deadline, only 27 towns in New Jersey have formally notified the state that they want to submit any disputes over the construction of low-cost housing to state mediation. By submitting to mediation, the towns would gain legal protection against future zoning lawsuits over low-cost housing under the state Supreme Court's so-called Mount Laurel decisions. As a result, officials of the state's new Council on Affordable Housing urged mayors and town administrators yesterday to formally seek mediation by next Wednesday or risk being taken to court by builders or developers seeking to build low-cost housing.

Reporting that they had made unexpected progress during a poolside mediation session Monday, lawyers in the Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. bankruptcy case asked a federal judge for help securing more of the mediator's time. Lawrence G. McMichael, who represents the media company, told Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich that "a lot of progress" had been made. It was possible, he said, that continued mediation could help resolve the remaining issues in the case. Raslavich, in response, promised to contact the mediator, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard Fehling, to see if it were possible.

The jockeying for position between Mobil Oil Corp. and Paulsboro officials intensified last week as both sides considered a state offer to take the oil company's lawsuit against the borough into mediation and out of court. Since Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Melvin A. Primas offered to mediate the dispute three weeks ago, Mobil officials have been slow to respond. But in a letter sent to Paulsboro council President James A. Sabetta on Friday, the company agreed to go that route if certain ground rules could be agreed on. "We feel positively toward mediation," Mobil spokesman Mark Cohen said Monday.

The petite silver-haired woman from Mayfair sat down across the table from Carman Rufo and told her story. She recently paid a contractor $800 to build concrete steps in front of her house, she said. Days later, the steps had severely cracked and were falling apart. The contractor would not return her calls. She was distraught. She wanted to sue. "Don't get nervous," Rufo told her. "You don't need that at this time in your life. " About 10 Northeast residents like the Mayfair woman - who did not want to be identified - sought help with legal problems Wednesday from Rufo and other staff members of the Philadelphia Municipal Court's Dispute Resolutions Programs.

The NFL and its locked-out players launched a second round of mediation yesterday, this time under a court order to try and figure out a solution to their labor dispute. Commissioner Roger Goodell, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft were among those on hand for the closed-door session at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith was joined by attorneys, linebackers Ben Leber and Mike Vrabel, as well as Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller.

Lawyers for Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. and its creditors said yesterday that they were planning another session before a mediator to resolve a contentious dispute over interim financing for the bankrupt media company. Lawrence G. McMichael, a lawyer for the company that owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, said the parties made "a reasonable amount of progress" Monday but were unable to resolve the dispute over short-term financing, known as debtor-in-possession financing.

A dispute over who can place what in a teacher's school mailbox is headed for mediation. Last Monday, Dennis McInerney, the judge of Shamong's Municipal Court, ordered the mother of a fourth grader at Indian Mills Memorial School and the school's principal to participate in Burlington County's mediation program to try to iron out their differences. In December, principal Brian Betze filed a disorderly-persons offense against Suzanne Kushner after she placed a newspaper column in several teachers' mailboxes at Indian Mills.

By Arlen Specter With the U.S. Senate's judicial confirmation process choked by filibusters and gridlock, the federal courts in Pennsylvania are riddled with vacancies. In Harrisburg's district alone, half the judgeships are open - even though Sen. Bob Casey and I made recommendations to fill those seats, as well as vacancies in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh districts, almost a year ago. Alexis de Tocqueville was correct more than 150 years ago when he said almost every controversy in the United States seems to wind up in court.

The East Goshen Board of Supervisors has taken its first tentative step toward mediating a longstanding zoning dispute with SmithKline Beecham, voting to engage a mediator in "conflict assessment" if the pharmaceutical firm agrees. Agreement could lead to a break in the 20-month battle, which has led SmithKline to sue the township three times over subdivision plans for a 312- acre tract on Paoli Pike where it has research laboratories. The issue has divided the board and the community.

Confident that they have a strong case against the proposed Huber tract development, residents of Kennett and Pennsbury Townships have voted not to enter into mediation with the developer and Kennett supervisors. Developer Richard A. Jacoby of Newtown Square has proposed a 186-unit planned residental development for the 103-acre tract west of Route 52, between Burrows Run and Fairville Roads. A citizens' group, the Kennett and Pennsbury Residents Association, is fighting the zoning request.

JERUSALEM - Israel halted its air strikes against Gaza Strip militants early Tuesday and rocket fire from the Palestinian territory ebbed as a cease-fire ending four days of clashes appeared to be taking effect. Both sides had indicated they have no interest in seeing the fighting spiral into all-out war, and an Egyptian security official reported that Egyptian intelligence officials had brokered a truce. There was no official truce announcement from Israel or Gaza's Hamas rulers, but Israeli Cabinet Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio that the latest outbreak of violence "appears to be behind us. " Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech Tuesday evening suggested that Israel would refrain from any new strikes unless attacked.

George L. Sherry, 87, a former U.N. official who helped calm crises around the world, died in New York City on Friday of complications from Parkinson's disease. In the years after the founding of the United Nations in 1945 - when speeches from the General Assembly and the Security Council were widely broadcast - Mr. Sherry became known as the English-speaking voice of Andrei Y. Vishinsky, the Soviet delegate. "Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Y. Vishinsky spoke yesterday in tones that were in quick succession impassioned, angry, sarcastic, sardonic, pleading and furious," the New York Times reported Sept.

OK, this is really getting ridiculous. When last we polished off a plate of oxtails at the Jamaican Jerk Hut, the venerable Caribbean eatery at 15th and South, owner Lisa Wilson was still waging a David-and-Goliath battle with residents of Symphony House, a 32-story luxury condominium complex at Broad and Spruce. Never mind that the Zoning Board of Adjustment and Common Pleas Court had both ruled in the Jerk Hut's favor: Namely, that Wilson could play live reggae music for her customers on the lot next to the restaurant on weekends in spring and summer.

NEW YORK - The presence of federal mediator George Cohen led to the longest discussions in the 110-day NBA lockout Tuesday. Cohen presided over the meeting between full bargaining committees of the National Basketball Players Association and owners at a New York hotel, a day after he met with both sides individually at their New York offices. Tuesday's meeting began at 10 a.m. and continued into early Wednesday. The longest session before Tuesday during this lockout that began July 1 was 71/2 hours.

NEW YORK - The NBA and players association are ready to try mediation, and commissioner David Stern wants results quickly. Stern said last week during an interview with WFAN radio in New York that without a deal Tuesday, when the sides meet with federal mediator George Cohen, his "gut" feeling was that there would be no NBA basketball on Christmas. Owners are opening two days of board meetings Wednesday, and Stern wants to be able to bring a deal to them. But can a mediator swoop in and smooth out two years of bickering in one day?

Officials of the NBA and its players union will meet with a federal mediator Oct. 17 in an attempt to end the lockout, union chief Billy Hunter said Wednesday. "We've agreed, as of today, that we're going to meet with a federal mediator on Monday," Hunter, the National Basketball Players Association's executive director, said in an interview on WFAN-AM (660) in New York. Mike Bass, an NBA spokesman, said in an e-mail that the two sides were "working on scheduling a meeting for early next week.

Now five months old, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association's bankruptcy case has come to a critical fork in the road. Wednesday's hearing before Judge Eric L. Frank was a subdued affair, with only a few lawyers present and no orchestra players or staff, but it was important for laying out two possible imminent paths - a quick resolution or a long, acrimonious battle that could stretch on for some time and have tragic consequences for the orchestra....

For the first time since Catholic high school teachers in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia went on strike last week, there will be no school for any of the 16,000 students beginning Wednesday and until a settlement is reached and striking teachers return. And the archdiocese rejected an offer Tuesday evening by the Association of Catholic Teachers, Local 1776, that could have allowed students to return to class. The union had offered to send its teachers back to work at the 17 high schools - if the archdiocese agreed to bring in a mediator to help resolve the labor dispute.

For the first time since Catholic high school teachers in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia went on strike last week, there will be no school for any of the 16,000 students beginning Wednesday and until a settlement is reached and striking teachers return. And the archdiocese rejected an offer Tuesday evening by the Association of Catholic Teachers, Local 1776, that could have allowed students to return to class. The union had offered to send its teachers back to work at the 17 high schools - if the archdiocese agreed to bring in a mediator to help resolve the labor dispute.