Organizer

Isom "Black Ike" Hughes, a union organizer who spent most of his life working on the docks, died Friday. He was 94 and lived in Germantown. Born in Midvale, Ga., Hughes was breaking his back on the docks in Florida when a union organizer convinced him that conditions were better in New York. Hughes went to New York, found conditions no better, and moved to Philadelphia in the 1930s. "By the time he retired, in his 70s, he had worked for all the companies on the docks," said Hughes' daughter, Ruby H. Hill.

The Greek Picnic is a lot of things: For participants, it's a party, a pick-up scene, a career network, a performance and a fashion show. For some city residents, it's a lot of people, making a lot of noise, too late at night. For city leaders, however, it may also be something else: A missed opportunity. This year's 24th annual Greek Picnic - an event that organizers say draws an average of 150,000 African-American fraternity and sorority members every year -comes at a time when the city is calling attention to the need to attract more youth to town.

Joseph J. Mahon Sr., a retired representative for the International Printing & Graphics Union for more than 25 years, died Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 87 and lived in Lawndale. "My grandfather became a union organizer at the Nabisco North Philadelphia plant on Glenwood Avenue in 1933 during the Great Depression," said a grandson, Joseph J. Mahon III. "When the bakers got their pay one afternoon, salaries had been arbitrarily cut by $2," continued Mahon. The senior Mahon yelled that at that rate, it was too hot to bake.

A public forum to explore options for regaining a stand-alone classical-music station to replace WFLN-FM (95.7) is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Art Alliance on Rittenhouse Square. A panel made up of former WFLN announcer Frank Kastner, audio engineer George Blood and other professional broadcasters will answer questions about the current situation, according to Jim McClelland, the alliance's executive director. McClelland is hosting the meeting in response to a grass-roots effort organized by Ellen Bildersee, an instructor of sociology at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science and a private piano teacher.

After a few twists and turns not unlike the hairpin curves that made this race a Chester County tradition, the Marshalton Triathlon is back in Marshallton. The popular hiking, biking and canoeing event returns Sunday, two years after a dispute involving organizer George Mershon, the West Bradford Fire Company and West Bradford Township officials drove the race out of this historic village. For the last two years, Brandywine Picnic Park in Lenape has been the site of the event, which often draws as many as 2,500 competitors from all over the nation.

The leaders of New Jersey dogfighting rings could be charged under the same antiracketeering laws used to prosecute mobsters under a bill proposed by two state senators. If prosecuted under the state's antiracketeering (RICO) statute, organizers of dogfighting networks could face tough new penalties - up to 20 years in prison - in cases where violence or guns were involved. The state also could seize profits or property gained from dogfighting, a penalty that animal-rights groups see as an important deterrent.

People have been avoiding Gail McCarthy recently, she suspects. That's because as an organizer of this year's Fall Festival of Homes, the Berwyn woman acknowledges, she has no hesitation about begging mere acquaintances to put their houses on the Oct. 14 tour. "Just about anyone I saw, I would grab them and beg them to be on the tour; I didn't care how tenuous the connection. " Apparently she and her committee are persuasive: Seven homes from Radnor to Willistown are on the tour, which raises money for Bryn Mawr Hospital.

After announcing that he would cut his donation to the local West Bradford Fire Company to practically nothing, George Mershon, co-sponsor and organizer of Sunday's Marshalton Inn Triathlon, has had a change of heart. Mershon announced yesterday - just three days before the event - that he would once again make the fire company the main beneficiary of the 19-year-old triathlon. His about-face came in a letter sent to the West Bradford township supervisors after a week of squabbling with them.

It is the gadget buyer's Tickle Me Elmo, and this year another New Jersey company gets to cope with hyper-demand for a product in short supply. The same phenomenon that fueled Tyco Toys a year ago is now under way at Franklin Electronic Publishers in Burlington. Franklin makes REX, a handheld electronic organizer, that quickly produced a buzz among the techno-cognoscenti after its debut this fall. About the size of a credit card, REX stores and displays thousands of address book entries, calendar dates and other details.

The City Controller's Office said yesterday that it would investigate the city's loan of $1.8 million to Welcome America to coordinate Philadelphia's July Fourth celebration - money that has not been repaid and, according to the Mayor's Office, doesn't have to be. Controller Jonathan Saidel said it appeared that Welcome America had defaulted on three loans from 2002 to 2004. "What were the parameters of the loans? What was the documentation? Welcome America is important, but, beyond that, it was supposed to be a loan," Saidel said.