Paperwork

A federal investigator who spent three years probing the company charged with fabricating records after the starvation death of teenager Danieal Kelly described wading through a rain-soaked Dumpster in 2007 to retrieve documents tossed out by someone at the agency. "I climbed up the Dumpster and jumped inside," said William McDonald, an agent from the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general's office. There, he spotted two white trash bags that turned out to contain telephone logs and reports subpoenaed by the government.

Barges once traveled down the Delaware Canal carrying the coal that fueled an industrial revolution. In the last 16 months the only thing the canal has fueled is a steady stream of paperwork and bureaucratic memos. Before state park rangers could begin dredging the canal this week to remove a 50-year buildup of silt, more than a dozen federal, state and county agencies needed to give their approval. In a tongue-in-cheek ceremony, a group of canal well-wishers and elected officials gathered in Washington Crossing Historic Park on Tuesday to celebrate making it through the bureaucratic maze.

Within hours of Danieal Kelly's death, officials at the social services company responsible for the 14-year-old girl's safety were rushing to produce backdated paperwork in an effort that apparently included forging the signature of the teen's mother on a form, according to testimony yesterday in federal court. Written on the day of Kelly's death, Aug. 4, 2006, the document was an "encounter" form recording a home visit that had in fact occurred months earlier. Kelly suffered from cerebral palsy and lived in a West Philadelphia household with seven siblings.

Sean O'Hair had the victory. What the Boothwyn, Delaware County, resident needed was a passport. O'Hair, who qualified for this week's British Open by winning the John Deere Classic on Sunday in Silvis, Ill., has spent significant parts of the last two days completing the paperwork necessary to appear in the world's oldest golf championship in St. Andrews, Scotland. O'Hair, who celebrated his 23d birthday yesterday, revealed in his post-victory news conference that he didn't have the document required for international travel.

Today, as a leading presidential contender, I am pleased to present my Economic Package. I realize I'm late. The other 53 leading contenders turned in their Economic Packages weeks ago. But I have an excuse: The dog ate my Economic Package. No, really, my excuse is that I've been busy trying to notify the government that I'm running for president. I thought this would be a simple procedure. I mean, look at the other contenders. These people are not all nuclear physicists.

A convicted rapist from Philadelphia was released early from state prison because of a paperwork mix-up, and promptly raped a 16-year-old Cheltenham girl, prosecutors say. Johnny Hall, 52, was released June 9. He is accused of raping the Cheltenham girl at gunpoint on June 16. Hall, who was in Montgomery County Court last week for a pre-trial hearing, was arrested June 18. It is not clear who was responsible for the mix-up. State prison officials say they were unaware that Hall, who had pleaded guilty to one rape and one attempted rape in Philadelphia, should have been kept at the Rockview state prison in Centre County for an additional 4 1/2 to 10 years because they never received court records from Philadelphia.

JAMES HARRIS is a man tormented. He dreams often of suffocating, choking as he wakes, unable to catch his breath. He keeps a knife tucked into his waistband almost always, a desperate defense against horrors he can easily imagine because he says he has lived them. He hesitates to get into anyone's car, unwilling to surrender control to the person behind the wheel. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia. Although five years have passed since the incident that changed his life, his torment doesn't end because his tormentor is still out there.

A Delaware County man mistakenly released from jail in August is back behind bars after being apprehended in Wilmington on Friday, police said. David Wilson, also known as David West, 19, of Chester, was taken into custody without incident at 6 a.m. and now faces additional charges for his unauthorized furlough, according to Lt. Joseph Blackburn of the Delaware County Sheriff's Department. Wilson waived extradition at a Friday morning hearing in Delaware and, after a court hearing in Media, was immediately returned to the Thornbury Township jail.

Risking a storm of controversy, Mayor Gwendolyn Faison has approved more than $11,000 in overtime for her bodyguard, Detective Keith E. Hicks, for the last six months. Police Chief Robert Allenbach confirmed that he had received overtime slips totaling $11,049 from the mayor for Hicks' services. Last year, Hicks' base salary was $55,625, and he earned close to $12,376 in overtime for the year before becoming the mayor's bodyguard in January. He will be on track to make twice that amount this year if he continues to earn overtime at his current rate.

Louise Dear of Roslyn (left) gets some help with paperwork from Chris McGee of the Small Business Administration at the Disaster Assistance Center in Abington. Today is the last day for residents to get help at the center, in the old Silo store on Route 611.