Nuisance

IT'S BAD enough hearing my own phone ring these days, because it's usually not good news. But I shouldn't have to be answering the phone every time there's a ring in the background of a TV show. With the development of good sound, the TV rings really match home phones. (C'mon, I know you too have tried to answer a phone ring that was really on TV.) With that annoyance, plus all the news tickers, network logos and name IDs on my TV screen, I sure wouldn't mind having another button on one of my six remotes to eliminate it all somehow.

The ghost of Frank Rizzo lives. Except now, the late top cop and mayor appears to be walking a suburban beat. An Inquirer series on suburban police practices that concludes today reads like a throwback to the 1960s, when the Philly cops under Rizzo were known for meting out street justice - especially in black neighborhoods. The series details how police officers in Coatesville, Darby, Pottstown and other suburbs have racked up some of the highest arrest rates in America for such minor offenses as loitering, disorderly conduct and jaywalking.

The Rev. Reggie Brooks, pastor of a storefront church in the toughest part of Pottstown, once counted himself as a strong supporter of a police crackdown on the pushers and hoodlums who tormented his neighborhood. That ended on the day his 14-year-old nephew and a friend were hauled out of a neighborhood barbershop last year as suspected drug dealers. After ordering the teenagers to put their hands in the air and spread their legs, the police found no drugs. They left without an apology.

The Rev. Reggie Brooks, pastor of a storefront church in the toughest part of Pottstown, once counted himself as a strong supporter of a police crackdown on the pushers and hoodlums who tormented his neighborhood. That ended on the day his 14-year-old nephew and a friend were hauled out of a neighborhood barbershop last year as suspected drug dealers. After ordering the teenagers to put their hands in the air and spread their legs, the police found no drugs. They left without an apology.

ON TUESDAY, the first case at the city's Rental Housing Court will be heard at the 8th Police District in Northeast Philadelphia. This long-awaited development will finally tackle the long-standing and destructive practice of irresponsible absentee landlords and nuisance rentals in the city. This project is a two-year labor of hard work and dedication by the Department of Licenses & Inspections, Municipal Court, local civic and community organizations in Northeast Philadelphia and my office, which investigated these nuisance rentals.

What one group is calling a public service is to another a frivolous stunt. The dispute: a contest being sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association aimed at illustrating the difficulty Pennsylvanians face in obtaining public records. As part of the contest, which began last month, Pennsylvania residents as well as students in journalism schools are being asked to obtain a document, such as a school superintendent's contract, through an open-records request. But local governments and school boards, the likely recipients of the majority of requests, are irked.

The storm formerly known as Hurricane Ernesto rained on Leslie Reid and Emily Raab's parade big time. The soon-to-be eighth graders had a last Shore blast weekend planned in Ocean City, but, like thousands, yesterday they coped with Labor Day weekend dreams thwarted by what is now Tropical Depression Ernesto. "We were going to be sitting on the beach, shopping and tanning," said Leslie, 13, of Phillipsburg, N.J. "And looking for hot guys," added Emily, also 13. Both are headed into their final year at Lopatcong Middle School.

On the first day the Daly family moved into their Upper Darby house, two patrons from the nearby bar got into a fight on their front lawn. During the four years they have lived in the neighborhood behind Craig's Tavern, the Dalys have had to deal with loud music, the smell of marijuana from the bar's parking lot, cars blocking their driveway, and the crashing sound that beer bottles make when they are poured into the trash at 6 a.m. ...

Across the nation, towns are trying to fine those who turn their yards into lunch counters for deer. It's happened in Crystal Falls, Mich.; Lakeway, Texas; Mankato, Minn.; Plover, Wis.; and Teton County, Wyo., places where some fines start at a dollar. It's happened in Princeton, where a repeat offender was fined $4,000 in 2003 and given a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail. On Tuesday, the supervisors in Solebury Township unanimously approved an ordinance to ban feeding of deer on private and public property, with a $50 fine for the first offense.